What Is Country Music Anymore?

The guitar pick sign in the picture reads
"Nashville: Live Music Venue."
Nashville is the home of country music but
what is country music anymore?

Last night myself and a good friend of mine had a discussion about country music. Basically I tried to explain to him that I thought country music has some great musicality to it while he tried to tell me that it was essentially meaningless music where artists sing about stuff that is not relevant and essentially there is no point to country music.

Now we are most definitely not going to agree and honestly I don't like his opinion but I respect it. I grew up on country music and therefore I will always have a draw to it as a musician. However out of our discussion I began thinking about what is country music anymore? Because honestly the country music I grew up on does not exist anymore.

When I was growing up artists like George Strait, Garth Brooks, Clint Black, Little Texas, Sawyer Brown, John Michael Montgomery, Reba McEntire, Collin Raye, Alabama, and many more dominated the country charts. These artists leaned more to the traditional side of country from earlier artists like Merle Haggard, Hank Williams Sr, Willie Nelson, Hank Snow, Roy Acuff, Buck Owens, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, and so on.

Then something interesting happened. After Garth Brooks began selling millions of album copies and raising the bar for everyone else, country music seemed to turn away from what it had been doing in search of that always precious thing, record sales. The only way it seemed that could be done was to make country more mainstream.

Soon elements of rock and pop entered into country to make it more appealing to younger audiences. Louder, more amplified guitars emerged, song structures became more pop like, true country elements were still there but there were essentially put on steroids.

To help start this new artists came along that had more of a look sometimes than down right talent. Now that's not to say that there are not any good country artists out there because there are quite a few; Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, Jason Aldean, Carrie Underwood, Martina McBride, and Dierks Bentley just to name a few. But it is in my opinion that some are more of a face than great talent which is more of a tool used in pop and rock music. My example of that is Taylor Swift. She may have the look and everybody loves her but I honestly think she is not that talented as a musician. Hate me for it if you want, it doesn't hurt my feelings.

Honestly the record companies stopped looking for that traditional Nashville sound and looked more for what would sell them records which meant leaning toward pop and rock styles. Not all of this is bad. There are many great songs that have come out since this movement began but more times than none I hear the same damn song packaged up by a different artist with some different words. What happened to originality? Apparently selling records and making millions of dollars is more important than the music itself.

I just wish, and this goes for the entire music industry, that some originality would come back to music. Let artists play with their creative side, don't just feed them ten songs for an album that are all pop sounding garbage. I want to hear true music about something that I can relate to.

Fortunately I think that is coming back ever so slowly. Everything has a fad or its time and I think the time of country/pop is coming to end. We've seen it before, disco in the 70's, hair metal in the 80's, grunge and boy bands of the 90's, everything came and then went. I just hope for the sake of music that true country begins to come back in some form because it is an art form that is truly great and meaningful to many people.

Until next time keep on rocking away music lovers,

JAS

Photo courtesy of Flickr, jbcurio

Songwriters: The Forgotten Musicians

Over the weekend as I was messing around on YouTube I happened to find out something interesting. Upon listening to different music I came across an artist named Brantley Gilbert. Now what intrigued me at first was to see that he had a song called "My Kinda Party". I thought it was a coincidence to see that because current country superstar Jason Aldean also has a song titled that on his new album.

So I clicked on the song intrigued to see if it was the same song. Low and behold it was the exact same song that is on the radio. Naturally I assumed this was a cover but I decided to investigate Gilbert more in order to see what else he has done.

Then I was stunned to find out that Gilbert is actually the original writer of the song My Kinda Party!

To here the original version by Brantley Gilbert click this link.
To here the version cut by Jason Aldean click this link.

Now Gilbert is a very talented musician in his own right. Many of the songs I listened to on YouTube are very good. The question I have is why is this guy not famous yet? It could be a combination of many things. Not in the right place at the right time, not enough exposure to the right people, there are many factors that a aspiring musician goes through in his or her quest to stardom.

One thing that is tough for some musicians is the situation you see here with Gilbert and Aldean. Gilbert wrote the song and all the songwriting credit goes to him. However his version did not get much exposure because he is not a national superstar. Once Jason Aldean heard the song, he liked it and made a cut/cover of the song and is taking it to the top of the charts.

Its not a matter of which version is better but rather who gets the right exposure for the song. Obviously Jason Aldean is going to have more exposure right now and therefore he is benefiting greatly from a great song. Its not a slap in the face to Gilbert, its more paying him a compliment and he even acknowledges that here.

Aldean also cut the song "Dirt Road Anthem" that Gilbert co-wrote with Colt Ford. (Original version here.) That is just another case of the same situation. It is nothing more than a cut, or cover whichever you wish to call it. The only reason the original writers do not make it as big with a song is because they are not as big as the person who takes their song and cuts it.

This is something that happens all the time in the music business. I just wish more people would know about the actual writers of many of the great songs that superstars take to the top. These people are the forgotten musicians in the music world sometimes. I'm glad I found this out because now I have a new artist that I enjoy in Brantley Gilbert, and I'm sure there are many more out there.

Until next time keep on rocking away music lovers,
JAS