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Why is country music so awful?

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corkscrewblow said:
Country is awful.
People calling prog awful: I hope you realize country will never have an artist as good/successful as Pink Floyd.
Prog>>>>country but everyone has their own opinions.
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Good is subjective.

Successful - see Garth Brooks and his accomplishments in the 1990's. His album sales, awards, concert sales, etc, pretty much shit all over every musician in every genre. His sales are in the Beatles-Elvis-MJ range.

Taken from his wikipedia:

Brooks has enjoyed one of the most successful careers in popular music history, breaking records for both sales and concert attendance throughout the 1990s. The RIAA has certified his recordings at a combined (128× platinum), denoting roughly 113 million U.S. shipments.[2] He is also listed as the best-selling artist of the Nielsen Soundscan era (from 1991 onwards), with approximately 67,774,000 albums sold (as of April 5, 2008).[3] He is second only to The Beatles in the United States.[4] Brooks has released six albums that achieved diamond status in the United States, those being: Garth Brooks (10× platinum), No Fences (17× platinum), Ropin' the Wind (14× platinum), The Hits (10× platinum), Sevens (10× platinum) and Double Live (21× platinum).[5] Since 1989, Brooks has released 19 records in all, which include; 9 studio albums, 1 live album, 4 compilation albums, 3 Christmas albums and 2 box sets, along with 77 singles. In all formats (albums, singles and home videos) Brooks is estimated to have topped 220 million units in sales worldwide. [1]
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corkscrewblow said:
Country is awful.
People calling prog awful: I hope you realize country will never have an artist as good/successful as Pink Floyd.
Prog>>>>country but everyone has their own opinions.
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Country music is the most popular genre in America.
 
Borgnine said:
Simple, obvious, and repetitive chord progressions, shallow literal lyrics with simple rhymes and remarkably simple and/or convoluted and corny metaphors, saccharine string overdubs and auto-tuned vocals, overproduced to oblivion until it sounds like you're being bowled over by wave of mashed potatoes and white bread.
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Bravo, sir. You have said exactly what I wanted to, but so much more eloquently than I could have done.
 
If you think country now is what country started out as the subject of the thread is awful. Most music these days is poppy crap based on a genre devoid of any real soul considering most sold out to get where they are.
 
My cousin Julie Reeves is the prime example why modern country music sucks. She has incredible talent but they repackaged her as something completely different than what she was. She was a sweet singer with a soft voice, she sang some gospel and traditional country songs.

Then she signed onto a label and was told to lose weight and sing prepackaged shit.

She quit. She tried to live the lifestyle, but she strayed too far from who she was.
 
His albums aren't pure traditional country, but LEVON HELM.

Dude's like 1000 years old and had throat cancer and he just put out one of the albums of the year. It's called Electric Dirt, listen to it.
 
You people are listening to the wrong country. Commercial country, yes, is fucking awful, but there's plenty of awesomeness. Start with Gram Parsons, then try and tell me it's all shit.
 
There is a lot of music I don't like... but I don't call it awful.
 
There's variants to what can be called "Country Music", much like what we could say with "Rock-n-Roll" and everything that's lumped into it on a technical level.
 
speculawyer said:
It is not all bad . . . but there is definitely too much alcoholism, bigotry, and jingoism.
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Man why you gotta clump us in with those other people.

edit: No results returned for a Whiskeytown search. smh
 
SwitchBladeKneegrow said:
Old country is awesome, Cash, Hank Sr., Jennings, etc.

Can't stomach too much new stuff, I kinda dig Dwight Yokam though. Oh yeah, Junior Brown is awesome too.
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Agreed on this. Old country is fantastic.
 
legend166 said:
His albums aren't pure traditional country, but LEVON HELM.

Dude's like 1000 years old and had throat cancer and he just put out one of the albums of the year. It's called Electric Dirt, listen to it.
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Haha, that just came out today. I bet you didn't know that.

