In other news, I found a CD yesterday. Now, there's nothing particularly noteworthy in that, since I find CDs often, but normally only in the pop/rock/folk/world music sections of the store, although I have also been observed in new age and soundtracks and have made the occasional foray into classical. But yesterday I went where no TOP had gone before, at least not willingly -- into the country section. Oooogh. Now, before you think I've gone totally mad, there was a reason. I had been telling Rhiannon over the weekend that the very first song I remember obsessing over was "The Battle of New Orleans" by Johnny Horton. And, naturally, I then wanted a copy to stop the tune from playing in my head. So I checked the CD database at cdconnection, and discovered that it was collected on a CD of "Americana", and I ventured into the alien land of country music to see if I could stand to buy it. And, actually, it has several decent songs on it, if you like the old west pop/country crossover songs that date from the late 50's and early 60s (El Paso, Don't Take Your Guns to Town, North to Alaska, etc.), which Bruce does and I more-or-less do, since apparently they form part of my primeval soundtrack. I knew far too many of them for my own peace of mind. Now, my question is: what makes country music country ? What is the definition, and why don't I think of those songs named above as country?39 responses total.
aaaaauuuugggggghhhh. I really don't think there are any musicologists or music historians here on Grex. All I know is that what is generally considered "country" is actually a convergence of country and western music. If I remember even vaguely, country was the evolution of pioneer era American folk, and western was a product of the old cowboy/rancher ballads. Aficionados of both didn't like the other's music at first: western fans considered country to be too "folk," and country fans considered western music to be too campy (think Gene Autry and I think you'll understand). I'm not sure where hillbilly music fits in exactly-- I think it was part of the old country genre. Nevertheless, the two styles of music merged together. I think your confusion results primarily from the fact that country/western began borrowing from rhythm and blues music after WWII. This happened in the early 1950's, soon after rhythm and blues was slightly modified and redubbed rock n' roll. I am not sure if 'rock 'n roll' existed long before country/western music had an influence. Rock and country/western began borrowing even more heavily from each other as 'protest folk' arose in the 1960's. There have been other influences in country/western music, including Bossa Nova (Jimmy Buffet, maybe?), lounge music, pop, acid rock (?) (Junior Brown), and even stand-up comedy (hey, that's Southern entertainment for you). I figure this information is really sketchy-- I've seen it represented in an illustration music educators use as part of a tree. Now, defining country/western music today is very difficult-- many rock and country tunes are compositionally the same (as writers will allow their material to be interpreted in a variety of styles). Sometimes, the only distinctive characteristics is the Southern twang (real or fake) in the singer's voice, and the tone color of the music (instruments used, embellishments employed, combination and number and configuration of instruments, etc., etc.) I'm sure the university has TONS of great resource material on the subject-- why not look there? (I can only think of additional resources for rock.)
"Country" is currently corporate product. I do like old Eddy Arnold, though.
There's nothing unique to "country" about being mostly "corporate product." Most other music that enjoys widespread popularity suffers from the same affliction. I'd agree though, that the majority of country music recorded today, including almost all of the big acts, is way too processed and formulaic for my tastes. That doesn't mean there isn't a lot of great music to be found in the nooks and crannies of the genre, it just gets edged out by the money acts the same as everywhere else..
I'm sorry, I'm terrible with definitions. Country music is what gets filed in the country bins. If one formed an impression of jazz based on what gets played on "smooth jazz" radio stations, one might conclude that jazz, too, is all corporate product. But "corporate product" is all most listeners are going to encounter in any style unless they get down and root around under some rocks. I can't think of any particular reason to file "Battle of New Orleans" as a country song; I think of it as a pop song from when I was young.
I'm always surprised to see Bonnie Raitt, whom I always thought of as a blues singer, filed under country.
So did anyone go see the Waco Brothers show at the Magic Stick tonight? I was greatly bummed to find out about it only this evening, after it was too late for me to attend.. If you did go, please enter a response in the concert review album..
I guess no one went from Grex. Does the current activity level of the Waco Brothers -- they seem to be putting out an album every 9 months or so -- mean that the Mekons are finished? I notice that the lead Waco, Jon Langford, has a solo disc out.
Yes, Skull Orchard or something like that. I get the feeling that the Mekons are an on-again, off-again thing and that they're "off" for the time being. Given the quality of their last few releases maybe that's not such a bad thing, either. I'd just as soon they laid low for a while and got together again when they were ready to release an album or two of the quality level they hit with "Rock 'n' Roll" and "The Curse of the Mekons" Jon Langford isn't the only Mekon with a recent solo project -- seems like many of them (Langford, Sally Timms, Rico Bell, Waco Brothers, and others..) have been doing mostly non-Mekon work lately..
