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re: 90's country
Posted on 7/23/20 at 3:20 pm to DaleGribble
Posted on 7/23/20 at 3:20 pm to DaleGribble
Most of the classic country artists were deemed washed up by many Nashville labels in the 80s. It doesn't matter who are if you don't produce enough sales for a label to keep you around. For example Cash didn't have a number one hit in the 80s. His songs were underwhelming and some barely charted. Artists like George Strait and Alabama were killing it and sales were much greater than what Cash had. Even his daughter already had a handful of numbers ones in the 80s.
So his sales continued to dwindle and so we're the crowds to the point that only a few hundred would show up. So Columbia dropped him and many other old country stars were giving the same treatment.
It has a lot to do with the age of the artists and the younger generations. Classic country has never been the music of the youth and that is why rock music was so popular for so long. Even my parents when they were younger didn't listen to Grandpas music. They listened to R&B music, rock music and this new band called Lynryd Skynyrd. It was cool to listen to them and if you played country at parties or gatherings then you weren't cool. It was seen as inferior music and you were made fun of.
But that changed as that generation that despised grandpas music, came to appreciate the genre as they finally understood what they were saying. So while they liked 90s country, it didn't sound like grandpas music and it appealed to that generation and the ones after it. But they like the classic country better and use to like Garth Brooks but now don't like him because he is fake and a fraud.
But it all comes down to money and demographics. They saw it as no need to play older country music in the 90s as they believed would take away the spotlight from an artist that younger fans would prefer. They aren't going to put on older artists that talk a bout cheating and divorce when younger listeners don't care a bout as it doesn't appeal to them. But a Garth Brooks concert with fire and loud music well that is like a rock concert. Brooks and Dunn boots scootin boogie, well that dancing makes country music fun.
It is easy to blame the labels for what we have today but the blame falls on the feet of the listeners who they like and want to hear and see. Nashville could do something a bout it but they are just following the money and aren't going to kill the cash cow.
So his sales continued to dwindle and so we're the crowds to the point that only a few hundred would show up. So Columbia dropped him and many other old country stars were giving the same treatment.
It has a lot to do with the age of the artists and the younger generations. Classic country has never been the music of the youth and that is why rock music was so popular for so long. Even my parents when they were younger didn't listen to Grandpas music. They listened to R&B music, rock music and this new band called Lynryd Skynyrd. It was cool to listen to them and if you played country at parties or gatherings then you weren't cool. It was seen as inferior music and you were made fun of.
But that changed as that generation that despised grandpas music, came to appreciate the genre as they finally understood what they were saying. So while they liked 90s country, it didn't sound like grandpas music and it appealed to that generation and the ones after it. But they like the classic country better and use to like Garth Brooks but now don't like him because he is fake and a fraud.
But it all comes down to money and demographics. They saw it as no need to play older country music in the 90s as they believed would take away the spotlight from an artist that younger fans would prefer. They aren't going to put on older artists that talk a bout cheating and divorce when younger listeners don't care a bout as it doesn't appeal to them. But a Garth Brooks concert with fire and loud music well that is like a rock concert. Brooks and Dunn boots scootin boogie, well that dancing makes country music fun.
It is easy to blame the labels for what we have today but the blame falls on the feet of the listeners who they like and want to hear and see. Nashville could do something a bout it but they are just following the money and aren't going to kill the cash cow.
1
Posted on 7/23/20 at 4:23 pm to dchog
Even more than labels or the lsiteners, I feel like Cumulus Media and Clear Channel should get most of the blame. They have ruined radio with their crappy playlist rotations.
Posted on 7/23/20 at 5:21 pm to DaleGribble
Country music has always had an identity problem and they have been in an image crisis for a while. Back in the 30s it wasn't called country music but hill music. In the 30s, most artists wore hillbilly attire but Nashville didn't approve as they saw it as backwards and thought it would hurt their image. So they pushed the cowboy attire instead and some artists didn't like it but if it paid then they could tolerate it. This influenced westerns in Hollywood that we know today. It was called country/western music until the early 50s when western was dropped.
Country music had a rebellious streak just like rock music in some ways. The 60s were a time when country music sang a bout topics that were taboo at that time. The storytelling was superior than other genre because no one could put some much emotion in those songs.
For country music to survive, it must evolve and go back to the basics of storytelling. It must cut ties with hollywood and become a rebellious genre of music that talks a bout the cruel world and the struggle of the oppressed man living without much hope.
It is terrible now because it stopped evolving and became a mockery of a genre that was once respected around the globe. It had so much impact that it influenced the Beatles. But now it is made fun of, mocked, vilified and hated by both country and non-country fans.
If you want to know more a bout the history. I strongly recommend PBS Ken Burns country music. It is free and I think it is eight episodes.
