I’ve heard so many stereotypes about country music over the past few years. The main one is that all the music is about is drinking, a wife leaving, a rusty truck, a one eyed dog, and all around depressing. For the most part this isn’t true, and if it is it is usually in jest.
Country music is the most realistic music in my eyes. The songs are about real life situations. They relay this in both a serious and/or a comical way.
“Concrete Angel” by Martina McBride is about a little girl being abused. Everyone ignores her bruises except a neighbor boy who is her friend. One night she was talking to the neighbor boy from her bedroom window and her mom started beating her in which she ended up dieing.
“Amarillo Sky” by Jason Aldean is a song about a farmer praying to keep his farm from going under. With the economy and all he isn’t making a lot of money but yet he still farms and does no complain. He looks back at the hardships of his father and grandfather and what they went through with the farm and he uses that as a morality boost.
Both of these are realistic situations which are sung in a serious tone.
“What was I thinking?” by Dierks Bently is about a wild ride with a country girl. Her dad is over protective and goes to some extreme measures to stop them from going out. Bently keeps on asking himself “What was I thinking” to get him in that situation throughout the song. It is an upbeat comical song that has an exaggerated story line.
The main point I am trying to get across is to actually give country a chance. Not only listen to the music but the words themselves. I guarantee you’ll find some songs you’ll like.
P.S. You should listen to those songs to help you understand what I am saying.
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People who slam country are the same people who slam any type of music. I believe in two types of music, good music and bad music, and you will find both in every genre if you actually love music. If you have ever found yourself declaring that another genre of music is shit, then you are no different to people who slam country. The only thing that makes a genre shit across the board is the listeners ignorance of the genre. People have the habit of picking teams, for instance somebody might say 'I love country, but all that rap shit is lame' or 'I love rock, so all electronic music is bullshit', I love tangling with these kinds of people because generally I know and love the music they do, but I also love all the stuff they think they hate. I thought I hated country when I was younger, but I was just ignorant, I thought country meant Garth Brooks and Randy Travis, and that everything else just sounded the same as that. But once I actually explored country music and it's many forms and mutations I found so much kickass music I was embarassed. At the end of the day, anybody who says they only love one type of music, in short, does not love music, they are probably more concerned with image.
I have always been a music lover, but I rarely follow artists or even genres. I am much more into lyrics (where I believe the message of the song is delivered) and just about every song I listen to regularly has some meaning to it rather than just an associated memory as with most people.
This grew with ten years of running radio stations around the country.
People that come and see my music library or CD collection often make fun of me. Where else will you find Barry Manilow next to Megadeth? Or even Brooks and Dunn next to Duran Duran?
One thing I have noticed; Country music fans are the most loyal fans ever. In general, they seem to care much more about an artists' well being rather than who their dating (leave that to Pop lovers, I guess). When I was working at a country station in Alabama, Yankee Grey was scheduled to come to the area for a concert, but the lead singer came down with laringitis and they had to cancel. After making the announcment, within only a couple of days, get well cards were pouring into the station for us to forward to them.
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"Dream as though you'll live forever, but live as though there's no tomorrow" --James Dean
http://www.progressiveu.org/user/fanaile-drupal-org
I'm not sure if you have heard the song yet-but there is a new one called "Alyssa lies" it is such a sad song..about a little girl that meets a new friend at school and she tells her daddy "alyssa lies" --he goes into the school the next day to talk to the teacher about what his girl told him, and alyssa is dead from abuse. He acted to late, and..yeah.
Then of course-there is the new heartland song. "I loved her first" you know yourself that that song is truer than true, and means so much.