LIVING IN AN ACHY BREAKY WORLD: 

THE PROBLEM WITH THE CURRENT COUNTRY MUSIC INDUSTRY

This morning, as I was channel surfing, I landed on the country music video station and saw the video for Gretchen Wilson's "Redneck Woman". The video featured the beautiful country singer getting down and dirty in mud while riding on four wheelers and giving her "Hell Yeah" battle cry to the cheers of a crowd of female country music fans.  As I watched it I think I finally was able to put my finger on exactly what it is about the country music industry that continuously leaves such a bad taste in my mouth.

Now, before I start, let me state that I write this as an outsider looking in. Country music isn't the dominant music in my life. It’s a genre of music I have dabbled with but the only time I hear it is occasionally at work. Besides that I have a humble little collection of about 150 songs ranging from the late 1950's to the mid 1980's.

With that said however, I grew up on country music. It was the dominant music in my house as a child because it was the music that my father listened to. Thus it wouldn't be a surprise to you that I hated it at the time. Who honestly likes their parents’ music when there are "newer" and more "innovative" musicians to discover?  However, a few years ago I began to become rather interested in the old music that my father listened to and I started a collection and appreciation for country music. I raided my fathers discarded record collection and I found albums by Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, Conway Twitty, Donna Fargo, Faron Young, Charlie Pride, Tammy Wynette, Red Sovine, Kenny Rogers, Marty Robbins, The Statler Brothers, Johnny Paycheck, Charlie Rich, George Jones - the list could go on, and on, and on. As I listened to these albums, read about these artists, and accumulated even more country music tracks I began to understand that in many ways country music has a history and tradition that are even richer than the rock industry. I suppose one of the main reasons is probably because the country music industry has never been as marketably successful as most of the popular music that has come out in the last sixty years or more. Country music musicians and its fans have had to create a close knit group in order to survive - and they have managed to survive quite well.

The country music tradition, in my eyes, is based on many things. Obviously it finds its roots in rural regions and the songs of the cowboy crooners. The small town/community element is always relevant in the music. Also, the country music industry goes hand and hand with gospel music - thus religious/family values and morality is strong in their lyrics. While there is room for passion and love, there is no room for sexual deviance. Leave that to the weirdoes that make rock records. Finally, the country song hails the blue collar worker - the farmers, the truck drivers, the factory workers, and the construction worker. It hails the workers who work hard in the dirt and with their hands; the workers who toil for their pay.  This is not the music of the commuter or the office worker.  Let them listen to Air Supply. For the most part I do feel that the current country music industry manages to keep this tradition in tact - for that I do commend them.

However, what made the country music in the past so different from any other music industry was its ability to be humble. That's the word friends - HUMBLE. It was never flashy; it was never arrogant or cocky. Arrogance works in the rock industry. That's what made John Lennon "John Lennon". That's what makes KISS "KISS". That's what makes Madonna "Madonna". Arrogance and rock goes hand in hand. However, country is all about simple and real people without an air of phoniness singing songs about their lives that were universal enough that the people who listened to them could both connect with them and believe in them. When Loretta Lynn sings "Coal Miners Daughter" that is her story. When Dolly Parton sings "Coat of Many Colors" you know where she's at. These are not arrogant songs - although they are songs that have a sense of strength and pride. There are songs of passion (Patsy Cline's "Sweet Dreams"), songs of masculinity (Johnny Cash's "A Boy Named Sue"), and songs of loneliness (Faron Young's "Hello Walls"). Country music can even be clever and whimsical like the Statler's "Flowers on the Wall," or Red Sovine's "Phantom 309". Anyhow, I can offer hundreds of examples, but the bottom line is that there is always a humble reality to these singers. This humble reality is what made the country music industry survive and thrive.

Yet, today the country music industry is so full of slicked up, shallow musicians strutting around like Mick Jagger that the humble tradition of the country song has pretty much disappeared. Country music has sold out its history in order to be "cool" (seemingly, depending on who you are) or "marketable".  Now I'm not naive enough to say that this is true for all country acts.  There are some really decent country artists out there that are keeping the classic country philosophy alive.   Acts like Garth Brooks, Lonestar, the Wilkinsons and Brooks and Dunn.  However, a lot of these acts seem to be far and in between.  What you are more likely to find is that the most of the country acts seem to gravitate towards being a tough guy, redneck loser hanging out shirtless in a chair on his front lawn and guzzling cheap beer, or a super model flashing her ass and tits all around the country stage like she's in a brothel instead of the Grand Ole Oprey. The humble tradition is dead.

The super model country stars like Gretchen Wilson and Shania Twain are what make me the most sick. Although they were beautiful in their own way, Patsy Cline and Tammy Wynette were hardly runway models. However, their influence in country music is legendary. They strove because of the truth of their lyrics and the way that people, especially women, could connect with what they sang. Without the breasts and legs do you think Shania Twain would be nearly as successful as the legendary women of country? Unlikely.  While it seems that Shania Twain is trying to create a sisterhood with female listeners with songs like "Man, I Feel Like a Woman," or "That Don't Impress Me Much," in reality she alienates herself from real women who could identify with women like Loretta Lynn.  There is little to no connection between Twain and the average female listener.

Then comes white trash "hometown pretty boys" like Alan Jackson and Trace Adkins. These men lack the respect that artists like Ray Price and Conway Twitty demanded. Those men knew how to write a good song about universal truth and emotion - not trite songs about redneck living. I mean country music was always urban, but it was never white trash.  The current country music is full of these arrogant, talentless morons and has since Billy Ray Cyrus danced his inbred little strut and dirty mullet across the country dance floor with "Achy Breaky Heart" in the early nineties.  Friends, you'd never see Johnny Cash line dancing and he could kick the crap out of Billy Ray or Alan Jackson in his sleep.  Hell, he's been dead for years and he still manages to be tougher than all of us!

What is heard on the country stations now is not country music. It’s nothing more than white trash rock. The humble roots of country music are dead. The last good country music was written in the 1980's. Have you ever noticed that if you turned a country music video on mute you can barely tell the difference between the country videos and the rock videos? It makes me sad that an industry so rich in tradition has finally died and that its fans are buying into the bullshit that it has become. It’s the fans that support these artists that are to blame. They buy the records. They make Jeff Foxworthy a star. They are the ones who refuse to remember where it all came from. They are the ones who let the industry be raped. And, to make it worse, since the industry is so close to the rock one, any songs like "Redneck Woman" just become underdeveloped "rock" songs anyway.   What is the final result? People that hate country music continue to hate it instead of discovering such a fantastic and unique genre of music that has so much history to discover. They just keep hearing the swill that is coming out today from completely unlikable chowderheads and refuse to listen to the traditional music that made this bastardized musical genre what it is today.

 

All content copyright Sam Tweedle 2006.