George Jones Explains What’s Wrong with Country Radio
The fight for country radio to actually represent the people it is supposed to serve is an eternal one, and nothing illustrates this more than a recently-unearthed interview with George Jones taped backstage at the Grand Ole Opry dating back to February 21st, 1998.
Think about it: This was 17 years ago, but every point George Jones makes is a poignant one, and one that is still patently relevant today. It’s unfortunate that you have to revert back to a 17-year-old tape and someone that passed on over two years ago to find an artist with the guts to say it, but George Jones says it as good as anyone.
It’s also interesting to ponder the recent idea of splitting the country music radio format in two when reading or listening to George Jones’ words. “There’s hundreds of thousands of them out there that are being neglected after standing by country music for so many, many many years,” George says. As studies from Edison Research and others have shown, country music is making a grave mistake by ignoring a huge segment of their listening population through their obsession with youth, and splitting the country format between Top 40 country and a mix of older and newer country may be the only way to save the format in the long-term.
– – – – – – – –
“Well, I’m not the happiest person with it. What I really hate about the format of country music today I guess is mainly there’s so many people out there that still love to hear the good, old-fashioned traditional country music, and there is room for it,” George Jones says in the interview. “They can’t tell me there’s not room for it. But they will definitely not play any of it at all anymore. Because of that, it’s not me they’re pushing out and doing harm to. What they’re doing is harming the people that have stood by traditional country music for so many years. They want to still hear it. They can’t hear it. There’s hundreds of thousands of them out there that are being neglected after standing by country music for so many, many many years. And there is room for it, and it’s a shame they can’t open that door back up, and give a little bit of it back to them that has made them be able to be where they are today.”
When asked if he’s ever been told his music’s “too country,” George Jones responds:
“Oh that makes me sick. I’ve heard that for so long. My God, what do they thing country is? They get on the radio and they say, ‘Your #1 country station in this area!’ Then the play ‘am-diddy-biddy-boddie’ and all that stuff. What do they call country music you know? My goodness. What we’re taking about is traditional country music, what started this whole thing to start with. And the people are still out there in their homes and riding around in their cars, and they’re still love to hear it….They don’t know what country radio is anymore. They’re told what to play. They’re told what to play, by your so-called consultants. If you’re told what to do, you don’t have no choice, do you?”
Jim Z
May 4, 2015 @ 10:00 am
thanks for some perspective.
Fuzzy TwoShirts
May 4, 2015 @ 10:01 am
I don’t use the radio anymore, I don’t even use sirius or spotify. I own my music so I can be in control of what’s on. Jones is right, the radio is lost. I can call in and hear him singing “white lightning” but I can’t hear some of his older stuff like ‘Uh-huh no’ or “Mr. Fool.” But if there’s no demand for it why was the discovery of the Don Rich sings George Jones recordings such a huge discovery? I’m sure the execs who tried to get rid of us don’t have an answer for that.
sandra douvia
May 4, 2015 @ 10:08 am
You tell them George Jones.I’m hard core Traditional.I want George Jones Merle Haggard Waylon Jennings Johnny Cash Johnny Paycheck and Charlie Pride and Bill Anderson and so on.This needs to stop.You need to RESPECT THE LEGEND BECAUSE THERE WOULDN’T BE REAL COUNTRY MUSIC WITHOUT THESE LEGEND.fARON YOUNG WOULD BE ALIVE TODAY IS HE WOULD HAVE GOT AIR TIME.
CountrySunshine
May 5, 2015 @ 3:11 pm
You read my mind. When I was reading the quotes of what George said I was thinking about the date. It was only a little more than a year after Faron when he gave this interview, so I was thinking that had to be on his mind too. Not enough people realize or want to acknowledge that Faron was basically a tragic effect, & a martyr in a sense, of what they’ve done to Country Music. His should be the face all of the “artists” who are falsely appropriating Country Music have to look at every time they get an award or check handed to them.
Nancy Kinder
May 5, 2015 @ 6:56 pm
I couldn’t have said it better myself, Sandra, I myself am all about traditional country
music all of those artists you named, are all my favorite, and then some.
