Lee Ann Womack Says The Term “Country” Has Been Hijacked
Country star Lee Ann Womack has certainly shown a propensity to speak out lately about the state of country music, saying on numerous occasions that what they call country music today is not actually country. Now she’s speaking out again, and in no uncertain terms about what she believes modern country music is experiencing at the moment.
On Wednesday (8-9), ABC aired its annual 3-hour special of CMA Fest coverage taken from the event in June at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium. Like many other country artists from across the genre, Lee Ann Womack participated in CMA Fest, which she had generally nice things to say about while speaking to The Boot.
“I think there was a charm in the early years, those Fan Fair years, that’s maybe not there now … It felt a little more ‘mom and pop’, and that has its advantages as well. But sometimes people think that I’m gonna be the person who says, ‘Oh, it should be like it used to be,’ and I don’t feel that way. I like to see things grow and advance and change.”
However Womack wasn’t so agreeable with to the changes happening in country music proper, saying point blank, “The term ‘country music’ has been hijacked, and now it’s a marketing term. It gets frustrating at times, because I sing country music, so if I’m not country, then it leaves you without a home.”
As Womack underscores, country music isn’t just a term—it’s a sense of place, or “home” for many, which when torn asunder, leaves the people who identify with the music feeling lost for a sense of place or identity. Country music has always been special by presenting a constant in and ever-changing world. No matter what else is happening, country music is there. But as the lines continue to blur between other genres, that sense of home gets erased, leaving people feeling lost and lonely.
Womack also made sure to leave the door open to newer artists who may be doing something more along the lines of what country music is supposed to be. “If there are some new artists that are doing traditional country music—which I know Kacey Musgraves does, more power to them. I love that, and it’s kind of amazing. It’s an American art form, and I’m proud of it. It’s just my favorite.”
Sometimes when Lee Ann Womack speaks out on such matters, certain people point out her big, crossover smash “I Hope You Dance” as an example of hypocrisy. But along with being a great song, her signature tune was smashed between fiercely traditional-sounding albums from earlier and later in her career.
As strange as it may seem to some that the singer of “I Hope You Dance” is one of the most vocal opponents to what’s happening in country music today, that is what Lee Ann Womack has become, using her stature as a decorated and established country artist to speak her mind, and raise awareness about what’s happening in the genre more than anyone else at the moment.
albert
August 9, 2018 @ 9:48 am
(I wonder if Lee Ann is as ‘up’ on what’s out there as , maybe , she should be …. ?)
Gotta love when a respected ARTIST tells it like it is , though .
The woman has always been and still is a MONSTER talent . I know she’s recorded lots of straight -up COUNTRY music and I think that really is her wheelhouse . At the same time , whenever she’s pushed the envelope , there is always an honesty in the lyric and performance which is an undeniable country approach to singing country . She can do no wrong with that approach , IMO …
Drake
August 9, 2018 @ 9:58 am
I think Lee Ann is “up on what’s out there.” She’s been to the Steamboat Music Fest a number of times and seen the way that’s grown and has kept up with many of those up and coming artists through the years.
She really is an amazing talent and despite the pop success of “I Hope You Dance” it’s not like a Shania song that was gone and re-recorded specifically for a pop audience. A good song is a good song that reaches across genres.
Saint Savage
August 9, 2018 @ 10:21 am
I agree. It’s one thing when a Country song crosses over on it’s own merit, but when you have to re-record it to fit a different genre that’s BS.
brian b
August 12, 2018 @ 1:35 pm
But country crossover is not new by any means. Patsy Cline was probably the best example of that.
Chris
August 9, 2018 @ 11:22 am
“I Hope You Dance” was remixed for pop radio. Most pop stations didn’t play the original version. The version that was played on most AC and Top-40 stations has different instrumentation and replaces the Sons of the Desert backing vocals with generic female backup vocals. Not surprisingly, the pop version sounds like it’s missing something.
That, however, is just quibbling to me. The song is still classy, well-written and less syrupy than other “Hallmark-card” “soccer-mom” AC country songs of the era (“Live Like You Were Dying”). Lee Ann’s vocal style is still unmistakably country, and she never sought crossover success again, so in my opinion her country cred wasn’t hurt one iota by having a crossover hit. She’s stayed true to herself and to the country genre, and for that I respect her immensely.
