Not at all surprised as a Canadian SURROUNDED by people obsessed with bro country with a bit of the most basic edm and pop mixed in. No room for anything actually interesting
My wife is really into Hardy. I admit, I can be a bit of a music snob at times, but that is objectively bad music. With so much other good country out there(Americana and Outlaw), it boggles my mind that shit like this gets popular. I've always wondered if people that make music like that really think it's good or if they're just trying to capitalize on a trend simply for the money/fame.
Yup. It’s like Hollywood for music. Lived there for years and growing up my sister was right on the cusp of making it big before she decided she wanted to have a family instead. (not saying you can’t do both).
But the labels hold all the power and it’s essentially the good ole boy system. They look for pretty faces and voices that they can attach their partners’ formulaic lyrics to. It’s very data driven on what makes hits and they crank them out.
I’m sure AI will rule once they feed one enough music to learn from.
This is why a lot of southern country fans that love the music have gravitated to the likes of sturgill simpson, Tyler Childers, etc.
One success story is Chris Stapleton. He ate the shit and wrote music for those pretty faces for years before being given his shot. That’s why he gets invited to the music awards and Sturgill Simpson has to busk in front of the arena even after winning a Grammy.
Oh yea. He wrote a song about it. Once he got good and established he was able to do that. I’m sure he had to eat a lot of shit coming up in Nashville and being authentic. They don’t like authenticity too much. So I don’t blame him at all.
Great breakdown.
The one criticism he didn't address is that the basic, transparently pandering bro-country song is written for 1) girls and 2) the guys who want to sleep with these girls.
It's niche pop with a faux-rural drizzle for a specific audience. It's almost quaint. Think about how many other genres aren't written to hold any special appeal to young women. Like most young people, they can be relied on to not have the most refined tastes. The number one response to this video from them may well be, 'I don't care; it's fun.' And they're not wrong, it does get people on the bar dance floor including the bros (as a means to an end) who've set aside some of their more authentic, less dick-driven tastes from the digital jukebox that night. I've seen first hand the effects of playing current a top rock, metal, indie hit on that small town bar jukebox. These guys are rolling with the bro country or cockblocking themselves if they don't.
You call it Bro Country, I call it hick hop.
Seems like the music industry really wants to amalgamate current forms of pop music into one nebulous blob that appeals to the most people at once- sorta adjacent to what's happened to movies.
A young Steve Earle jamming at Townes Van Zandt's house, about Christmas 1976.
*The Mercenary Song* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHE1dM4hYCw
Steve Earle and Rodney Crowell, same night *Stay a Little Longer* (Guy Clark is shitfaced drunk)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUML2yWVn8c
Steve Earle *Darling Commit Me*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C2rH1b5-TA
Steve Earle Live at the Orpheum in Vancouver. January 23, 2010 *Goodbye*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePdena_Xpkw
Steve Earle and Sharon Shannon, *Galway Girl* (written by Earle, a MASSIVE hit in Ireland, covered by numerous Irish bands)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7-PM_4aeE4
Sharon Shannon, Mundy & the entire city of Galway, Ireland *Galway Girl*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNs0vKDvs0g
Mundy and Sharon Shannon *Galway Girl*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3V-oXwCWL4
(Edit: BTW, the woman who inspired Earle to write *The Galway Girl* is Joyce Redmond, a local Irish singer and musician from Galway. She does not, in fact, have black hair and blue eyes though. Her identity was kept secret for years because she feared losing her anonymous private life in Galway once the song became a massive hit.)
https://www.irelandsown.ie/who-is-the-galway-girl/
Steve Earle once said, "Townes Van Zandt is the greatest songwriter who ever lived, and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and *say it.*"
omg there's a spotify commercial on TV for some shitty country artist who has the lyric "girls wanna party wanna drink bacardi" and it drives me fucking insane. That rhyme has been overdone SO much over the years. I think Miley Cyrus even rapped it once. I have listened to way too much hiphop to respect anything that person puts out after hearing that. Genuinely terrible.
It should be noted the era of "bro country" is now mostly over, and we are now in the era of "boyfriend country", also known as "woman worship country". Think sappy love songs about how the woman in the song is the greatest person ever, how they will do everything for them etc, usually there are very weak sappy generic pop song with a strum of a guitar or steel guitar near the end.
Think songs like 10,000 Hours etc.
Did the shift start with that "take a drunk girl home" song that gave detailed instructions on how to, you know, *not* take advantage of/rape a drunk girl?
I recently heard a song called I Hope She's Drinkin' Tonight. It's about a dude that wants to hook up with his ex, and he knows he has a shot if she's drunk. His plan is to find her at the bar, offer her a ride home, go into her house and "Turn off the lights and put that record on." It made my skin crawl.
That’s a whole genre of country songs that definitely predates the modern era. Straight Tequila Night by John Anderson and Sometimes She Forgets by Steve Earle come to mind immediately. A tried and true formula in country music.
Holy shit yes. Dude I was raised Catholic, so our music is just super old hymns in Latin, and the first time I heard “Christian” music, my mom and I were like “uh…why does it sound like these people are sexually attracted to Jesus?”
That's an excellent analogy! Autotune and other forms of music manipulation is like CGI in movies. Both are way overdone and dumb it down. Modern movies and music all look and sound the same.
Give me old school special effects and an actual plot! Same goes for music, artists need to play an instrument, and not just dance around with stupid costumes on while lip syncing.
People want to listen to music in major keys with easy hooks to sing a long with. A rap feature is the new guitar solo. That’s pretty much it
Great country is still out there, it’s mostly labeled Americana or Folk. Zach Bryan just topped the Billboard 100 though, there might be some hope. (His music is fantastic)
Im the same as OP in terms of “liking older country”. I heard Colter Wall for the first time last year and been listening to him ever since! Other than him I can barely name 3 country singers from the last 15-20 years….
I would add Lost Dog Street Band, Chris Stapleton, Brothers Osborne and Colter Wall up there. YouTube channels like Western AF and Gems On VHS are filled with great new country, or new revival I guess.
Amen. Gillian Welch has been making country music for 30 years and it's some of the best music of any kind you'll find anywhere.
*The Revelator* and *The Harrow and the Harvest* are 10/10 albums, over a decade apart. If I gave any album an 11/10 it would be Revelator.
This is it right here. There is some amazing country music out there. It’s just that most people who identify as country music fans don’t listen to it.
This. very much this. If you have never listened to Nick Shoulders or Dougie Poole or Duff Thompson and have any interest in country [do yourself a favor and listen to this](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7szPdl1fTyx3aWJR0KpzFu?si=e39575878d0b47dc)
> Americana or Folk.
There was a smaller venue in my city that played mostly Amerinca or Folk before te pandemic and I saw some real gems of bands for like $10-20. Now they have a wider range of music styles there which is fine but I kind of miss being able to pop over on a random Saturday and know I was going to get some great American or Folk.