Albert
May 4, 2015 @ 10:08 am
This is an incredible find if for no other reason than it being the FIRST time any A-lister PUBLICLY stated his honest opinion about the state of the genre …SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO !! ….damn the torpedoes . No one has the guts to do that today . Joe Nichol came close a few months back but stopped short of shooting his career in the foot . I’m certain a LOT of people are feeling the same . Easton Corbin’s newest song is 180 degrees from where he hit the ground running several years back with GREAT songs and GREAT trad arrangements.
Last night I was thinking about the Blake catastrophe . I was thinking over his singles in the past 4 years or so and realized how lightweight all of them are and the fact that of all his releases , he doesn’t have a ‘ standard’ timeless country song in the bunch . The closest he came to that , I believe , may have been ‘ Austin ‘ way back before he was ” Bro- whipped ” . Chesney , ZBB ….so many others DO NOT have standards in their repertoires like the Georges , Vince , Alan Jackson , Reba , Loretta , etc.. Everybody is chasing a trend and $$$ …not a great SONG .
Thanks for posting this Trigger
Charlie woods
May 4, 2015 @ 12:31 pm
Goodbye time would be another from him. I don’t get Blake at all, his favorite artist is earl Thomas Conley. He promotes him when he can. But says dumb stuff
Joshua R.
May 4, 2015 @ 1:34 pm
Well the ZBB put out “Colder Weather”, a masterpeice in my opinion, but yea, you pretty much hit the nail on the head.
Tom
May 4, 2015 @ 3:05 pm
Actually it wasn’t the first time. George Jones first called out country radio during his acceptance speech for the Pioneer Award at the 1993 ACMs for not playing new material from older artists. You can check it out at about 3:30. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYEuCY3ZfwQ
Billybob
May 4, 2015 @ 4:58 pm
I remember it like it was yesterday , thanks Tom.
Bradley Olson
May 4, 2015 @ 10:49 am
BTW, Blake did cover Conway Twitty’s “Goodbye Time,” and also had a hit with “Old Red” early on in his career as well.
Albert
May 4, 2015 @ 11:42 am
Sorry Bradley , what I meant to say was that Blake hasn’t got a standard of his OWN in all of his single releases and ” Austin’ may stand the best chance of being that . However , the format has changed so drastically that even a great song like ‘ Austin’ wouldn’t appeal to a new ‘artist’ these days . Most great songs are cut and recut over and over by artist after artist . This doesn’r happen anymore because there just aren’t great, timeless songs with universal appeal being cut by mainstream people . The songs themselves are out there but mainstream is only interested in trendy stuff .
Kev
May 5, 2015 @ 7:28 am
That’s true. Shelton’s first couple of albums were good traditional country ….. which makes it harder to forgive him for the sh*te he’s turning out now!
Dan H
May 4, 2015 @ 10:49 am
Well all I got to say is thank god he’s not around nowadays to hear what’s on the radio today lol.
Allbenny
May 4, 2015 @ 11:42 am
Pretty good stuff, but just proves this has been going on forever, & always will. If there was a blog/internet out back then, someone would have been on it whining how Waylon, or whom ever, are killing traditional country music. Today, we just happen to have our own group of people the purist put down. Too much rock, too much rap, too much pop, jeans are too tight, hair is too long. All been said about all the past ‘legends’. One day, someone will be defending the artists of today and criticizing, the ‘new’ country music.
Fuzzy TwoShirts
May 4, 2015 @ 12:37 pm
no they won’t. 17 years from now nobody will remember Cole Swindell or Chase Rice, just like nobody remembers Wilbur Harrison or Icicle Works or Candy Duffer.
Allbenny
May 4, 2015 @ 1:01 pm
Im guessing you would have said that about Luke Bryan, 8 years ago, or however long he’s been around too, but some stuff has a longer shelf life than you would think. I remember buying ‘Shout At The Devil’ by Motley Crue was I was a kid. My mother said thats awful, they wont last.
