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70s Pop VS Today's Country

J

Jay F

I'm not one of these people who complains Country radio isn't country enough. It is what it is. The format needs to play whatever it takes to get the largest audience. Something did hit me today though. I heard Neil Young's #1 pop hit from 1972 "Heart Of Gold". I don't believe it crossed over to the country chart. Yet, it sounds more country than 90% of what is played on Country radio in 2009.

I can think of literally hundreds of country flavored acoustic pop hits from the 70s that sound more country than most of the current country product. ot a complaint, just an observation.
 
I do like The Eagles (some of their country-style songs, anyway) and some of the other 70s pop. "Drift Away" by Dobie Gray and "Black Water" by The Doobie Brothers. Also "Top of the World" by The Carpenters.

As for whether "it is what it is", I think "it is" garbage and that's all I need to think.
 
Bellamy Brothers' "Let Your Love Flow" was #1 pop in 1976, but was not among their country #1s. It only reached #21 country. I believe the only reasons why a country station would play "Let Your Love Flow" is because the Bellamy Brothers eventually settled on country music, and the fans of '70s-era pop may have moved on to country music as well. (I haven't, but "Let Your Love Flow" still ranks among my all-time faves!)

Many current country artists are more likely to list '70s groups like the Eagles as influences, rather than the "traditional" country artists of the '50s and '60s.
 
"Top of the World" actually was a country hit, but not by the Carpenters - it hit #2 country done by Lynn Anderson (her version was a minor pop crossover as well). This was before the Carpenters' version was released in the U.S. although it had already been a hit in Japan (the original version from the 1972 A SONG FOR YOU album), and Richard Carpenter has said that the success of their original in Japan combined with Anderson's U.S. country success with the song convinced them "Top of the World" could be a U.S. hit for the Carpenters too (although the version that made it to 45 in the U.S. was remixed from the original album cut).

To my knowledge, the Carpenters' version did not cross over to country although it could have. However, the Carpenters did have a top 10 country hit in 1978 with "Sweet, Sweet Smile," which was a stiff by comparison on the pop side.

Some other '70s pop hits that were also considered country - or at least country enough to reach the top 20 on the chart - included "Sundown" by Gordon Lightfoot and "Margaritaville" by Jimmy Buffett. Many of Olivia Newton-John's early hits went top 10 country - even "I Honestly Love You" and "Have You Never Been Mellow," which don't sound very country-ish. Marie Osmond's take on "Paper Roses" went all the way to #1 country. Even Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life" was top five country, and there is nothing that sounds very country about that song (although Debby later had a fair amount of country success).
 
ChrisInMI said:
"Top of the World" actually was a country hit, but not by the Carpenters - it hit #2 country done by Lynn Anderson (her version was a minor pop crossover as well). This was before the Carpenters' version was released in the U.S. although it had already been a hit in Japan (the original version from the 1972 A SONG FOR YOU album), and Richard Carpenter has said that the success of their original in Japan combined with Anderson's U.S. country success with the song convinced them "Top of the World" could be a U.S. hit for the Carpenters too (although the version that made it to 45 in the U.S. was remixed from the original album cut).

To my knowledge, the Carpenters' version did not cross over to country although it could have. However, the Carpenters did have a top 10 country hit in 1978 with "Sweet, Sweet Smile," which was a stiff by comparison on the pop side.

Some other '70s pop hits that were also considered country - or at least country enough to reach the top 20 on the chart - included "Sundown" by Gordon Lightfoot and "Margaritaville" by Jimmy Buffett. Many of Olivia Newton-John's early hits went top 10 country - even "I Honestly Love You" and "Have You Never Been Mellow," which don't sound very country-ish. Marie Osmond's take on "Paper Roses" went all the way to #1 country. Even Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life" was top five country, and there is nothing that sounds very country about that song (although Debby later had a fair amount of country success).
Click to expand...
I like all these songs.
"Top of the World" actually had country instrumentals, something a lot of the crossover hits didn't have then.
 
firepoint525 said:
Bellamy Brothers' "Let Your Love Flow" was #1 pop in 1976, but was not among their country #1s. It only reached #21 country. I believe the only reasons why a country station would play "Let Your Love Flow" is because the Bellamy Brothers eventually settled on country music, and the fans of '70s-era pop may have moved on to country music as well. (I haven't, but "Let Your Love Flow" still ranks among my all-time faves!)

