The Steel Guitar Forum

I saw this VH1's "Country Goes Pop" last night after Maryland lost to Duke and I was truly repulsed. The main part of the show focused on Faith Hill, Shania Twain, LeAnn Rimes and the Dixie Chicks (or as I refer to the first three, "The Usual Suspects"). The general message was that you can play country forever and go nowhere or go pop and make a ton of money. Whatever happened to music for its own beauty or music as an expression of one's self? The show made country out to be nothing more than a stepping stone to the "great" world of pop.

How pathetic.

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Ron Plichta, former headbanger and PSG player in training.

MSA Classic S-10
Fender '62 Reissue Stratocaster
Fender Telecaster
Paul Reed Smith CE24 Maple Top
Rivera R100

I saw that the other night. I was switching between that and A&E biography on Loretta Lynn. Two totally different messages. Loretta and Tammy were talking about their love of music, money was a second thought. The "so called country" performers on VH1 were all talk about fame and fortune. 99% of the new acts don't care about the music just money.

Kevin

I don't know, to be honest, whether less country musicians of today are motivated solely by music than those of the last generation. That may be the case, but I'm sure we would agree that a number of the earlier stars weren't that profound, either.

Regardless of the time and place, There always seem to be people that are more "personalities" or "bankers", and the real artists are always the minority.

I don't want to put myself up as an authority, but I go back and forth between musical styles, for listening, tending to focus (I hope), on the more serious artists in each idiom. In a way, I think these people speak more of the same language, then two people in the same musical genre that are doing it for entirely different reasons.

I do have to admit that right now I'm more likely to go to Merle's "Live at Billy Bob's Texas" than any of the current country stuff. The musicianship is relaxed, spontaneous, but VERY skilled. I do have current favorites too, but I don't see them as being on the same level.

Jeff S.

It may or may not have been Chet Flippo who wrote, some 25 or 30 years ago, that if a record company waiting room had a "Wall Street Journal" and a guitar laying around, Waylon and Willie were about the only 2 country stars who would naturally pick up the guitar...
Exaggeration, maybe, but things were being seen that way back then, too...
Nick