Why is country always ripped?

[Hybrid fourdoor]

It always amazes me how poeple say I listen to everything except country.

Now I don't listen to country that often, but 90's stuff like Goerge Strait, Clint Black, Reba Mcentire...that is solid music.

It carries a way better tune than most any rap song, and todays country is so close to parrellalling modern rock or pop, or whatever popular music is called now. How can you love one, but hate the other....that new Sheryll Crow/Kid Rock song is played on both country and "mix" stations around here

Anyways I mostly listen to Enigma, Vangelis, 80's, but I do have a few country CD's (like the artists listed above) that I listen to. Most of the music is about relationships and love and "gasp" good 'ol value.

The "What do you get when you play a country song backwards? Your car, your girl, your dog" joke just isn't true, maybe for some but not as a whole.

I mean one could easily hypothosize that rap is about ****** and killaz, and that rock is all about partying and drugs based on a few choice songs.



Anyways I'm not ****ed or anything, I just don't understand the mentality. I even saw a interview with David Bowie, he said he enjoys all kinds of music except country and western, and I'm thinking you can appreciate modern Pop which openly says its artist don't make any of there music, but refuse many talented artists simply because its a ceratin style? And David Bowie is one talented and diverse guy, I would think he could appreciate music in its rawest sense.

[SY]

Mrs. Y likes to say that there are two kinds of music, and she likes them both, Country and Western.

For me, it's dull and formulaic, processed and focus-grouped to the consistency of sonic Cheez-Whiz. Don't get me started on rap, one of my drinking buddies is Steve Plotnicki.

[grataku]

I recently rented a car and found a CD in the player, someone had made a mix of pretty good rap/hip-pop and I must say I have enjoyed it driving around NJ. I never heard the songs before and I wouldn't play it at home at my wine and cheese party but it seems to me that rejecting the genre flat out would be a loss and a mistake. Although it didn't make me a better person it gave me a different prospective.

[Bill Fitzpatrick]

Originally posted by SY

For me, it's dull and formulaic, processed and focus-grouped to the consistency of sonic Cheez-Whiz.

That and in terms of musical complexity C&W is right there with children's songs. When I listen to music I require the opportunity to become involved - C&W doesn't offer that.

[Theli]

As with any art form...there is good and bad examples. You just gotta weed through the crap to find the gems.

[promitheus]

In any kind of music you can find a lot of boring songs and albums.
The music industry makes the same things over and over.
I think its not only country or western.
You just have to search a lot and learn. Buying and listening to music is not so easy as one would think. You have to always keep an eye open (or ear) for the good stuff and not always buy what´s in the tops.

[Tim Moorman]

What makes good music?

Kinda like what makes good art?

Eye of the beholder and all, but there should be something of a common thread that appeals to the humanity in us all.

Genre is just a pigeon hole, isn't it? A way to make your musical filing cabinet neat.

Check out the songwriting skills of Lyle Lovett or Lucinda Williams and tell me there isn't something there for everyone. Considered "Country", these are very creative people.

Some of the early bluegrass and "mountain" music I heard as a kid were so raw and intense, so unvarnished, that after the pablum of then popular Perry Como/ Lawrence Welk it snapped my head around. Blues , R & B, the same way. Music from another, more interesting planet. Dylan, the Beatles...

Now, Nashville is fully capable of pumping out pablum with the best. Huge business. Slick productions, great pickers, and very little of that raw energy and creative spark we all enjoy. Formula.
Record companies. Sameness.

Even Rappers offer a glimpse into an world and a culture that can connect up with the nerve endings now and then. Just less frequently for me as other stuff.

Just a minor vent...

Tim Moorman

[Da5id4Vz]

Two words:

"Hee Haw"

It went on the air in 1969 and had a monumental 17 year run.

While poking fun at itself and its fans it also gave those who didn’t get it, the opportunity to ignore it for its unsophisticated and common ways.

Along they way the also broadcast some pretty good music too.

Do I listen to country?
Hell No! What kind of a bumpkin do you think I look like!

... and pththtup, I am gone.

[mercator]

I guess I am in the 'anything but country' crowd. Mostly listen to blues, rock and jazz.
But I was listening to Dwight Yoakam - A Place to Cry yesterday, and Wow, what a great song!

Oh yeah, I also really like Johnny Cash, maybe I'm in the anything but some country crowd

/Dave

[meat]

Country to me just seems so same o'l same o'l. Same sound, same lyrics, same twang. I am sure you can say the same about classical, but I just don't like the beat, lyrics or music.