Saving Country Music

[...] ETA: Triggerman over at SavingCountryMusic.com has his own, rather lethal point of view on last night here. [...]

Only a person who has never been a teenage girl could write something like this. You are defending an adult attacking a teenage girl. To do so is sexist and ageist. You may hate her music, but to turn this incident into prompt for you to campaign to strip Taylor Swift of her voice in the music industry (and no matter what you say about puppeteering, Ms. Swift does in fact write her own music and lyrics, and has since she was an unsigned artist with a MySpace). She is one of the few voices out there who is a teenage girl writing songs for teenage girls. You even mention that the VMAs are for a younger audience. It’s safe to say that Ms. Swift is too. You aren’t supposed to like her music, it’s not aimed at you. Stop demonizing a teenage girl, it is sickening.

…wow, self, way to post at three in the morning! Anyways…

I admit, I wrote this comment with another person in mind, someone who showed me this link, who was defending Kanye, and my mind, in three o’clock daze, misread the post. I’m sorry about that ^^;

I actually agree, Taylor Swift’s songs are mischaracterized as country. And I found that Def Leppard performance to be rather tough to watch.

(And I strongly dislike Garth Brooks’ music too (; )

Hacks like Swift are what gave the creation and need for savingcountrymusic.com.
The name of this site stands on it’s own. “Saving Country Music.” And as Triggerman states, in this article and the whole philosophy of this site, he want’s his music back, as the good name of country music has been hijacked by not only this barbie doll embryo in a dress, but many other posers and phonies who are as much country as I am an opera singer. It was the Garth brooks explosion that persuaded me to give up on Nashville in the 90’s and move away. It was all over after that, because once music row saw that it could rake in gazillions by clowns and hacks who people would rather see swing from ropes and wear the biggest cowboy hat, that’s where the industry turned and what path it continues on to this day. When my 11 year old daughter, who hates real country music, likes Taylor Swift, I realize that the title remains but the music has been changed to protect the brain dead. The great artists who pioneered and made country music what it became, would not be able to get a record deal today. Real true country music, for anyone old enough or informed enough to understand, was all about pain and suffering, paying hard dues, experiencing the hardship and frustration which life dumps on most of us. No, it wasn’t all about your dog dying and losing your pickup. Those inane and sarcastic statements are reserved for the musical illiterate. Country at one time was the white man’s blues. Today it is the college kid’s bankroll. There was a time when most country artists came from the farm or the hills or the cotton patch. They wrote about what they knew, and as a result the music was sincere and real, not always pretty, but real. Hard and grizzled troubadours such as Willie Nelson,Kris Kristofferson, Faron Young and Roger Miller drank hard at lower Broadway dives in Nashville and traded war stories and song ideas. What was born from that great era were the most amazing classical country songs ever written, and that never will be again.
Today we have children like Taylor swift who has never had a pretty hair out of place writing songs about her boyfriend troubles on her pink satin sheets in her bedroom. Now that country music has become country pop, or new country, or whatever the hell name the bankers and bean counters will impose on us,it is probably just a matter of time until Hanna Montana also joins the genre. What next? A Madonna country album? There is sometimes a backlash. I really do not know if it is too late to save country music, as we live in a modern time where a musician is more interested in leaving their house with their blackberry and cell phone than their guitar. In the days gone by real artists wrote wherever they went, always on the lookout for a new song idea, or a willingness to live the hard life so as to better write about it. Today were more focused on our myspace ‘friend’ count. Swift, and other phony music industry creations are a reflection of these shitty times. nothing is real anymore. We have become one with the technology and instant push button gratification which gives us an attention span of 12 seconds and as zombies are driven to listen to and purchase whatever has the most marketing pushing it.
Real country music has long ago earned it’s rightful place in the annals and history of American music. As for this new brand of swill, it’s going to have to find it’s own place because it has no business sharing the same museum.

I don’t mean to knock on Taylor Swift, she’s got talent. She writes her own music, which is rare for the Nashville crowd and I kind of respect that. But it’s still not country music.

My 7 year old loves her music. But I tell her all the time, it’s not real country music. Then she says, “But Hank is real country, huh dad?” That’s when I know I’m bringing her up right.

Well….for me, I don’t like Taylor Swift’s music. But I think there are many branches to Country music, the way there are many branches of Rock music. I will listen to Social D, White Stripes, The Who, Pink Floyd, etc, but not so much of The Rolling Stones—or even crap by Kid Rock that has crossed into several genres, including some people who have called him country. That doesn’t mean they don’t fall into a genre. I very much enjoy outlaw country & that’s fine for me, but I’m not going to say that Trace Adkins isn’t country, because it is very country, even though it’s not my style, and those aren’t the albums I’m out paying my hard-earned money on. I’m just saying that just cuz her music sucks pretty bad, doesn’t mean she’s not her own style of country (that happens to crossover into crappy pop, too). Sometimes, even you, have to admit there are many branches of every genre, the good, the bad, and the down-right abhorent!

Funny thing happened tonight. I was listening to the local “pop country” station while at work & I heard the new Taylor Swift song come on the radio. The more I listened the more I wanted to take back my lengthy defense of her place in country music! Ha! Yeah, she’s got the crap-pop think DOWN, doesn’t she?! Ate my words with every note she sang.

