The C Word

(Image: http://countryperspective.com/tag/evolution-of-country-music/)

C . O . U . N . T . R . Y .

Who would believe there is sooooo much stigma surrounding one little word?

I mean really?! What is that bad about a good ol’ fashioned 3 chords and the truth record? Oh, that’s right, it’s not 3 chords and the truth anymore!!

If we’re not singing about truck beds, getting six-pack drunk and half naked girls in bikini tops and short shorts… we are apparently doing something wrong! Well, that and being a real Country artist at all. Yep, you heard me… you’re more likely to have a number 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Chart if you’re not actually a Country artist!! Just ask BeBe Rexha! Who?! EXACTLY!!! Some Pop princess utters a few pointless, repetitive lines on possibly the worst song I have ever heard, slaps Florida Georgia Line in as a featured artist and BOOM! Tops a chart she probably didn’t even know existed!

There is most definitely something massively wrong with the genre defined by the word Country. It’s become a limbo for the shipwrecks of Pop. Artists that weren’t commercially acceptable enough to make it in the mainstream. It’s sad and its ruining the once great reputation of the genre that legends such as Johnny, Willie, Merle, Waylon and Hank gave their all and worked so hard for. Masterpieces including Ring of Fire, Jolene, The Gambler, Stand by Your Man and Friends in Low Places, are being preceded by the likes of What Ifs, Blue Tacoma, Light it Up and Up Down.

My ears… are BLEEDING! I would rather drink battery acid than see the joke that the ‘Country’ Chart has become.

But we have to ask… what is Country now??

Unfortunately, Country isn’t ‘cool’ anymore and the majors have spent years trying to salvage it in any way possible. Including shipping in pop rejects, using drum machines and losing the lyrical authenticity that the genre was built on!

Fear not though guys and gals, there are a few troubadours left. However, most of them will never make it to the top of the Country charts or radio. This is not for their lack of talent, quite the opposite. I see it as more of a repression tactic… keep the real talent and ‘true’ Country at bay, so that the industry can keep selling cheap, happily conformist, imitations and mix in with the mainstream to keep the cash flow coming in.

Luckily for us, the last real artists, have underground followings like I have never seen. Church and Stapleton somehow manage to keep themselves afloat on the charts and we do have the up and comings in the likes of Kip Moore, Luke Combs, Brothers Osborne and Drake White, but it’s very few and far between. A sorry state of affairs.

I’m glad to be a fan of these guys though, they know who they are and will not change, just to be able to top charts, have more commercial success or follow trends to suit labels. They are proud, stay true to who they are and stand by their guns. RESPECT.

That said, I am not justifying the preconception that any one artist is more ‘Country’ than another. There are artists that have stuck to the golden rules of traditional Country song writing and production, but we have to face the fact that in the last 25-30 years we have moved so far from Old Country. There isn’t one easily defined genre anymore and this is where the turmoil comes in. Country has now so many subgenres, we can’t possibly put our fingers on one solid sound. Shania, Luke Bryan, Blake, Keith and co. all changed Country Music as we knew it and brought it into the 21st century.

We have come through Old Country, Country Pop, Bro Country and currently, we seem to have whatever this New Country phase is. Music is subjective, we all know that. Nobody is going to love everything that someone else listens to. I’m a traditional Old Country girl, but my friends seem to love the Bro and Pop subgenres. That’s Country to them, who am I to tell them that it’s not? The artists are signed to Country labels, they make it to radio, they have hits and end up performing at all the Award shows- let’s not get me started on my opinion of the appalling CMA Award performance line ups right now.

A lot of artists are guilty of succumbing to the pressure of having radio/ chart hits and collaborating with acts from other genres to reach a wider (maybe irrelevant) market. They can be seen as ‘selling out’ but what we seem to gloss over, is the fact that many of them have deals that require them to stay current and have high performing album sales and radio plays, or they could be dropped. It is easy for people that are not in their position, to say that they would not have sold out or conformed to what the industry wants. Especially when their livelihoods are not reliant on the success of art, in an industry that is the hardest in the world to crack, let alone stay on top of.

Not everyone is lucky enough to have a manager, team or label that believe in their artists’ talent and will back them continually, based on selling out live tour venues and unwavering, underground fan-bases that double in size between records. All while waiting 2-3 years, for a single or album to drop and sell moderately well. The industry is cut-throat and most acts, realistically, would have been dropped.

Yes, there are artists out there that, in my opinion, do not belong in Country Music and should not be topping charts, receiving awards and selling the genre ideals to the next generation of listeners. Unfortunately, we are in a place where Country is undefined and has no set limitations anymore of what it should look or sound like. It is open to interpretation and anyone can take a stab at it.

No, we don’t have to agree with it, but what we do have to appreciate is that those artists that aren’t traditional ‘Country’, as much as we don’t like it, are making the genre popular again. If that’s what the industry wants to keep the cash flow, let them have it. As long as there are still labels in the Country world, there will be a home for the artists that make the Real Music.

Evolution people… it is what it is. Just be thankful that we still have artists that want to create original, hard-hitting, heart string pulling, tradition inspired Country Music.