Allbenny
May 4, 2015 @ 1:14 pm
plus, you just named them, so somebody does remember.
Jackie Treehorn
May 4, 2015 @ 7:16 pm
Or mark mcquin or Brian white or the d-bag who sang “drink, swear, steal, and lie”. Nobody cares. Only the the tone -deaf sumbitches who currently enjoy this crap will reminisce back to these bro country tool handlers 15 years from now and say “man now that was music”.
Allbenny
May 5, 2015 @ 8:20 am
haha, you’re right, but as you have noticed, we are on this little niche website. In fifteen years from now, there will probably a lot more people who were into the bro country, than there were, say Jamey Johnson, so It will be ‘only’ all of them.
Don’t get me wrong, Im not a big fan of country radio, but I dont expect anything from it, or expect anything to change, and bang my head against a wall for no reason.
Jack Williams
May 5, 2015 @ 6:30 am
I’ve seen versions of this kind of tired rant many, many times on this site. What makes this one a little worse than usual is that you seem to be missing the essential point George Jones was making. Namely, that there IS room for SOME traditional country music on country radio and that the people being hurt by the willful exclusion of it by country raidio are the legions of traditional country music fans that have stuck by the genre for years and years. Also, the utter absurdity of a “country music” station choosing not to play a song because it is “too country.”
Allbenny
May 5, 2015 @ 8:10 am
Not really a rant. I agree with what George is saying. Im just saying, lots of people banged their head against this wall before now, and will continue to do so, in every style of music.
Trigger
May 5, 2015 @ 8:11 am
That’s what struck me about George’s words. Like George said, it wasn’t about him. At the time, he was filthy rich probably beyond his imagination as a poor boy from east Texas. It was about all those people that had supported country for years and years when it wasn’t cool who were now being shuffled aside, even though they represented a huge population.
Andrew
May 4, 2015 @ 11:59 am
Reminds me of the introduction to The Best of Country Music by John Morthland.
“The country boom has been a mixed blessing. It’s introduced many people to a part of their heritage they’d been missing too long, but it’s also diluted the music badly. I’m no reactionary, but the saccharine, homogenized overproduced songs full of glib generalities I hear most often on the radio today have little to do with the rowdy good spirits, hard truths, and high, lonesome cries that first drew me to the music. And the former is winning out. In their rush to capture the mass market, artists and record companies are throwing out much of what is best in their music.”
That book was published in 1984 and his primary example of what he was talking about was Kenny Rogers.
John Conquest
May 4, 2015 @ 12:04 pm
You got that right, Dan H! There’s a Russian joke in which “average” is defined as “worse than last year, but not as bad as next year.” Which, when applied to country radio, means that Cumulus putting Taylor Swift and other pop stars into rotation on their country station this year isn’t going to look quite as bad compared to what they’ll do next year (and the year after and the year after that). No skin off my nose as I’ve never listened to mainstream country radio, but it gets more and more complicated to explain why one likes country music.
Kale
May 4, 2015 @ 12:06 pm
17 years ago I wasn’t even able to form sentences yet. 90s country is Heaven compared to the filth of today. Can anybody tell me what all the fuss was about? Was it Toby Keith, Tim McGraw, Shania Twain (I understand that one), and the remnants of Garth Brooks that were considered so bad? Because they really don’t seem uncountry at all compared to Bro-Country and this Metro Politan/No-Country.
Fuzzy TwoShirts
May 4, 2015 @ 12:44 pm
I was just learning to read 17 years ago myself, but having grown up, I absorbed some stories from my father (who onve waited table on Jerry Reed) about his coworkers, who didn’t listen to country, but listened to Garth Brooks. Country music today is going through what Jazz did nearly a century ago, in which once a few artists made Jazz profitable, then it imploded on itself in pursuit of the god of money. Count Basie was the one who fixed Jazz, and somebody will come and fix country music too. I guarantee that Luke’s entertainer award won’t stand the test of time the way Basie’s music did.
Eric
May 4, 2015 @ 12:47 pm
I wasn’t a country fan in the 90s, but I presume that the major factor behind the discontent was the Shania craze along with all of the female artists who were trying to put on a similar style.
