My vehement hatred of pop country.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

So last night at work, the old ladies were listening to the local pop country station, which plays nothing but current country favorites like you may see on CMT, should you be so inclined.

 

Every one of these musicians is trying to cross over to the pop charts. Every single one. The days of actual "country western" music is dead, I think. When some lousy suckers like Toby Keith and Tim McGraw try to revitalize the genre, it just ends up contrasting like what happened when punk music got watered down. I grew up with, and happen to still like a very small smattering of old, old country music like Hank Williams Sr, Willie Nelson, and Merle Haggard, but this new country ends up being about things like middle of the road love songs, driving an automobile, and yes, even new york city.

 

Why in the fuck should a country song about NYC even exist?

 

I'll tell you why. They're whores. Worse than any pure pop act, ANY rap star, any rock band. The genre is so dead and bloated that its stars must, by necessity, cross over to the pop charts, or else fade into obscurity. All the good ol' boy mainstays of the genre are gone, and the only way to make it is to water the product down.

 

Pop country is disgusting trite prolefeed, and anyone who enjoys it should be ashamed of themselves.

[Lando Griffin 0]

Tell us how you really feel.

[razazteca 0]

So you don't like the canadian indian country pop stylings of Shania Twain?

[Ripper 0]

So...basically, a musician should only do one type of music and not have a different sound.

 

Guys like Toby Keith and Tim McGraw have very poppy singles but their albums contain plenty of the traditional country sound....

 

 

....

 

 

 

 

*is officially kicked out of the black race*

 

 

 

 

...

 

 

 

Um....That new Kanye West album is the best thing on the shelves!!!!

 

 

 

 

...

 

 

 

 

*is taken back in*

[razazteca 0]

Hey David Allen Coe was the man back in the day...

[NoCalMike 0]

Country Western music has been dead for 20 years. Currently country is more or less Hanson with a twang in the voice.

[Matt Young 0]

The last remnants of good country music died along with Johnny Cash. I pretty much have always hated most country (although I do like southern rock bands like the Allman Brothers Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd), but Cash, along with most of the artists you mentioned, were really good. Sadly, I doubt we'll ever see anything like them again, at least not in the mainstream.

[razazteca 0]

I prefer the 80's country pop of Kenny Roger and Eddie Rabbit.

[Guest Mosaicv2]

pop country singers talkin about New York... thats just weird!

[WrestlingDeacon 0]

Country went through a very poppy period in the mid-eighties too. It kind of broke out of it with guys like Randy Travis, George Strait and Dwight Yokam being able to blend that pop with a traditional sound. Then you had guys in the early ninties like Clint Black and Garth Brooks who took that sound and blended more pop back into it and country exploded. But we are way on the other side of the mountain now and most country producers are missing the forest for the trees.

 

It's like how Vince is saying fuck it to the hardcore wrestling fans and courting that ten percent of the mainstream he had during the last boom thinking it was all about extreme crap and sex appeal and not the true core of the product. Same thing here.

 

Truth is, you always had a certain segment of country that was "tradtional" and a certain segment that was "pop" and they took turns in the limelight. The outlaw era of guys like Waylon, Willie, Kris, the second phase of Johnny Cash's career, etc. was immediately preceeded by the very pop Nashville Sound era with guys like Eddy Arnold and Jim Reeves.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

So...basically, a musician should only do one type of music and not have a different sound.

Not at all, just that the music should be worth a shit. It's certainly the most formulaic genre I can think of.

 

1. Love gone awry.

2. Family

3. Religion

4. Patriotism

 

Most of it easily fits in one or more of those 4 categories, with the same bland beats and glossy production, and verse-chorus-verse monotony. It's like pre-chewed gum.