Country music had a rebellious streak just like rock music in some ways. The 60s were a time when country music sang a bout topics that were taboo at that time. The storytelling was superior than other genre because no one could put some much emotion in those songs.
For country music to survive, it must evolve and go back to the basics of storytelling. It must cut ties with hollywood and become a rebellious genre of music that talks a bout the cruel world and the struggle of the oppressed man living without much hope.
It is terrible now because it stopped evolving and became a mockery of a genre that was once respected around the globe. It had so much impact that it influenced the Beatles. But now it is made fun of, mocked, vilified and hated by both country and non-country fans.
If you want to know more a bout the history. I strongly recommend PBS Ken Burns country music. It is free and I think it is eight episodes.
Posted on 7/23/20 at 8:24 pm to dchog
They definitely need to do something about the songwriting. It honestly sounds like they just use a checklist to write a song...Pick up truck-check, beer-check, honky tonk-check, etc.
I've never been a huge fan of country music. But as I've gotten older, I've come to appreciate a lot of the earlier songs/artists.
I've never been a huge fan of country music. But as I've gotten older, I've come to appreciate a lot of the earlier songs/artists.
Posted on 7/23/20 at 10:08 pm to DaleGribble
The songwriting is as only as good as the environment that you are raised in. Old and classic country music had quite a bit of blues sound as many of the songs had dealt with depression and loss. Now with today, the newer artists didn't witness the harder times and so the songwriting suffers. But as long as pain and suffering exist, good songwriting should not be a problem.
If you want to listen to more of the classics then I suggest looking into the 50s-70s. The 80s had to deal with identity problems but you can still find good artists.
Another thing I didn't mention was the pedal steel guitar had it's origins from Hawaii. The fiddle is from the British Isles. Two important instruments you rarely hear anymore.
If you want to listen to more of the classics then I suggest looking into the 50s-70s. The 80s had to deal with identity problems but you can still find good artists.
Another thing I didn't mention was the pedal steel guitar had it's origins from Hawaii. The fiddle is from the British Isles. Two important instruments you rarely hear anymore.
Posted on 7/24/20 at 7:14 am to dchog
Like Dale said, a big issue is the Cumulus/iHeart media takeovers. There are very few, if any, radio stations anymore, and instead of having programming controlled by a local program director, the big bosses (and really computers) set the programming. And that, in turn, drives the songwriting, because if stations across the country are playing this one particular type of song, you have to write that type of song to have a chance at it getting recorded, or you have to record that type of song in order to get it played.
quote:I remember hearing one of John Denver's live albums a few years ago and he touched directly on that. I don't remember his exact words, but it was something along the lines of while a lot of people didn't feel he was a country musician, he looked at it as that back 25 or 30 years ago (album was recorded in the late 70s/early 80s) the genre was called country and western. While the genre had evolved and moved on and had pretty much left the "western" part behind, that was where he felt he fit in, was the western part of the genre, with his connection to the Rockies and that area between the Sierra Nevada and west Texas.
It was called country/western music until the early 50s when western was dropped
Posted on 7/24/20 at 9:55 am to PJinAtl
When I Was watching Ken Burns country music, the reason they dropped Western was because it would cause too much confusion or it would hurt sales. So it was hill music in the 20s/30. Country/Western in the 40s and then Country music in the early 50s to today. But the media still called these artists in the 60s/70s country/western.
John Denver started as a folk artist and that was his reputation at that time. So many people didn't consider him country or western. John Denver won the CMA award but Charlie Rich burned the letter because he like many didn't believe John Denver was western or country. Yet the irony was that Charlie Rich was known for his blue eyed soul/ R&B music. So was he country? So the confusion on what country music was still a debate at that time.
I don't think people understand how broad and diverse country music is. It started with the Carter family with only acoustic instruments but it kept evolving and changing. So the definition is more confusing even now.
So John Denver was a folk artist that sang country/ Western music. Just as Glen Campbell had a reputation as a pop singer who admitted that he was just a country boy singing country music. But that doesn't mean they were country singers at least when in terms of a purist point of view.
John Denver started as a folk artist and that was his reputation at that time. So many people didn't consider him country or western. John Denver won the CMA award but Charlie Rich burned the letter because he like many didn't believe John Denver was western or country. Yet the irony was that Charlie Rich was known for his blue eyed soul/ R&B music. So was he country? So the confusion on what country music was still a debate at that time.
I don't think people understand how broad and diverse country music is. It started with the Carter family with only acoustic instruments but it kept evolving and changing. So the definition is more confusing even now.
So John Denver was a folk artist that sang country/ Western music. Just as Glen Campbell had a reputation as a pop singer who admitted that he was just a country boy singing country music. But that doesn't mean they were country singers at least when in terms of a purist point of view.
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