Black Boots
August 10, 2018 @ 7:24 am
Her Daughter, Aubrie Sellers is awesome, too. She’s got a similar voice, but definitely has her own sound, and it’s great.
Bill
August 9, 2018 @ 10:42 am
Saw Lee Ann in concert this past Sat night in Fayetteville GA. Great old school country concert. She can sing country music with the best of ’em.
albert
August 9, 2018 @ 2:31 pm
……..so jealous
Dobe Daddy
August 9, 2018 @ 10:45 am
Yeah, ‘I Hope You Dance’ was a crossover hit, and it’s a great song. That doesn’t make Lee Ann Womack a hypocrite. She didn’t run away to join the pop circus. She just went on recording country music. She can do what the fake country singers she calls out can’t do, which is sing a song with just a guitar, take you on a journey, and make you feel it. Don’t tell me that Kelsea Ballerini or Maren Morris wouldn’t set a 100m sprint record to full time pop radio if they’d had that song. Not that they have a tenth of Lee Ann’s talent to begin with.
Dirt Road Derek
August 9, 2018 @ 10:46 am
Trends and sub-genres come and go, but the traditional core sound will always be here, even if its at times less represented than others. Traditional country is the foundation which all the variations are built upon, and from where all country artists draw inspiration regardless of what other influences they incorporate.
Mike Honcho
August 9, 2018 @ 5:28 pm
You’re the guy I was waiting to post before I have an opinion. FGL fans always have the insight.
Dirt Road Derek
August 9, 2018 @ 5:43 pm
Always happy to help a lady in distress. You’re welcome, Honchess. <3
charisma
August 15, 2018 @ 4:57 am
man you gave me goosebumps, this is the most real thing I’ve read about this debate, I wish the new crapy country singers and fans read this.
Dirt Road Derek
August 15, 2018 @ 7:46 am
Wow, thanks!
Lewis
August 9, 2018 @ 10:56 am
After the vintage review of “There’s More Where that Came From,” I went back and listened to Womack’s entire catalog. While there is some pop country on a few albums, the majority of her recordings are country gold. I’d strongly recommend perusing through the whole thing, specifically “There’s More Where that Came From.” She has earned the right to speak on country music. For further proof… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALVWNA7z4_k
OlaR
August 9, 2018 @ 11:14 am
“I Hope You Dance” is a great song.
The voice of Lee Ann Womack is perfect for the song.
Lee Ann Womack is a great artist with a long career & she is right about “country” as a marketing term. There is not much “country” on “country” radio or the “country” charts.
Thomas Rhett, Kelsea Ballerini or Lanco have no clue what a country song is or respect for country music. Like the guys who lead the Nashville labels or Billboard turning the charts into a bad joke with Bebe Rexha having the most successful “country” single ever.
Cobra
August 9, 2018 @ 11:33 am
Can’t wait to see her live tonight!
Gabe
August 9, 2018 @ 11:46 am
Have fun! She was amazing back in March when I saw her
Greg
August 9, 2018 @ 12:34 pm
Lee Ann is telling it like it is.
While I did not watch the ABC show,if Lee Ann was on,she was no doubt one of the few country acts on the show.
Trigger
August 9, 2018 @ 3:27 pm
I don’t believe Lee Ann Womack was featured on the actual televised portion of the CMA Fest broadcast, though she certainly played the festival, probably on a side stage. Her comments were made during CMA Fest though, and just posted recently. That’s why it was referenced. Just wanted to clarify.
Greg
August 9, 2018 @ 3:46 pm
Oh OK.Thanks Kyle.
David
August 9, 2018 @ 8:17 pm
Actually, Lee Ann did play the main stage at CMA Fest, surprisingly.
Blackh4t
August 9, 2018 @ 12:41 pm
I hope you dance is a great song/album. I have more of an issue with The Lonely, the lonesome. I simply can’t listen to it.
Whereas ‘the way that I’m living’ is amazing. One of my favourites.
Helen
August 9, 2018 @ 1:10 pm
Alan Jackson is true country and they call them country radio stations, but they don’t play his song’s anymore. True country fans want to still her true country music. So all you radio stations play true country music on your country stations and let the pop are what ever they call there music get there own stations.
KayCee
August 9, 2018 @ 2:18 pm
It’s very sad that CMA now stands for “Country, My A$$”.
