You see, it's not so much the music itself. Some of it is catchy. And real country (e.g., Johnny Cash (when he's not covering people to sell albums), Loretta Lynn, etc.) I have no trouble with. It's this popular country...
And it primarily has to do with the lyrics. I think the Tracy Atkins song, "Songs About Me," has really become the object of my animosity. You see, it's a song about a business-type person meeting a country singer and explaining to him that he's not really into country. The country singer explains to him that country's so great because they are "songs about me." The songs sing about "family, and god, and good hearted women" or something like that. By the end of the song, the business-type person realizes what he's missed. He's ready to join the Nazis and sing "songs about me."
You see, all male country songs have gone this way. You know that "Have you forgotten?" song by Darryl Worley? Well, when it came out it rallied Bush support. It said that it was wrong to question Bush's intentions. "CHORUS 1" reads:
Have you forgotten how it felt that day
To see your homeland under fire
And her people blown away?
Have you forgotten when those towers fell?
We had neighbors still inside
Going through a living hell
And you say we shouldn't worry 'bout Bin Laden
Have you forgotten?
First of all, no Democrat ever said that people shouldn't worry about Bin Laden. However, Bush did. I take this from a whitehouse.gov press release transcript.
So I don't know where he is. You know, I just don't spend that much time on him, Kelly, to be honest with you.
This isn't the first time Bush has said he wasn't worried about bin Laden.
Once Bush went into Iraq, most Democrats were asking about bin Laden. Their sentiments almost tracked country bumpkin Darryl Worley's song.
Toby Keith has been pretty bad too. He's the one who sings about kicking ass and taking names. Both of them do it just to sell records. They don't really give a damn. They'd probably finance terrorists if it would promise them increased record sales later. That's the sort of moral fiber you have with these people...
But I really don't want to say that politics are the only thing that sours country music for me. It's the whole "family values" thing. And it's destroying America.
Conservatives (I like to refer to them as "new Republicans") in Congress don't care about family values. They just realize that it gets them votes. Once they get into office, then they can push fiscal legislation down the throats of their constituents, and their constituents (who are bleeding from the asshole) pretend like they like it!
So I blame country music. The anthem of the new Republican.
3 comments:
Here, here! In my experience, there's a troubling amount of jingoism and opportunism on top-40 country radio, and the red-state masses just eat it up. It's such a shift from early country - Johnny Cash and Loretta Lynn were outlaws! Your parents didn't want you listening to how Cash killed a man just to watch him die! They wouldn't have catered to the establishment's agenda!
If you're looking for good new(ish) country, I suggest anything by Neko Case or Uncle Tupelo, or either of the Billy Bragg/Wilco Mermaid Avenue discs.
---Spice's school chum
I definitely am a Billy Bragg/Wilco fan, but I have so few friends who would even know what that means. I used to work in an office with someone who had an overlapping taste for music, but ever since I left there, it's been hard to keep up. I feel so lazy and uncultured. <bows head in shame>
I'll have to work on fixing that. :-/
Hello,
I was looking for comments on country music and just found your post. I agree with you that "new" country is the ugliest shit on radio or television. I work at a shop situated in a smaller town just outside the city where I live (Regina,Canada). I hear this garbage on CMT all the time. Other times I've seen these "redneck" zombies coming in with their families to one of the local restaurants. These people are creepy. Shouldn't they be in their coffins during the daytime?
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