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Welcome to a new year, and things look to already be off to a promising start musically, with new releases on the horizon by artists such as Cory Morrow, Brian Burns, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Houston Marchman, The Derailers, Lucinda Williams, Thad Cockrell, Caitlin Carey, Dale Watson...to name just a small handful.
However, I’d like to backtrack a bit, and address a thing or two brought to our attention by a few people disturbed by the goings on over at the CMT.com site, as well as their cable station, during the last month or so. Quite frankly, over the course of the last year and a half or so (and only slightly more before that), I personally watch CMT exactly once in every blue moon, as opposed to the fairly often I tuned in, before Viacom acquired the channel and gradually removed actual country music from the channel altogether. After the Opry moved to CMT, I took to listening to it online, so as not to have the insufferable Katy Cook forced upon me. Plus, one gets to hear the entire show- the vets that never seem to get any "face time" anymore on the televised portion. That being said, I don’t visit their website, since their TV channel doesn’t hold much of interest to me.
But after catching wind of the massive grinding of teeth, which seemed to hit a crescendo in December, I decide to pay the site a visit. After reading several of their features, and cruising their message board, it seems to me, their agenda is a mixed bag of contradictions that shows them to be unfocused with no clear direction or message, and often winds up insulting the very genre it’s supposedly "promoting." While CMT, and it’s website, caters to a vastly different audience than that which TCB does, the one thing we should have in common is the "promotion" of country music.
My visit to their message board proved both very interesting, and amusing. I was actually quite astounded at the number of people that are thoroughly disgusted with CMT’s programming, and had posted their discontent, which at times seemed to approach downright loathing. Seems they’re not serving the country music fan base after all, but then their ratings prove that clearly enough. It was just nice seeing the discontent in print. On the amusing side, their low ratings seem to be hurting the old pocketbook, because from what I’d gathered, for the past couple of weeks, CMT has even replaced the 6 videos they show all day long, and are showing infomercials everyday, all morning long. A fun new "theme"? "Infomercial Mornings"? Even more amusing, I learned that CMT’s boards are heavily censored. Anyone that dares make mention of "that other" country music video channel, GAC, gets their post deleted! Ditto with anyone that posts the url to another country music website- artist or otherwise. So much for the "promotion" of country music...they obviously only wish to "promote" their own interests- not the music.
And then there was that ever so delightful Toby Keith interview. Over the course of the past year, I’ve developed a great dislike for him (whereas before, it was mere indifference), and up to this point, have refrained from voicing my feelings on him, because, well, he just really wasn’t worth wasting my time over. He still isn’t, but after reading the interview (which made my distaste for him only grow stronger), the man’s definitely become far too big a legend in his own mind, to pass up making just a few comments. Toby, it’s about time you stuffed a sock in your big old blowhole already, because your shtick has become really old and tiresome. Firstly, this is America, and I am free to dislike your song and not be called "un-American," (some people merely have better taste), and under the 1st Amendment, I have every right to say I think your song is BAD, and I don’t need to be a "songwriter" or pay you the price of a ticket for the "privilege" to do so. Another point you’re quite wrong on, is artists’ fan bases don’t "turnover" every 8 or 10 years- particularly in country music- a genre with one of the most loyal fan bases there are. (I was a faithful follower of Waylon, from the minute I first heard him a couple decades ago, till the day he died. I’ve been a faithful follower of Alan Jackson for 13 years and still counting). Just a thought, but perhaps it’s just the "music" you put out now, that’s driven off your original fan base. I guess 7 year olds would indeed be too young to remember songs like "Shoulda Been A Cowboy" or "He Ain’t Worth Missing" to request them. Just one other thing...the "Barry Bonds league" of songwriters? Come back and talk your trash after you’ve written something that can stand with the likes of "Your Cheatin’ Heart," "El Paso," "Crazy," "Folsom Prison Blues," "I Fall To Pieces," "King Of The Road," or a few hundred others I can rattle off, off the top of my head...and then Merle might give you the time of day.
