Monthly Archives: February 2016

by | February 10, 2016 · 7:00 am

Texas Country Above All Else

91-ogWhile many would argue that Nashville, Tennessee is the heart and home of country music, my heart and my home reside in Texas, home of Texas Country Music, the source of greats like George Strait, Eli Young Band, The Dixie Chicks, Jack Ingram, Willie Nelson, Miranda Lambert, Kenny Rodgers, and, one of my personal favorites, Pat Green.

In recent years, critics have labeled Pat Green a country music sellout, interested in becoming a “mainstream hit-maker.” Well the gray clouds are clearing, and Pat is finally returning to his Texas roots. In his first original album in six years, Green admits what many of his loyal fans have known for a while: going to mainstream Nashville was a mistake. In the song Home he writes, “I was blind to the game, I sang the wrong songs and disappeared for way too long, but I’ve finally found my way home.” Even the harshest of critics are coming around to the idea that Pat Green is authentically returning home to Texas.

pat-green-home-album-coverSo what does this mean? Why does this even matter? It matters because we all know  (well at least the right people know) that Texas Country is far better than “Mainstream” Nashville Country. Texas Country is about the artist and not just how many hits he or she can produce or how quickly he or she can do so. Travis Erwin of Wide Open Country writes:

Texas Country is driven by live performances and a fan base that is intimately familiar with their favorite artists. Many of the Texas acts tour 200 or more dates a year with at least half of these dates within the Lone Star State. This gives fans an opportunity to go out and listen to their favorites several times a year. The average mainstream fan is lucky to catch their favorite performer once a year live.

When many artists are beginning to fall into the realm of pop-country, it is Texas artists who are staying true to the Honky-Tonk and Care-free “Outlaw” music that country music originated with.

A year ago I was fortunate enough to attend a small wedding in which Pat Green performed. Seeing him live was amazing. You could really tell he wanted to be there. Although he did preform some of his not so famous songs, the crowd clearly perked up as soon as he began playing his Texas classics. It was amazing hearing him sing one of my favorite songs of his Baby Doll to the bride Annie. She is a die-hard fan of Pat herself. My favorite part of the whole evening was also the sweetest. After Pat was finished performing he called over the bride and groom and handed them the signed guitar he had played with that night. It was truly a night to remember. Overall as a loyal country fan, I am glad to have Pat Green back on our side and hope that maybe he has inspired some others to stray away from the country-pop scene and return back to the tradition and spirit that Texas country embodies.

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Filed under Blog Post 3, Texas

by | February 9, 2016 · 7:00 am

“Nashville” Brings Reality To Light

I always wondered what life would be like as a country music star.

Credits: www.richardcrouse.ca

Credits: www.richardcrouse.ca

As a little girl who pretended to be like Shania Twain, a ten year-old fifth grader who wanted to be Hannah Montana, and later as a middle school and high school student was a mega Taylor Swift fan, I pondered what the life in the bright lights would be like.

While, the “Hannah Montana” show did not exactly portray the real life of a country music star, (she was in fact partly country music), ABC’s debut of the “Nashville” in 2012 certainly showed me the more or less reality of country music stardom,  but the series taught me a something little deeper about what the country music industry is facing.

Credits: www.pop-break.com

Credits: www.pop-break.com

The series is centered around the original, experienced Queen of Country “Rayna Jaymes,” who is portrayed by Connie Britton, and the young, rising country-pop starlet “Juliette Barnes”, portrayed by Hayden Panettiere. Britton’s character struggles as an aging artist who is trying to maintain her role in the country music scene, while Panettiere’s character is trying to overtake all of country music’s listeners with her poppy, upbeat style.

While the series involves love triangles, family issues, deaths, secrets, lies, etc., like any ABC drama would, “Nashville” reveals the eternal country music culture war: the battle between old music vs. new music, twang country vs. pop country, home, close knit label head vs. big label heads. Additionally, in depth the series explores the how the various artists, songwriters, managers, and other characters deal with the consequence of fame and finding self-identity in the bright lights.

Besides all those elements to the series, “Nashville” has some killer country music.

Credits: www.buddytv.com

Credits: www.buddytv.com

In the series, each artist struggles with the eternal country music culture war, and it is shown even in the music. Therefore, using the two main characters “Rayna Jaymes” and “Juliette Barnes” Here are a total of four songs. Two songs that are more pop country, modern, and two songs from the old, twang style.

“Rayna Jaymes” Pop country, Modern Song: “This Time”

In Nashville, this experienced country music queen has won awards upon awards, and is adored by all. However, as soon as she tries to be competitive in the country music scene, Britton’s character is challenged with producing and singing music that is not her sound…also known as pop country. With up and coming young stars like “Juliette Barnes” it is forces “Rayna James” to fight for her voice to be heard.