Many current country artists are more likely to list '70s groups like the Eagles as influences, rather than the "traditional" country artists of the '50s and '60s.
Click to expand...
As much as I like "Let Your Love Flow" and "If I Said You Have a Beautiful Body" or whatever that song is called, the Bellamy Brothers have also done something truly awful. My classic country station goes through the 80s except for a few 90s hits by some established artists, but they've never done "I'll Give You All My Love Tonight", which was about as bad a country song as I ever heard prior to the "new country" of the 90s. For synthesizer pop, there's not much that's worse than that one except maybe Lonestar or Rascal Flatts. Alabama also ventured into that territory with "Forever's As Far As I'll Go". Also really, really bad.
 
Hits from Southern Rock Icons like the Charlie Daniels band,Marshall Tucker Band,Lynyrd Skynyrd,Elvin Bishop ,Allman Brothers ,
Amazing Rhythm Aces,.38 Special,The Bellamy Brothers' and as mentioned The Eagles. paved the roads for todays country artists, back then they were all over the country charts at that time.
As I remember on the legendary 1050 WHN ,New York played cross overs and southern rock all the time.To this day I still this station was the best selected playlist in the format.

in the 70s,crossover was big,in the mid to late 1970s movies like Convoy,Smokey and the Bandit,Nashville to just name a few were hot soundtracks.Then the 80s hit with the Urban Cowboy craze along with The Coal Miners Duaghter.Honeysuckle Rose, and alot more were all over the pop charts in the early 1980s
as I was listening to an old Casey Kasems AT40 from that time,
for a minute I thought I was listening to its sister show American Country Countdown with Bob Kingsley with Casey subbing for him.
,
Todays Country to me does not sound like anything from the 70s or the 80s,iI have no clue what it sounds like.It must be my age again.
Big and Rich sounds like a trainwreck to me.Rich himself is ok.Two months ago I went to a Keith Urban Concert,I thought I was at a rock concert,my two friends were very desapointed due to Kieths loud guitar Playing and the fog filled arena so they walked out.so I hung on until I got deaf.
by the time the show ended.I like his music ,but I will not go to see him live no more.unless he mellows out.

Of course we have pop to country crossovers like as mentioned in earlier posts.
 
I'm kind of surprised no one has referenced The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band when talking about Rock/Country crossover groups. They could have even qualified (IMHO) as a Folk cross on some of their songs.
 
WPPCProductions said:
,
Todays Country to me does not sound like anything from the 70s or the 80s,iI have no clue what it sounds like.It must be my age again.
Big and Rich sounds like a trainwreck to me.Rich himself is ok.Two months ago I went to a Keith Urban Concert,I thought I was at a rock concert,my two friends were very desapointed due to Kieths loud guitar Playing and the fog filled arena so they walked out.so I hung on until I got deaf.
by the time the show ended.I like his music ,but I will not go to see him live no more.unless he mellows out.

Of course we have pop to country crossovers like as mentioned in earlier posts.
Click to expand...

I've been listening to country since the mid-60s, and like the new stuff just fine, including Big and Rich. But I know what you mean about country concerts that sound more like rock concerts.

I've gone to numerous concerts where apparently they were too cheap to include the fiddle and steel guitar players they used in the studio, so you basically get little but loud guitars, and the songs don't sound nearly as country as the records.

And why do so many venues insist on cranking up the instruments so loud you can't understand the vocals?
 
My favorite Nitty Gritty Dirt Band song is "Fishin' in the Dark". I don't know why I never heard it before my current classic country station came along in 2005.

I got lucky and heard a DJ describe the latest Keith Urban song as sounding like "Ventura Highway". I had already noticed that before he said that, since the song started with just the guitar, but I'd still rather hear the real "Ventura Highway" than anything by Keith Urban.
 
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