It hit me at 3am this morning. The realisation that I had never heard a Taylor Swift song prior to her performance on the VMAs but I’d HEARD that song before. Somewhere. Aha - Avril Lavigne! That was my 3am revelation. What did bring me some solace (in regards to Taylor being hailed as a ‘country singer’) was remembering that when young Avril burst onto the music scene in 2003 with the song “Complicated” she was hailed as a “Punk Princess” At the time us old punks tsk tsked and said “Comeon, that ain’t punk!”. It’s pop music, pure and simple. Same deal with Taylor Swift: pop music being sub-genred into a category it clearly doesn’t fit into. My question is: if Averil’s song is ‘punk’ why is Taylor’s ‘country’? They’re the same goddamn song! Seriously, I am attaching both of them here, have a listen.

Averil Lavigne ‘Complicated’

Taylor Swift ‘You Belong With Me’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGXYAJoDWCk

Despite the link drama, I totally get your point Carla. There is a great bit of similarity between Averil and Taylor. They both write their own songs, and they both are living on the pop side of things, and piggy-backing off of other genres for attention.

My next Taylor blog is going to be analyzing her songwriting. But I’m gonna put some space between me and Taylor for a bit. The natives are getting restless.

You make a splendid spokesman for pop country YOGOTTI.

I hope CNN wouldn’t take anything that happened on the CMT Awards seriously either, because they are possibly worse than the MTV Awards.

And yes, this whole post was really a guised anti-war rant. You caught me.

I shall go cry now, because I’m a crybaby.

To say Taylor isn’t country would be the equivalent of saying Kenny Chesney isn’t either because all his songs are about beaches and paradise, Keith Urban whose majority of songs are articulate and not about drinking and/or being a redneck, Brad Paisley who write songs about how the world is changing to a multicultural melting pot, Lady-A and all their love songs, etc. The point is, Taylor is NO LESS country than any of those folks either.

In fact, with all the country music garbage that has been released in recent years, country fans should be kissing Taylor Swift’s butt for keeping the genre of country music remotely relevant in mainstream America. Although there are some people that like hearing young boys sing songs like George Straight would, most people are grossly turned off by that. So, for the people wanting to preserve old school country, you need not diss those that are actually attracting an audience. People like what they like and old school country like Easton Corbin and similar acts are simply not “cool”, despite they are excellent artists in their isolated sub-genres.

Acts like Swift that border on pop and other genres are country music’s saving grace, as much as it pains me to say that. Although I can personally appreciate old school country, most people cannot. It’s the bitter truth for old school country fans.

I totally agree that Taylor Swift is not country!!!!
Trace Adkins, Toby Keith, Kenny Chesney and Tim Mcgraw are Pop-Country stars with a singing country accent. Even Garth Brooks has some country in his music. Taylor Swift’s songs has NOTHING to do with country. My sister thinks Taylor Swift is country and she wants me to listen to her POP music. I said hell no, I would never get into Taylor’s Pop garbage, I’d rather stick to traditional country artists like George Strait, Alan Jackson, Clint Black, Ricky Van Shelton, Hank Williams Jr., Merle Haggard, Charlie Daniels band and Wade Hayes. Taylor Swift is destroying country music.

Trace Adkins, Toby Keith, Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw are country-pop stars with a country singing accent. Even Garth Brooks has some country to his music. Taylor Swift’s music has NOTHING to do with country. Taylor Swift is actually destroying REAL Country music. God it’s awful.

Country Music defined by Ben Gonsioroski

Whether or not someone is country, is hard to define now days. Language with its many definitions is constantly changing and is being re-defined everyday. Country music started out as a WAY of life not some genre or style of music. Country music was born from America’s backcountry rural farm and rancher type people, not city folk. The roots of country music came from hard working people who were generally poor and had little or no entertainment but to sit in the shade after a long hard days work on the front porch or wherever and express his or her soul of ordinary country life lived everyday in the form of music. Most of the instruments used back then were homemade guitars, fiddles, banjos, mandolins, and what not. Over a period of time, music of this nature developed into a genre or style and became very popular. The genre, “Country Music” was born.

Now days just because someone produces a certain sound or style, they feel they are country. The problem is… that certain sound has evolved over the years into something entirely different than it’s roots, not only the music but also the lyrics. Country music is no longer clearly defined as country. There has always been a rift and lack of understanding between country people and city people. Country people feel they are more closely in touch with the land and therefore feel more of a simple down home connection with nature and the earth with it’s way of life. City folk commonly do not have the same connection with the country way of life and therefore do not feel or express their souls with the same style of music. Consequently, Country music and city music have been mostly very different in lyric style and musical score. Now that most feel it’s all about the style or genre instead of a way of life, the true definition of country music has been lost. Genre’s and musical categories are subject to constant change…not so with the country way of life. The country way of life and its people change very slowly if at all.

Because of this, the genre or style of country music has changed dramatically as more and more city people have gained access to the country music industry. It takes lots of money to produce music and push it over the airwaves. City people seem to have more of the green stuff so naturally the style of country music has been altered by people who were born in the city and have very little real connection with the original grass roots country music sound. Like it or not, this is the TRUE definition of COUNTRY MUSIC!

Listen to my music and tell me I ain’t country! I’m so country, people don’t even know how to take me.