The rapid transition from the neotraditional phase of the early 90s to the Shania phase must have been quite a shock to country fans. I can imagine that it was analogous to the rise of bro-country.
Stephen
May 4, 2015 @ 1:02 pm
It was similar but this bro-country movement is worse. At least virtually all of the ’90s music sounded like country music. Today’s country radio sounds like pop. It is hard to find a new country song now that’s played on mainstream country radio, that sounds like a country song.
Even Shania, Garth, Billy Ray, and Faith sounded ‘country’ in the ’90s.
Eric
May 4, 2015 @ 4:21 pm
No doubt that bro-country is way less country (not to mention much worse lyrically). However, compared to the highly acoustic and smooth country sound that was prevalent in the early 90s, the Shania era must have seemed like a drastically different and more rock-ish style.
Tom
May 4, 2015 @ 3:14 pm
“Can anybody tell me what all the fuss was about?”
In the 1990s it wasn’t so much the music itself as the fact that country radio started playing to a younger demographic and pretty much stopped playing the older artists cold. Conway had a couple of top 10 hits in 1990 and never hit the top 20 again. Don Williams had a long string of top 10 hits in the ’80s and early ’90s. His last was a #7 in 1991, followed up by a couple in ’92 that didn’t crack the top 70, then nothing on the charts after than. It was the same story for George Jones, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, and a handful of others.
gtrman86
May 4, 2015 @ 12:14 pm
The Cold Hard Truth.
CAH
May 4, 2015 @ 12:28 pm
I certainly agree with the Possum, and I sure miss him.
rltomkinson
May 4, 2015 @ 12:51 pm
Kale, Those artists might sound like heaven compared to the “Hot, New Country” artists of today. But youtube Hank Williams (Not Hank Jr.) or Roy Acuff or Ernest Tubb, or a host of others. You will find a big difference in how they sound compared to the 90’s artists. They will give you an idea of how Country music started out. Try listening to Conway Twitty, Marty Robbins, Merle Haggard, and then maybe some Charlie Pride, Alabama or the Oak Ridge Boys, to see how it progressed though the decades. You may or may not like all of it. You may not like any of it. That’s okay. But it will give you some appreciation for why some of us, who have been listening to country music for three decades or more, are really bothered by a lot of the newer music on “country” radio.
Stephen
May 4, 2015 @ 12:57 pm
Luckily, I live in a city (Montgomery, Alabama) that has an FM classic country station (103.9) that plays a heavy format of ’60s, ’70s and ’80s country music. They even play some ’50s and earlier.
Classic country stations will hopefully pop up in more areas across the country because the new Top 40 country stations are not going to give you much nostalgia.
I have noticed that Go Country 105 out of Los Angeles plays classic country every Sunday morning for a few hours. I have their app on my phone. So, at least the sheeple get to be exposed to traditional country music to some degree from stations such as Go Country.
Aside from the hit or miss with terrestrial radio, the best way to go is SiriusXM and the stations Outlaw Country, Willie’s Roadhouse and Prime Country.
Eli Locke
May 4, 2015 @ 7:55 pm
that is one thing I love about Go Country, the do classics on sunday, I’ve heard Johnny Paycheck, Merle, Dwight, and a bunch of other stuff. They also sometimes throw in a song or two that was on their playlist when I first started tuning into the station from time to time during regular programing.
Dan
May 4, 2015 @ 1:07 pm
Todays world is all about marketing to sheep that will believe anything they hear….so called country music is formulated to females that dont have the ability to see it and buy the same song with a different name over and over like they drank the koolaid….fight of the century not even close but marketed that way I didnt watch it and never fell for it….latest Iphone its all about sheeple I remember a long time ago realizing what they were up to and the sheep started falling in line they just kept lowering the bar and people kept buying so here we are today….Im glad I got to see the 60s 70s 80s then the marketing systems took over and started dialing in and focusing on mindless consumers why look for the next real talent when sheep will buy an image and a formula rather than say hey wait a minute this sucks Im being sold the same thing over and over because Im dumb enough to fall for it and cant think for myself
No need to be authentic anymore just demographic
Eric
May 4, 2015 @ 4:33 pm
What’s with the sexism here? Why do you claim that only females “don’t have the ability to see” and “drank the koolaid”? Bro-country, after all, is targeted to a male audience.