Anyway, as kind of aside, I think I can say with confidence that the only popular country singer *right now* who's any good is Dwight Yoakam. He's made some excellent albums, especially in the '80s. He kinda got started in the LA punk scene with the Blasters (did a cover of Long White Cadillac) and X and stuff. He did an awesome duet with Lone Justice frontwoman Maria McKee back in the day called Bury Me.
 
There is no more beautiful sound than a woman singing bluegrass. Allison Krauss, Gillian Welch, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Maria McKee...

Davidion said:
Somebody here a few months back posted the myspace of this teenager who was some kind of guitar prodigy; he was a hell of a bluegrass guitar player. I remember his music being really good, does anyone remember what I'm talking about?
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Probably me. Sol Philcox?

http://www.myspace.com/solphilcox

Edit: I see you found him.

ltse1 said:
Robert Randolph and the Family Band say hi
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Yes! Fantastic stuff. I never thought steel guitar could play rock, blues, funk, but that is a fantastic band. I also love Jerry Garcia's steel guitar work.

Haven't seen Steve Earle mentioned yet, but very glad to see Gram Parsons was. For anyone who likes the Rolling Stone country songs, Gram was the direct influence on that.

Fantastic thread, I'm learning a lot.
 
This thread reminded me of Will Oldham so I went to go dig out Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's "I See a Darkness". My goodness, still amazing.

So would anyone consider Oldham's stuff country, or alt-country? People tend to throw his stuff into folk a lot more.
 
adamsappel said:
There is no more beautiful sound than a woman singing bluegrass. Allison Krauss, Gillian Welch, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Maria McKee...
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I'm glad I'm not the only person under 40 who's a fan of Maria McKee. She has an amazing, amazing voice. Studios tried to get in the way with Lone Justice too much, which is a shame because they were great on stage and played a bunch of songs that were later cut from albums or overproduced. Hell, Bob Dylan even wrote them a song that didn't get on an album. This is one of my favorite songs of theirs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoEP5cQFHxU
 
DiatribeEQ said:
It's like old blues or old jazz. That stuff I can sit back and listen to for hours. Stuff coming out today? Bleh.
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Normally I'll defend nearly any musical genre against homogeneity but I can't say that for blues. It's all the same damn blues scales and the same damn I IV V7 chord progression.
 
Bluegrass is still awesome and the type of music that it comes from is still great.

New Country is just shitty pop made for the dumbass mofo's that live in the south (Dumb fucks that listen to Toby Keith, etc).

I.E. the people that watch Larry The Cable Guy videos.

These people are also known as white trash.

Bluegrass is still good shit, though. Sadly most meth heads don't listen to it.
 
Karakand said:
Man why you gotta clump us in with those other people.

edit: No results returned for a Whiskeytown search. smh
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Second the Whiskeytown love. One of my favourite bands ever, which is weird because I find Ryan Adams to be really obnoxious solo. All three of their albums are beautiful, flawed, and utterly heartbreaking. Highly recommended.
 
Dechaios said:
It's all corny, anecdotal, small-minded music and each song sounds more like the next one.
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You answered your own question, in the first post no less. Hit the nail on the head, too.

Its mainly the contemporary stuff that's bad. I think of new country as pop music for rubes. Authentic country--old country--can be excellent; those "gather around the fire and I'll tell you a tale" songs sung by a wizened cowboy with a voice like old leather scraping over whiskey-soaked gravel. Very nice indeed.
 
Pelydr said:
Bluegrass is still awesome and the type of music that it comes from is still great.

New Country is just shitty pop made for the dumbass mofo's that live in the south (Dumb fucks that listen to Toby Keith, etc).

I.E. the people that watch Larry The Cable Guy videos.

These people are also known as white trash.

Bluegrass is still good shit, though. Sadly most meth heads don't listen to it.
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Again, more people that don't know what they're talking about. The main listeners of country pop are suburbanites and even some urban dwellers. Completely gentrified people.
 
