I can’t put into words how much I despise modern stadium country. It’s like the opposite of art. I grew up in the south around people who could only stomach country music like that. Everything else to them was too weird, or not white enough.
The closest analogy to country music are the movies fascists made, like the ones Hans Steinhoff and Goebbels directed. Completely banal plots and lack of artistic value. The only reason they were made as to communicate fascist rhetoric and fulfill a quota of cultural markers.
That’s all modern country music is. It’s the music of boring middle class white people who feel uneasy if their specific cultural touchstones aren’t constantly reinforced. There have to be trucks, land ownership, high school football, generic American jingoism, glorification of alcoholism.
The most common thread in this shit music is that anything outside of a middle class conservative white lifestyle is to be mistrusted. The girl from a small town who goes off to college in a big city, but realizes her home was truly out in the sticks. The song about how country values make a person more virtuous or fun. “Don’t go over that hill, don’t go looking for anything further.” It could possibly be a sweet sentiment if it weren’t for the target audience: comfortable white shitheads who drive a $80,000 Ford truck in the suburbs.
At least with propaganda it’s the ruling class messaging the citizenry. In this case, at least for the most part seems self-inflicted and without purpose. People just gravitate to whatever fits their identity.
That’s all modern country music is. It’s the music of boring middle class white people who feel uneasy if their specific cultural touchstones aren’t constantly reinforced. There have to be trucks, land ownership, high school football, generic American jingoism, glorification of alcoholism.
Well written.
At least with propaganda it’s the ruling class messaging the citizenry. In this case, at least for the most part seems self-inflicted and without purpose. People just gravitate to whatever fits their identity.
Don’t forget the record labels. Mega corporations are the ruling class of our society.
Oh no, absolutely not is country music self inflicted. Modern country music is part of the same propaganda network as everything else in capitalism. The whole Nashville and Georgia country scenes have been connected at the hip with conservative money since at least the 1970s where Nixon had a country campaign song. Then there was Reagan showing up at the Grand Ole Opry. It’s a useful vehicle to spread and satiate the thirst for white supremacy.
There’s also Clear Channel Radio (currently iHeartRadio) which is run by ideological conservatives.
Also there’s some kind of money floating around to suddenly promote the odd country song or two, like that Rich Men in Richmond song, or that stupid Jason Aldean guy. Every now and then you’ll see a random headline like “country star fights back against woke-ness in new song.” And that’s the propaganda.
Parasites hopping onto a culture to exploit it for their own gains is not really the same as state propaganda. I don’t think there’s some shadowy group inventing this music to control the masses. Though politicians would no doubt pander to (or even weaponize) a group if they can. And people will absolutely try and profit off it.
It’s just a bit of a leap to ascribe low brow music to some grand conspiracy. Or at least if that is, then every culture is a conspiracy.
I guess I don’t see much of a distinction between those exploitative parasites and the state actors. I’m on the side of Althusser here, where the state is both a structural arrangement and a set of ideological norms. In that sense, you could say all culture is a conspiracy, as in a conspiracy to replicate the content and character of one’s class interests.
I don’t mean to say there’s a shadowy group creating it, rather, there’s a shadowy group that gives a platform and representation to things that promote their own interests. Or something they can flip around and sell back to you. Capitalism is crafty like that, like Che Guevara t-shirts.
I believe that mainstream country turned to shit in the 80s, not sure why. My theory is that it’s down to the money men in Nashville turning out an increasingly phony product for commercial reasons, but I don’t actually know enough about that aspect of the business to have an informed opinion.
Fortunately there’s always been legit musicians turning out excellent alt-country or Americana, or whatever we want to call it. Also a lot of the older country musicians never completely sold out either.
Late 80s early 90s. When they started making 80s pop music with slide guitar and a twangy vocal and calling it country.
The final nail in the coffin was when country music radio refused to play Johnny Cash’s Unchained album.
Don’t forget to name at least two American brands so you get paid!
Product placement go brrrr
Applebees
KFC
bonus points for rhyming
Product placements go in songs.
Now everyone please sing along.
Applebees
KFC
Haliburton
Lockheed
PF Changs
Starbucks
When will the Prolitariat have enough
Of this system that doesn’t care
No one on earth needs Billionaires.
bah gawd its beautiful
I grab me a Bud,
Get in my Ford truck,
Cuz I’m un-American boahI await my royalties.
Thanks for the suggestion! I would consider this more folk punk than country, but it’s got a Johnny Cash vibe to it for sure. I like it.
I would like to add The Devil Makes Three to the list of redeemable country music. I guess they are more bluegrass/folk punk, but they shred and the lyrics are good.
No shirt No shoes No jews… You didn’t hear that
It shocked me the first time I met a real anti-Semite, in real life, in Tennessee. I’ve worked in a lot of places all over the world and I’ve seen plenty of racism. No one else topped that guy in Tennessee. Other places racism was mostly contained to ‘they stay over there and we stay over here.’ Tons of problems but living together but apart was possible. That doesn’t speak to every experience obviously. That old guy in Tennessee wanted another Holocaust, plain and simple. Anywhere else he’d get the shit kicked out of him, there it was tolerated.
I drove through Alabama once. That was enough. What a shit stain state? Experience the racism there, even if sort of second hand, was surreal. Sucks I know some people that were forced to move there.