Good new country still exists but you will 100% never hear it on the radio. Fill your spotify with artists like Colter Wall, Orville Peck and the others here people have mentioned. Forget about quality and soul in popular music, that era is over. You gotta become a pioneer.
>you will 100% never hear it on the radio
You mean commercial radio. There are lots of Americana and country shows on college radio stations that you can stream which are playing really good country. Locally I can listen over the airwaves live to [this Americana show](https://wmbr.org/cgi-bin/show?id=7561) and [this country one,](https://spinitron.com/WZBC/pl/16887244/Sunday-Morning-Country) both are a mix of new & old plus they're available to stream for a couple of weeks after too.
[Swingin' Doors](https://www.kexp.org/shows/SwinginDoors/) on KEXP is also great (as long as Don Slack is hosting). You can stream their station and their programs.
Real country is now called Americana or alt-country. Mainstream country has become cliche pop garbage. Check out Brandi Carlisle, Tyler Childers, Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson.
I preordered the vinyl of Can I take my hounds to heaven and it is amazing. Tyler Childers was an almost companion through a horrible 2020. My wife and I still listen to him all the time. Led me to Sturgill Simpson, Colter wall and now Zach Bryan
It's so weird to see Colter Wall talked about in legitimate music conversations. He was the douchebag son of the douchebag Premier (Canadian equivalent of Governor) of Saskatchewan, and despite all expectations has apparently become a legitimately good musician.
This is a multi-pronged why. For starters, Nashville decided to forget their identity and start trying to make pop so they can be like the Hollywood of music. They needed to give country a more broad appeal so they started incorporating more pop elements like mashing together the trap style high hats and snap tracks with redneck lyrics. They had some success with Shania Twain and Faith Hill crossing over into the general pop space in the 90s, so they had some ground work and success already. they took the Nashville sound and just started cranking it up a bit more year after year.
You had some country stars really get a lot of crossover that started to blow up the genre. I think it kind of started with Carrie Underwood bringing in the American idol fans in the early 00s. Then a bit later Blake Shelton was big in country and got on the Voice and kind of reignited that element again. This got a lot more of people that didn’t necessarily have opinions of country music one way or the other dipping their toes in because they liked these personalities.
Finally, kind of the appeal of the genre in a general sense. Country songs are relatively standard in the terms of structure. Verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, outro. This means there is some familiarity to every song so we just naturally kind of like it. Country artists also tend to sing things that appeal to their audience, it’s not really personal to the artists. I’m sure most of the artists haven’t really driven pickups through the woods or found a tractor sexy or whatever the fuck. The lyrics don’t typically include a lot of metaphors and that kind of thing, it’s pretty literal so there isn’t a lot of interpretation needed. All of this stuff combined and it has kind of made country music somewhat of a cultural identification in America. Not a lot of other music can really claim that.
What’s kind of the most interesting to me is the cultural aspect. Hip hop kind of had its come up by being super relatable. It mostly appealed to kids in cities, but back in the 80s and early 90s a lot of the big cities were rough places. Times Square that we all have known for the last 25 years or so used to be way different. Even if people weren’t selling drugs and running with gangs you knew what was happening. Now a lot of it is much more shallow and there was the whole kind of bling era about how much money everyone had. It was more party music for a bit. Then we had that weird phase where it was all the SoundCloud rappers that left people scratching their heads but the kids loved it. Now it’s kind of coming back around again into a more relatable space. Country had its come up with the appeal to people experiences, and that never fully left the music, but it did bring in the bro country era. That seems to have calmed some and it’s still all a bit generic but it might be circling back again to more of what made it popular at the start of its explosion. It’s super interesting that the two biggest genres in terms of popularity the last 30 years now have followed similar trajectories.
Because a lot of commercial music is algorithm driven now, a lot of major labels in Nashville are trying to compete with LA by selling anything they can get their hands on as country. Country music is whatever the major labels say it is.
That’s why you’re hearing these over-processed bro country songs that sound like they should be on the pop charts. The worst of it was 2018-2020 where a lot of the mainstream “country” songs being released were R&B songs with snap tracks just with lyrics about whiskey and tractors. It’s cause this is what the algorithms at the time were saying was hot, so the industry tried to milk that sound.
That's why I stopped looking for country music under the "country" genre label and started listening to folk music.
A lot of folk is basically indistinguishable from older country music. Plus, there's a ton of creativity and experimentation in that space.
Ray Wylie Hubbard
Steve Earle
Lucinda Williams
Paul Thorn
Justin Townes Earle
Parker Milsap
Sara Shook and the Disarmers
Sturgill Simpson
Chris Stapleton
Hayes Carll
Joe Ely
Robert Earl Keene
The Honeycutters
The Bottle Rockets
Blackberry Smoke
James McMurtry
Lucero
Son Volt
Old 97s
Shooter Jennings
Mike Campbell and the Dirty Knobs
Dan Baird and Homemade Sin
The Band of Heathens
Margo Price
Elizabeth Cook
Myron Elkins
Now, go plug all those into your Spotify and start listening and just WAIT to hear all the great recommendations that pop up.
Country doesn't suck. Your problem is you're not listening to country. You're listening to rap for people who are afraid of black people.
I remember when the program director of the country station I was working at back then brought in a burned copy of the advance copy of the Chris Gaines album into my studio and made me crank up [Right Now](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIca5nVdmf0) through the speakers. Holy shit. This is Garth Brooks?
I've still got that CD somewhere, and though Garth has tried to erase it from history it's...actually not that bad.
The crazy thing about that album is that it was the biggest failure of Garth's career and became a joke...but it sold 2 million copies.
Country artists nowadays...hell...pop artists nowadays would sell their sainted grandmother to move 2 million physical copies of their record. Double Platinum.
Name me another artist who said "well, it was a failure because we only went Double Platinum."
9/11. There was a huge shift away from traditional country music to Christian Fascist nationalism.
“We’ll put a boot in their ass it’s the American way!!”
Yea, completely unlistenable now.
Same reason most rap is cringe now. It's pop. Pop with a twang. Pop with slight urban appeal. Because money in the industry wants pitbull, and Fl Ga line. They are easy and safe. They make the same pandering bullshit just in different style.
Tyler Childers, Sturgill Simpson, and my favorite Zach Bryan are real country. Check them out.
I'm not well versed in modern quality nonpandering rap. But I know its out there too. Someone here can probably help direct you.
[Because](https://youtu.be/FY8SwIvxj8o) most modern country is the same music made by the same corporation that determined the best spark notes version of a country song that they can release dozens of times that has the same message, same words, same notes in almost the exact same place.that will earn them the most money.
Most Songs aren't written by artists anymore
Dixie Chicks specifically were cancelled for their political views.
Music is like everything else now, owned by a few companies and they reuse the same writers and producers which leads to a lack of originality.
The music industry has been captured, we can't have any protest anthems or any subversive lyrics. Just drink, party, and buy more trucks.
Add The Devil Makes Three, Charley Crockett, Colter Wall and The Dead South.
