Four chords. Zero talent. Why am I not a godzillionaire?

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Like you said, it is all new music really - country is just especially awful because I hate steel and slide guitars but Taylor Swift is equally as horrifically bad. I expect a lot of talented guys get boxed out because they are ugly berkeleys. I wonder if Geddy Lee or Tom Petty could get a job if they had to start over.

can't stand "new country" … but I do love a steel or slide guitar, and especially a dobro

but the steel for country is just about perfect ..

example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NABMN8CPdtI

doesn't get much better than this

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: Modern country sucks, it's all pop country. I grew up with 80's and 90's country. It could be worse though. http://youtu.be/7-NOZU2iPA8

I grew up on 50's and 60's country … what really sucks is country gold stations are starting to consider George Strait to be country gold … blech

logdog wrote: I remember my grandmother complaining about "that blind boy" (Ronnie Milsap) ruining country by making it sound poppy. So its been a complaint since at least the late 70s or so. Seems that is where alot of crossover pop/country songs began (Rhinestone Cowboy anyone?)

as far as i'm concerned "country" died when Alabama moved into second place on the all time no. 1 hits list … there were a few hold outs … but for them most part .. down the commode it went

gamby wrote: As for pop country, it's about as dumbed-down as Top-40 pop is. Musically, this is the lowest the lowest common denominator has gone. There was a time not long ago when popular music wasn't as moronic as it is now. It's bad.

That's really not true. Disposable pop music has always sucked. ALWAYS. From the '20s to today, commodity music has always been unlistenable. It's just gotten slicker and more robotically produced as time goes on.

Whether it's the Nashville machine or the LA machine churning it out, whether it's pop-country or pop-rock or pop-R&B, it's a Wal'Mart entertainment product for Wal'Mart tastes.

>>> doesn't get much better than this

In reply to wbjones:

I'm afraid we must agree to disagree. After 10 seconds of that horrible noise I wanted to make babies cry and car horns stick on to drown out the awfulness.

it's a good thing we all have different ideas of what's good

like I said, I truly love a steel, slide, or dobro … but my music tastes run more to traditional bluegrass and 40's - 60's country

GameboyRMH wrote:

novaderrik wrote: there is one Kenny Chesney live video where i counted at least 7 guitarists, 2 drummers, a bass player, and 2 keyboardists on the stage, in addition to him- and he had a freakin guitar, too.

Hahaha, makes Slipknot look like a highly efficient skeleton crew

I thought the same when I read that. Get out of my head!

I saw Slipknot last Fall, not my usual concert, but Korn opened for them, I still don't know how Slipknot headlines over Korn, I like Korn, and the show was only $10.31 (was a Halloween special). Slipknot had a ton of theatrics, but as I watched the dozen or so "musicians" on stage, there were never more than 1/2 of them actually contributing to any one composition.

Saw Garth Brooks back in December, hell of an entertainer, and a lot of talented musicians with him, and most have been with him since the beginning. Garth even admitted on stage that a lot of the time his guitar isn't even turned on, those folks on stage with him make him look good.

Quite a contrast.

You did used to have to be pretty good at something even to make it as far as Hee-Haw.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gw0fxuIvBM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFfB2JQmTCs

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Like you said, it is all new music really...

Thinking back over this, there's truly tons of great new music out right now - of all genres and styles - for those inclined to seek it out.

OK, I know it was bad, but I honestly didn't know it was that bad until I clicked some of those links. That's icky. THis is how I see it, in case anyone cares.

There is an odd subculture out there. They wear camo hats/pants/lunchboxes/makeupcases/bumper stickers, but have never been hunting. They drive fullsize trucks, sometimes beat up junk and sometimes mega-$ diesel deals, but have never hauled anything nor gone off the road. They chew because it's cool. They fly confederate flags because some people hate it, not because of any ties to that era.

I don't know what to make it. These folks say "get 'r dun', a lot, yet never seem to actually get anything done. These are not the real gritty men that can hunt, fish, build their own house, fix their own stuff, and need pretty much nothing. These are pretenders who drink lots of beer and watch TV really hard.

For those of you talking about Zac Brown, yeah, some of their stuff is very good. Then again, he has an alarming amount of songs about sitting at the beach.

As a lifelong Queen fan, that cover was not very good. Also, bear in mind that the studio version of Bohemian Rhapsody was rigged. Nobody else in the band could hack it either, so Freddie harmonized with himself. Hard to touch that guy on vocals, really.

