{"id":6464,"date":"2015-11-26T07:00:02","date_gmt":"2015-11-26T13:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/?p=6464"},"modified":"2015-11-23T15:57:18","modified_gmt":"2015-11-23T21:57:18","slug":"country-music-experiences-reflection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/2015\/11\/26\/country-music-experiences-reflection\/","title":{"rendered":"Country Music Experiences & Reflection"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year I am living in my sorority house, and rooming with one of my good friends, Emma<\/a>. Emma took this class last spring and she is the reason I decided to take the class, based off of her high recommendation. She loves country music as much as I do and we actually got to go to the iHeart Country Music Festival last May!<\/p>\n

\"BP51\"<\/a>It was an unspoken agreement that she and I would be watching the CMAs on November 4th<\/sup>. Of course, as you know, my sisters back home love all things country. The past couple years we have face-timed and texted to share our thoughts about the show and the different moments and performances. I promise we like and respect plenty more country artists than just Luke Bryan, but as I followed the various Twitter feeds during the show, I couldn\u2019t help but send them a couple of my favorite pictures of him that were popping up, such a comical moment between Justin Timberlake helping Luke Bryan fix his tie on the red carpet.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll admit, I didn\u2019t know much about Chris Stapleton besides the fact that he wrote and sang on Luke\u2019s \u201cDrink A Beer\u201d, but after quickly catching up on his biography and songs, it was wonderful to see that someone as talented as he is was being recognized, a sentiment that Luke Bryan later echoed during his Entertainer of the Year acceptance speech. Kenny Chesney is another artist that I really enjoy. His career is consistent and successful, and it is nice to see that he is still very active and performing on these award shows.<\/p>\n

\"Louis\"<\/a>Nashville <\/em>is not a show that I would normally watch, but I have recently had a good reason to watch a couple of episodes. My godfather and cousin, Louis Gusemano, is an actor and he landed the role of the detective this past season. Naturally, I watched his episode with some friends when it aired last spring, but I have occasionally kept up with it during the current season.<\/p>\n

Overall it is not my favorite show, but the interpretations and depictions of life within the country music industry are fascinating. I recently found an article on Saving Country Music\u2019s <\/em>website that correlated the various characters<\/a> with their real-life country star counterparts. I also appreciate that the show depicts aspects of country music that are unique to the genre, such as the overall closeness and openness of the artists as a whole.<\/p>\n

\"Nashville1\"<\/a>As I discussed in my Blog Post #4<\/a>, my sisters and I got to see Luke Bryan on his Kick the Dust Up tour in October. In this post however, I want to focus more on his opening acts, which were so solid and exciting that I truly felt like we got to experience three different concerts during one night.<\/p>\n

Randy Houser and Dustin Lynch both have naturally good voices, and seemed genuinely excited to be performing for such a big crowd. They also had longer sets than I anticipated- which was a great development! Their camaraderie with Luke later on during his set (Moscow Mules and George Strait!) raised the bar for any future concerts! Randy Houser\u2019s vocals during \u201cLike A Cowboy\u201d were outstanding. I highly recommend finding a video on YouTube of him performing the song live- you won\u2019t be disappointed!<\/p>\n

\"randy\"<\/a>To understand the current trends and direction of country music, it is important to understand the past, as with any historical movement. In fact, Trisha Yearwood recently told reporters<\/a> that based on her experience and knowledge of country music; she foresees a somewhat inevitable decline in \u201cbro-country\u201d, and a rise in more traditional \u201cgrassroots\u201d and singer-songwriter artists. Chris Stapleton\u2019s rise definitely supports her\u00a0prediction.<\/p>\n

Rhetoric of Country Music and these experiences have expanded my knowledge on the history of country music more so than I thought possible and made me start thinking more analytically about country music and the direction it is headed. I have also been introduced to certain performers from the past or who are up and coming that I might not have ever noticed before.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year I am living in my sorority house, and rooming with one of my good friends, Emma. Emma took this class last spring and she is the reason I decided to take the class, based off of her high … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-post-5","category-reflection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6464","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\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6464"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6498,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6464\/revisions\/6498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}