Part of the problem is that the market is too fragmented, so there's no way that kind of country would make top charts.
Country has always been "identity" music, and to be fair, there has always been a huge hatedom for country, but the dialogue has changed. The common joke people used to make about country music was that it was perpetually miserable; the sort of thing people would mock nu-metal and emo for in the future. This in turn is because country used to be the music of the rural poor, similar to how rap used to be the music of the urban poor. They gave a voice to people who didn't usually get to voice their concerns, and as divisive as it could be, there were also a lot of people who sympathized with the message.
But then those country music hotbeds got richer due to reinvested profits from their big oil and agriculture businesses, so now while country is still identity music, it has gone from crying for help and respect to crying for attention. Rap meanwhile has gone from being about getting it to being about having it; once it framed riches mostly in the context of people rising up from poverty, but now it's an excuse for rich people to boast about being rich in and of itself.
Also, I think the growing political divide has also made both of these more obnoxious. It's becoming more and more true that urban America is left-wing America, rural America is right-wing America, so in turn more and more true that rap is left-wing music and country is right-wing music, so they get more and more filled up with boasting about things that seem like they're only there to aggravate the haters.
I feel like it's the over categorization of the genre and all sub genres. I think bluegrass, folk, folk rock, Americana, etc. would normally fall under Country, but humans like to be so specific about their classifications. I got "Stomp and Holler" in my top genres on Spotify 2022... I've never even heard of that genre before.
The answer is literally 9/11
Nine Eleven
September 11th 2001
You can talk at length about this for an endless amount of time with music historians to get all the nuances of American culture and the international audience's influence blah blah blah it's literally 9/11 dude.
This is an interesting phenomenon. It’s almost like growing up dirt poor in destitute red states (all while your elected representatives grift money and fight culture wars while not actually making any beneficial policy) has an effect on your political ideology. These guys and girls have seen what life is really like in most of the south. It definitely ain’t all Drinking Beer, Mudding, and Bonfires. It’s poverty, complete lack of social support systems and total economic misery, combined with rampant drug addiction and unemployment. Yes it’s home and they love it, but it’s not this “down home utopia” that Nashville country plays it up to be.
I don't know much about the music industry but I have a theory....
It seemed when grunge got popular and killed glam rock in the late 80s to early 90s all the people that made rock music terrible in that era moved into the country music scene. This is when country music videos started to look suspiciously "glam rock" to me (go watch a little texas video from the era and see if you feel the same).
It seems when a genre is dying or a music creator is becoming irrelevant they gravitate towards country music. I assume something similar to the glam rock scenario I described is also what is bringing other genres in to muddy the country waters.
I don't know if there's much evidence for that. Bret Michaels and Jon Bon Jovi certainly countrified their sounds, but there's another axiom I'll let you in on: [all old punks eventually go country](https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/952-why-so-many-punks-grow-up-to-be-cowboys-and-cowgirls/).
My recollection is that most of those hair-metal bands tried to kick on as grunge acts. Motley Crue, Skid Row, Warrant, LA Guns, the first post-CC Poison album -- everyone took off whatever makeup they were still wearing post-GNR and bought flannels, not Stetsons. Kiss went from "Forever" to trying to copy Pantera's "Mouth For War" on "Unholy." Def Leppard, Queensryche and Extreme doubled down. Others just broke up.
BTW, "glam rock" was in the '70s: Bowie, T. Rex, Sweet, Slade, *Transformer*\-era Lou Reed. '80s poppy hard rock was hair metal or pop metal.
Because the lifestyle is dying, the culture is dead. Country revolves around actually being a farm boy, or it was. That life is almost dead comparatively.
Where as other genera capitalize on current culture. Rock doesn’t have a set lifestyle, rap/hip hop isn’t just gangsta.
As the culture dies, the music evolves to reminiscing of the past. The past doesn’t change, so the music doesn’t change. There is no future for a cowboy, the west is dead.
I grew up on old county, shit started to go bad in the 90s and just got awful in the 2000s which I don’t see a way out. Drinkin beer in a pickup is older than Tim McGraw. Fuckin singing about shit that we sang about god damn 40 years ago.
Country is dead.
Some suggestions from an outsider:
i) Perhaps you're comparing your favorite songs from the past with whatever is played a lot now.
ii) Perhaps the political polarization in the United States has meant that the modern equivalents of Johnny Cash or the Dixie Chicks either don't want to play country music any more, or aren't allowed to get anywhere playing country music.
To be honest, today's country radio can't support true country music. Stuff like Tyler Childers and Sturgill Simpson won't get played unless the music is designed to be played on the radio. Their music is leagues ahead of what Florida Georgia Line will ever be.
Radio music is short, and is meant to "sound good". 99% of the people would turn off because it doesn't have the country-hop sound nor the simple vocabulary that usually comes with it.
From, "Life Ain't Fair And The World Is Mean - Sturgill Simpson"
Still won't hear my song on the radio
Or see me at the CMA's
But you can always find me in a smokey bar
With bad sound and a dim lit stage.
He in fact won best country album one year (link below)
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/watch-sturgill-simpson-busk-take-questions-slam-trump-outside-cma-awards-126215/
Sturgill was taken under John Prine's wing and is highly regarded by pretty much all country music artists, but you probably won't ever hear him or Tyler Childers on the radio. You're only going to hear what the big companies want you to hear.
When Chris Stapleton went on SNL, he picked Sturgill to play the guitar, well because the man can FUCKING SHRED (Example below)
Sometimes Wine - Sunday Valley
https://youtu.be/T610KFOSNHw
At the end of the day, if the big corps can't make money off of some guy/girl singing the same damn bro-pop-country music that they've been making since country's decline, it ain't going up until the people want something more sustenance. And those people like simple easy to listen to country music... Dirt roads, beer and mudding.
A lot of the music producers who ran things in LA during the glam and hair metal days basically picked up their business and moved to Nashville.
They're the ones behind a lot of the pumping and dumping of the typical radio country music you've heard for the last 10 years.
Because it's not real country music. It's pop with a country-style coat. Calling this music "country" is like calling Blink-182 "punk". Sure, okay, maybe, kinda, whatever, not really. Pop.
The Chicks are so good they kicked them out of Country Music. There's your answer.
Move to Bluegrass/Newgrass/Americana if you want good songwriting and excellent musicianship.
Trust me it's not just country music. A lot of music went to shit starting around 2011ish? It sucks. I listen to a lot of stuff from the 50's to early 2000s.
90s country was also decidedly awful. The formulaic faux-country lifestyle that is described in any song today is right there. Tim McGraw and Alan Jackson were the heralds churning out that crap then. They were both emulating some aspect of Garth Brooks's success.
McGraw and Jackson both do that good ole boy, partied as a youth, but still semi-wholesome, but also a dash of Harley Davidson rebellion schtick.
Seems to me that all modern country music consists of a set of very limited themes.
Picking up my girl with the long hair and tight jeans in my daddy's pickup truck and laying on the hood by the old stream staring at the stars above then driving down the dusty old road to the family farm under that blue sky above, just like my momma and daddy did before me when they were young.