Ulysses McCaskill
August 9, 2018 @ 4:50 pm
Who do they think we am?
Robert S.
August 11, 2018 @ 12:26 pm
Be care you might end up with a Nashville Rash.
Clarence Hurst
August 9, 2018 @ 2:55 pm
I agree with her this stuff they call country today is a long way from true country music ,most of them you cant even understand what they are saying ,and they have to jump around and have some girls dancing all around , Nashville use to be a country music city not any more ,,
albert
August 9, 2018 @ 3:05 pm
Here’s the thing about a song like I HOPE YOU DANCE , as I see it .
This is a great song . This song can be played with only an acoustic guitar. The lyric , melody and vocal performance will do the rest . GREAT songs transcend genre , trend , demographic , arrangement and yes …even the vocal performance, sometimes ( Bob Dylan , Neil Young , Lucinda Williams ……and NO offense meant to any of those artists ).
That’s why very ,very little contemporary ‘ country ‘ music is GREAT or even good . It can’t stand up under that performance scenario . It’s either reliant on trend ( hip hop phrasing ) ‘ groove ‘ ( some rhythm track – drums/percussion- that people respond to ) – or fleshed out with ear candy ( ‘whoa whoa whoa’s” or a repeat- until -unconscious title ) or simply sold in live performance or video cuz of some pretty boy or knock-out female the guys all want and the girls wanna be like .
THE SONGS are not there …..not in ‘ country ‘ and not in pop , really . The stuff relies too heavily on ‘ in -the- moment ‘ hipness and not insightful , clever , timeless , well-crafted lyric and melody . There’s a reason there is an ‘ American Songbook ‘…and its because of the SONGS …not the times , the singers , the trends or the genre …..Those songs live and breathe no matter who cuts them decade after decade because they were crafted to do so .
I HOPE YOU DANCE was a song so well -written it could deliver with the most sparsely accompanied performance or with symphonic accompaniment and move people either way . Add Lee Ann Womack to that kind of song and its a can’t -miss- gift- that-keeps -on- giving marriage of music and artist
Greg
August 9, 2018 @ 3:52 pm
As I mentioned earlier in a previous post, I saw Lee Ann @ the Grand Ole Opry once,and she did a bluegrass version of “I Hope You Dance”.It was very acoustical.Dobro,mandolin,etc.It was really good.
possumrules
August 9, 2018 @ 4:16 pm
Lee Ann Womack is pure country gold. Her vocals are even more impressive in concert.
mark
August 10, 2018 @ 4:06 pm
Lee Anne ….. “Mendocino county line” by/with Willie Nelson.
One of my favourite tunes.
Matt
August 9, 2018 @ 4:30 pm
“The term ‘country music’ has been hijacked, and now it’s a marketing term. It gets frustrating at times, because I sing country music, so if I’m not country, then it leaves you without a home.”
This is very well stated IMO. This is a big reason Spotify, Google Music etc. are doing so well and radio is not. Yes the pop stuff over shadows everything else with the amount of play it gets on those sites too but the catalogs are so vast on those sites you aren’t stuck being force fed what ever marketing wants you to believe is country, rock, hip-hop etc. You get to choose that for yourself.
One thing I would like to see more of is Live streaming some of the more roots & red dirt events similar to what Austin City Limits does on Youtube and Facebook. Or get streaming options of other stages besides the main stage.
JK
August 9, 2018 @ 4:59 pm
While I truly hate I Hope You Dance, and think it’s a toothless, saccharine load of bollocks, she’s a very good artist who has on the whole done little but good for the genre she loves. Anyway, as an artist who can quite comfortably oscillate between pop country (and not just in the case of that one cornucopia of cheese) and a more broadly ‘traditional’ sound, she seems quite qualified to identify when the pop eats up the country.
Erik North
August 9, 2018 @ 5:24 pm
Yes, country music has been hijacked…but the culprits are within the city limits of the very place that is supposed to be the genre’s home, that being NASHVILLE. And the culprits, in my opinion, are the bean counters who run the labels and who see nothing but dollar signs. As I said in another thread, this is what happens when a genre goes from being a musical style to a lifestyle, then to a billion-dollar-plus industry, and then a situation where it is virtually nothing but a business predicated on the notion that the music is only good because it makes money, not the other way around (it makes money because it’s good), and it’s a process that has been going on for as long as thirty years.