As far as the Dobro, I saw these guys in concert. It's more bluegrass than country I guess, but Jerry Douglas can really play that thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NtKnFGAfbM

But country music is supposed to be a genre about real gritty life, and how it's hard. It's not supposed to be about partying, sitting on a beach, or girls in bikinis. Like this (pardon the use of the same band).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9GvHSF0JYc

Plus, there's a banjo.

Be careful, though. There is no real agreement on when "real" country began and ended. See below:

http://www.countryweekly.com/music/real-country-music-honest-truth-about-country-music-sub-genres

Although I take extreme issue to calling it the "Garth and Shania" era, as Garth sold nearly double the number of albums that Shania sold (although Shania is far prettier!!).

Now myself I can find good songs from a lot of eras. Are you really going to tell me that Alabama Clay isn't a country song, even though it was Garth? Yes, I know that Cris Ledoux was really the inspiration for "Much to you to feel this damn old", but it sure gave birth to a real country song.

Speaking of him, let's end on another real country song. Remember this guy released his first few albums on cassette that he recorded himself and distributed at rodeos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQPRFqWPWgE

As a 'pop Country' singer once said, "God bless Chris Ledoux".

In reply to petegossett:

True, there is... but you really do have to dig for it. I "discover" some new stuff when someone I know is playing it. The stuff that gets onto mainstream channels is all over-produced formulaic crap. So, I always listen to the same classic stuff on XM or from my phone on shuffle.

It must suck to be a really talented musician with an ugly mole or unique sounding voice. They get zero promotion until after they have made it by word of mouth on their own hard work. Where do the label-less get heard? Where do you go looking for awesome new talent because I could use some fresh background noise while I'm typing up reams of useless reports that no one will ever read.

On Zac Brown: I think he is a phenominal musician, one of the finest in Nashville today and certainly among the top 3 frontmen in terms of musicianship in mainstream country (the other two being Brad Paisley and Keith Urban). ZBB is also one of the few that I see bringing the “real” country to the foreground; his latest album has a Jason Isbell song, he took Sturgill Simpson on tour, he’s the real deal. Sure, a lot of songs about the beach. So what? Jimmy Buffett had a lot of songs about the beach too, even before he became over-commercialized.

On the Garth part, he is sometimes more pop than he is country. But it is still good music, well produced, and well written. And I’ve never heard auto-tune on his voice.

There is a guy at a jam I go to who thinks that anything on modern radio is horrible music. Every once in a while, I’ll bring a Keith Urban or Brad Paisley song in, not tell anyone who wrote it, and this guy says it is a great song, who wrote it? Every time I tell him, he says “oh, well I guess a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes! HA!” Funny how many nuts I’ve been able to bring in. Of course, according to this guys brother, he was the same way about the Beatles.

My girlfriend likes country... "modern" country She's such a millennial at heart it drives me f*&king bonkers sometimes

I dislike country as a general rule. But the new stuff is f*&king god awful. But that is no different than rock nowadays. I honestly don't listen to anything newer than around 2001.

petegossett wrote:

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Like you said, it is all new music really...

Thinking back over this, there's truly *tons* of great new music out right now - of all genres and styles - for those inclined to seek it out.

therein lies the problem … wading through all the crap to find the occasional gem

Over the weekend, my wife's friend had a birthday at Toby Keith's I Love This Bar restaurant. Now, talk about being out of my element.

I am a Metal Head through and through, but I dabble in all sorts of other music, such as various forms of Jazz, Classical, and more. And as a musician, I cannot deal with the formulaic drivel that is Modern Pop Country. It sounds like a bunch of "artists" just went to the same Nashville recording studios, took a ticket like they were in line at a deli, and went in to record some crap about pickup trucks, beer, and women, all with the same backup band. It sucks, just like the rest of Pop music.

The band at the place over the weekend was a local band that played some originals and mostly covers. For what its worth, they were solid, and pretty funny. On just about every cover song, they mashed together about 5-6 songs because they shared the same chord structure. And the drunk crowd loved it.

New country is filling the same void as Disco did in the '70s. It's just dance music in the lowest common denominator sense.