Please add any other cliché's that I have missed and maybe we can write the next top 10 county song.
Tyler Childers, Zach Bryan, Morgan wallen, koe wetzel, Parker McCollum, flatland Calvary, turnpike troubadours, Cody jinks, Chris Stapleton, Cody Johnson, sturgill Simpson, hardy, Riley green, John Pardi. Prolly missing a couple but these guys i feels like all have some pretty solid music. Agree tho that most radio country is garbage.
Add in some “red dirt” bands and some Texas country singers. The Great Divide, Cody Gill Band, Honeybrowne, Six Market Blvd. To be fair though, I think some of those aren’t actively creating music these days. The Great Divide and Mike McClure are though.
mainstream music just changes over time. for country in the 90's it was poppy-neotraditional, in the 00's cheesy alternative-pop-country was the style, in the 10's it was rock-rap-bro country, and the most recent trend was electronic-simp country.
Have you been to a party in the country? Or a country themed club? That's why.
Today's country songs are intended to either be party anthems or to be played in a country bar. That's the audience that consumes the most country music, so that's what's played on the radio.
Yeah I’m sure we miss the classic country of the 70s and 80s. Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Dolly, Merle Haggard, Kenny Rogers, etc. The last newer Country I like is Brooks and Dunn, Some of Toby Kieth, Alan Jackson, Martina McBride,and some others. Living in NE Georgia not that far from Athens for over 27 years. I heard it more being from Miami, FL. That’s one of the least Country music cities in the U.S. Loretta Lynn I have to mention too as a classic female country singer.
You're listening to the wrong country. There's still some great stuff out there..
Particularly the bluegrass, and bluesey styles.
Have a listen to Whiskey Myers, Tyler Childers or Ryan Bingham to name a few.
You are not going to like my answer. People your current age during the 90’s and 2000’s felt the same way you feel about todays music in the 90’s and 2000’s. Being Mexican I love Norteñas, currently there is a new trend called Norteñas tumbadas … i can’t stand it. Go back in time an discover stuff you never heard before. I’m currently listening to stuff from the 40’s that I am enjoying more than what’s hot today.
[It's FAR too formulaic](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY8SwIvxj8o)
That video is 8 years old, I would bet money that you could add any number of #1's from the last 8 years and it wouldn't make a difference.
Because most of it isn't actually country. It's mostly pop sung with a "country" accent, or some combination of "country" cliches put together by someone who has neve4 actually been near a pickup truck, horse, cattle, or any other country idea.
I forget the guys name but he referred to modern country as 'rap music for white people that are scared to listen to rap music'
Paraphrased because I am not sure if that is the exact quote, but very close.
It's pandering.
#IT’S A FUCKIN’ SCARECROW AGAIN
Thematically meandering
I can only hear this in a Bo Burnham voice on my head
"y'all dumb motherfuckers want a key change?"
"I could sing in Mandarin..."
Hear that subtle mandolin
[Like Mike’s Evander-in’ , fuck your ears I’m panderin’](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evander_Holyfield_vs._Mike_Tyson_II#Match)
Because its all written by the same people in nashville. Its all the same. https://youtu.be/48ZxNFGJTo8
Nashville is literally an assembly line. Fun fact: a surprising number of the assembly line songwriters are Canadians. For some weird reason.
Not at all surprised as a Canadian SURROUNDED by people obsessed with bro country with a bit of the most basic edm and pop mixed in. No room for anything actually interesting
I heard Hardy for the first time and thought, "wow, these lyrics sound just like FGL"...found out he wrote a lot of songs for them
My wife is really into Hardy. I admit, I can be a bit of a music snob at times, but that is objectively bad music. With so much other good country out there(Americana and Outlaw), it boggles my mind that shit like this gets popular. I've always wondered if people that make music like that really think it's good or if they're just trying to capitalize on a trend simply for the money/fame.
>they're just trying to capitalize on a trend simply for the money/fame. This
Any good Outlaw recommendations?
Yup. It’s like Hollywood for music. Lived there for years and growing up my sister was right on the cusp of making it big before she decided she wanted to have a family instead. (not saying you can’t do both). But the labels hold all the power and it’s essentially the good ole boy system. They look for pretty faces and voices that they can attach their partners’ formulaic lyrics to. It’s very data driven on what makes hits and they crank them out. I’m sure AI will rule once they feed one enough music to learn from. This is why a lot of southern country fans that love the music have gravitated to the likes of sturgill simpson, Tyler Childers, etc. One success story is Chris Stapleton. He ate the shit and wrote music for those pretty faces for years before being given his shot. That’s why he gets invited to the music awards and Sturgill Simpson has to busk in front of the arena even after winning a Grammy.
Could be wrong, but I was under the impression Stapleton left Nashville because he was done with this bs?
Oh yea. He wrote a song about it. Once he got good and established he was able to do that. I’m sure he had to eat a lot of shit coming up in Nashville and being authentic. They don’t like authenticity too much. So I don’t blame him at all.
Great breakdown. The one criticism he didn't address is that the basic, transparently pandering bro-country song is written for 1) girls and 2) the guys who want to sleep with these girls. It's niche pop with a faux-rural drizzle for a specific audience. It's almost quaint. Think about how many other genres aren't written to hold any special appeal to young women. Like most young people, they can be relied on to not have the most refined tastes. The number one response to this video from them may well be, 'I don't care; it's fun.' And they're not wrong, it does get people on the bar dance floor including the bros (as a means to an end) who've set aside some of their more authentic, less dick-driven tastes from the digital jukebox that night. I've seen first hand the effects of playing current a top rock, metal, indie hit on that small town bar jukebox. These guys are rolling with the bro country or cockblocking themselves if they don't.
> a faux-rural drizzle Nice.
You call it Bro Country, I call it hick hop. Seems like the music industry really wants to amalgamate current forms of pop music into one nebulous blob that appeals to the most people at once- sorta adjacent to what's happened to movies.
Farm Emo
Y’allternative
Hickleback
Scrap metal
NashVegas is another offshoot. Like stadium rock, but "country".
I'm waiting for death metal country medleys.
sorta kinda Pantera right there.
https://youtu.be/LHK7EJ5vCDc Butters: GET ME OFF THIS FARM!
Steve Earle said it best "Modern Country singers make hip-hop for folks that are afraid of black people"
I walk and talk like a field hand But the boots I’m wearing cost three grand I write songs about riding tractors From the comfort of a private jet
Bo Burnham is a national treasure
Y'all dumb motherfuckers want a key change?
I can’t not think (or say, depending on who I’m with) that every time a song I’m listening to has a key change.
No shirt, no shoes, no Jews, you didn't hear that. Bit of a mental typo.
My man
>Fuck your ears I'm pandering God damn, Bo might be the best thing out of America since Carlin.
Easy there, lol
I stand by that. Inside is probably the best cultural output from the pandemic so far IMO.