Nashville is really only the corporate home of country music now, the Grand Ole Opry notwithstanding. Other styles of country music have originated in other parts of America besides Music City, including Austin, Bakersfield, the Ozarks, and many other places. So in every sense, Lee Ann is right that the genre has been hijacked, but I think she is right in more ways than maybe even she realizes (IMHO).
Greg
August 9, 2018 @ 6:26 pm
Where Country is being hijacked is from the so called Country radio stations in the US,and Canada that won’t play the music the fans wanna hear.That’s the main problem.
Janice Brooks
August 9, 2018 @ 7:45 pm
My live programing choice tonight “Lord I Hope This Day Is Good.
Jim Greco
August 9, 2018 @ 8:50 pm
There is no more Country Music
The crap these people are putting out now is a disgrace to call it country music.
So sad that the next generation of listeners will never hear country music.
Garth Brooks does not know country music, he just screamed crap out of his mouth .
Keith Urban was never country, and Blake Shelton even turned away from Country Music.
Carrie, an Oklahoma girl give up country music, so sad.
Summer Jam
August 11, 2018 @ 10:59 pm
You obviously have not heard Blake’s latest album. Yes, its not even REMOTELY close to his first few albums, but its a step in the right direction. Radio is starting to ghost him because he’s been putting out real country songs lately.
MICHAEL HOBGOOD
August 10, 2018 @ 12:59 am
Country radio has killed traditional country music in favor of pop country to appeal to a younger audience. It’s all about the money unfortunately. It kills me that all the newer country artists love to name check the legends in their songs. Maybe they could try adding some of the authenticity of Johnny Cash or George Jones to their music instead of just those guys names.
Pierre Brunelle
August 10, 2018 @ 7:42 am
Exactly. Corporations have no soul and will destroy everything that is meaningful. They will sell you things that will kill you (fast food among others) and they will make a profit on it. Actually, they will make a profit in the long run since you will have to buy a bunch of pills due to the rise in cancer (!).
What you are noticing today is the consequence of societal degradation. Country music on the radio is going downhill but same can be applied to pretty much anything else related to culture, heritage and common values. For instance, “Christmas season” (or should I say, “Holiday’s season” ahaha). For quite some time it has became 100% commercial, 100% fake. Not to mention the number of movies that are actually making fun of the whole concept.
albert
August 10, 2018 @ 10:08 am
….we’re too ‘hip and cool’ for our own good……and SOOOOO me-centric
brian b
August 12, 2018 @ 1:32 pm
Big money corrupts everything it touches. Any questions?
Black Boots
August 10, 2018 @ 7:32 am
I’m glad to see Lee Ann giving a shoutout to Kacey, who’s one of the best going right now.
Gabe
August 10, 2018 @ 3:44 pm
This reminds me of King George’s last original song “Kicked Outta Country”
Greg
August 12, 2018 @ 11:10 am
Here’s another song idea: “So Called Country stations kicked off of our radios”.
brian b
August 12, 2018 @ 1:33 pm
We already had a classic song of said nature. It was called “Murder on Music Row”.
Greg
August 12, 2018 @ 3:30 pm
I agree Brian. I just said that for the heck of it.
Tom R.
August 16, 2018 @ 2:00 pm
Yeah she’s right but she’s also too old for the market now for a female vocalist (one of the bad things about country music that alas has not changed.) I don’t recall Lee Ann complaining in the 90’s that Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, Lynn Anderson, Crystal Gayle, etc. weren’t given a chance anymore and were pushed out of the market for the new acts like herself.
Beaar
August 19, 2018 @ 5:32 pm
Dolly Parton had Here You Come Again AND 9 to 5…
Leanne Rimes put out some pop.
So what?!
The Hope You Dance arguement is so Stupid. Ray Charles, Elvis, hell even Gloria Estefan jumped genres.
Furthermore having a hit song on some non country chart does not automatically make it not country.
Jeff Boomhauer
January 11, 2020 @ 5:15 am
I don’t see how dang ol’ country music has been dang ol’ hijacked. Country music has died dang ol’ several times. Lee Ann dang ol’ Womack maybe dang ol’ sexy but I’m not dang ol’ quite understanding her