Johnny Cash and his American series is AMAZING. That is all. If you don't enjoy those CD's, you have no soul.

Edit:
Mendelevium said:
Johnny Cash is where it's at.
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lol, I swear I didn't read your post before posting.
 
I love Whiskeytown. Kathleen Edwards reminds me of them.

There was another early alt-country band called The Jayhawks, who are supposed to be awesome, but I haven't dipped into their catalogue at all yet.

As for early blues, I do think it got more interesting when Chicago happened and it started to intermix with soul and R&B, and guys like Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker started to come into their own. Finally let the genre grow a bit, plus the early delta stuff can get really boring. There are some guys who are cool though, like Blind Willie Johnson, Robert Johnson, Lead Belly, Mississippi John Hurt, Son House, Skip James.
 
bill0527 said:
Good is subjective.

Successful - see Garth Brooks and his accomplishments in the 1990's. His album sales, awards, concert sales, etc, pretty much shit all over every musician in every genre. His sales are in the Beatles-Elvis-MJ range.

Taken from his wikipedia:
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Pink Floyd: 200million (estimated)
Garth Brooks: 128million (estimated)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_music_artists

Like I said, music is all based on opinion so people are going to like whatever the fuck they want but you're out of you're mind if you think a country artist will ever be as popular as Pink Floyd.
DataStream said:
And I quite like alot of prog, but I can think of no genre that denotes parent's basement d&d loser in more cases. Or people too stoned out of their minds to notice everyone has been playing up and down the same scale for 8 1/2 minutes.
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What the fuck are you talking about? If you're going to make some terrible assumption like that I can easily say when it comes to country, I can think of no genre that denotes beating your wife and being a drunk hick in more cases. I think what you meant was Nu-Metal, as in bands like Slipknot, Korn, Disturbed, etc.
 
When people say this, I invite them to turn on any radio station for any genre and not get the same impression.
You can't judge a genre of music by its lowest common denominator.
That said, I'm getting used to people forming opinions on vapors of knowledge.

Also, Interesting fact:
Most Cash fans don't really listen to him.

I'm a big Cash fan, but if I had a dime for everytime I've busted a fake cash fan I'd be able to affprd a ps3.
Hes great, but he gets more love for his fashion and attitude than his music.

Willie Nelson, btw has one of the most interesting catalogues of any artist ever.

Aristotlekh said:
I love Whiskeytown. Kathleen Edwards reminds me of them.

There was another early alt-country band called The Jayhawks, who are supposed to be awesome, but I haven't dipped into their catalogue at all yet.

As for early blues, I do think it got more interesting when Chicago happened and it started to intermix with soul and R&B, and guys like Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker started to come into their own. Finally let the genre grow a bit, plus the early delta stuff can get really boring. There are some guys who are cool though, like Blind Willie Johnson, Robert Johnson, Lead Belly, Mississippi John Hurt, Son House, Skip James.
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Hey now, just cuz he was black doesn't mean he was blues!:D
corkscrewblow said:
What the fuck are you talking about? I think you mean Nu-Metal, as in bands like Slipknot, Korn, Disturbed, etc.
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Not sure what you kids are mad about, but for the record. I've played D&D to Pink Floyd and every stoner loser I know loves them. Thats not to say they aren't great. Roger Waters ftw
As far a Garth Brooks is concerned, he isn't country. Seriously, thats just 80's rock with a steel guitar and some twang in his voice.
Listen to Thunder Rolls and tell me that trash ain't a power ballad.
 
besada said:
Buck Owens
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Buck Owens was fucking great, a legend. Even aside how great the Bakersfield/honky-tonk sound was, I'd love the guy for no other reason than his voice. The guy had one of the all-time great, signature, recognizable voices. I grew up on it, still love it.

Call me crazy, but my favorite recording of his has to be the 1988 version of Hot Dog (a rerecording of the first single he ever recorded).
 
