Kenny Chesney?

[ELDUCE]

Now I'm really curious as to what you DO listen to... it can't be the country of the 50's/60's/70's, because that was a bastardization of the previous generation of "mountain" music, and was considered just as outrageous in its day as the "new" country is today. The advent of the steel guitar was an absolute scandal in its day. And even my man Earl Scruggs invented a new way of playing banjo, that set the world on its ear... so that can't be what you're listening to, either, because it's not the original "heritage."

I'm not being snarky -- please tell us what you listen to. My heritage (personally) is cumulative, but you do not consider yours to be -- so I'm curious as to what you listen to.

i listen to it all really tom t hall , porter , hank sr , hank snow , l. lynn , e. scruggs the list goes on and on i would love to tell ya all the new stuff i listen to but the fact is i dont want you guys trashing good bands cause of my views and i completely understand what you are saying about music forever evolving but what it has turned into does not sit right with me it makes me sick to see the masses turn their back to traditional sounding country music for more poppy music.. like i said i know i aint gonna change anyones mind that was not the intention my intention is to say whats on my mind and thats it... i believe that those of you who support this music are helping to kill what i love

[kyleandbeccasmom1]

I listen to the old stuff (patsy cline, Hank Williams) but I love the new stuff (Martina, Toby Keith, Kenny Chesney). I've seen Hank Jr, Kenny Chesney, Toby Keith in concert and they all put on great shows. I know people who are jealous of the fact that I went to a Led Zepplin Concert (MANY years ago) but I prefer kenny chesney over zepplin ANY DAy!!!

[Seattle]

there are plenty of new traditional bands out there

Doesn't that kind of negate the "killing my style of music" theory?

i would love to tell ya all the new stuff i listen to but the fact is i dont want you guys trashing good bands cause of my views

I don't think keeping the bands a secret is helping your cause any. Without constant publicity, bands don't get anywhere (hence the whole "festival" concept, which tends to introduce people to bands they have not previously heard -- it's pretty rare to already know & love the entire lineup at a festival, and that's pretty much the point). I don't recall people trashing your preferred music nearly as much as you've trashed theirs -- maybe if you had taken a different approach to begin with, people might be more receptive to your views.

I really am sorry that you believe current music is destroying older music -- I don't think it's a belief that is supported by either history or the current music scene, but I understand that once something reaches the level of a "belief" it is very hard to change that.

[billifer]

I hope all you haters leave when these so called POP musicians play... so us lovers of "music" can enjoy.. less of u haters around will make for a GREAT time.!!

I think some People just love to complain.

[cici_in_socal]

i listen to it all really tom t hall , porter , hank sr , hank snow , l. lynn , e. scruggs the list goes on and on i would love to tell ya all the new stuff i listen to but the fact is i dont want you guys trashing good bands cause of my views and i completely understand what you are saying about music forever evolving but what it has turned into does not sit right with me it makes me sick to see the masses turn their back to traditional sounding country music for more poppy music.. like i said i know i aint gonna change anyones mind that was not the intention my intention is to say whats on my mind and thats it... i believe that those of you who support this music are helping to kill what i love

Ohh....you poor baby. Now you're gonna play victim? Okay, you just stated you just wanted to share what was on your mind....you did so, now stop the whinning and negativity. These message boards were created for fans to get excited about this Festival, and you're just trying to kill all the fun in this. Another thing, nobody is killing any old traditional country here. Those country artist will live on forever (I love them too).....Like everyone else has been saying, country is evolving...just like everything else (technology, medicine, etc.) We're just going foward, not backward! Therefor, enjoy the ride!

[michelle98264]

i listen to it all really

Ha Ha Ha!

i dont want you guys trashing good bands cause of my views

No one has trashed any of the music you listen to. You are the one trashing the music everyone else listens to.

i completely understand what you are saying about music forever evolving

Yeah, right.

[kennyslady]

You get out of life what you put into it! Real mature statement, which only leads the rest of us to believe that anything you say really has little or no value. You had just started to gain some understanding with your more mature post and then ooops you had to go and post that. Unfortunately I guess your not ready for a good ol adult debate yet. So the rest of us will just keep on supporting whatever music it is that we love.

