Best songs on today's country radio

[justpassingthough]

"Pontoon" by Little Big Town should be the song of the summer- it has such a fun, happy vibe and its perfect for all the outdoor summer activities. Plus, the video goes well with the song as well.

 

[vchimpanzee]

You should have named it "Best Songs on today's country radio that I approve of", ya snoot If a song is on Country radio it IS country, regardless of your narrow minded opinions. End of story.

Not true, and I'm not the only one who feels this way.

The fact is even a lot of the music on the classic country stations I listen to isn't country either. The difference is that it's old so it sounds good. Most of it.

 

[ddsparxx]

"Springsteen" by Eric Church.

 

[Ted Cramer]

Have you heard his new single Creepin? It is every bit as good as Springsteen.....Also Carrie Underwood's new single is good...

While I agree country has changed, moved more toward pop, it had to in order to survive. The format must be doing something right since it is the most programmed format in broadcast radio...Just like pop stations that play a wide variety of music considered pop, country also plays a wide variety of music called country....From Tim Culpepper's Ghost, very traditional sound, to Eric Church, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood and others who would fall under the pop country umbrella, the format welcomes them all. That is what makes the format so dynamic, there is room for everyone and by and large listeners embrace them all.

There are those like the OP who will never embrace modern country and that if fine but to condemn the music and those who enjoy it makes no sense at all...You like what you like and others like what they like...

Chimpanzee, I pose this question to you....If there is such a HUGE demand for traditional country, why aren't there more classic country stations and more artists doing traditional country sounding music? In my opinion the answer is because there isn't a wide market for either any more but that will change. If you remember, country went thru it's disco pop phase with tunes like Bop, I Can't Wait Any Longer, Doncha and a whole host of others, but returned to its roots...right now it is swinging to the pop side, slowly it will swing back to a more traditional sound but I don't think it will ever go back to the old twang days....

 

[James Otto Sweet Heart]

To me the best song on the radio right now is Josh Turner's "Time Is Love".

God bless you and him always!!!

Holly

 

[James Otto Sweet Heart]

I forgot to add "Hard To Love" from Lee Brice to my previous message.

God bless you and him always!!!

Holly

 

[sdh483]

+1 on Pontoon and Time Is Love. Sure wish country would start taking this route instead of making a classic rock-soundalike with lyrics about being country.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Have you heard his new single Creepin? It is every bit as good as Springsteen.....Also Carrie Underwood's new single is good...

Neither of these is likely to meet my defintion of good.

While I agree country has changed, moved more toward pop, it had to in order to survive. The format must be doing something right since it is the most programmed format in broadcast radio...Just like pop stations that play a wide variety of music considered pop, country also plays a wide variety of music called country....From Tim Culpepper's Ghost, very traditional sound, to Eric Church, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood and others who would fall under the pop country umbrella, the format welcomes them all. That is what makes the format so dynamic, there is room for everyone and by and large listeners embrace them all.

There are those like the OP who will never embrace modern country and that if fine but to condemn the music and those who enjoy it makes no sense at all...You like what you like and others like what they like...

Chimpanzee, I pose this question to you....If there is such a HUGE demand for traditional country, why aren't there more classic country stations and more artists doing traditional country sounding music? In my opinion the answer is because there isn't a wide market for either any more but that will change. If you remember, country went thru it's disco pop phase with tunes like Bop, I Can't Wait Any Longer, Doncha and a whole host of others, but returned to its roots...right now it is swinging to the pop side, slowly it will swing back to a more traditional sound but I don't think it will ever go back to the old twang days....

I don't have the answer to why so many people like the traditional sound and so few want to do it, but I just know there's too much of the bad stuff on the radio today. I merely asked the question what, if you like it traditional, can still be found on today's radio stations that is still good?

Maybe it won't go back to the "old" twang sound but last week I was in the area where there is a station like that, and it's a nice change. Sure, they also do that "disco pop" stuff, but that's old and somehow sounds good.

 

[Casey]

I think the arguments that Country had to adapt to survive is wrong. It changed because artists decided to sing more pop-like songs. They decided to sing more pop-like songs because the record labels signed more pop-like artists. The radio stations put out what the major labels provide and the people listen to the radio. It really doesn't matter what the listener wants, because they have to choose from the artists provide and the artists often have to provide what the labels tell them to. The traditional country many want will always remain limited because the major labels don't really want it. The market for it is not as big as it once was and they care about money more than anything, so they will push whatever they think will make them the most money. Traditional country is sold mainly to country fans. Pop-country can be sold to a much larger variety of people, many of which may not even like country. There are traditional artists out there, but most are Indie and have no way of ever making it to radio.

With that said I personally think pop-country is better than the "I say the word country or beer and therefore I am country" type music we are getting now days.

I am another who likes Pontoon.

 

[crainbebo]

Springsteen is good, but it's annoying because KMPS plays it every FIVE hours!

-crainbebo

 

[James Otto Sweet Heart]

^^^ I've actually heard songs get played more often than that so to me every five hours isn't so bad.

God bless you always!!!

Holly

 

[Ted Cramer]

Have you heard his new single Creepin? It is every bit as good as Springsteen.....Also Carrie Underwood's new single is good...

Neither of these is likely to meet my defintion of good.