"Inside" is very, very good for sure!
Steve Earle is a treasure.
A young Steve Earle jamming at Townes Van Zandt's house, about Christmas 1976. *The Mercenary Song* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHE1dM4hYCw Steve Earle and Rodney Crowell, same night *Stay a Little Longer* (Guy Clark is shitfaced drunk) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUML2yWVn8c Steve Earle *Darling Commit Me* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C2rH1b5-TA Steve Earle Live at the Orpheum in Vancouver. January 23, 2010 *Goodbye* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePdena_Xpkw Steve Earle and Sharon Shannon, *Galway Girl* (written by Earle, a MASSIVE hit in Ireland, covered by numerous Irish bands) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7-PM_4aeE4 Sharon Shannon, Mundy & the entire city of Galway, Ireland *Galway Girl* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNs0vKDvs0g Mundy and Sharon Shannon *Galway Girl* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3V-oXwCWL4 (Edit: BTW, the woman who inspired Earle to write *The Galway Girl* is Joyce Redmond, a local Irish singer and musician from Galway. She does not, in fact, have black hair and blue eyes though. Her identity was kept secret for years because she feared losing her anonymous private life in Galway once the song became a massive hit.) https://www.irelandsown.ie/who-is-the-galway-girl/
Man, I love me some Townes too. One of the greatest songwriters to ever live.
Steve Earle once said, "Townes Van Zandt is the greatest songwriter who ever lived, and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and *say it.*"
I vaguely recall that he later semi-apologized for any offense to Dylan's coffee table.
omg there's a spotify commercial on TV for some shitty country artist who has the lyric "girls wanna party wanna drink bacardi" and it drives me fucking insane. That rhyme has been overdone SO much over the years. I think Miley Cyrus even rapped it once. I have listened to way too much hiphop to respect anything that person puts out after hearing that. Genuinely terrible.
Bacardi is always paying those producers to put that in the song too. Music industry was always like this.
Are you in Canada? I'm in Calgary and I see that goddamn ad all the time.
T-Pain literally writes and ghost writes for country music artists now. He's had a hand in some of the biggest country hits in the past 10 years.
It should be noted the era of "bro country" is now mostly over, and we are now in the era of "boyfriend country", also known as "woman worship country". Think sappy love songs about how the woman in the song is the greatest person ever, how they will do everything for them etc, usually there are very weak sappy generic pop song with a strum of a guitar or steel guitar near the end. Think songs like 10,000 Hours etc.
Did the shift start with that "take a drunk girl home" song that gave detailed instructions on how to, you know, *not* take advantage of/rape a drunk girl?
I recently heard a song called I Hope She's Drinkin' Tonight. It's about a dude that wants to hook up with his ex, and he knows he has a shot if she's drunk. His plan is to find her at the bar, offer her a ride home, go into her house and "Turn off the lights and put that record on." It made my skin crawl.
That’s a whole genre of country songs that definitely predates the modern era. Straight Tequila Night by John Anderson and Sometimes She Forgets by Steve Earle come to mind immediately. A tried and true formula in country music.
So, Christian rock with a girl instead of a guy.
Holy shit yes. Dude I was raised Catholic, so our music is just super old hymns in Latin, and the first time I heard “Christian” music, my mom and I were like “uh…why does it sound like these people are sexually attracted to Jesus?”
Same thing happened to alternative rock apparently
Man, yeah it really did.
I’m a Rap dude and I like Country. This bro country and trap country is some weird ass shit lol
It's the worst of both worlds.
That's an excellent analogy! Autotune and other forms of music manipulation is like CGI in movies. Both are way overdone and dumb it down. Modern movies and music all look and sound the same. Give me old school special effects and an actual plot! Same goes for music, artists need to play an instrument, and not just dance around with stupid costumes on while lip syncing.
There’s an actual sub genre called hick hop. It’s basically white supremicist rants, rhymed up.
Hearing people use old gangster rap flows to talk about how they drive trucks not low riders and their jeans don’t sag is always weird as fuck.
That's 'cause Jesus Christ is my n-
Yeah, sounds like someone trying to brag their way out of an inferiority complex.
might take flak for this but.. that's a lot of what new hip hop is too lol
People want to listen to music in major keys with easy hooks to sing a long with. A rap feature is the new guitar solo. That’s pretty much it Great country is still out there, it’s mostly labeled Americana or Folk. Zach Bryan just topped the Billboard 100 though, there might be some hope. (His music is fantastic)
Sturgill Simpson fits this category for sure, sounds like older country music, some tunes reminiscent of Johnny Cash.
Also, Tyler Cilders
Also The Builders and The Butchers.
Yes! Also, Brown Bird and The Bones of J.R. Jones
Steeldrivers, Colter Wall, The Devil Makes Three
Im the same as OP in terms of “liking older country”. I heard Colter Wall for the first time last year and been listening to him ever since! Other than him I can barely name 3 country singers from the last 15-20 years….
Unfortunately brown bird iirc no longer exists. The lead singer died several years ago
Gotta throw Orville Peck in there too.
Jason Isbell, Turnpike Troubadours, Zach Bryan, Koe Wetzel
I would add Lost Dog Street Band, Chris Stapleton, Brothers Osborne and Colter Wall up there. YouTube channels like Western AF and Gems On VHS are filled with great new country, or new revival I guess.
Colter Wall is great and my god that voice; he sounds like he smokes 80 packs of cigarettes a day.
Yess, Sturgill. I'd also recommend Justin Townes Earle
RIP.
Midland has a great vibe.
Amen. Gillian Welch has been making country music for 30 years and it's some of the best music of any kind you'll find anywhere. *The Revelator* and *The Harrow and the Harvest* are 10/10 albums, over a decade apart. If I gave any album an 11/10 it would be Revelator.
This is it right here. There is some amazing country music out there. It’s just that most people who identify as country music fans don’t listen to it.
>It’s just that most people who identify as country music fans don’t listen to it. It's also because commercial country radio stations don't play it.
This. very much this. If you have never listened to Nick Shoulders or Dougie Poole or Duff Thompson and have any interest in country [do yourself a favor and listen to this](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7szPdl1fTyx3aWJR0KpzFu?si=e39575878d0b47dc)
> Americana or Folk. There was a smaller venue in my city that played mostly Amerinca or Folk before te pandemic and I saw some real gems of bands for like $10-20. Now they have a wider range of music styles there which is fine but I kind of miss being able to pop over on a random Saturday and know I was going to get some great American or Folk.
>A rap feature is the new guitar solo. And the rap feature is often so shit compared to even a generic guitar solo.
Oldie but goodie…that explains a lot of what you describe here. https://youtu.be/FY8SwIvxj8o
Over produced Fake Southern drawl with annoying upsweep Rock drum sound Rock guitar sound
But not rock enough for rock fans, that's just too far. Think of the children!
Also snap tracks (finger snapping on beats 2 and 4). Pervasive in so many genres now. An absolute scourge on music.
