Is Country Music Dead?
I normally try to answer questions here not ask them, and you’d think that after running a website called “Saving Country Music” for as long as I have I would have asked this question before. And I’m not asking this question rhetorically either. I really want to know, is country music dead?
I began to wonder this when I read on The 9513 that Gene Watson and Trace Adkins are teaming up to make a rebuttal song to the famous (or infamous) Larry Cordle song “Murder on Music Row” (see below). The new song is called “We’ve Got a Pulse.” I personally love “Murder on Music Row” and think that each verse is so poignant, so starkly true it hurts; even the part about “rock n’ roll guitars all mixed up in your face” though I personally have no problem with rock n’ roll, or blending rock and country.
First off, I predict colossal failure for this song. I mean, Gene says “There’s not a better song out there that states how I feel about country music.” Yet he had to hire a cabal of “today’s hottest writers” to write the song for him. Gene Watson couldn’t write the himself because in the modern Nashville assembly line-style of how to manufacture a hit that “Murder on Music Row” was making light of in the first place, artists don’t write their own songs.
But what I want to focus on is the bigger picture. Though “Murder on Music Row” shows nothing but reverence for the music and defiance for the Music Row institutions that have corrupted the music with their single-minded monetary interests, an underlying theme of the song is that country music has been murdered, and thus, it is dead. And though I agree with everything in the song, I can understand how this could put a sour taste in a REAL country fan’s mouth.
IS country music dead? Or is it just Music Row that is dead? Or is it the traditions and institutions that have died? If you imply that the music is dead, then this dots the period at the end of the story. The reason I named this website Saving Country Music, was to give people a measure of hope, to make people feel like it isn’t all lost, and I try to reinforce this in every article I write. When I talk to artists and behind-the-scenes people, I always make sure to thank them, offer them encouragement, and let them know that all the fans, however silent or pedestrian they may be, appreciate what they do, not only for them as fans, but for the music in general.
I personally don’t know how I feel about this topic. I kind of feel that country music is not dead, though I understand that sentiment. I feel that it is in bad shape, and that the last sparks of country music are in exile, sheltered in the hearts of all REAL country music fans, as well as in the hearts of REAL country artists, and the behind the scenes people and the venues that keep the music alive. THAT is why I try to offer encouragement, to hopefully keep people nourishing those sparks within them, because this is all country music has left. And where there’s a spark, you can start a fire.
But I want to know what YOU think. Is country music dead?
August 6, 2009 @ 4:54 am
Country music is alive and well and always will be as long as artists like Gene Watson, George Strait, Trace Adkins and Alan Jackson, to name a few, are out there. Country music has strayed away from its roots but it hasn’t died. It will return as strong as ever as long as true country music fans, such as myself, stay true to the best music on earth. Country music is very much alive!
August 6, 2009 @ 8:18 am
I don’t know the Gene Watson song you mention but I read something on AOL about it and Gene Watson said Country Music is not dead as long as there are singers and musicians out there playing – the fans will find it and come to hear it. I agree with him on that. There seems to have been a shift to country rock over the past 25 years as the sound of bands like the Eagles , Poco, Byrds are no long heard on “pop radio” but that style can now be found on Country radio. That’s a fine thing but it would be better if radio also allowed more of a diversity which would include the likes of Watson, Haggard and others who are regarded as “real” country.Throw in the occasional bluegrass tune too while they’re at it.
August 6, 2009 @ 10:57 am
But Alan Jackson and George Strait sang “Murder on Music Row,” which talks about how country music was killed, hence implying it is dead, that is where my confusion comes from.
August 6, 2009 @ 1:25 pm
Attempted Murder in the First Degree! Garth Brooks. Toby Keith. Trace Adkins. Shania Twain. Dixie Chicks. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty! Guilty!!!!! Guilty!
They’ve redefined Country & Western to become Country to become Pop-Country. It ain’t country music anymore.
So they’ve tried to kill the real country music. There are some stragglers keeping the real music alive and I don’t think it can be killed. Every single form or style of music has been kept alive. Think about it. You better beleive that it will live and it will become huge again … but it may not look like it used to look but you’ll know it when you hear it.
August 6, 2009 @ 4:46 pm
My opinion on this topic is pretty simple. Before going any further though, I think this topic is tough to discuss without asking this question. WHAT IS REAL COUNTRY MUSIC? Without a solid answer to that question, that is satisfactory, you will never be able to answer if it is dead or not”¦.but I digress.