While I agree country has changed, moved more toward pop, it had to in order to survive. The format must be doing something right since it is the most programmed format in broadcast radio...Just like pop stations that play a wide variety of music considered pop, country also plays a wide variety of music called country....From Tim Culpepper's Ghost, very traditional sound, to Eric Church, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood and others who would fall under the pop country umbrella, the format welcomes them all. That is what makes the format so dynamic, there is room for everyone and by and large listeners embrace them all.



There are those like the OP who will never embrace modern country and that if fine but to condemn the music and those who enjoy it makes no sense at all...You like what you like and others like what they like...

Chimpanzee, I pose this question to you....If there is such a HUGE demand for traditional country, why aren't there more classic country stations and more artists doing traditional country sounding music? In my opinion the answer is because there isn't a wide market for either any more but that will change. If you remember, country went thru it's disco pop phase with tunes like Bop, I Can't Wait Any Longer, Doncha and a whole host of others, but returned to its roots...right now it is swinging to the pop side, slowly it will swing back to a more traditional sound but I don't think it will ever go back to the old twang days....

I don't have the answer to why so many people like the traditional sound and so few want to do it, but I just know there's too much of the bad stuff on the radio today. I merely asked the question what, if you like it traditional, can still be found on today's radio stations that is still good?

Maybe it won't go back to the "old" twang sound but last week I was in the area where there is a station like that, and it's a nice change. Sure, they also do that "disco pop" stuff, but that's old and somehow sounds good.

The point I was making, that you didn't pick up on, was there isn't a HUGE demand for it. If there was modern country would not as big as it is right now......classic country stations by and large have small audiences, small ratings and small revenue....if there was money to be made in the classic country format, they would be everywhere....but they aren't because today's country listener, the money demographic, wants Luke Bryan, Carrie Underwood, Blake Shelton, and the list goes on and on....

 

[scott salvatori]

.....it has to do with decades long blackballing of the classic country artists, and classic/real country music. if it dont get rotated, it gets forgotten and then unknown by the average masses. there is/was also an obvious social engineering by the centralized programmed major market country players to make a blatant effort to kill off the unwanted older listenr by pushing and heavily rotating the current young country hits, and narrowing/eliminating the classic library cuts, and artists, and ignoring any classic artists new material. another point to ponder is the fact that a song that made a big #1 hit in say 1973, may no longer be considered listenable, or musically mixable with the current country hits, and young demographic of listeners. what im gettin' at is, merle's "okie from muskogee" may not be appealing, but "i think ill just stay here and drink" may work. this is where the educated country programmer skills come into play. but, educated country programmer in this day and age has been long ago bypassed by centralized programming control from the kremlin.

 

[James Otto Sweet Heart]

Two more songs on the radio now that I think are good are the following.

1.) "Missing You Crazy"-Jon Pardi
2.) "I Did It For The Girl"-Greg Bates

God bless you and these two new singers always!!!

Holly

 

[scott salvatori]

chris young-"i can take it from there". young, sounds a bit countrified in the baritone vocals, in the tradition of whitley, or singletary. but,by no means equal in comparison to them two greats. in the song he name drops conway twitty, and his hit "id love to lay you down". this may send some of the young demographic, major market female country listeners, that the stations cater to, off to their little computer devices to look up who this character named conway is, huh.

 

[James Otto Sweet Heart]

I hope that the new song from Brad Paisley named "Southern Comfort Zone" does well for him after his last song named "Camouflage only got to #15.

God bless you and him always!!!

Holly

 

[Jay F]

chris young-"i can take it from there". young, sounds a bit countrified in the baritone vocals, in the tradition of whitley, or singletary. but,by no means equal in comparison to them two greats. in the song he name drops conway twitty, and his hit "id love to lay you down". this may send some of the young demographic, major market female country listeners, that the stations cater to, off to their little computer devices to look up who this character named conway is, huh.

Twenty years ago the station I worked at played "I'd Love To Lay You Down" as a gold. The song was old already and Conway was past his prime (but was still alive). I remember a young female listener loved that song and requested it all the time. She didn't even know who Conway Twitty was but the song appealed to her, perhaps it was the sexual overturns.

 

[vchimpanzee]

It's kind of loud for my taste but "Dim Lights, Thick Smoke" by Dwight Yoakam is one I could find acceptable.

 

[vchimpanzee]

"Mama's Broken Heart" by Miranda Lambert sounds country, but it's also too loud.

It has potential. But the recording that exists is likely the only one there will be. They don't turn down the volume for people like me.

In a few years maybe this one will qualify for "classic country" status and we will see.

 

[scott salvatori]

"Mama's Broken Heart" by Miranda Lambert sounds country, but it's also too loud.

It has potential. But the recording that exists is likely the only one there will be. They don't turn down the volume for people like me.

In a few years maybe this one will qualify for "classic country" status and we will see.

too loud? a bit, but maybe you was listening to a slick station that cranked up the volume, and/or pitch/speed even more than the original.

"mamas broken heart" actually borders on the kind of progressive/alt country we often hear from the likes of a julie miller, or a kasey chambers. and that is a compliment! yet, some aggressive, same note banjo plucking in the fast production of the song could have sealed the deal, and been one of the coolest radio singles of the year! ya, im talkin' the same kind of banjo plucking, patterson hood, of the drive by truckers, used on his recent solo studio version of the song "better than the truth". okay-over and out.