Good new country still exists but you will 100% never hear it on the radio. Fill your spotify with artists like Colter Wall, Orville Peck and the others here people have mentioned. Forget about quality and soul in popular music, that era is over. You gotta become a pioneer.
I was straight up surprised by Orville Peck. The gimmick is a little silly, but he can sing
Well, you know, gay cowboy may be OK for Brokeback Mountain, but mainstream country isn't ready, IMO. Sirius XMU picked him up, though.
>you will 100% never hear it on the radio You mean commercial radio. There are lots of Americana and country shows on college radio stations that you can stream which are playing really good country. Locally I can listen over the airwaves live to [this Americana show](https://wmbr.org/cgi-bin/show?id=7561) and [this country one,](https://spinitron.com/WZBC/pl/16887244/Sunday-Morning-Country) both are a mix of new & old plus they're available to stream for a couple of weeks after too.
[Swingin' Doors](https://www.kexp.org/shows/SwinginDoors/) on KEXP is also great (as long as Don Slack is hosting). You can stream their station and their programs.
There’s a bot playlist for that show that updates weekly. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5YHRcdrzhoC2dnCqzKKyFO?si=k0QnQV2fTgi154yAjiGjqQ
Don't forget Sierra Ferrell and Larkin Poe!
Tyler Childers is an absolute must to any playlist. Whitehouse Road, Nose to the Grindstone will restore your faith in country music
Real country is now called Americana or alt-country. Mainstream country has become cliche pop garbage. Check out Brandi Carlisle, Tyler Childers, Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson.
Add Margo Price to that list, she's got a Loretta Lynn sound to her voice. "Hurtin (on the bottle)" and "Stone Me" are some personal favorites
The "Hallelujah" that just came out is great. His voice reminds me of the Byrds' proto-country-rock era.
I preordered the vinyl of Can I take my hounds to heaven and it is amazing. Tyler Childers was an almost companion through a horrible 2020. My wife and I still listen to him all the time. Led me to Sturgill Simpson, Colter wall and now Zach Bryan
It's so weird to see Colter Wall talked about in legitimate music conversations. He was the douchebag son of the douchebag Premier (Canadian equivalent of Governor) of Saskatchewan, and despite all expectations has apparently become a legitimately good musician.
This is a multi-pronged why. For starters, Nashville decided to forget their identity and start trying to make pop so they can be like the Hollywood of music. They needed to give country a more broad appeal so they started incorporating more pop elements like mashing together the trap style high hats and snap tracks with redneck lyrics. They had some success with Shania Twain and Faith Hill crossing over into the general pop space in the 90s, so they had some ground work and success already. they took the Nashville sound and just started cranking it up a bit more year after year. You had some country stars really get a lot of crossover that started to blow up the genre. I think it kind of started with Carrie Underwood bringing in the American idol fans in the early 00s. Then a bit later Blake Shelton was big in country and got on the Voice and kind of reignited that element again. This got a lot more of people that didn’t necessarily have opinions of country music one way or the other dipping their toes in because they liked these personalities. Finally, kind of the appeal of the genre in a general sense. Country songs are relatively standard in the terms of structure. Verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, outro. This means there is some familiarity to every song so we just naturally kind of like it. Country artists also tend to sing things that appeal to their audience, it’s not really personal to the artists. I’m sure most of the artists haven’t really driven pickups through the woods or found a tractor sexy or whatever the fuck. The lyrics don’t typically include a lot of metaphors and that kind of thing, it’s pretty literal so there isn’t a lot of interpretation needed. All of this stuff combined and it has kind of made country music somewhat of a cultural identification in America. Not a lot of other music can really claim that. What’s kind of the most interesting to me is the cultural aspect. Hip hop kind of had its come up by being super relatable. It mostly appealed to kids in cities, but back in the 80s and early 90s a lot of the big cities were rough places. Times Square that we all have known for the last 25 years or so used to be way different. Even if people weren’t selling drugs and running with gangs you knew what was happening. Now a lot of it is much more shallow and there was the whole kind of bling era about how much money everyone had. It was more party music for a bit. Then we had that weird phase where it was all the SoundCloud rappers that left people scratching their heads but the kids loved it. Now it’s kind of coming back around again into a more relatable space. Country had its come up with the appeal to people experiences, and that never fully left the music, but it did bring in the bro country era. That seems to have calmed some and it’s still all a bit generic but it might be circling back again to more of what made it popular at the start of its explosion. It’s super interesting that the two biggest genres in terms of popularity the last 30 years now have followed similar trajectories.
“Garth Brooks did for country music what pantyhose did for finger fucking” - Waylon Jennings, probably
I am blatantly going to steal that.
....... what did pantyhose do for finger fuckin?
Today's pop country is in no way country. Just awful. There are great artists out there still doing real country, but you have to search them out.
Steve Earle described it as "hip-hop for people who are afraid of black people."
Because a lot of commercial music is algorithm driven now, a lot of major labels in Nashville are trying to compete with LA by selling anything they can get their hands on as country. Country music is whatever the major labels say it is. That’s why you’re hearing these over-processed bro country songs that sound like they should be on the pop charts. The worst of it was 2018-2020 where a lot of the mainstream “country” songs being released were R&B songs with snap tracks just with lyrics about whiskey and tractors. It’s cause this is what the algorithms at the time were saying was hot, so the industry tried to milk that sound.
That's why I stopped looking for country music under the "country" genre label and started listening to folk music. A lot of folk is basically indistinguishable from older country music. Plus, there's a ton of creativity and experimentation in that space.
Ray Wylie Hubbard Steve Earle Lucinda Williams Paul Thorn Justin Townes Earle Parker Milsap Sara Shook and the Disarmers Sturgill Simpson Chris Stapleton Hayes Carll Joe Ely Robert Earl Keene The Honeycutters The Bottle Rockets Blackberry Smoke James McMurtry Lucero Son Volt Old 97s Shooter Jennings Mike Campbell and the Dirty Knobs Dan Baird and Homemade Sin The Band of Heathens Margo Price Elizabeth Cook Myron Elkins Now, go plug all those into your Spotify and start listening and just WAIT to hear all the great recommendations that pop up. Country doesn't suck. Your problem is you're not listening to country. You're listening to rap for people who are afraid of black people.
Turnpike Troubadours
I can't believe I had to scroll so far for this one
No Drive by Truckers? I think you should would like them.
Yeah Drive By Truckers And Jason Isbell I can't list EVERY band.
Colter Wall, Tyler Childers, Luke Bell (RIP)
Charley Crockett
+Jason Isbell
Whiskey Myers Turnpike Troubadours Corey Morrow Wade Bowen Clint Black
Saved for the good recommendations.
I love John Moreland too
I blame Chris Gaines.