I had to Google bro-country and, of course, Wikipedia had the answer:

Bro-country is a term for a style of mainstream country music originating in the second decade of the 21st century. It is a general term for styles of country music taking influence from 21st-century hip hop, rock, and pop. Many "bro-country" songs are about partying, attractive young women, consumption of alcohol, and pickup trucks.[1][2]

Duke wrote:

gamby wrote: As for pop country, it's about as dumbed-down as Top-40 pop is. Musically, this is the lowest the lowest common denominator has gone. There was a time not long ago when popular music wasn't as moronic as it is now. It's bad.

That's really not true. Disposable pop music has *always* sucked. **ALWAYS.** From the '20s to today, commodity music has always been unlistenable. It's just gotten slicker and more robotically produced as time goes on. Whether it's the Nashville machine or the LA machine churning it out, whether it's pop-country or pop-rock or pop-R&B, it's a Wal'Mart entertainment product for Wal'Mart tastes.

I see your point, but the problem now is that most mainstream music IS disposable pop.

There used to be stuff that made the pop charts that was actually well-crafted music. The Beatles were on the pop charts, as were the Bee Gees. As were a bunch of huge rock bands. With the death of the music biz, very little "quality" music makes the charts.

I've never been a fan of commercial country, pop country, modern country, or whatever you want to call that crap. I'll happily listen to Willie Nelson, Hank senior, and Johnny Cash any day, along with many other pre-urbancowboy "country" artists.

This does remind me of the rock music situation of the mid nineties through mid 2000s when everyone tried to sound like Pearl Jam, or at least everything that the commercial rock radio stations would play sounded like Pearl Jam. Dark times indeed.

IMHO: While ALL styles of music re-use a lot of the same chord progressions, at least there's SOME variation in the lyrics, singing style, etc.

There's one BBQ place I'll go to and suffer through this crap because the food is that_good. But seriously, EVERY berkeleyING SONG is some dude doing his best Gomer Pyle impression, "singing" about driving a truck to a body of water with a girl and drinking beer.

OR, even worse, that GA-FL line-type bullE36 M3. REALLY!? You couldn't leave that ONE aspect of black culture alone!?

wbjones wrote:

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: Modern country sucks, it's all pop country. I grew up with 80's and 90's country. It could be worse though. http://youtu.be/7-NOZU2iPA8

I grew up on 50's and 60's country … what really sucks is country gold stations are starting to consider George Strait to be country gold … blech

Well that's no different than the classic rock stations saying Metallica and Pearl Jam are classic rock.

I met Zac brown in Atlanta in a recording studio about 12 years ago and he gave me a demo I still have. He wore camo pants, had long hair and played a guitar with a drum built into the side. The best song on that demo is "big fat bitch". I was a fan from then on

David S. Wallens wrote: I had to Google bro-country and, of course, Wikipedia had the answer: Bro-country is a term for a style of mainstream country music originating in the second decade of the 21st century. It is a general term for styles of country music taking influence from 21st-century hip hop, rock, and pop. Many "bro-country" songs are about partying, attractive young women, consumption of alcohol, and pickup trucks.[1][2]

I was introduced to that term on Marc Maron's podcast when he had Rhett Miller of Old 97's on. Oddly enough, that's exactly how he described it. He said that they (bro country "artists") get encouraged (paid?) to name check the beer they drink and the truck they drive. Hip-hop influence along with Def Leppard guitars.

All of it so blatantly panders to Middle America.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Where do you go looking for awesome new talent because I could use some fresh background noise while I'm typing up reams of useless reports that no one will ever read.

YouTube primarily, or just like pre-internet - through friends and other musicians...including here on GRM. I've got a playlist about 20-hours long of mostly instrumental jazz/prog/jazz-prog-metal-ish stuff that gets me through most workdays.

Hey, all is not lost. The posers and bro's may have their tunes, but there's still hope for us:

Turnpike Troubadours

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki4VJCsF0qk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahmn02Urc0c

Hank 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBeEVx_A25o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE3CT1Ql-Hs

Reckless Kelly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdlIGqidRTU

Cross Canadian Ragweed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR6pkU-_MK4

Max Stalling

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZc1vsMZHxI

Ray Wylie Hubbard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jNWPUFNA2U

(I used to live just down the road from the snake farm)

Jason Boland

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5T9xuuYYJpQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEzNmqLHHEQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bczpJR_9rLg

Also, tune in KKYX from San Antonio on your interweb machines for some damn good listenin.