{"id":2559,"date":"2014-11-22T08:00:23","date_gmt":"2014-11-22T14:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/?p=2559"},"modified":"2015-01-22T11:08:21","modified_gmt":"2015-01-22T17:08:21","slug":"where-did-all-the-country-bands-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/2014\/11\/22\/where-did-all-the-country-bands-go\/","title":{"rendered":"Where did all the Country bands go?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Alabama\u2019s<\/em> Randy\u00a0Owen was recently quoted<\/a> saying, \u201cI Want to Hear More Bands.\u201d This message comes from lead singer of the band Alabama<\/em>, which was one of the main reasons bands were so popular in the 1980s and 1990s. Owen takes a look around and\u00a0realizes that Country music is growing away from the appeal of bands.<\/p>\n

Today in Country music, most artists are individual performers known only by their own name. The shift from bands to individual artists was gradual over time, but was very clear by the early 2000s. The reason for this may be the appeal of fame and being the center of attention. For the most part, famous country artists receive more attention than country bands, because of the focus only being on one single person. Now, there aren\u2019t many country bands that I can currently think of, because of this shift.<\/p>\n

In a different interview with Randy Owen, he tells of how he is saddened by the low number of \u201cself contained bands\u201d nowadays. A \u201cself contained band\u201d is one where the band members actually play their own instruments and write their own songs (which is almost unheard of today). Owen tells of how it shouldn\u2019t be this way, and I agree with him. When there is a band (or even an individual artist) playing and you know that they play their own instruments and write their own songs, it feels much more genuine.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Random (but authentic) Country band<\/p><\/div>\n

Most artists have songwriters that will write the majority of their music, and this has become the standard (at least for big name artists). Many Country artists still play their own instruments though, especially the guitar, which is great. Music has seemed to drift away from bands and pushed the focus onto the individual. Which isn\u2019t necessarily a bad thing. But, there is something about seeing a real band on stage and seeing how they interact with each other and the crowd is just incredible, and it feels authentic. It shows that they care more about the group as a whole than the individual, and I feel that it gives the audience a sense of togetherness and gets them more involved in the performance.<\/p>\n

There will probably not be a shift back to the era of bands, like it was in the 80s and 90s. This is because times are changing and most fans have come to like the idea of individual artists more and more, which is also completely fine. It\u2019s all about the audience and giving them what they want, and the shift from bands to individuals (and vice versa) isn\u2019t a bad thing by any means. It is just something different, and it is what we come to expect now in these changing times.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Rascal Flatts<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alabama\u2019s Randy\u00a0Owen was recently quoted saying, \u201cI Want to Hear More Bands.\u201d This message comes from lead singer of the band Alabama, which was one of the main reasons bands were so popular in the 1980s and 1990s. Owen takes … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-traditionalism","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2559"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2590,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559\/revisions\/2590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}