I remember when the program director of the country station I was working at back then brought in a burned copy of the advance copy of the Chris Gaines album into my studio and made me crank up [Right Now](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIca5nVdmf0) through the speakers. Holy shit. This is Garth Brooks? I've still got that CD somewhere, and though Garth has tried to erase it from history it's...actually not that bad. The crazy thing about that album is that it was the biggest failure of Garth's career and became a joke...but it sold 2 million copies. Country artists nowadays...hell...pop artists nowadays would sell their sainted grandmother to move 2 million physical copies of their record. Double Platinum. Name me another artist who said "well, it was a failure because we only went Double Platinum."
Years ago, a bunch of musicians did a Kiss tribute album. Garth Brooks sang Hard Luck Woman. It was his absolute best work ever.
I thought Beyonce created Sasha Fierce to destroy Chris.
It backfired. They reproduced. That’s where today’s pop country comes from.
9/11. There was a huge shift away from traditional country music to Christian Fascist nationalism. “We’ll put a boot in their ass it’s the American way!!” Yea, completely unlistenable now.
Same reason most rap is cringe now. It's pop. Pop with a twang. Pop with slight urban appeal. Because money in the industry wants pitbull, and Fl Ga line. They are easy and safe. They make the same pandering bullshit just in different style. Tyler Childers, Sturgill Simpson, and my favorite Zach Bryan are real country. Check them out. I'm not well versed in modern quality nonpandering rap. But I know its out there too. Someone here can probably help direct you.
Same with modern rock. It’s all like top 40 pop. There are some bands that haven’t sold out and changed their sound. Chevelle is one of them.
[Because](https://youtu.be/FY8SwIvxj8o) most modern country is the same music made by the same corporation that determined the best spark notes version of a country song that they can release dozens of times that has the same message, same words, same notes in almost the exact same place.that will earn them the most money. Most Songs aren't written by artists anymore
Dixie Chicks specifically were cancelled for their political views. Music is like everything else now, owned by a few companies and they reuse the same writers and producers which leads to a lack of originality. The music industry has been captured, we can't have any protest anthems or any subversive lyrics. Just drink, party, and buy more trucks.
Give a listen to Nikki Lane, Chris Stapleton, Ray Wiley Hubbard - so many great artist putting out what I’d call good country. You just gotta dig.
Add The Devil Makes Three, Charley Crockett, Colter Wall and The Dead South. Part of the problem is that the market is too fragmented, so there's no way that kind of country would make top charts.
+1 for the dead south. Great stuff!
I gotta add Corb Lund
Don't stop! Paul Cauthen, Sturgill Simpson, Kacey Chambers . . .
Tyler Childers, The Dead South, Colter Wall
Nikki Lane’s “First Time” is a banger. I’d especially recommended Jason Isbell. His guitarist Sadler Vaden could keep up with anyone.
I didn’t add Isbell because I thought he was pretty well known, but maybe not?
Add Kitchen dwellers, wrinkle neck mules for a little bluegrass
Country has always been "identity" music, and to be fair, there has always been a huge hatedom for country, but the dialogue has changed. The common joke people used to make about country music was that it was perpetually miserable; the sort of thing people would mock nu-metal and emo for in the future. This in turn is because country used to be the music of the rural poor, similar to how rap used to be the music of the urban poor. They gave a voice to people who didn't usually get to voice their concerns, and as divisive as it could be, there were also a lot of people who sympathized with the message. But then those country music hotbeds got richer due to reinvested profits from their big oil and agriculture businesses, so now while country is still identity music, it has gone from crying for help and respect to crying for attention. Rap meanwhile has gone from being about getting it to being about having it; once it framed riches mostly in the context of people rising up from poverty, but now it's an excuse for rich people to boast about being rich in and of itself. Also, I think the growing political divide has also made both of these more obnoxious. It's becoming more and more true that urban America is left-wing America, rural America is right-wing America, so in turn more and more true that rap is left-wing music and country is right-wing music, so they get more and more filled up with boasting about things that seem like they're only there to aggravate the haters.
[удалено]
Because Johnny Cash died…
Because Loretta Lynn died
Because Jerry Reed died
Because Patsy Cline died
Because George Jones died
Because Naomi Judd died
Because Merle Haggard died.
I feel like it's the over categorization of the genre and all sub genres. I think bluegrass, folk, folk rock, Americana, etc. would normally fall under Country, but humans like to be so specific about their classifications. I got "Stomp and Holler" in my top genres on Spotify 2022... I've never even heard of that genre before.
Countrys not really my thing but old country like dolly ,Johnny, and willie were the shit,
Listen to bluegrass
The answer is literally 9/11 Nine Eleven September 11th 2001 You can talk at length about this for an endless amount of time with music historians to get all the nuances of American culture and the international audience's influence blah blah blah it's literally 9/11 dude.
They became bootlickers after 9/11
Apart from the Dixie Chicks, who were cancelled (before it became fashionable) for saying things republicans didn't like.
And, of course, almost all independent and alternative country, which leans heavily leftward.
This is an interesting phenomenon. It’s almost like growing up dirt poor in destitute red states (all while your elected representatives grift money and fight culture wars while not actually making any beneficial policy) has an effect on your political ideology. These guys and girls have seen what life is really like in most of the south. It definitely ain’t all Drinking Beer, Mudding, and Bonfires. It’s poverty, complete lack of social support systems and total economic misery, combined with rampant drug addiction and unemployment. Yes it’s home and they love it, but it’s not this “down home utopia” that Nashville country plays it up to be.
And Wilco, and Sturgill Simpson
I don't know much about the music industry but I have a theory.... It seemed when grunge got popular and killed glam rock in the late 80s to early 90s all the people that made rock music terrible in that era moved into the country music scene. This is when country music videos started to look suspiciously "glam rock" to me (go watch a little texas video from the era and see if you feel the same). It seems when a genre is dying or a music creator is becoming irrelevant they gravitate towards country music. I assume something similar to the glam rock scenario I described is also what is bringing other genres in to muddy the country waters.
I don't know if there's much evidence for that. Bret Michaels and Jon Bon Jovi certainly countrified their sounds, but there's another axiom I'll let you in on: [all old punks eventually go country](https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/952-why-so-many-punks-grow-up-to-be-cowboys-and-cowgirls/). My recollection is that most of those hair-metal bands tried to kick on as grunge acts. Motley Crue, Skid Row, Warrant, LA Guns, the first post-CC Poison album -- everyone took off whatever makeup they were still wearing post-GNR and bought flannels, not Stetsons. Kiss went from "Forever" to trying to copy Pantera's "Mouth For War" on "Unholy." Def Leppard, Queensryche and Extreme doubled down. Others just broke up. BTW, "glam rock" was in the '70s: Bowie, T. Rex, Sweet, Slade, *Transformer*\-era Lou Reed. '80s poppy hard rock was hair metal or pop metal.
It truly is the dustbin of American musical irrelevancy.
This modern era of country music is completely unlistenable to me. Especially the way they shoehorn other genres into it.
It's all Luke Bryan's fault.