[BUNZY18]

WHO CARES WHAT HIS ORIENTATION IS!!!! HIM AND CLAY AIKEN SHOULD JUST GET IT OVER WITH!!! WHO CARES!!!! IT'S NOT LIKE HE IS A PEDOPHILE, WIFE BEATER ECT!!!! WHO FLIPPIN CARES!!!! THEY SAY THAT ABOUT MY JOHN TRAVLOLTA TOO AND I REFUSE TO BELIEVE IT!!!!! IT IS NOT TRUE!!!!!!!!

[WillieCash]

While I don't think the response "Just go die" is going to solve anything I do agree with some of the feelings of disappointment in country music today.

If I had to have a rational discussion about it (not that that seems to happen much around here) I would say that the thing that I don't care for about the new more pop stuff is that it has gone soft. It's kind of the same thing that punk rock was the answer to in the 70s. Punk Rock was only able to succeed because most mainstream rock had turned into musical masturnation with 20 minute long solos, huge stage props, and gross touchy feely inner child loving songs. Rock is supposed to be dangerous if it is done right.

Country is supposed to be the same thing. If it's done right it should be at least a little grimey and scary. Traditionally, It is the salt of the earth kind of music that should appeal to the demon in all of us as well as the angel. That moral conflict is what (to me) makes the best authentic country music, regardless of when it was recorded.

Old school Honky-Tonks were real rough and tumble places. Read any of the biographies of the great ones and you'll see how it was. Now country music bars feel more like Disneyland than a Honky-Tonk. Where it once was gritty and exciting it is now sterile and flaccid.

Things always change, no one is debating that fact. And, given the corporate sponsorship of just about everything we see and hear today, it's going to get a lot softer before the "alt/insurgent/punktry whatever it is called now" scene will start to be recognized on a larger scale as a reasonable alternative to the corporate country being churned out on the radio and CMT. To be honest, there is a part of me that is rooting for songs about being a soccer mom and Jesus taking the wheel. The farther they go, the stronger more traditionally spirited country music will be when it comes back around again.

It happened with Hank Sr. (Got kicked out of the Opry for his lifestyle so he wouldn't offend the mainstrean audience). It happened with the Outlaws (at first they were blocked from radio play all over the country for hanging out with dirty hippies), and it will happen again. It's good for everyone in the long run. If country music hadn't been too soft prior to the Outlaw movement, we may never have had anything like the Willie & Waylon album or a myriad of different artists that existed solely as a response to the soft-country that preceeded it.

Personally I can't say that most of what I hear on the radio is country music. It is pop. And while they are usually really good pop songs, it hurts a little bit to hear it called country. I know it is something I need to get over but the reason it hurts is because I am a country musician. And every time a song like "Drugs or Jesus" comes out it makes it more and more embarassing to say what I am.


As no one tends to respond to a post around here unless it is either gushing about a band or completely out of line I don't expect too much of a response. But I did hope that I could explain what a lot of this hostility is about in a way that might make sense.

Also, I would like to apologize for anything I may have said that has fired this debate to the point it is at now. I like to make jokes about Sugarland being like a poor man's Fleetwood Mac and stuff like that but it is all in good fun.

On a lighter note, have you heard the new Verison of "Jesus take the wheel"?

Jesus take the wheel
I'm far too drunk to drive
cause if I stay behind this wheel
somebody's gonna die tonight.

Lord I need to puke,
would you pull on to the side?
Jesus take the wheel

[ELDUCE]

very good statements wc more than i can put together thats for sure.. as far as my childish statement well sometimes thats just the way i do it, and the fact that this has turned into 3 pages it just goes to show the truth cuts like a knife

[Seattle]

If I had to have a rational discussion about it (not that that seems to happen much around here)

(Some of us are trying...)

I have been trying to point out the irony of choosing an arbitrary point in time (such as the point at which a person began listening to country music) as the "beginning" or "heritage point" of country music, when in fact country had already been growing, morphing and changing substantially by that point. In their day, all or most of the artists on Elduce's list were accused of pretty much the same thing the "current" artists are being accused of. I think the irony of this escapes Elduce, but it is an emotionally charged issue so a little slack is probably in order.

I also think it's a faulty assumption that "the masses" would automatically listen to older-style country if the current crop of country artists did not exist -- thus, I can't see holding the current artists or their fans responsible for the state of older music or its fans.