Phobophile said:
Again, more people that don't know what they're talking about. The main listeners of country pop are suburbanites and even some urban dwellers. Completely gentrified people.
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true.
Its plainly middle class music. Its the most middle of the road stuff on earth. Any doctor's office will have this playing behind the front desk or soft rock

A lot of great country music is being recorded today. Unfortunately, they file it all iun the "alternative" section of your music store because those signs were made for consumers and not message board stickling/ musicologists.
 
First of all, that's totally true about fake Johnny Cash fans. I know a ton of people who only know Folsom Prison Blues or Hurt or whatever. Myself, I've got like 30 albums by the dude.

Toy Soldier said:
Buck Owens was fucking great, a legend. Even aside how great the Bakersfield/honky-tonk sound was, I'd love the guy for no other reason than his voice. The guy had one of the all-time great, signature, recognizable voices. I grew up on it, still love it.

Call me crazy, but my favorite recording of his has to be the 1988 version of Hot Dog (a rerecording of the first single he ever recorded).
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I saw Buck Owens at the Crystal Palace a couple times. Wasted beyond words both times.

He showed up to an anti-abortion rally in Bakersfield awhile back, high on cocaine. It was damned hilarious. He also had an affinity for many varieties of pills.

When he died, folks called it a heart attack, but the truth is that every night he would take a whole bunch of viagra and prescription painkillers and choke it down with whiskey, and that's probably what killed him.
 
Aristotlekh said:
First of all, that's totally true about fake Johnny Cash fans. I know a ton of people who only know Folsom Prison Blues or Hurt or whatever. Myself, I've got like 30 albums by the dude.



I saw Buck Owens at the Crystal Palace a couple times. Wasted beyond words both times.

He showed up to an anti-abortion rally in Bakersfield awhile back, high on cocaine. It was damned hilarious. He also had an affinity for many varieties of pills.

When he died, folks called it a heart attack, but the truth is that every night he would take a whole bunch of viagra and prescription painkillers and choke it down with whiskey, and that's probably what killed him.
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GODDAMN!!!
I don't have half that!
You may as well call bullshit on me!:lol

Any love for Porter Wagoner?
What about Dolly?
Underrated says I!
 
Half of that shit is bootlegs though, man. Plus that giant 5-disc American outtakes album that came out a couple years back.

Edit - And Porter Wagoner's a classic. Dolly Parton got shitty later on though when she tried to cultivate crossover appeal. That new Loretta Lynn album with Jack White and those dudes from the Raconteurs is great, by the way.
 
Aristotlekh said:
Half of that shit is bootlegs though, man. Plus that giant 5-disc American outtakes album that came out a couple years back.

Edit - And Porter Wagoner's a classic. Dolly Parton got shitty later on though when she tried to cultivate crossover appeal. That new Loretta Lynn album with Jack White and those dudes from the Raconteurs is great, by the way.
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Fuck yeah. That was my album of that year.

Neko Case's- Fox Confessor is a great country album too. That was my album of 06 prolly. I think all her albums are gret though... :?

Dolly, did get silly with age and never really came back, but my parents both used to work at DollyWood when I was a little white trash kid so... I love her:D She kept me fed in some weird karmic way.
 
I personally CANNOT stand toby keith and toby keith-like music-- ala big and rich...

But I think taylor swift, sugarland, dixie chick, keith urban type of country is fairly enjoyable.
 
courage201 said:
I personally CANNOT stand toby keith and toby keith-like music-- ala big and rich...

But I think taylor swift, sugarland, dixie chick, keith urban type of country is fairly enjoyable.
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I'm going to say something I'll regret.

Early in his career, Toby Keith had some okay songs. I don't have any albums and generally dislike pop-country, but "dreamwalking" and the like were some of the songs they played on my school bus that struck me as well constructed pop songs that seemed honest.
Now, he is all catch phrases and jingoism, but there was a time where he came off as a pretty genuine dude.
Lack of sleep is eating my cred.
 
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