Have people always hated modern country music so badly?

[fazool]

Shania Twain changed the face of country music in the 90's. She got a ton a criticism for "flaunting her midriff" on her album cover and for ruining the purity of country music. She became the top selling country female artist of the decade. People were outraged that "this isn't country music".

This attitude of protectionism runs very deep in music. it is not a culture of "just getting along". It is very much an exclusive culture that derides change, even if evolutionary.

[Mr. Jelly]

Originally Posted by Muddslide

to me, while music has nearly always been a commodity used to sell product, there is an awful lot of music these days that seems like 98% product, 2% actual music/creativity to my ears.

So I just don't listen. I try not to ever feel hatred in my heart or mind.

Same here. Every so often I'll watch and listen to artists of any modern style on TV or YouTube. I try to give it a chance and understand the attraction. My biggest exposure now days is when I stop for a drink and listen to what the bar maid is listening to. It's most often enlightening and I find it interesting but not inspiring.

[Golffishny]

Country music to me follows trends from pop and rock & roll from 20-40 years prior. Most country music fans tend to be more conservative and like what they grew up listening to, IMO. I miss the melodies from the Eddy Arnold, Ray Price era. Too much new music tends to rap and hip hop which to me is just talking to a beat. Some folks appreciate it, I'll pass.

[buddyhu]

This only peripherally relate to "hating modern country music".

I was clicking around YouTube last night, and came across a video with a title like "The History of Modern Music". It was a collection of 6 - 10 second snippets of songs starting around 1900, and continuing through today, sometimes skipping a year or two, but mostly one song per year. I recognized all of the early songs from the early 1900's thru the early 1950's. I remember hearing the songs from the mid-50's thru the 1980's, and felt a certain warmth and affinity for many of them (even though, for the most part, I didn't listen to "pop music" after the early 70's). I recognized most of the songs from the 90's. I did not recognize a single song from the 2000's, and when I listened to the clips, I didn't hear anything that I felt drawn to.

I didn't expect to recognize much after the 80's, but I was still surprised how insulated I have become from popular music for nearly two decades, and how little appeal "modern music" holds for me. My guess is that I would feel the same about modern country, if I took the time to be exposed to it.

[Bob Womack]

Back in the 1920s country music had a home at WIVK radio, Knoxville, TN. The city fathers of my home town, Knoxville, saw these country music types coming and going in their town as a new, scruffy undesirable bunch. They told the whole lot of them in no uncertain terms to shove off, and do it yesterday. That bunch of musicians moved to Nashville and established The Grand Ole Opry.


The point being that dislike of new trends in country music is nothing new. I wonder if the city fathers had a change of mind later?


Bob

[KevWind]

As many has stated negative reaction to anything new or different is not new.

What may be different now (And I have stated this before) is that country music like pop music suffers from being caught the corporate quagmire of desperately seeking something fresh and new while simultaneously being far too afraid to take a chance venturing outside the bounds of "the formula" and losing money. Casting County music (Like Pop Music) into a vortex of sameness

Now that said there certainly is some good modern country music but it does seem few and far between, and happens in spite of, not because of corporate influence in the genre.

[Muddslide]

Originally Posted by KevWind

As many has stated negative reaction to anything new or different is not new.

Right, but let's not fool ourselves that anything in modern country is "new or different."

If anything it's the most formulaic music genre ever (and I know some Nashville songwriters and engineers who will tell you the same) and, as someone else stated, tends to follow pop/rock trends that happened 20-40 years ago.

[Silurian]

Stumbled on this earlier today.

[Fogducker]

The recording industry was shocked a few years ago when "Oh Brother Where Are Thou" sound track went Number 1 for a couple years of any genre. So there must be an audience for some of that "old timey" stuff.

Fog

[Cypress Knee]

Here is the future of country music. Back story - I was at a jam party a couple of years ago and everyone was playing and singing along with '70's classic rock. During a lull someone asked me if I could play "one of those country tunes" and I just started playing Whiskey Before Breakfast when suddenly a younger guy jumped up and started the following. The audio isn't too good and the video is non-existent, but you will get the picture. Purists may want to get a barf bag before clicking play, you have been warned.

https://www.facebook.com/ratmammy/vi...type=2&theater

CK

[FrankHudson]

I haven't kept up with country music for sometime, though I have nice memories of late 50s early 60s country on the radio. Over the years I've just sort of lost the thread there.