As for the history of the industry, marketing has always been central. Much of the idea behind the Nashville Sound was about marketing to a more urban audience, for example.
Dan
May 4, 2015 @ 4:51 pm
Cmon its strictly geared towards a female audience they all look like male models and the lyrics are all about women its a formula that is working not groundbreaking or innovative or classic just polished and contrived and lame
Eric
May 4, 2015 @ 5:23 pm
Well, the statistics show that bro-country’s primary audience is male. Read the third comment, made by Windmills Country, on the following thread:
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/sirius-xms-fresh-female-voices-looks-to-return-girl-power-to-radio
Besides, just at a logical level, it’s hard to see how the bro-country lyrics would appeal to women more than men. Most modern women are highly sensitive to being objectified; look at last year’s uproar over catcalling, for example. On the other hand, it’s obvious how the songs would appeal to horny males.
CountryKnight
May 5, 2015 @ 9:49 am
It has been my experience (from observation) that plenty of modern day women liked being told and reinforced that they are desirable on a physical level. Everyone likes to be reassured that they are pretty or handsome. I would bet even the most staunch opponents of bro-country and objectification don’t mind compliments on their physical attractiveness, even if they don’t show it. Obviously, you should marry base on personality, but being desired on a physical level is a boost to the ego.
Honestly, I think the women that most vehemently hate objectification are either the prettiest (because most people judge them on their looks and ignore their other positive attributes) and the ugliest (because people aren’t really going use those terms on them unless Billy has his beer googles on and there is jealous involved.) Bro-country “celebrates” and sings about every part of a girl. Thus, if a girl only has (by conventional beauty standards) a nice butt, she has that to sing along with and can feel pretty and desirable. Ditto for legs, breasts, hair, smile. (I am a smile man, myself.)
Bro-country appeals to our primal urges. For guys, it is all about dreaming or imagining they are actually landing the 10/10 or 9.9 girl instead of watching her end up with the rich guy or the athletic star. For girls, it is knowing that in a world that views beauty as external, they are mentioned as jaw dropping and honey dripping.
And I am saying this as a pock-marked guy. I prefer the Josh Turner version of sappy love, but I can understand why bro-country is (was) successful. It is straight temptation. Josh Turner’s love is a long process, bro-country is tailgate love after meeting up a couple of hours ago. It is a shortcut to a short-term treasure. It is toxic escapism that gives good escapism a tarnished name.
Joshua R.
May 5, 2015 @ 10:44 am
The only ardent supporters of bro country that I know are women. They seem to eat that stuff up. I’ve never met one guy who’s passionate about bro country, but plenty of females and it baffles me every time.
CountryKnight
May 5, 2015 @ 11:31 am
Joshua,
FGL recently came to a town near me and some of my service fraternity boys went to the concert. I will admit I was jealous. FGL is my guilty pleasure. Both of my fraternity brothers’ girls (one brother is officially dating a girl and the other brother should be dating the girl he went with) were the most excited to go. Heck, the non-dating girl was sort of hoping she could go home with the FGL boys, despite their committed relationships! She and the one brother had meet and greet passes her mom brought for her. My fraternity brothers were excited for the concert, but the girls’ excitement overwhelmed theirs. It was scary to see her think out loud that they might take her home. I mean, she is cute, but I doubt FGL (if they did one night stands) are going to take home a 6.5/10 when they have 10/10’s on standby.
CountryKnight
May 5, 2015 @ 11:56 am
Even the modern women (that I have encountered) who hate being objectified and consider it heinous still dress to take advantage of their looks. It is not like they are walking around in Puritan gowns or less flattering clothes. Many of my female professors (especially the younger ones) who probably fall under your category of modern women dress to impress. Tight dresses, copious makeup, their body posture, hair styles, etc.