Music of any genre (rock, pop, country, urban) is cyclical, yet always evolving. The country music we heard come out of the 40”™s and 50”™s will never be heard again plain and simple. Johnny Cash, Ernest Tubb, Lefty Frizzell are not making records anymore. Times have changed, people have changed, and the ideas have changed. That doesn”™t mean that the core values and believes of country music are dead, even though the sound is evolving.
It wouldn”™t surprise me that within the next five years a version of an outlaw movement takes place in the country scene. Just as the first one was basically a reaction to the waste that early 70”™s country brought. Of course this version will be variably different then the first one, given the fact like I said before times have changed. Like any hot-topic debate it is hard to find a definitive answer especially with all the circumstances that go into it. But for a simple response, country music is not dead.
I suppose to qualify my answer the best way possible. I believe the institutions that embodied country music for so long are dead. Personally, in my taste of country music, Nashville is completely irrelevant to anything I find listening worthy, outside of a few exceptions. The joke that is country radio isn”™t going to change, because Nashville, Music Row, and everything that it encompasses is a business. Guess what Taylor Swift, Rascall Flatts and Kenny Chesney sell, so they”™re going to keep getting played. If you don”™t like that, the best thing to do is ignore it, because it”™s not going anywhere.
Great country music is coming from all areas of this country, and with the technological society that we live in now, it is not very hard to find it, if you are willing to look. To some of you, bands like Lucero, Stoney Larue, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Whiskeytown etc”¦might not sound like traditional country music, but they have the heart and soul that carried Johnny, Hank, and Waylon to become country icons endeared by millions. But if you”™re looking for duplication of sound and persona in someone making music today I feel you”™ll be searching for something you”™re never going to find. In closing, to say country music is dead, in my opinion is false. It”™s simply changed, taken different forms, but everything indigenous to the music is still completely there, you just got to look for it.
October 31, 2012 @ 4:24 pm
You, Sir, sound like the typical “educated” liberal. Either you will eventually grow up, or you will die stupid. Right is right, wrong is wrong, black is black, and white is white. Real country music mean fiddle and a steel guitar, for all of you moronic talk about institutional changes… Folks like you ruin everything. Stick to your alternative or rock… vote for Obama… and leave folks like us alone.
August 8, 2009 @ 4:10 pm
I’m going to have to agree with Cliff England. Times do change. Rock and roll from the 50s and 60s is completely different from rock and roll from the present day. Country music has its roots. People like III, Lucky Tubb, .357, Bob Wayne, Pine Box Boys; they all have good intentions of keeping the roots of country music intact. But, we are talking about music ARTISTS here. These masterminds are going to bring out their own version and style of country music.
Country music is not dead. Hank III, Lucky, PBB, Bob Wayne, The Honkey Tonk Hustlas, David Allan Coe, The Hagg, No Show Jones, and many others are still out there keeping their music alive damnit! This is a war! Those assholes in Nashville have bad intentions for country music. They have put pretty boys, like Keith Urban and Rascal Flatts, and girls, like Carrie Underwood and Kellie Pickler, as the face on country music. They even try to put out “Outlaw” singers such as Toby Keith and Jamey Johnson to snag a few traditional country fans, which works sadly. And yet the majority of those “Country Music Singers” probably don’t even own a Bob Wills CD or record.
We(SavingCountryMusic.com and its supporters) know what REAL Country is! We will not let anyone make us think otherwise. The music…no the spirit of country music is out there. We just have to find it just like England said. We have the ways to find those brilliant country music artists. We need to get off our lazy asses and go support them.
Triggerman, finding this website, along with Hank III, has given me hope on country music. It has saved me from the “shit they call pop country music on 98.1”. I thank you for your blogs, interviews, and just all around support. I can’t get enough of it! Keep doin what ur doin and we will be heard. I’m proud to be a crazed country rebel obsessed with REAL tobacco spittin, cow shittin, beer drinkin, shotgun shootin, hell raisin country music. How about y’all?
And if that ain’t country I’ll kiss your ass.
August 8, 2009 @ 4:45 pm
Thanks Bates.