Generically, there are two factors here I think:

1. the "that ain't like the good old stuff" faction which all types of music (and other arts) experience. If we were to talk about any genre of music, there'd be some of that. By the way, it's a common tactic to "protest" that objected-to modern style by reviving some old style. Happens all the time in all types of art.


2. the Internet helps propagate opinions. If in 1960 someone disliked Owen Bradley's production style and slicker Nashville productions (for example), you probably wouldn't know unless they are a friend of yours or in your circle. Now we are inundated by opinions, often intensified with attitudes to cut through the noise of the other opinions being expressed.

[noledog]

Originally Posted by Silurian

Stumbled on this earlier today.

+1...three chords and the truth! Excellent vid, thank you for sharing it. With a few exceptions like Chris Stapleton, Jamie Johnson, most of the current writing has fallen short lyrically and musically to cliché dribble. It's all about the money, not the art thus this marketing music caters to the short attention span of today's instant-addict listeners with meaningless fluff, hooks and beats that all sound the same....it's the same with pop.

** Pop has it's exceptions too such as Christina Perri who is a good writer, pianist and vocalist ie an actual musician. Hayley Williams from Paramore also comes to mind. She is a multi-talented, multi-instrumentalist who can write very well, especially the earlier songs.

*** Nobody wants to be stuck and music does grow, but a lot of what I see is not growing or evolving, it's more like devolving imo to mindless pap. I don't know if the country of the 80's met with such hate from the folks that liked the more western side of country from earlier times, but the newer country for that time still used good raw talented musicians like Jimmy Olander of Diamond Rio, as well as good writing and real drums for the most part I reckon!

eric

[PorkPieGuy]

Thanks for everyone's replies!

I think all of this new country "hate" comes primarily from my social media accounts (comprised of a lot of musicians) in addition to some folks I play music with. A good friend who I play music shot me a text with some remark about it, and in my mind I thought "Ok, you're sitting at home right now, and the guys your ragging on are playing stadiums."

My philosophy is pretty simple: I think there's room for musicians to do whatever they want. Life is too short to spend that kind of energy hating a certain genre of music. Listen to what you love. Don't listen to what you don't. Don't rag on people who play music you don't like. Play music that brings you joy and don't look back.

[Silly Moustache]

Thanks for that video.
I'd like to quote from a part of it :

"my real issue with the percussive emphasis is that it invites people not to listen to the lyrics" .

Eggs - actly!

This supports my theory that the large proportion of people who listen to pop music have very little to no concept of what music is about. That is either why, or because music is being played everywhere all the time.
Humans instinctively react to a repetitive beat and as I discovered many years ago when i was a drummer - and could get a hall full of teenagers dancing before the guitars were even plugged in.

Pop music is now more obviously formulaic than it ever was (and it was pretty formulaic ever since the victrola, or at least Ralph Peer).

I rarely listen to music at home unless I'm researching something. If I'm driving, I'll more likely listen to classical if at all.

I HAVE to hear random pop music at the gym for an hour or so, every other day, because it blares out over a p.a. it is so incredibly banal that it positively irritates me, so I wear earplugs. Most others seem to wear earphones so the point of the music that the health centre plays is lost on me and most others it seems.

I remember staying with a well known Texas singer-songwriter who now lives in Santa Fe. I saw that his "music centre was rather cheap and primitive and his collection of albums and Cds was very small. I asked him about this later and he told me tat he daren't listen to music by other singer songwriters unless he unconsciously finds himself writing a song like theirs. This was a very good point.

I might draw your attention to another similr video about modern "music" -



I see no difference between this genre and modern country.
Further, it would seem that musicians are pretty much redundant in pop music now, or maybe they are useful as set painters are in modern drama.

[muscmp]

i wouldn't say that people hated modern country music in the 40s to the 70s but after that when it got watered down, it became a joke. now it is just sugar pop.

play music!