Chet Flippo’s pieces were a true study in contradictions, particularly from someone, that for the most part, has been pretty savvy when it comes to country music. I read one column where he sang the high praises of a true master of contemporary country music, Dwight Yoakam, yet his next column sang the praises of "The Empress Shania." Surely, I would have thought that Mr. Flippo, of all people, would know the difference between country music and regurgitated 70's/80's era pop music. He even raises the question himself, as to whether "plugging banjo, fiddle or steel guitar into nonspecific songs somehow transform them into country songs." However, he stops short and never does answer his own question, but my answer is a resounding NO, a token bit of fiddle or steel, does not country music make. As someone pointed out, Elton John’s original version of "Tiny Dancer" used lap steel, yet neither Elton nor the song were ever considered "country." The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, and countless other "rock" artists have done plenty of "country" that was never considered bona fide country, though it was far and away more country than most everything heard in mainstream country today. He admits that traditionally, country songs are drawn from personal experience and translated into universal emotions, where as in pop music, Shania attempts to do the opposite. He points out that her songs rip off the melodies of others’ (including her own), are sterile, and that "the album lives in it’s own spic-and-span world where ideas are perky and bright and are no more than surface deep." He then closes by saying that science fiction has never contemplated country music’s future, but Shania has, and this album "Up!"is the first country album that will be played worldwide, in all it’s color coded incarnations. A completely baffling editorial. He avoids personally answering the questions he raises and fails to explain just how pop music can be remotely construed as being country music. People that try to be "all things to all people" fail miserably in the end. I suggest that he keep his eye on the used music market, where shortly copies of Up!, will start flooding the bins for .50, along with her previous ones, and those of Hill, McGraw, and all the rest of the HNC gang, while those of artists like Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, Buck Owens, and those of the current Texas/Oklahoma/underground Nashville movement are either nearly impossible to find, or are commanding a premium when they can be found.
In another of his editorials titled, "Give The People What They Want," he touts the "stellar" crop of superstar releases, as boosting sales in country music, though music industry sales as a whole are still in decline. Interestingly though, only two of the albums he mentioned, the truly solid, outstanding, country releases by Alan Jackson ("Drive") and the Dixie Chicks ("Home"), appeared on his own top album of 2002 list. Two of those mentioned are not even vaguely country albums (Twain’s "Up!" and Hill’s "Cry"). I’ve heard more people begrudgingly admit they did buy Twain’s and Toby Keith’s releases, but not for themselves... "their 6 year old HAD to have it," while the music they bought for themselves was of a far different ilk- all those Guy Clarks, Buddy Millers, Johnny Cashes, Walt Wilkins and Mary Gauthiers out there, that wound up on Mr.Flippo’s own year end list. So how much of this "upswing" in mainstream country music sales, can be attributed to country music listeners buying the music for someone else? And how much of it was bought by the pop audience, as opposed to the country audience, and what would the results be, if the music was marketed under the proper genre? Manipulating the numbers to make the picture look "rosier" isn’t giving the people what they want. As for the albums that are deemed "failures," in reality, those sales figures are pretty much on par with "pre-Garth" numbers. The problem is that instead of accepting a return to "normal sales" after reaching a peak, the peak has now become the "norm" for the labels, and every artist must now live up to those numbers, or risk being labeled a "failure," and dropped. The fast buck doesn’t leave much room for individuality, creativity, or nurturing...after all, even Garth wasn’t an overnight success, it took him a couple of albums to break out. The music industry still refuses to see that things have changed- drastically, and the "old" ways of selling music are obsolete. People no longer need the radio, conventional retail music outlets, or major label promotion to find the music that does appeal to them. The internet has provided people with the tools to hear and purchase music they wouldn’t have been exposed to otherwise, and all those independent webstations and dreaded "download" sites are the major reason. Armed with the tools of finding and obtaining the music, people are now following their own paths and finding artists and music they want to hear, the real thing, not "the next big yawn" the labels try to thrust upon the masses. Amusingly, he closes saying that country music in the Garth boom days was bloated with "pop sounding sludge." I beg to differ. My recollection of that period, is music that topped the charts by Alan Jackson, Mark Chestnutt, Tracy Lawrence, Sammy Kershaw, John Anderson’s and Tanya Tuckers’s "comebacks," Tracy Byrd...and well, too many others to mention. "Pop sounding sludge"? I think not. While it began stagnating sometime around ‘95, the true "pop sounding sludge" wasn’t ushered in until the Shania Twain/Leanne Rimes/Faith Hill "diva makeover" frenzy era began, and there it still sits. No, Mr. Flippo, outside of a brief shining moment every so often, mainstream country is still very far from giving the people what they truly want, and it sounds nothing like Faith, Shania or Tim.
Part 2 |