On a lighter note, have you heard the new Verison of "Jesus take the wheel"?

If I have to think of this song (and I try not to...), I think of it as more of a comment to a passenger in the front seat with the driver... "Jesus! Take the wheel! My cigarette fell in my lap!"

[michelle98264]

I still completely disagree that New Country is anywhere close to Pop. Find me any Pop song that is anywhere close to a New Country song and you just might make me believe. I do not like Pop music and haven't since I was a teenager. Again, there are HUGE differences between Pop and New Country. The first New Country songs I heard were from Emerson Drive and Diamond Rio. Please tell me you are not calling them "pop artists."

I think some New Country songs have a pop beat or feeling but that doesn't mean that New Country IS Pop.

I don't know what "truth" ELDUCE is referring to, certainly not his/her beliefs.

Also, I don't get what is wrong with Christianity in New Country music. I am a Christian and that is just one of the many reasons I like New Country.

[Misfit138]

While I don't think the response "Just go die" is going to solve anything I do agree with some of the feelings of disappointment in country music today.

If I had to have a rational discussion about it (not that that seems to happen much around here) I would say that the thing that I don't care for about the new more pop stuff is that it has gone soft. It's kind of the same thing that punk rock was the answer to in the 70s. Punk Rock was only able to succeed because most mainstream rock had turned into musical masturnation with 20 minute long solos, huge stage props, and gross touchy feely inner child loving songs. Rock is supposed to be dangerous if it is done right.

Country is supposed to be the same thing. If it's done right it should be at least a little grimey and scary. Traditionally, It is the salt of the earth kind of music that should appeal to the demon in all of us as well as the angel. That moral conflict is what (to me) makes the best authentic country music, regardless of when it was recorded.

Old school Honky-Tonks were real rough and tumble places. Read any of the biographies of the great ones and you'll see how it was. Now country music bars feel more like Disneyland than a Honky-Tonk. Where it once was gritty and exciting it is now sterile and flaccid.

Things always change, no one is debating that fact. And, given the corporate sponsorship of just about everything we see and hear today, it's going to get a lot softer before the "alt/insurgent/punktry whatever it is called now" scene will start to be recognized on a larger scale as a reasonable alternative to the corporate country being churned out on the radio and CMT. To be honest, there is a part of me that is rooting for songs about being a soccer mom and Jesus taking the wheel. The farther they go, the stronger more traditionally spirited country music will be when it comes back around again.

It happened with Hank Sr. (Got kicked out of the Opry for his lifestyle so he wouldn't offend the mainstrean audience). It happened with the Outlaws (at first they were blocked from radio play all over the country for hanging out with dirty hippies), and it will happen again. It's good for everyone in the long run. If country music hadn't been too soft prior to the Outlaw movement, we may never have had anything like the Willie & Waylon album or a myriad of different artists that existed solely as a response to the soft-country that preceeded it.

Personally I can't say that most of what I hear on the radio is country music. It is pop. And while they are usually really good pop songs, it hurts a little bit to hear it called country. I know it is something I need to get over but the reason it hurts is because I am a country musician. And every time a song like "Drugs or Jesus" comes out it makes it more and more embarassing to say what I am.


As no one tends to respond to a post around here unless it is either gushing about a band or completely out of line I don't expect too much of a response. But I did hope that I could explain what a lot of this hostility is about in a way that might make sense.

Also, I would like to apologize for anything I may have said that has fired this debate to the point it is at now. I like to make jokes about Sugarland being like a poor man's Fleetwood Mac and stuff like that but it is all in good fun.

On a lighter note, have you heard the new Verison of "Jesus take the wheel"?

Jesus take the wheel
I'm far too drunk to drive
cause if I stay behind this wheel
somebody's gonna die tonight.

Lord I need to puke,
would you pull on to the side?
Jesus take the wheel

I still completely disagree that New Country is anywhere close to Pop. Find me any Pop song that is anywhere close to a New Country song and you just might make me believe. I do not like Pop music and haven't since I was a teenager. Again, there are HUGE differences between Pop and New Country. The first New Country songs I heard were from Emerson Drive and Diamond Rio. Please tell me you are not calling them "pop artists."

I think some New Country songs have a pop beat or feeling but that doesn't mean that New Country IS Pop.