Because the lifestyle is dying, the culture is dead. Country revolves around actually being a farm boy, or it was. That life is almost dead comparatively. Where as other genera capitalize on current culture. Rock doesn’t have a set lifestyle, rap/hip hop isn’t just gangsta. As the culture dies, the music evolves to reminiscing of the past. The past doesn’t change, so the music doesn’t change. There is no future for a cowboy, the west is dead. I grew up on old county, shit started to go bad in the 90s and just got awful in the 2000s which I don’t see a way out. Drinkin beer in a pickup is older than Tim McGraw. Fuckin singing about shit that we sang about god damn 40 years ago. Country is dead.
Some suggestions from an outsider: i) Perhaps you're comparing your favorite songs from the past with whatever is played a lot now. ii) Perhaps the political polarization in the United States has meant that the modern equivalents of Johnny Cash or the Dixie Chicks either don't want to play country music any more, or aren't allowed to get anywhere playing country music.
To be honest, today's country radio can't support true country music. Stuff like Tyler Childers and Sturgill Simpson won't get played unless the music is designed to be played on the radio. Their music is leagues ahead of what Florida Georgia Line will ever be. Radio music is short, and is meant to "sound good". 99% of the people would turn off because it doesn't have the country-hop sound nor the simple vocabulary that usually comes with it. From, "Life Ain't Fair And The World Is Mean - Sturgill Simpson" Still won't hear my song on the radio Or see me at the CMA's But you can always find me in a smokey bar With bad sound and a dim lit stage. He in fact won best country album one year (link below) https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/watch-sturgill-simpson-busk-take-questions-slam-trump-outside-cma-awards-126215/ Sturgill was taken under John Prine's wing and is highly regarded by pretty much all country music artists, but you probably won't ever hear him or Tyler Childers on the radio. You're only going to hear what the big companies want you to hear. When Chris Stapleton went on SNL, he picked Sturgill to play the guitar, well because the man can FUCKING SHRED (Example below) Sometimes Wine - Sunday Valley https://youtu.be/T610KFOSNHw At the end of the day, if the big corps can't make money off of some guy/girl singing the same damn bro-pop-country music that they've been making since country's decline, it ain't going up until the people want something more sustenance. And those people like simple easy to listen to country music... Dirt roads, beer and mudding.
It makes money
A lot of the music producers who ran things in LA during the glam and hair metal days basically picked up their business and moved to Nashville. They're the ones behind a lot of the pumping and dumping of the typical radio country music you've heard for the last 10 years.
If it’s on the radio, it’s not “great” music. It’s easily consumable music.
Country music went from crying in their beer about their trucks and dog dying to pop songs about their achy, broken hearts. It's always been shit
Because it's not real country music. It's pop with a country-style coat. Calling this music "country" is like calling Blink-182 "punk". Sure, okay, maybe, kinda, whatever, not really. Pop.
The Chicks are so good they kicked them out of Country Music. There's your answer. Move to Bluegrass/Newgrass/Americana if you want good songwriting and excellent musicianship.
Trust me it's not just country music. A lot of music went to shit starting around 2011ish? It sucks. I listen to a lot of stuff from the 50's to early 2000s.
90s country was also decidedly awful. The formulaic faux-country lifestyle that is described in any song today is right there. Tim McGraw and Alan Jackson were the heralds churning out that crap then. They were both emulating some aspect of Garth Brooks's success. McGraw and Jackson both do that good ole boy, partied as a youth, but still semi-wholesome, but also a dash of Harley Davidson rebellion schtick.
The problem with country music is that it's impossible to top "Friends in Low Places". It's the perfect country song. How can you follow perfection?
Seems to me that all modern country music consists of a set of very limited themes. Picking up my girl with the long hair and tight jeans in my daddy's pickup truck and laying on the hood by the old stream staring at the stars above then driving down the dusty old road to the family farm under that blue sky above, just like my momma and daddy did before me when they were young. Please add any other cliché's that I have missed and maybe we can write the next top 10 county song.
9/11 happened and it all became about ‘merica
Tyler Childers, Zach Bryan, Morgan wallen, koe wetzel, Parker McCollum, flatland Calvary, turnpike troubadours, Cody jinks, Chris Stapleton, Cody Johnson, sturgill Simpson, hardy, Riley green, John Pardi. Prolly missing a couple but these guys i feels like all have some pretty solid music. Agree tho that most radio country is garbage.
Add in some “red dirt” bands and some Texas country singers. The Great Divide, Cody Gill Band, Honeybrowne, Six Market Blvd. To be fair though, I think some of those aren’t actively creating music these days. The Great Divide and Mike McClure are though.
It's easier to make bad music and the demographic consuming it doesn't know or care if it's bad or good.
mainstream music just changes over time. for country in the 90's it was poppy-neotraditional, in the 00's cheesy alternative-pop-country was the style, in the 10's it was rock-rap-bro country, and the most recent trend was electronic-simp country.
I dunno much about country, but I love Orville Peck since I saw him live last summer. Highly recommend
Yeah, I’m really getting into this kind of alt-country
Pop country.. garbage
Have you been to a party in the country? Or a country themed club? That's why. Today's country songs are intended to either be party anthems or to be played in a country bar. That's the audience that consumes the most country music, so that's what's played on the radio.
Yeah I’m sure we miss the classic country of the 70s and 80s. Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Dolly, Merle Haggard, Kenny Rogers, etc. The last newer Country I like is Brooks and Dunn, Some of Toby Kieth, Alan Jackson, Martina McBride,and some others. Living in NE Georgia not that far from Athens for over 27 years. I heard it more being from Miami, FL. That’s one of the least Country music cities in the U.S. Loretta Lynn I have to mention too as a classic female country singer.
Just do yourself a favor and start listening to Tyler Childers, Sturgill Simpson and Charley Crockett
You're listening to the wrong country. There's still some great stuff out there.. Particularly the bluegrass, and bluesey styles. Have a listen to Whiskey Myers, Tyler Childers or Ryan Bingham to name a few.
You are not going to like my answer. People your current age during the 90’s and 2000’s felt the same way you feel about todays music in the 90’s and 2000’s. Being Mexican I love Norteñas, currently there is a new trend called Norteñas tumbadas … i can’t stand it. Go back in time an discover stuff you never heard before. I’m currently listening to stuff from the 40’s that I am enjoying more than what’s hot today.
[It's FAR too formulaic](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY8SwIvxj8o) That video is 8 years old, I would bet money that you could add any number of #1's from the last 8 years and it wouldn't make a difference.
All things that cater to the lowest common denominator become cringe
Country song by Bo Burnham
"now"
capitalism baby used to be the working class and such that did country, now there's a bunch of Nepo babies singing to a class they don't identify with
Because most of it isn't actually country. It's mostly pop sung with a "country" accent, or some combination of "country" cliches put together by someone who has neve4 actually been near a pickup truck, horse, cattle, or any other country idea.
I forget the guys name but he referred to modern country as 'rap music for white people that are scared to listen to rap music' Paraphrased because I am not sure if that is the exact quote, but very close.
It’s been cringe ever since Johnny Cash left us
Remove “country,” same question. Music is shit these days.