I am not defending objectification (and can never) because it goes against my values of chivalry, but I am sorry, if a man decides to comment/pick up line because of your outfit, don’t act all innocent and shocked. If you head to the bar with a tight dress and cleavage, then drunk men are going to show interest in crude manner. Doesn’t make it right, but life is life and people have a right to express their lewd thoughts (just as long as they don’t act on them) just as you have the right to wear that tight dress.
There is a cost for everything and the cost of wearing sexy clothes is increased attention. I cannot stand those women that dress all provokingly and get upset when shallow men make moves on them. Sorry, if you let it all hang out, some less moral people are going to stare and you cannot stop them. Take some responsibility. Anything goes doesn’t mean the world will play by your rules. (NOT THAT EVER JUSTIFIES ANYTHING INAPPROPRIATE. )
Joshua R.
May 5, 2015 @ 12:06 pm
CountryKnight,
Not disputing anything you said, but I’d take down home cute/adorable over Hollywood hot any day. Talking about girls here.
CountryKnight
May 5, 2015 @ 12:31 pm
Joshua, I figured that. haha.
Are you sure you don’t want Aldean or Swindell? 😉
Regarding cute/adorable vs. Hollywood hot, I am on the fence. It comes down to personality for me, but if I had to judge purely on looks, it might lean to Hollywood hot, but it depends on how adorable!
Dan
May 4, 2015 @ 5:01 pm
It was better when the guys were ugly and the music was real
Eric
May 4, 2015 @ 5:18 pm
When were the guys “ugly”? Professional country singers, if anything, have always been renowned for their attention to fashion. Look at some old videos of Buck Owens, for example, who wasn’t even part of the Nashville industry.
Fuzzy TwoShirts
May 4, 2015 @ 6:38 pm
I still have a few early Buck Owens records. Buck and Don and Doyle Holly were all immaculately dressed on the cover, but they weren’t good looking.
Jackie Treehorn
May 4, 2015 @ 7:24 pm
Two words man – Johnny Paycheck. Besides you missed the point dude. You can be as fashionable as the fanciest Hollywood metro but if you ugly, you ugly. No sequined tuxedo will fix that
Eric
May 4, 2015 @ 7:37 pm
Cole Swindell, Chase Rice, and Jason Aldean are also “ugly” by conventional beauty standards. About the only major bro-country singer who is conventionally handsome is Luke Bryan.
CountryKnight
May 5, 2015 @ 9:56 am
I agree with Cole and Jason being considered “ugly” by those standards, but Chase Rice shouldn’t be lumped with them.
Joshua R.
May 5, 2015 @ 10:49 am
LMAO, somehow a dialogue which started out discussing the relevancy of some comments George Jones made years ago descended into a bunch of dudes arguing over which bro country artists are better looking.
CountryKnight
May 5, 2015 @ 11:38 am
Yup. Shows you how low bro-country can take us. But the funny thing is, Jason and Cole are examples of “Hollywood Homely.” They may not be Hollywood Hot, but they would still be some of the brightest stars back home.
Reminds me of how the hottest girls in high school usually pale in comparison to the hottest or near hottest girls in college. Usually, because those college girls (physically) have it all, while a high school girl might have 2/3 or 3/4 of the equation. (That is my experience.)
So, where do all these angels come from then? The lab? Because some towns must be the birthplace of all these cheerleaders and actresses!
E.J Lawrence
May 4, 2015 @ 5:26 pm
It may be geared towards Males but it’s the Females buying it, Watched a hour of I Heart Radio Saturday and the whole crowd looked to be Females with the only guys being either Fathers or Boy fiends. They obviously don’t care that the songs they listen to objectifies them as long as they’re being told they are Cute or Sexy.
CountryKnight
May 5, 2015 @ 9:54 am
Yeah, it reminds me of waiting for a movie a few years ago (might have been Man of Steel, but that is not important) and seeing all the trapped boyfriends in the Twilight line. (The only time I was thankful for being single.)The only difference is that most females appear to be pursing bro-country on their own compared to the Twilight boyfriends, but if a Martian showed up and looked at the line without context, he would think that Twilight was an unisex movie.