I don't know what "truth" ELDUCE is referring to, certainly not his/her beliefs.

Also, I don't get what is wrong with Christianity in New Country music. I am a Christian and that is just one of the many reasons I like New Country.

Michelle.. How many songs do you hear on the Country Radio stations and also hear on the pop stations? There are quite a few.. Not that this solidifies anything but I'm just making a point.

[Misfit138]

Personally I can't say that most of what I hear on the radio is country music. It is pop. And while they are usually really good pop songs, it hurts a little bit to hear it called country.

I couldn't agree with you more here. I know many of you will obviously disagree with this but fact is, this is how I feel. Whch is why I made a comment when I saw Chesney was on the bill. Looking at what in my opinion are great Country artists playing at a Country concert and then I see a guy like Chesney headliing this event who I don't consider to be country at all kind of disturbed me and I spoke up.

Again.. to make it clear.. I'm not saying Chesney has no talent, isn't a good entertainer or isn't an artist . I just don't view him as country. It is pop country in my opinion and not my style.

"alt/insurgent/punktry whatever it is called now" scene will start to be recognized on a larger scale as a reasonable alternative to the corporate country being churned out on the radio and CMT

Funny you say this. A friend of mine who is a musician and was in Nashville not too long ago and he was telling me about a lot of the bars he had gone into and he said what was strange was that in every bar people weren't requesting Rascall Flatts, Chesney or so on for the musicians toplay; they were requesting the old stuff, none of the pop country stuff. He said one girl actually requested some opo country and the whole bar went silent. . Seems like music row would catch on to that or maybe it won't put enough money in their pockets.. who knows.

[michelle98264]

OK, I will give an example if I may. It may not be a very good one but we'll see.

Last night my daughter ate a crescent that I made her with canned chicken (the really good kind from Costco) inside mixed with some other stuff. She told me it was tuna. I knew it was not tuna but it was really hard to convince her it wasn't, to her it tasted like tuna. Obviously it was chicken, which I knew from the can. No, it wasn't a real, whole chicken that came straight from the butcher, but it was chicken.

If New Country was any other kind of music, it would not have it's own name/genre. No one said it was the same as traditional/Old Country.

[Seattle]

I can see (or hear... whatever) definite 70's pop inflluences in today's country music. Not so much current pop (although I don't listen to much current pop, so I'm really in no position to say), but the stuff from thirty years ago... yeah, it's not a stretch for me to see that in today's music.

And I don't have a problem with Christianity in country music -- I have a problem with overplaying a song, and overexposing an artist, to the point that I would rather have dead silence than have to hear it one more time... but that's just me...

[michelle98264]

I completely agree that the song is overplayed. It just seemed like some people were referring to Christianity in country music in general.

To answer Misfit's question, I do not listen to any pop music because I don't like it. Also, most of the Pop artists really irritate me. I quit listening to it after high school because it just didn't appeal to me anymore. Occasionally I hear some of it on commercials, etc and I just really don't like it and don't see how anyone could compare New Country to it.

[Misfit138]

I completely agree that the song is overplayed. It just seemed like some people were referring to Christianity in country music.

To answer Misfit's question, I do not listen to any pop music because I don't like it. I quit listening to it after high school because it just didn't appeal to me anymore. Occasionally I hear some of it on commercials, etc and I just really don't like it and don't see how anyone could compare New Country to it.

I dont really either.. But unfortunately sometimes I have to listen through it when I'm with my wife and I haven't brought my CD's .. You can compare the "new" or "pop" Country to it because much of it is played on the "pop' Stations. Just like the pop rock . You hear it on both the Rock and Pop Stations.

[Seattle]

Last spring, I heard Craig Morgan saying one of his songs was the most played song on country radio in 2005, and he said it like it was a GOOD thing... and I thought, "Really? I don't think I'd want my song to be at the head of that list... because that probably means it annoyed the heck out of at least half the listening audience...!"

[michelle98264]

You can compare the "new" or "pop" Country to it because much of it is played on the "pop' Stations. Just like the pop rock stations. You hear it on both the Rock and Pop Stations.

OK, well I don't listen to pop stations and I'm sorry you have to. Just because they play it on pop stations doesn't mean it is pop. I guess we are entitled to our own opinions, I will have mine and you will have yours. Have fun if you end up going to the festival!