Country music... Yeehaw!
I love music. In fact, it's one of the few things in life that I can say without any doubt I fully enjoy. I mostly listen to metal, and by metal, no, that does not mean Slipknot (check profile). I also enjoy some more progressive-type rock like Porcupine Tree and Pink Floyd, the occasional industrial band, hell I even like Bela Fleck (which is jazz/bluegrass as best I can categorize it). So I have a pretty open mind when it comes to music, except for rap, which I won't even bother getting into right now.
But why rant about country? After all, "stupid" music is just an opinion.
Yes, it is. But music written by and marketed to STUPID PEOPLE is a very real phenomenon which I shall further explain using country as an example.
First and foremost, I listen to country a good 6 hours a day, 3 days a week on average. That's right: Unlike most jackasses making snap judgments of entire genres of music, I've actually heard MORE than enough of it to form an opinion. That's because I work at a store whose radio is always tuned to the country channel, and there's no hope of changing it.
So what is it about country that I find so excruciating? Mostly the lyrics... I mean, it's hard to concentrate on the rest of the music, given that it's market is 13+ rednecks with no real attention span. I may have no musical abilities, but it doesn't take much to notice this is crap. There's no variation in the drums, none. And every single song has the same annoying "twang" to the guitars (the "defining" point of country music, I guess). Even rap songs, despite being produced mostly by electronics, have far more variation between artists in the actual beats, and the same can be said for most every other genre I've heard.
But back to lyrics... Song lyrics can be thought provoking, inspiring, witty, or any number of things. Country lyrics will have none of that nonsense. Nope, the writers are very keen on limiting themselves to the following:
- Self pity
- Honky tonk (no clue what it is, but apparently, it's quite enjoyable)
- Thinkin' of yoOo
- Bein' lonesome
- Theirs trucks. Aw, spin 'em!
Oh, but let's not be too open minded here. Let's make all the guitarwork sound pretty much identical, and of course, drumming as mind-numbingly simple as possible. And there you have it, country music! Yeeehaw!
I was considering saying that lyrics don't have to be serious, and there's nothing wrong with a little fun. Well, the fact that I can count on exactly one finger all the serious, mildly thought provoking country lyrics I've heard steers me away from that direction. And that one song was Hurt, which was written by Trent Reznor of NIN, which is... Well, certainly not country. Oh, I'm sure if I dug deep enough into "underground" country (I can't stick those two words together without laughing) I could find some deep thought, but you know what? The average nu-metal and emo songs I hear on MTV or any rock radio station are better written than this trash, and I quote:
"I'm a Chevy girl."
Well, I guess it's easier than beating around the bush about stating you're a redneck and showing you have writing skills slightly below those of the mentally challenged, all in 4 short words.
I kid you not, that is a real lyric. I even googled it just to make sure I wasn't in some sort of hallucinatory state induced by the mind-numbing work that is moving small, colorful objects around a large building for six hours. And I give you that example because that's the gist of most of the crap that's spewed out of their mouths. The context of the song doesn't even matter and in fact, it makes matters more laughable. I'll refrain from posting the full length of the song since I don't need a damn influx of the one's who have somehow, against nature, managed to master google.
Ah, country. The figurative dump on the face of music.
But why rant about country? After all, "stupid" music is just an opinion.
Yes, it is. But music written by and marketed to STUPID PEOPLE is a very real phenomenon which I shall further explain using country as an example.
First and foremost, I listen to country a good 6 hours a day, 3 days a week on average. That's right: Unlike most jackasses making snap judgments of entire genres of music, I've actually heard MORE than enough of it to form an opinion. That's because I work at a store whose radio is always tuned to the country channel, and there's no hope of changing it.
So what is it about country that I find so excruciating? Mostly the lyrics... I mean, it's hard to concentrate on the rest of the music, given that it's market is 13+ rednecks with no real attention span. I may have no musical abilities, but it doesn't take much to notice this is crap. There's no variation in the drums, none. And every single song has the same annoying "twang" to the guitars (the "defining" point of country music, I guess). Even rap songs, despite being produced mostly by electronics, have far more variation between artists in the actual beats, and the same can be said for most every other genre I've heard.
But back to lyrics... Song lyrics can be thought provoking, inspiring, witty, or any number of things. Country lyrics will have none of that nonsense. Nope, the writers are very keen on limiting themselves to the following:
- Self pity
- Honky tonk (no clue what it is, but apparently, it's quite enjoyable)
- Thinkin' of yoOo
- Bein' lonesome
- Theirs trucks. Aw, spin 'em!
Oh, but let's not be too open minded here. Let's make all the guitarwork sound pretty much identical, and of course, drumming as mind-numbingly simple as possible. And there you have it, country music! Yeeehaw!
I was considering saying that lyrics don't have to be serious, and there's nothing wrong with a little fun. Well, the fact that I can count on exactly one finger all the serious, mildly thought provoking country lyrics I've heard steers me away from that direction. And that one song was Hurt, which was written by Trent Reznor of NIN, which is... Well, certainly not country. Oh, I'm sure if I dug deep enough into "underground" country (I can't stick those two words together without laughing) I could find some deep thought, but you know what? The average nu-metal and emo songs I hear on MTV or any rock radio station are better written than this trash, and I quote:
"I'm a Chevy girl."
Well, I guess it's easier than beating around the bush about stating you're a redneck and showing you have writing skills slightly below those of the mentally challenged, all in 4 short words.
I kid you not, that is a real lyric. I even googled it just to make sure I wasn't in some sort of hallucinatory state induced by the mind-numbing work that is moving small, colorful objects around a large building for six hours. And I give you that example because that's the gist of most of the crap that's spewed out of their mouths. The context of the song doesn't even matter and in fact, it makes matters more laughable. I'll refrain from posting the full length of the song since I don't need a damn influx of the one's who have somehow, against nature, managed to master google.
Ah, country. The figurative dump on the face of music.
posted by Soilworker at 1/27/2005 10:40:00 PM
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