“Rayna Jaymes”  Old, Twang style Song:  “The Rivers between Us”

The blessing of being the original queen is that no matter what, your first fans always stick with you, and their daughters, and their futures daughter will too. That is the blessing “Rayna Jaymes” receives as she is faced with the adversity of maintaining relevancy in the county music scene. Unlike “Juliette Barnes” who showed up to county music as the new hot starlet, “Rayna Jaymes” is able to use her history of hard work and current determination to uphold a revenant spot in the spot light.

“Juliette Barnes” Pop country, Modern Song: “I’m a Girl”

At the beginning of the series, Panettiere’s character’s music grabs the attention of tween and teens. Dressing in tight, sparkly dresses, “Juliette Barnes” goes the extra mile to capture audiences as the young, new sexy starlet. Her modern sound and sassy, headstrong personality is “Juliette Barnes’s” “in” to the country music scene. While her voice does have a southern accent, these two songs certainly display what pop country songs sound like.

“Juliette Barnes” Old, Twang style Song: “We are Water”

As mentioned above, early in the series, Panettiere’s character represents how young females in today’s country music have to use a combination of their femininity and country pop sound to snatch a general audience of tweens and teens, but also within the industry, old, powerful men. However, as the series progresses, “Juliette Barnes” is able to take her poppy vibe to her true country roots. Panettiere’s character is able to slow down her sound, and hopes that her tween and teens fan will be able to appreciate the same “Juliette Barnes,” just with a different or actual country music sound.

Whether you love to listen to the queens of country music like “Rayna Jaymes” or the new starlets like “Juliette Barnes,” one can agreed the ABC series “Nashville” does an fine job using the characters and music bring light the war country music faces. (After all, the series is on its fourth season.)

But the question I propose is has the war always been going on? Have we failed to see it just until now? Or has the war begun recently in the 21st century?

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Filed under Blog Post 3, Country Pop, Nashville

by | February 7, 2016 · 11:44 pm

On Bro-Country…

In August 2013, New York Magazine published Jody Rosen’s article about the rise of “Bro-Country.” If you’re like me, you haven’t heard of Bro-Country, but you probably have a pretty good guess as to what it is. Rosen defines Bro-Country as “Music by and of the tatted, gym-toned, party-hearty young American white dude.” Shots fired. He wastes no time in condemning the lucky artist who topped the Billboard’s Hot Country Songs for 22 weeks in a row (breaking a record that has been in place since 1955): Florida Georgia Line with their song “Cruise.”

Rosen describes the song as an average-looking guy in a bar talking to the hottest blonde girl in the room, loudly laughing at his own jokes, and after crashing-and-burning with lame pick-up lines, pulls out his iPhone, asking “Have you heard this awesome song?” while simultaneously “dial[ing] up the video for Florida Georgia Line’s ‘Cruise.’” Are you laughing yet? This guy is pretty harsh, but I think he feels the way a lot of traditional country fans do when they see that auto-tuned sounds like those of Florida Georgia Line top the charts and ring in the big bucks.

Okay, here’s the part you’re going to hate…. This phenomenon isn’t news, nor is it shocking. Throughout music history, we have seen different genres and subgenres arise that some people have labeled “crap,” while others really find to their liking. It was only a matter of time before we had a new reason to complain, honestly.

Much like many young millennials enjoy the sounds of Florida Georgia Line and Luke Bryan, so the youth of the 1980’s enjoyed the beginnings of Grunge. Just as this new “Bro-Country” tends to err on the riskier side with lyrics and themes, Grunge challenged the norms of fashion, responsibility, and acceptable topics. Many people thought that Grunge was a blemish on the face of alternative rock, but that didn’t prevent it from sky-rocketing in popularity—even MTV picked it up and was exposing its viewers to the new sounds. Even my dad (the music snob I wrote about in my first blog post, “The Conflicting-Interest Blues”) said that popular Grunge band, Nirvana, “redefined everything.” (Does this count as a primary source?)

Some of you might be thinking, “But Grunge isn’t nearly as bad as Bro-Country” or “Hey! I like Grunge.” Well, I agree with you (I can’t stand to listen to songs like Cruise and I love Pearl Jam). But, it’s time to recognize that our tastes in music and what we can relate to is different than people younger than us that the country music industry is now catering to. And apparently it sells, so why wouldn’t they keep doing it?