To show how pervasive the racist Southerner stereotype is: I was in Hawaii and met a guy from New Zealand. He noticed my accent and asked where I’m from and this happened:
ME: I’m from North Carolina
HIM: Oh really? Cool! Hey, whaddya call a n****r with a new bicycle?
I guess that’s his version of Americans saying “g’day mate!”
Are your cows cute? I would like to pet your cows.
All cows are cute
such an odd thing to do.
What happened next? Was he mocking you or telling a joke that he thought you would enjoy?
What a strange encounter
I suspect the NZ bloke was racist and immediately linked all Southern Americans with racism, so felt comfortable opening up.
Ngl as a non-american if I met a dude in a bar and he’s was from ‘the south’ especially Texas or Florida I would be sitting there expecting some kind of anti-‘woke’, anti-minority, anti-women, anti-brown comment eventually. At least until I had sussed him out for a bit
He thought I would enjoy it. It was a crowded spot, so I just stared disppointedly at him and walked away.
Had someone try to sell me on the merits of the Ku Klux Klan while working at a factory in Tennessee, I was a staunch Libertarian at the time so i guess he thought i might bite, he told me how they helped the community out and kept people safe… the guy was dead fucking serious, and when I asked him about them being racist he just changed the subject… Still feels like a fever dream…
That’s a scarecrow!
Shitty patriot country music has always been a thing and there are still tons of Outlaw country artists right now. This is literally just like those “rap in the 90s vs rap today” memes that ignore the fact that trap has been a thing since the 90s and old school hip hop is having a Renaissance right now
Do yourself a favor and listen to the Americana genre. All the blues and western inspired folk, without the bootlicking!
Heard a lot of this growing up like Seeger, Peter Paul and Mary, Joan Baez, but also Canadians like Lightfoot and Stan Rogers. Lately I’ve enjoyed some of the IWWs compilations of workers’ songs, Utah Philips etc. Phil Ochs is up there too.
My mother’s from an assimilated Mennonite background and it was one of the non-Christian genres that was permissible to her parents, because of the pacifist and civil rights sentiments in a lot of that music at the time. Also it lacked the sex and drugs themes which rock had. “I Aint Marching Anymore” and “Where have all the flowers gone?” I remember hearing quite often.
That’s a solid fucking set list, I Aint Marchin Anymore and Utah Phillips are especially bangers.
Is almost the same thing with Brazilian sertanejo. Was once about the bucolic reality in the rural side of the country, now is about bragging about being rich, going to pointless parties and drinking a lot of alcoholic drinks, f-cking everyone…
And listened to by the same people who complain about rap music doing the same thing (in their eyes, anyway).
How the mighty have fallen
I wanted to do a “to be fair here, Cash had songs with stupid lyrics, too”, but all I can think of is “Ring of fire” and that one is just a harmless metaphor about love.
I don’t think modern country even uses metaphors anymore. Before anyone comes at me, I’m well awair that there’s some fantactic country writers out there.
That’s because modern country is squarely focused on (far) right leaning people and they are utterly deaf, dumb and blind to any sort of metaphor, sarcasm and subtlety.
It’s why these pricks go nuts for songs like Killing in the Name, not realizing it’s a song that explicitly hates on them saying stuff like “some of those who work forces, are the same that BURN CROSSES”.
They only see and hear that title and have no fucking clue what it and the rest of the song is actually about.
Also see: “Born in the USA”.
Way back when Nirvana, Tool, RATM and all the great early 90’s bands were coming up, there was another.
A dingy Swedish band named Clawfinger.
They had a debut, self released album named Deaf Dumb Blind and it’s most well known song was named Nigger.
The song sprung outrage with the conservative right in the US, because back then they pretended they were against racism and the use of that word.
Clawfinger was similar in lyrical meaning with Rage Against the Machine, most of their songs were protest songs.
(guess I’ll link it as I can’t find how to do spoiler tags …)
Rember when Cobain wrote “rape me” becuase he had to hit people in the head with the message because the song “polly” went right over it?
It’s always wise to satisfy the requests of time squirrels. Keeps them away from one’s nuts.
Ring of fire is my song to sing when I’ve had too much Mexican food and beer.
“One piece at a time”
And it didn’t cost me a dime!
Ring of Fire was written by June Carter, and first released by her sister Anita Carter.
He didn’t actually write Ring of Fire
I think Orville Peck might be my gateway drug into country. I don’t imagine there’s too many gay cowboys out there, but surely there’s other stuff I’ll like.
We. Live. In. A. Society.
An absoluteky outstanding song by Cash btw. If you haven’t checked it out, I suggest you do so. Even if you have zero interest in Country do yourself a favour.
Cash may sing country, but he’s always been rock n’ roll.
We listened to the song in English class when I was about 14 years old and we discussed it quite a bit afterwards. I guess it was kind of a first transitioning into adulthood for me, seeing how much is going wrong and hurting people. Since then about 95 % of my wardrobe is black. It’s a statement and a reminder for myself and I
wantneed to carry it everywhere I go.Every song by Johnny is a banger.
Very wholesome.
Literally a Cautionary tale, and still one hell of a banger! OUTLAW COUNTRY! WOOOO
