Home » xyzzy » Tower » Country Music
Country Music [message #67680] Mon, 16 May 2011 21:44 Go to next message
iDummy is currently offline  iDummy
Messages: 45
Registered: March 2011
Baron
Is it just me or country music is creeping into the main stream? I personally love some of it. Where do you stand in regards to country music? Who is your favorite artist? I personally love Faith Hill and Reba McIntyre.
Re: Country Music [message #67696 is a reply to message #67680] Tue, 17 May 2011 00:22 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Adveser is currently offline  Adveser
Messages: 434
Registered: July 2009
Location: USA
Illuminati (1st Degree)
I like exactly two country songs, both were released right around 1990 or close to it. Both were crossover hits on both country and adult contemporary stations, or maybe just because I lived in the south they played it on both.

Country music has really been pop music since the late 80's. It was just marketed to a complete different sector, which gave the illusion of autonomy as a genre. They had their own music TV station, their own awards, and basically everything you could to maintain the appearance that they were something much different than pop music. This was largely political obviously.

As I said in another thread, somewhere in the mid 90's, pop fans were buying country records if they liked them, but country fans were not buying pop records. Once Country eclipsed Adult Contemporary in sales and pop became less instrument centric anyway because dance pop was popular concurrently, the session musicians and producers switched virtually overnight to wanting to make hit country records.

I don't know exactly what it was. It was like one day all the black musicians suddenly were exclusively making music for the "slow jams" market and mainstream R&B disappeared. Adult contemporary disappeared in favor of more alternative acts. A lot of pop acts wanted to make dance music for some reason too.

Basically everyone was doing everything possible to avoid making the kind of pop records that would have been released in 1992. As a direct result, Country pretty took over as the default genre that would be preferred by suburban white people because it was very very close songwriting wise. The difference is that it had a squeaky clean image, seemingly none of the pretensions of "perfect" singers singing "perfect" songs, and it was viewed with a certain amount of class and cultural identity.

To make a long story short, Shania Twain could outsell Celine Dion 10-1 with the same song arranged only slightly different. For some reason, men especially will buy a Garth Brooks album no matter how pop oriented it is, but wouldn't even consider a Michael Bolton album, that is why Country won. There has always been something unquestionably masculine about the perception of Country it seems no matter what and always something perceived suspiciously fruity about Male pop singers. A lot of men seem to actually think they should question their sexuality when confronted with an enjoyable Whitney Houston song. It is baffling, but People couldn't identify with these slick LA musicians.


Re: Country Music [message #67832 is a reply to message #67680] Tue, 24 May 2011 20:49 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Serena is currently offline  Serena
Messages: 15
Registered: May 2011
Chancellor
I don't really care what it is, but I love country music. The artist have a down to earth feel to them, and they sing with heart. I am not really into pop.
Re: Country Music [message #68222 is a reply to message #67696] Fri, 17 June 2011 22:28 Go to previous messageGo to next message
gofar99 is currently offline  gofar99
Messages: 1895
Registered: May 2010
Location: Southern Arizona
Illuminati (5th Degree)
Hi, Yes indeed there was a shift. And I agree that country has moved into the slot that pop had. For myself I like pretty much any king of music that is well recorded and tries to convey some type of message not necessarily just the words, but the whole experience. It does seem that much of the contemporary stuff is either a remake (often not as good as the original) of older stuff or is focused on volume over quality. Just my two cents. It seems to me that the trend started earlier than you mentioned. A shift was in progress at the end of the "disco" era. Maybe it was the last gasp of the rock movement, that somehow overlooked that words went pretty well with music. Another two cents. One area that seems to be hanging in there is jazz. While not my most favorite genre, there is a good selection of quality stuff happening there. Smile

Good Listening
Bruce
Re: Country Music [message #68457 is a reply to message #67680] Sun, 03 July 2011 10:36 Go to previous message
falloutgirl
Messages: 48
Registered: February 2011
Baron
I tend to blame Taylor Swift for making country mainstream these days. I really enjoy listening to country music though, recent artists like Carrie Underwood, Lady Antebellum, The Band Perry, Luke Bryan, Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert....
Previous Topic: Waterfront Blues Festival
Next Topic: NFL Lockout
Goto Forum:
  


Current Time: Thu Mar 28 18:37:00 CDT 2024

Sponsoring Organizations

DIY Audio Projects
DIY Audio Projects
OddWatt Audio
OddWatt Audio
Pi Speakers
Pi Speakers
Prosound Shootout
Prosound Shootout
Smith & Larson Audio
Smith & Larson Audio
Tubes For Amps
TubesForAmps.com

Lone Star Audiofest