5 Comments

Filed under Blog Post 3, Bro Country, Country Subgenres

by | · 7:00 am

FGL? More like FML

fgl
Florida Georgia Line is a duo that formed out of Nashville in 2010 that has brought an interesting twist to Country music since their start. Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard met at Belmont University in a worship group on campus and there dreamt up the idea of becoming a famous country duo. And not to my surprise, who else but the Nickelback producer, Joey Moi, was the one who discovered them. This seems only fitting because the two bands in my opinion are very similar. How would I describe Nickelback Fans? There are two kinds. One group of fans is full of fervent followers who listen to Nickelback and Nickelback only, go to every concert, and proudly proclaim them as their favorite band. The other group of fans is full of followers who only secretly listen to Nickelback songs in fear of being shamed by the rest of society. These two groups of fans are the same for Florida Georgia Line followers. Because many people hate on the band, if you love them, you either shout it from the mountaintops or you secretly know every lyric while denying ever having heard of them.

Florida Georgia Line has three albums comprised of very catchy songs, I’ll admit, but they are in no sense of the word Country. On their website they even admit to being different claiming to be, “artists who defy trends to pave something new, something original, something maybe a little shocking at the time.” I would say their style is definitely shocking… Do you think King George would listen to their new album, Anything Goes, on his way to the rodeo? I don’t think so. In my opinion, they are just another pop band that happens to have a little twang in their voice. Since forming in 2010, Florida Georgia Line has brought something totally new to the Country Genre. In the past 5 years they have had five number 1 singles on Country radio charts, which makes me wonder who is actually listening to these stations. But let’s talk about one specific hit single that has brought much controversy to Country Music listeners…

Cruise (Remix). Bum bum bummm. Now let me ask you something, when is it ever okay to pair a Hip Hop rapper, Nelly, with a small town duo who claims to be Country? The two just don’t go hand in hand. The country rap single has been detrimental to classic Country Music because now other artists like Thomas Rhett with I Feel Good (ft Lunchmoney Lewis) and Blake Shelton with Boys ‘Round Here (ft Pistol Annies & Friends) think it’s okay to mix the two genres. Music is split into genres for a reason and it should stay that way. Florida Georgia Line and the other artists I mentioned have the potential to really do well because each one is very talented, but please for the love of Country Music, steer clear of these poppy lyrics and featured rappers.

10 Comments

Filed under Bro Country

by | February 6, 2016 · 7:00 am

Watch Out, Chart-Toppers

steve moakler picIn December of 2015, Huffington Post published an article by Brittany Hodak titled “Top 20 Country Artists to Watch in 2016.” I’ll admit, although I am a lover of all things music, I don’t typically look into up-and-coming country artists. But, much to my surprise, I came across an artist I have been familiar with for a few years: Steve Moakler. I didn’t think that Steve qualified as Country, but since listening to his new stuff have come to realize that Country is definitely the mold into which he is casting himself. How did he get to #3 on Hodak’s list? Let me unpack it for ya.

Steve Moakler was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Interesting, huh? Yankee-boy turned Country. In 2006, he picked up and moved to the Promised Land—Nashville, Tennessee—to pursue opportunity. And, just like thousands of others of his kind, he didn’t strike gold right away. Sweet Steve worked odd jobs while writing music in order to make his dream a reality. His expectations, like most Nashville-bound artists, were high and left him disappointed countless times.

When he had time, he played show after show to get his name out to a building fan-base and awaiting record-labels. “Thousands of songs later,” (according to his website) Steve released his first album by way of a Kickstarter funding campaign, under Free the Birds Records.

He’s come a long way. Steve has 115,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and his most recent album, Suitcase, produced by Creative Nation Records, has yet to release more than the single, “Suitcase,” which has already shot to number 187 on the iTunes Country charts. His record Watching Time Run rose to #1 on the Singer/Songwriter chart and was in the top 50 in overall charts. In addition, Steve’s music has been sung by notable artists such as Dierks Bentley, Jake Owen, Ben Rector, Matt Wertz, and Kellie Pickler, among others. Pretty impressive for a dude who produced his first album from a freaking KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN. It just goes to show how powerful his hipster-country fan-base truly is and makes me believe in the future of good music.

Not only is he a talented singer/songwriter, but he’s hilarious. Steve showcases his dry sense of humor on his Twitter and in his adorable friendship with Ben Rector. He’s also ridiculously photogenic—just check out his Instagram (@stevemoakler).

So what makes him different than any other charming, angelic-voiced country-singer? I would say what brought him to #3 on Hodak’s list of country artists to watch in 2016 is initiative. He completely financed his first album with funds from a donation website. Who are we to limit this guy?! I think Hodak sees his potential because of his willingness to make moves and humility to let other artists sing his music. Keep on doin’ you, Steve. It’s working.

Still not convinced? Watch this.

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Filed under Blog Post 2, Reviews