WARNING : This may offend some country listeners...especially those of "REAL"/Classic country.
Ok, as many of you know, I am a fan of pop/modern/current country, as well as most country in general.
I have seen the many influences on country music...rock, pop, and yes rap (please don't post the "country rap is crap" joke AGAIN and think it's original ;))
Anyway, I really can't find the country in this song. It's not a song I hate or love or anything. It's ok. I was driving and it came on and I though I my kids had switched the station to a pop station. Nope! THIS was being played on a country station.
To clarify, I'm not looking to start a complaint-fest about country music. I'm just asking what elements qualify this as being a country song? So far, I've come up with, the guy is known as a country singer...anyone else have anything?
Chad (Hope that makes it easier)
TEMPO TANTRUM: What a lead singer has when they can't stay in time.
Although our genres of preference are far apart....to me....this sounds like just another contemporary, pop love song template catering to the teeny boppers. That applies to the vocal, arrangement and instrumentation. I wouldn't label it country at all.
I don't usually listen to country music, but when I do its hard to escape the thought that the genre is trying to reinvent itself with a younger demographic. Songs like this are clearly targeted at the same group that might just as willingly listen to teen pop on another station.
As Nashville's traditional demographic dies off and the young 'uns take over the mainstream market segment for virtually everything, Nashville has a vested interest in remaining relevant.
So, in answer to your question: I think it isn't about luring the young people to country music, its about Nashville adapting to where the young people are already. And that's why it's not country but it's playing on a country station.
I like Pat's answer (for the most part). I'm sort of surprised you thought the channel had changed... it sounds a lot like most of the stuff on Country radio these days (to me). I listen to it for a while each time I get in the car... I call it "arm wave music" - it all sounds like it is produced so that kids at a concert can put them arms in the air and waved them back and forth... It is evolving, like it always has, to appeal to whatever direction new listeners are coming from. Those of us who prefer last year's model will need to look elsewhere to find it. Much like what happened to the Country fans of the 70's when 80's Country came about. 90's Country evolved to something different (that incorporated more of the 70's sound). 2000's Country changed again and has continued to morph into what it is today. The biggest part of the "problem" is that we (old guys) don't buy music anymore. Kids do. You have to market to your (paying) audience. That buying audience is pushing Country to be more and more arm-wave-music all the time. And in today's short-attention-span world, the people making that music need to adapt quickly - or get left behind....back here on the old-man-pile...
I always enjoy your posts, Caaron...
...and..btw... I like the song - cool sound, cool production, cool vocal. I don't like that it is labeled "Country".
Okay, here's what makes it Country. At 29 seconds he says "No-ow" with an Oklahoma accent. At 1:46 I hear about 6 plucks on banjo strings. And, the guitar in the video looks like a Telecaster. So, yeah, that's country music.
Who's the guy with 2 first names trying to pass off a song with the hook line, "She was like, Oh my God. That's my favorite song" as country music? That just drives me crazy.
Perfect response Floyd. I would have posted basically the same thing if you hadn't.
Us old guys on this forum have to be careful (IMHO of course) to NOT turn into a bunch of grandpa's sitting in their rocking chairs on somebody's front porch complaining about how crappy the world has become.
Seriously. Don't do that.
Why? First because this isn't the forum for that, maybe Facebook is, dunno. Second, the fastest way to scare off younger Biab users is if they come on here and that's what they see.
Perfect response Floyd. I would have posted basically the same thing if you hadn't.
Us old guys on this forum have to be careful (IMHO of course) to NOT turn into a bunch of grandpa's sitting in their rocking chairs on somebody's front porch complaining about how crappy the world has become.
Seriously. Don't do that.
Why? First because this isn't the forum for that, maybe Facebook is, dunno. Second, the fastest way to scare off younger Biab users is if they come on here and that's what they see.
It isn't "country". Of course when I was listening to the am transistor radio on the beach, the radio station I listen to played top 40. There was the standard crap, but there was rolling stones, beatles, "love is blue", classical gas, boy named sue, okie from muskogee, frank sinatra, loving spoonful, hendrix, ... and so on and so forth.
Those pesky kids of today are missing out on the variety us old fogies grew up on. Maybe -- perhaps their listening is as varied as ours was, but they are not getting it from radio.
The song is an example of the country music industry trying to stay relevant in a shrinking market.
Just about any contemporary country artist has some song releases that most forum members would call country. However the classic, country sounding songs are not in airplay rotation because format programmers do not believe those songs will pay the bills. There is ever increasing pressure for each radio and satellite station to maintain market share and perform in an ever diminishing market so programmer focus more on what pays the bills than what is good.
Roseanne Cash made an observation that has stuck in my mind. She was talking about how not only has the music industry changed but has literally reversed and switched directions. To paraphrase what she said it was something like you use to record albums with a wide range of songs to drive fans to your concerts; now, you play a wide ranging song set in concerts to drive fans to your albums.
The industry's whole approach to music has changed.
You gotta remember the CMA show just featured Beyonce and the commie Dixie Chicks together.... so, you figure it out.
Ha...no can do....I heard that too and don't get it either.
Makes one wonder is she that much of an attention [*****] to just show up or did some suit within the CMA staff think it was great idea and actually invite her?!
Seems like every time something new comes along folks who were comfortable with what came before start wringing their hands and waxing nostalgic about the good old days. Kinda silly but we have all seen it with our grandparents, our parents and now many of our peers.
"But" . . . it's "not new", you can hear this on any pop station in the world.
So what? Really, who cares what they call country? Not me! If I like it I listen. If I do not like it I don't listen. If someone wants to listen to "real" country (whatever that is) head on over to Amazon or Spotify or wherever and you can grab enough to listen to for the rest of your life!
Bill Clinton said it depends on what the meaning of is is I've listened to country off and on since the late 50's and I'm not sure I can adequately define what it was at any time point. Anybody remember the strings in some of Patsy Cline's productions? The country crooners (Eddie Arnold, et al)? Owen Bradley's productions? This discussion could have taken place 50 years ago.
Recently Americana has outsold country. Why? IMO because it has become a haven for roots rock, many styles of country, singer/songwriters and the blues. I think this is a watershed moment for country. Previously when it "evolved" a large portion of its audience went along and new ones were gained. I feel that today's "bro country" has created a backlash - more so than prior evolutions. But I'm one of the aforementioned old pharts.
Bud
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