Truth about 'modern' country songwriting

From its very beginning in 1924 on Chicago's WLS radio, Country music has been the music of people's youth with adult lyrics. For that reason it changes constantly with the times and people endlessly claim it's no longer "real" country as they grow older.

I heard this on the radio earlier this week:



Is this a country song?

The 50's wasn't exactly a stellar decade for 'pop' music. On the other hand, I've always considered the way in which the of music in the 60's influenced culture was unprecedented - in many ways that legacy continues to this day. Music gives musicians voices with visibility and impact that other artists can only dream of, but that power has become increasing diluted as the machine has claimed influence over the art. The emergence of newer genres like rap offered promise, but it turns out rappers had very little to say, which is kind of ironic when you think about what rap is. I will concede that the 80's seems to have offered us little, but I always consider 'objective' criticism of music with a grain of salt. As I have become older, I've come to realize that objectivity is often the scourge of art - It always has been. Some classical music lovers find Vivaldi's Four Seasons to be obscenely baroque and cloying, while others find it sublime. Also, we have to consider what is it exactly that we are being critical of. The quality of the music-writing? arranging? lyrics? engineering? musicianship? message? ..and further more.. >>steps down from soap box before ranting<<

I refuse to link it, but go yahoo or bing (don't use google) Thomas Rhett's "Vacation." Just unbelievable.

Every era has great music and great musicians. If you're talking Fitzgerald, Holiday, Bennett, that's one thing, but wasn't top 40 and AB pretty much the same thing? I'm thinking about a lot of the Do-Wap - Monster Mashy garbage.  Pop by definition speaks to a common denominator of listeners, and much more so in the 50's than the 40's that included teenagers.  I'm actually quite impressed that the 60's was able to produce so much incredible and disparate types of music. Mo-town, Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Zeplin, Joni Mitchell, that's just the stuff that hit the top 40 - but the list just goes on and on.

There's a part of me that wonders that in some ways we're beginning to experiencing a 'silent' renaissance of good music with the advent of the affordable home studio and the development of this anarchistic delivery system we call the internet. There are thousands upon thousands of people churning out really interesting stuff, some of which is very good.  We all worry about the devaluation of music/songwriting, but part of the reason is that the pool of musicians as a percentage of the population who can create the stuff has never been larger. I know a number of song-writers who are writing and producing killer music who make very little effort to market their music, but it's out there. The system will need some time to sort itself out. Technology is ahead of the legal and monetization curve in manner that is unprecedented. Yes, and it's frustrating for everyone, I have little desire to market my music. I love playing for people, but I hate schlepping equipment and playing out to audiences that I basically consider rude. I don't have stage fright and I'm not agoraphobic; I've had great experiences playing out to audiences, and I'd like to think I'm a pretty decent performer, and I miss playing out on occasion, but I pretty much like to keep my distance from humanity. I never go to concerts for the same reasons. Over time, I've come to really enjoy creating the product, which BTW, I have 100% control over.

Absolutely agree. While on vacation, I was visiting relatives a few weeks ago; they have a winery in Virginia where they bring in original bands on occasion, and they made sure they had one booked while the relatives were in town. It was really refreshing and inspirational to hear quality live talent in a small venue. Think Tiny Desk Concert, but in a tasting room - maybe 50 or 60 people - many of who were fans.

We forget that the last generation grew up with the music libraries of their parents. I didn't - my parents pretty much bought their first albums when I was a kid.  So in theory, the general population should be more literate and well-rounded listeners and musicians. On the other hand, we probably all agree that the industry does everything it can to dumb things down and corral us one easy-to-satisfy group of pop music listeners. In a lot of ways, it's out of the hands of the musicians, many of who go to great lengths to get their music out there. It's really up to the public. They can accept being spoon-fed their music by Spotify and Google, OR they can go out and find it and maybe even lobby to make it easier for them to find - because there's no doubt - it's there.

Someone could try blaming all this on Dallas Davidson.