Bro-country may have been packaged to the men, but tons of girl co-op it.
Albert
May 5, 2015 @ 12:00 am
Dan ….you’ve summed up marketing to pop culture in a paragraph . Lower the common denominator , target the naive and uninformed and sell it hard .Make it newer , faster , shinier , sexier , and obsolete as quickly as possible to sell it all over again.
JDW
May 4, 2015 @ 1:32 pm
George “Mutha Fukn” Jones!!!
Hawkeye
May 4, 2015 @ 2:09 pm
George can tell it straight
Off topic
MAY THE 4TH BE WITH YOU!!!!!!!!!!!
Clint
May 4, 2015 @ 5:40 pm
Dear Acca Dacca,
Do you believe me now?
Cobra
May 4, 2015 @ 6:28 pm
*clap clap clap clap clap*
Anthony
May 4, 2015 @ 7:11 pm
On the topic of “too country for radio”, y’all should check out Tony Martinez’s new EP “Everbody’s Buddy”. You’ll thank me later…
CountrySunshine
May 5, 2015 @ 3:22 pm
Absolutely love seeing this!
I remember getting in more than one argument with “people” who started talking shit on him when he called out Taylor Swift & Carrie Underwood specifically, for stealing Country’s identity, a few years ago. He was never shy about how he felt about the state of Country Music, & I loved him all the more for it. I was like 5 when I quit listening to “Country” radio, as soon as I realized they weren’t playing George & Loretta (at the time they were my entire world….& still are to an extent, lol) I was done with it. And that was in the mid 90s…if I had only known……
luckyoldsun
May 5, 2015 @ 11:31 pm
Radio is a business. They play what makes money.
What Jones was calling “traditional country” just isn’t mainstream anymore. You can complain about it all you want, but that’s reality.
Greg
May 6, 2015 @ 7:04 am
I quit listening to a lot of Country radio stations that won’t play my favorite singer :Loretta Lynn’s songs.The stations that DO play her songs,I do listen to.The ones that don’t,I won’t.
I play CD’s too.Thank God for CD’s.
I also hold to the opnion that Traditonal Country DOES make money.George Jones continued to sell out concerts right up until the time the Lord called him home.And we all know George did Traditonal Country music.I would call that making money,selling out concert venues.
Sure,radio stations will tell you that Traditonal Country Music does not make them any money,but a lot of radio stations will say that because the boss tells them to say it,or because a book written by someone who is a consultant for Country Radio stations will tell the DJ to say that.Or both.But my opnion is: Traditonal Country can & DOES make money.I know a guy who owns three radio stations in Xenia,Eaton & Wilimington Ohio,all three stations are doing great,and all three stations ARE making money.Not to mention,all three stations ARE tradional Country.So,my opnion is:If these three stations can do it & make money,any Country radio station can do it and make money.
Also,I mentioned concerts earlier,common sense tells me,if people do not want to hear Tradional Country on the radio,people would not be paying to see them in concert either.But,the fact is,people ARE paying to see them in concert,so that leads me to believe the reality is people,the majority,DO want to hear these stars on the radio.
Not to mention,a point I touched on in a previous post..So many people that used to listen to so called Country Radio are now listening to Willies Roadhouse,or to WSM on the internet,or listening to another internet Country station that streams on line in the US & Canada that plays Real Country Music.
If I was the owner of a Country station,and I saw people had stopped listening to my station because I’m not playing the Country Music the fans want to hear,the first thing I would do is get rid of the consultants,and start playing the Country Music the fans want to hear.I would also play the new songs by the legends of country (Loretta,Dolly,Gene Watson,Merle Haggard,etc),as well as their old songs.
Loretta will forever be my no.1 favorite singer.Nothing or no one will ever change that.Not even radio.
Nick Brown
May 6, 2015 @ 12:09 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P68Jbs68vg
At the 13:00 minute mark George starts talking about today’s music.