I you put on a plaid shirt and sing with just your guitar, I think you're folk. Add a bass, a slide guitar, possibly a drummer, and add a cowhide jacket, with fringes, and sparkly things, and put on a cowboy hat, you're country.
But if you want to get played on country radio you have to affect a twang whether you're from a region where you might naturally have acquired one or not..
that's the sh**iest thing I ever heard and is one of the biggest reasons why I can't stand music labeled 'country'-- all those annoying accents, especially on those who are faking it!
To be fair, once again country music isn't the only genre where the popular media outlets are more concerned with image than with musical performance (how many female "adult contemporary" singers can you think of who are ugly or fat?) but given some of the traditional themes of country music it may be guilty of the greatest hypocrisy.. Although it's natural to try and judge genres to which you do not normally listen by the output of the most prominent stars, consider your own favorite category of music and imagine what it'd be like if the biggest-selling performers were the only ones you got to hear. Pretty dreadful picture, isn't it? That said, I find I like traditional country music a lot more than I like the direction in which most performers in the genre are currently headed.. I think current country music is being destroyed by its own success.
Well, my problem is that I don't like traditional country (well, at least not the stuff I grew up listening to, though I will endure bluegrass), and I don't particularly like modern country, either. I was really surprised to find that I liked the songs on the album I bought, because I wouldn't have thought I would...
What makes country music "country music"? Well, historically it has roots in both European and African musical traditions. The primary European influence is Celtic music, which contributed an emphasis on ballads and fiddling. Recently, it's been argued somewhat convincingly that the banjo was derived from the African kora, likely carried over in the slave trade. Both instruments are stringed instruments with a resonating chamber covered with some sort of membrane. It also seems that there are some similar musical patterns. Undoubtedly, as settlers moved west, taking their folk music with them, certain strains began to emerge that focused on western frontier themes like ranching and cowboys. This probably lent itself to more individual performances, later incorporated into the idea of fronting a band with a primary singer/performer. Nashville established itself as a musical hub for country by the 1930s via radio broadcasts from the Grand Ole Opry, which, interestingly, refused to accept drums for a long time after. This, however, didn't stop the influence of blues, and later, rock 'n' roll. The roots of country music form the basis for what we recognize as country music today: an emphasis on stringed intruments like the fiddle, guitar, and banjo and a concern with rural themes and frontier life.
Well, see, the really weird thing is that I *like* fiddle music, and guitaur, and I'll even accept banjo, but I just don't like the "twang" in what I call country music.
Do you mean the "twang" in the music or the "twang" in the vocals? If the latter, I agree -- I get pretty put-out by the vocal affectations of some country musicians, especially if I later hear them talk and it's apparent that the way they sing is not anything like the way they talk..
Mostly in the vocals. But there's also a certain flavour in the music that I just don't like, but it's hard to describe. Um. And it's even more apparent to me in vocals when it is by someone who's NOT putting it on ....
I'm not fond of the electric slide, especially in country music. It was first developed in the contemporary music of Hawaii after WWII, I believe. Electric slide in modern Hawaiian music is okay, I guess, but it's begun to become cheezy. Modern country is really bubblegummy, which makes me especially nauseous. The old notion that country songs are often laments of life's disappointments don't seem to be true anymore. One of my biggest complaints is that I can't seem to relate to the music-- that is, not just the lyrics, but the whole lifestyle around it. Next one is all those suburban and urban 'cowboys' who claim to be country but have never farmed or ranched in their life. Poseurs. I guess I just relate more to sex, drugs, and rock n' roll (and everything before and after that).
All valid complaints, and things that bug me about modern country music, too, especially your point about the lifestyle package that's sold along with the music -- it doesn't have much to do with the way I see myself nor does it hold much appeal for me.
Country's just been musically inbred for a while -- modern commercialization has just forced stagnation. It's beginning to change a little, however. I see more country artists beginning to borrow from outside their immediate musical heritage, going farther back to blues, bluegrass, and folk. In fairness, other popular music styles haven't been immune to this syndrome. As much nostalgia as I hold for the 80s, I don't think it was an exceptionally experimental time. I see much more growth, now.
There is still a lot of separation between singer and songwriter in country music. We have seen more and more songwriters that are the performer, but we still see a lot of artists that have the Nashville powers-that-be find songs for them. I think this path has reduced creativity in country music, as the powers-that-be *know* what a hit should read like in the lyrics and sound like in the music. <tpryan reads music.cf first time since June or so>
Oh, that's how country has found so much fame these days! Must make marketing a hell of a lot easier-- just get a pretty face and a golden voice, and don't worry about whether a person that possesses those can write or not. Of course, country's been selling out, too.
That's not really a "these days" phenomenon, as Tim hints in #21. That's been a part of the country music industry for a *long* time.
Actually with more country artists than Nashville can hold, Country is finding more popularity, partly because there is more to choose from.
What`s wrong with having a golden voice and not being a writer?
Nothing wrong with that. I love to hear the golden voiced
performer only.
Just that when the golden voiced and not quite golden voiced
go thru the 'hit making machinery' you sometimes end up with a
product more produced for the hit than a songwriter telling their
story and/or emotion.
The idea that the songwriter and the performer should be united in one person is a fairly recent one. I think it dates specifically to Bob Dylan; as the most influential songwriter of the 1960s, he set a model that a lot of people wanted to follow. And then there were the Beatles; they played lots of covers on their early albums, but they also just happened to have the era's greatest songwriting team in Lennon & McCartney. Anyway, we came out of the 1960s and 1970s with a mindset which looked down on people who didn't write their own material. From a folk music perspective, this is an oddity; one of the points of (traditional) folk music is that it is passed along. We don't really have an oral tradition any more, so the closest that we get to the old folk process is when the work of really good songwriters gets picked up by other performers. There was a quote in a recent issue of FOLK ROOTS magazine which I don't have with me. I think it was from Dave van Ronk: "We need ten song interpreters for every song writer."
Well, Puff Daddy will soon have covered every song in the western musical tradition. I guess that means we need nine more per song.. :-)
In the pop music scene during the 40s and 50s, it was the song that was on the hit parade, not the arrangement or singer. The concept that a song and singer were irevocably linked wasn't in place at that point.
All this talk of performers interpreting others' songs reminds me that I've been meaning to ask if anyone has any opinions on "Mermaid Avenue", the album where Billy Bragg and Wilco cover a bunch of previously-unrecorded Woody Guthrie songs..
(I've lost my copy, alas...)
I finally found my copy of "Mermaid Avenue." I gave it a few more plays
and realized:
I don't like Wilco very much.
I only like Billy Bragg intermittently. (Sorry, Mark!)
There are two catchy songs on here -- "Way over yonder in the minor
key" and "Ingrid Bergman," and I can live very nicely without
the rest. O well.
In general I like Billy Bragg, I like Woodie Guthrie, and I like alternative country bands. This particular combination, though, didn't sound like the best idea to me -- singing isn't Bragg's strong point, Wilco doesn't do much for me, and songs that an artist never got around to recording often remain obscure for good reasons. After a ho-hum first impression from the listening station at Borders it would've taken some really enthusiastic praise to get me really interested in "Mermaid Avenue" -- sounds like I'm not gonna get it.
Alan Jackson is singing tonight at the Ford Dearborn proving grounds.
I've finally actually listened to Junior Brown, who I'd heard about but not experienced. He's sort of a traditional musician, but has created the "Guit-steel", a doublenecked electric guitar/steel guitar. Turns out he sounds a bit like Eddy Arnold, but isn't adverse to more recent influences in guitar playing. The band is a bit minimalist; the drummer is usually his wife, playing nothing but a snare drum. Refreshingly free of the annoying "country" sound that sells big these days. He even seems to have a sense of humor!
Junior Brown just rocks. I first heard about him through the promo magazine that Sam Goody/Musicland puts out. I haven't listened to an entire album of his, but he did have a video for a song that I did see, and I was impressed between what I read of him and what I heard. He's appealed to a much broader audience than just the country fans-- I understand some of the alt rockers like him. Leave it to a Texan =)
I just he hadn't put a lame-ass obligatory "blues" tune on the CD.
I'll recycle this item for a web pointer to a review of the Carnegie Hall concert from the folks who recorded the soundtrack to the film O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU; that soundtrack album is back at #1 on the country album charts despite nearly zero airplay, possibly due to the home video release of the film. Slate's writer liked the show a lot. http://slate.msn.com/culturebox/entries/01-06-21_110797.asp
Interesting discussion above. I'm glad someone mentioned the Grand Ole Opry; "country" is a lot older than the Fifties. ;) While listening to Katie sing "Crazy" Sunday, I just *had* to remind Cindy of the songwriter's name.
You have several choices: