don't get me wrong i like country if it's good.do you guys think it's a bad sign that rockers go a little country. i know that they may just want to expand their musical talents, but something gives me the felling that their just going where the money is and right now it's sort of like the mid 90's when rock was basicly in the toilet and circling the drain and country was king. i guess either do country songs or leave it to Beiber. i'm sticking with the blues that is the one constant in the universe.

Perhaps you're not understanding what the term constant means...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blues#History

Today's Modern Top 40 Country (I refuse to call it country & western) is basically Def Leppard with a fiddle. The fact that many of the "artists" (I use that term loosely) will put out two versions of the same single--one with fiddle & steel, one without--to the corresponding radio stations tells you a lot.

I'm all for cross-pollination of musical styles (I do it myself all the time), but most of the crap that people are calling "Country" should be relegated to what it is--Top 40 Pop. They are playing to the lowest common denominator in their audience, rather than pulling their audience upwards.

Waylon, Willie, Johnny Cash, Billy Joe Shaver, Merle Haggard, Buck Owens--they put rock & blues (and in the case of Willie Nelson, jazz) influences into their country, but that led to a "pure" bastardization of their music. They dignified their audience by allowing them to grow musically, as opposed to tacking the latest trend in rap, pop, production tricks, etc. onto their recordings.

Bon Jovi and Jessica Simpson both had "country" hits recently. That tells you how far the genre has fallen.

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

How is that any different than:

1) Pat Boone putting out versions of songs that were santitized versions of the originals

2) Elvis and others taking Black R&B songs and sanitizing them... listen to the ORIGINAL version of Hound Dog, and you'll have a great an example of what I'm talking about.

The recording industry doesn't have new tricks, they just keep re-using variations of the old tricks.

like i said before, theres nothing new under the sun.
why would they try and change something if what they have is working fantasticly?

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

god bless you screamin' armidillo. def leppard with a fiddle. lol. gar1013 can you play piedmont blues? i've read that article before. i get internet too. the constant i was referring to was the blues in general. i know it encompasses different styles and genres.it's still a good man feeling bad and for some reason that makes you feel good. it's magic. i don't think Trace and Kings of Leon have that magic. i don't want to tick anyone off i was just wondering if anyone felt the same or could see the writting on the wall. peace.

(yawn). Another pointless discussion of why "my team" is the bomb and "your team" sucks.

99% of all the art of any art form at a particular time will be forgotten in 150-200 years.

Think not? Try naming all the GREAT contemporaries of Hayden and Mozart. They lived during the deadest period of popular music until the interval between 1959 (when Buddy Holly died) and the British Invasion.

Music creativity ENDED in 1969? You must be joking! Some of the truly great and creative music happened in the 70s. Certainly the evolution of Fusion (Jazz and Rock) created a whole new sound, genre and emotion, that absolutely depended on superb musicianship. Latin rock exploded from confines of "ethnic" to Santana's towering 70's albums starting with "Abraxas". Plus there were the so-called "Progressive Rock" bands.

There's good country and bad, just like there's good heavy metal and bad (IMHO, not much of the former), good New Wave/Punk, and bad, good Jazz and bad, good "Gypsy Jazz" and bad, good Spanish Flemenco and bad, good fusion and bad. Even good torch singing--and bad.

Take a lesson from nature: Over-specialization absolutely leads to extinction.

Music's music. Don't cut yourself off from a world of ideas.

yawn..it's a garantee you will be forgoten in less than 150 yrs. lighten up it's just a friendly discussion and a little venting. no ones out for blood. it's all in fun. by the way my team's #1.

Hey, I'm a serious kind of guy!

( I HOPE my family remembers me in 50 years, much less 150)

While growing up in and around the country music capitol of Nashville in the 50's/60's and still here and kicking,I've seen a little of everything here,but my alltime favorite quotation of a country musician playing to an audience other than what they were used to,came from Waylon Jennings,and told to me by his rhythm player Billy Ray Reynolds,
in Greenwich Village in a club somewhere Waylon told the crowd before they started playing,"My name's Waylon Jennings and this is my band and we play country music,and we hope you like it,but if you don't you had better not say anything...because we will kick your azz!"
The crowd loved them,and on a sad note,Waylon's steel player who was so great,Ralph Mooney,has died.

Playing different styles of music is essential to growth as a musician. Branching out into other genres would seem to be a natural thing to do if you have the opportunity. I'm not famous but I play rock, metal, blues, and Celtic music. From time to time I veer into jazz, then I remember that I like it ALOT better than I can play it.

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"Life is like eating jalapenos. What you do today may burn your arse tomorrow"

They have the, "good man feeling bad because there's nothing better on the radio station, and that makes you pull out the old stuff that sounds good" magic. Does that count?

1. It isn't any different than Pat Boone--and that's my point...most Top 40 Country is insipid, derivitive fluff. The majority of the singers (and their bands) are good artists/musicians (just as Boone had a "nice" voice), but their finished product is bland and uninspiring.

2. You're right--Elvis (and others) did that; blues, R&B and rock artists have adapted and changed old songs since the dawn of time. But that wasn't always a bad thing (the Rolling Stones' version of "Love In Vain" and "Stop Breakin' Down"; the Beatles' "Twist and Shout"; Led Zeppelin's Willie Dixon ripoffs, SRV's "They Sky Is Crying", et al).

Adapting, bastardizing, changing and even sanitizing isn't horrible or immoral in and of itself. But to try to draw a line between what Pat Boone did to "Tutti Frutti" and what Elvis did to "Hound Dog" is ridiculous. Boone was a soulless, empty cardboard cutout (like Kenny Chesney). Elvis was interpreting what he heard to fit his own style (and what would be allowed to play on the radio at the time, much like the "radio edit" versions of songs today).

...and as far as the ultimate test--"does it age well?" People still buy Elvis and Big Mama Thorton's versions of "Hound Dog"; I don't know of anybody who goes out and tries to track down Boone's versions of the great classics he butchered, outside of a person trying to be campy or ironic.

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Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

Well,I've always heard that if a song is a hit,it can be a hit again in 10 years....and you can put your own flavor into it to the point of not changing it to where it's not recognized.
Today's "country" seems to me like a lot of frustrated rockers and southern rock wannabees....and the large fan base of country music swallows it hook,line and sinker.Country music fans used to be some of the most loyal in the music biz,loving and accepting their idols well into their old age,not demanding that they change their style or continually come up with new songs.
Ever since people like Barf Brooks did KISS wannabee shows,something strange happened.
I guess you can tell I can't stand him or people like Chesney or Mr.Faith Hill.

The best way to listen to top 40 country?

(1) Put on the videos of one of the country pop-tart chicks.
(2) Turn off the sound.
(3) Just look at them and make up your own song...I just imagine Faith Hill singing, "Oh, I love you, Screamin' Armadillo/You're so much hotter than Tim/I haven't been happy/Since you Left me back then..."

_________________
Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals