A couple of weekends ago, a handful of my friends and myself packed up a change of clothes, jumped in the car, and made our way to College Station. We were making our way to hang out with a couple of our sorority sisters as well as attend the probate of the brothers of Lambda Theta Phi Latin Fraternity, Inc. I was excited to be taking a mini-road trip to escape the stress of school for the weekend and to clear my mind with a nice drive down some country roads.
Since I was the one who would be driving, that meant that I also had control of the radio. Because I knew that my sisters are not big fans of country music, I took this into consideration and kindly turned the dial to a pop station. We got a good thirty minutes of Adam Levine, Taylor Swift, and Iggy before I had to find another station. Unfortunately (for them), shortly after we passed the Austin city line and made our way further into the country we began to lose signal of the pop station and I was forced to turn to a different station.
After browsing through the stations for quite some time, I finally came across a radio station that caught my attention. “Young,” by Kenney Chesney was playing. When I heard this song I initially had passed the station up but as I realized what song it was that was playing, I quickly returned to the station. It reminded me of intermediate school; eighth grade to be exact. It brought back memories of the group of friends I had in intermediate school, the little rebellious phase we went through, and how we would be going our different ways in high school. This type of country music reminded me of my time as a child, growing up listening to country music on trips to Corpus Christi with my parents and siblings.
Next came some good ole George Strait, Reba, and Garth Brooks. I had missed this kind of country music being played on the radio; today’s country music radio consists of artists like Florida Georgia Line, Luke Bryan, Lady Antebellum, and Sam Hunt (who I personally wouldn’t even consider country). I couldn’t really remember the last time I had listened to country music on the radio and actually enjoyed it. It wasn’t really until I spent an entire two hours listening to the country artists that I grew up listening to that I realized there was something wrong with today’s country radio. Today’s country music radio stations should follow the lead of this “Classic Country” radio station and I just might start listening to country music on the radio again.
I believe that country music is different for everyone. Some hold on to a certain sound they grew up listening to. Others hold on to certain songs that stir up a certain memory. Or, possibly, some just listen to what is popular on the radio. Either way, each person’s definition of country music is slightly different. I disagree with your statement that “today’s country music radio stations should follow the lead of [a] ‘Classic Country’ radio station.” There are others who actually consider these popular, and mainly bro-country, artists country. There are reasons these songs are played on the radio, mainly due to fact that they are very popular with today’s audience. I agree that there should be at least one radio station that offers this “Classic Country” sound, but I do not think every country affiliated station should change towards your direction.
I totally agree with you. there need to be more radio station catering to the classic country we grew up listening to. Granted, everyone “grew up” listening to different music, it is still nice to have options when listening to the radio. On a side note I am 100% behind your comment about Sam Hunt (when I heard his song I had to check the station twice to make sure I was listening to country music.) Anyways, I love how you talk about what age you were when you were first listening to that song. It is amazing how hearing different music can take you back to different points in your life.