Disappointed In Today's Country Music

Tommy Shown · Post by **Tommy Shown** » 31 Dec 2014 10:03 pm

Last night my wife went out for supper, at well known eating establishment. While we were waiting for our food to arrive, we heard through some country music they were playing through the restaurant. I noticed the steel player on just about 99.99 % of the songs, was not playing the melody line on either the fills or the instrumental break. The steel players were just sliding the bar. That was it. Just sliding the bar. Typical of TODAY'S COUNTRY MUSIC. A lot of the players today just slide the bar, instead of playing the song. How I miss the GOOD OLE DAYS!!!!!!!!!
Tommy Shown
SMFTBL

John Cadeau · Post by **John Cadeau** » 31 Dec 2014 10:44 pm

I agree 100%. Today's so called country music is a version of almost rock. It's not country.

Bobby Boggs · Post by **Bobby Boggs** » 31 Dec 2014 11:39 pm

Well, it seems most of the young male artist sing about pickup trucks, corn fields, hay fields, tractors, passing the jug around. And of course attractive young farm women. Rural themes for sure.

Kinda of a Out Behind the Barn thing with distorted guitars.

Young people today are so tech minded. I find it interesting that any of them, except farm kids can relate to it. But they do. I guess about the only main stream radio choices are today's country and rap?

I try to listen to today's country while driving. But most times I'm more content with the road noise. Just another hazard that comes with age I guess.

bb.

John Booth · Post by **John Booth** » 1 Jan 2015 4:39 am

Country music went to hell the day Garth Brooks started using fireworks on stage.

Andy Jones · Post by **Andy Jones** » 1 Jan 2015 7:16 am

Do not despair,for all is not lost.Amber Digby,Justin Trevino,Rance Norton,and a plethora of other young folks from Texas are keeping it real for me.Don't forget the mainstays,Tony Booth,Darrell McCall,and Curtis Potter.

Decent clothes,a shave,and some tattoo removal would do wonders for some of these new "country singers".

That's just my opinion.Flame me if you wish.I'm a fireman;I can take it.

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 1 Jan 2015 7:46 am

No flames here, fireman. Beyond shave and a haircut for me,
and the music should sound as clean.

Hank Thompson's band, from Joe. B. Long
If there were fireworks there, everybody would run, intelligently.

Antolina · Post by **Antolina** » 1 Jan 2015 7:48 am

Back in Oklahoma they refer to him as Barf Brooks.

Mike Archer · Post by **Mike Archer** » 1 Jan 2015 8:03 am

as for what ive heard barf brooks in todays

country would be to country....

heres one that pi---ss me off is

"your band is to country" BS I say

they have thrown the melody out put trash in

and makin a killin at it to boot

steel players slide slide slide and rock there

steels back and forth oh yeah that's cool......

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 1 Jan 2015 9:18 am

I must admit, country music in general and Garth Brooks in particular have made some strange bedfellows latelyâ€¦

$:\$
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_yCEVmepsQ#t=49

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 1 Jan 2015 9:35 am

Wow, it's a good old fashioned--country?--jamboree.
Seems the crowd comes to sing along? You can do that at home.

John Booth · Post by **John Booth** » 1 Jan 2015 10:13 am

Barry Blackwood wrote:I must admit, country music in general and Garth Brooks in particular have made some strange bedfellows latelyâ€¦ $:\$
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_yCEVmepsQ#t=49

What's next? Dogs and cats living together?

GaryL · Post by **GaryL** » 1 Jan 2015 10:20 am

We could sit and blame the music industry forever, but it is following the money and that's fine. I quit listening to FM country long ago. As a very famous steel man once told me: "Today's country music has no soul. It sounds like it was written by a computer." Personally,I research songwriters/performers that I enjoy and buy their music: There's a lot of "traditional" stuff out there but I've had to dig for it. There's also a lot of very wonderful bluegrass writers and performers around, and they get very, very little recognition outside their niche, and every once and a while they sell a few million "county" records (Ricky Skaggs, Alison Krauss, to name two.)

Josh Killian · Post by **Josh Killian** » 1 Jan 2015 10:20 am

The thing that bothers me most about the music on country radio are the pointless, vapid lyrics. What makes country music great is the storytelling (and a steel guitar the perfect instrument to put emotion to the story), but most songs today just insult the listener's intelligence.

That said, there are plenty of artists out there making great country music. You just won't find it on your local Clear Channel country radio station.

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 1 Jan 2015 11:22 am

What's next? Dogs and cats living together?

Also human sacrifice, and mass hysteria at least according to Dr. Peter Venkman..

Tim Fleming · Post by **Tim Fleming** » 1 Jan 2015 11:47 am

I am willing to wager that the music is just going through a phase. It may take a generation or so to complete the experiment but that's nature.Young people normally reject what their parents loved, etc.

Today's music, whether you like the sound or not, still celebrates being "country". The genre is not dead, just the familiar form in the mainstream country playlists.

Currently there is a significant underground roots music scene that is picking up steam - LOTS of "real country" is being played out there with more and more young people taking interest. Whether the music makes it back to the mainstream in the old form is debatable, nor does it matter - we have plenty of the old stuff to listen to if that's what we want to hear (same with cool/be bop jazz, big band, whatever). It's the current generation who will determine how the evolution occurs and it will always be changing.

There is aural evidence of a return to old-school and I have complete faith that in just a few years you will be much more pleased with the sounds on country radio. And if not, so what. We all have our old vinyl, right?

Now I think I'll listen to some Tommy Dorsey. Why? Because I can.

Brett Day · Post by **Brett Day** » 1 Jan 2015 12:05 pm

I listen to a lot of the classic country. I'm friends with one of the artists I listen to, Danni Leigh and her music features a lot of fiddle and steel. Steve Hinson played on her records in the studio. In 1998 and 1999, her steel player onstage was Brook Langton-he plays a light brown JCH steel.

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 1 Jan 2015 12:31 pm

What do you mean by "just sliding the bar"? What am I missing?

Jack Mansfield · Post by **Jack Mansfield** » 1 Jan 2015 1:02 pm

I happen to like Myra Rolen out of Texas. Another young artist that sings traditional country. Pull her up on YouTube and listen to her sing crying steel guitar. Wonderful job!

Antolina · Post by **Antolina** » 1 Jan 2015 1:27 pm

The problem is with ownership. When the Gaylords took over and in an endeavor to turn country nusic into a money making proposition. Ergo out with the steel and music that made sense and what we have today. The first thing they did was install an age barrier on the writers. No one over 30. Gone are the writers that actually lived the lyrics. Will it ever coome back? I don't think any of us will live long enough to see it happen. Thank God for the internet..... and us.
rc

Curt Trisko · Post by **Curt Trisko** » 1 Jan 2015 2:01 pm

RC Antolina wrote: The first thing they did was install an age barrier on the writers. No one over 30. Gone are the writers that actually lived the lyrics.

I don't know if that's factually true, but I think the sentiment behind it is the main difference between older country and newer country... the age and maturity of the target audience. Classic country songwriting is really something special in that it is able to tell the stories of middle-aged men with boring, though sometimes troubled lives and really bring out the sentiments and feelings that get buried beneath the stoicism and monotony.

The thing that bothers me most about the music on country radio are the pointless, vapid lyrics. What makes country music great is the storytelling (and a steel guitar the perfect instrument to put emotion to the story), but most songs today just insult the listener's intelligence.

If someone talked to me like I was 17 years old, I'd feel insulted too. The songs aren't written for us. It is what it is. I can understand the disappointment about the fact, but the people that are indignant about it are probably just accustomed to being catered to in life.

Butch Mullen · Post by **Butch Mullen** » 1 Jan 2015 4:13 pm

All you need is KEQX from Dublin, TX. Pure country!!! Butch in NC

John Booth · Post by **John Booth** » 1 Jan 2015 4:45 pm

Personally I thought "RAP" was a faze, but to my personal chagrin it thrives.

Disco, on the other hand evolved into what I think they call RAVE and the europeans
still love that monotonous thumping beat

Rock-n-Roll really took several turns into everything from grunge to death metal to whatever,
but they still call it rock-n-roll. That's my major beef.

The bulk of the homogenized canned so-called country they're putting out now shouldn't be called "country".
Perhaps "Urban Country"? You can't simply add a fiddle to a rock-n-roll band and suddenly have country music.
It shouldn't work that way. You can't add trumpets to country and call it Jazz can you?

Sadly I think the era of "real" country has come and is going, going, gone, except for its use as a stepping stone
for guys like Barf Brooks that come out with some pretty good country to get themselves started, then abandon
it for record sales to people that don't know what country really is.

We're lucky we were born when we were or we might have missed the Williams, Jones, Haggard, Price, Twitty era
we all adore so much. Long live the true country artists.

Gary Cooper · Post by **Gary Cooper** » 1 Jan 2015 7:01 pm

Rc is 100% correct. The Gaylords have pretty much destroyed real country music

Josh Killian · Post by **Josh Killian** » 1 Jan 2015 7:19 pm

Curt Trisko wrote:If someone talked to me like I was 17 years old, I'd feel insulted too. The songs aren't written for us. It is what it is. I can understand the disappointment about the fact, but the people that are indignant about it are probably just accustomed to being catered to in life.

Thats OK that the songs aren't written for us, but songs can be intelligently written, while still appealing to the younger crowd. I do feel for the guys that make and write great music, while struggling to make a living, but that isn't a problem that is unique to country music. The formulas that succeed in making money in the music business are going to be used again and again. Unfortunately, those formulas typically don't make inspired music. But things are usually cyclical and hopefully radio will come back to playing some songs that have a little more substance.

And indignation over country radio is a wasted emotion, especially when there is an abundance of great country artists with varying styles out there that are readily available. You just have to know where to look (I go to the Saving Country Music site on a regular basis to hear of lesser known and up and coming artists). On a positive, albeit selfish, note, it is pretty nice to be able to see my favorite musicians in the halls and bars rather than paying a small fortune to fight through thousands of people in an arena with poor acoustics, just to watch the headliner on a big screen.

Larry Bell · Post by **Larry Bell** » 2 Jan 2015 7:16 am

Following up on Josh's post
Why do y'all care WHAT they're playing on the radio? There are lots of other ways to enjoy music. It's all been bought & sold by folks with lots of money and no agenda other than to make MORE MONEY.

Listen to what YOU choose. Lots of good, traditional country being released these days -- just not on commercial radio and tv.

There are obviously folks who want to hear Jason Aldean or Garth Brooks -- both have sold enough records to prove their following. Let them call it country if they wish. If you don't like it, TURN IT OFF. Stop expecting music to devolve back to 1971. It ain't gonna happen. Bitching about the CMA Awards and music specials claiming to be 'country' on the Steel Guitar Forum is PREACHING TO THE CHOIR.

The Steel Guitar Forum

Disappointed In Today's Country Music

Disappointed In Today's Country Music

Dissapointed in today's country music.

well

Disappointed...not really

gaylords