Saving Country Music » Blog Archive » The George Strait Dichotomy (Twang)
August 14, 2009 @ 4:49 pm
[…] Some examples are his performance of “Murder on Music Row” which I talked about in the Is Country Music Dead? article, and the movie “Pure Country” made in the heat of the Garth Brooks “Young […]
August 17, 2009 @ 6:48 pm
Real country ain’t and never will die.
It’s only music row and the hacks within
it that force feed the public swill
such as Taylor Swift and Rascal Flats,
neither of which are country but Disney
inspired novelties created for shallow
minded fans who only discovered Johnny Cash
after the movie ‘Walk The Line.”
July 3, 2010 @ 8:49 pm
I do this for a living and have for decades. Is Country Music dead? Yup: Deader than a doornail! It’s been 15 years since you could do a night of Country Music without including ‘jackasses’ like Garth (I wanna be gay) Brooks or Keith ( I with I was Bryan Adams) Urban.
It’s goin’ the way of Western Swing. Too damn bad. In years to come, you’ll get the same reaction to Cheating Heart that you now get to Roly Poly: If you don’t know that song, I won’t explain!
I love music and play all styles. In years past I could name my price on a Pedal Steel gig: Today, I hardly get a call. I do pretty much what I want at my shows. I have a lot of venues and if they don’t like the show I move on and don’t look back. That being said, there are no more Country gigs out there.
There are a ton of Country Pop ( or whatever you call that stuff ) gigs. That’s just the way it is! If you have to ask if you’re an Alcoholic, you probably are: If you have to ask if Country is dead, it probably is.
Too bad. It breaks my heart too. You can’t go home anymore; the house isn’t standing. Play it when you can and remember the ‘Good old days’.
Look at our society and you won’t be surprised that traditions are dying. The song says “MURDER”, not “SOMEONE GOT HURT AND THEY’LL GET BETTER”. I feel lucky that I knew it when it was still alive.
Guitar Dan
March 9, 2012 @ 10:11 am
Country Music has definitely died.
Trace Adkins is an example of why, so to hear that he took place in a rebuttal to “Murder on Music Row”, is laughable. I had the misfortune of seeing Trace perform live in a pre-race concert before the NASCAR race at Texas Motor Speedway last fall, easily the worst concert I’ve ever sat through. All you could hear was the drone of an electric bass and a bass drum thumping away, I listen to all music, and I’ve been to hip-hop shows with less bass. I was a Trace Adkins fan until that day, now any time I hear his music it’s a reminder of that awful show. I’ve also seen Pat Green and Billy Joe Shaver live in pre-race concerts there over the years, and while the acoustics and sound system at the race track aren’t great, their performances were FAR better.
May 19, 2012 @ 4:43 pm
Personally i think country music is not dead, but it’s far from where it was, i grew up listening to loretta lynn, Alan Jackson, George Strait, George Jones, Conway Twitty, Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire to name a few, and well let me just point out i’m 20 years old, but thats the music the was played day and night in my house, and therefore i learned to love it, for its lyrics an the story behind each song. When i compare the the country artists from today (taylor swift, carrie underwood, brad paisley, Trace Atkins, Jason Aldean, Rascall Flatts, etc) there’s basically no doubt country has changed dramatically, although not to lie, i do listen to their music, but it’s simply not the same! and that’s what’s so sad about this song “Murder on music row” cause you’re not gonna get the traditional sound country music had on one of the new artists songs.
September 24, 2012 @ 6:11 pm
todays country/pop music is manufactured not created,you can hear it when you listen to it…..all music files moved all over the place with protools and electronics..
it does suck…many of todays country people would never have got out of the vfw
in the 70,s and 80,s, it’s just a fact….theres a lot of bands playin the old music down
on the row in nashville and their doin it for nothin but tips,they aint even making gas money,if thats what they want to do with there talent, happy trails…
June 4, 2013 @ 8:22 pm
“even the part about “rock n”™ roll guitars all mixed up in your face” though I personally have no problem with rock n”™ roll, or blending rock and country.”
Here’s yet another instance of where my lack of knowledge of artists outside of the music they make is biting me in the butt. If you don’t mind blending rock and country, why is it that you constantly criticize Jason Aldean for making “generic arena rock” and Eric Church for making “classic rock,” not country? I realize that this is an older post and that your opinions might have changed, but I can’t seem them altering THAT much.