Mainstream country radio down the tube

[TheBigA]

I heard a song on country radio that had something to do with cowgirls. It sounded traditional enough.

Two fit that description:

1) Cowgirls Don't Cry by Brooks & Dunn with Reba McEntire

2) How 'Bout Them Cowgirls by George Strait

Both are hit songs with wide audiences, which is why they get airplay. A similar song by (let's say) Stonewall Jackson probably wouldn't get airplay.

Country radio, in fact all of radio, is designed to appeal to a general audience by playing a wide variety of styles and artists. That includes stuff you'd call "junk" and stuff some other fans would call "junk." One man's junk is another's treasure, so they say. At the same time there is no right or guarantee that all tastes in music will be served. Quite often, threads like this one come from people who feel their tastes are ignored.

 

[gr8oldies]

They call a lot of that crap on the radio rock and roll too and it don't sound a damn thing like Chuck Berry.

 

[vchimpanzee]

I heard a song on country radio that had something to do with cowgirls. It sounded traditional enough.

Two fit that description:

1) Cowgirls Don't Cry by Brooks & Dunn with Reba McEntire

2) How 'Bout Them Cowgirls by George Strait

Both are hit songs with wide audiences, which is why they get airplay. A similar song by (let's say) Stonewall Jackson probably wouldn't get airplay.

Country radio, in fact all of radio, is designed to appeal to a general audience by playing a wide variety of styles and artists. That includes stuff you'd call "junk" and stuff some other fans would call "junk." One man's junk is another's treasure, so they say. At the same time there is no right or guarantee that all tastes in music will be served. Quite often, threads like this one come from people who feel their tastes are ignored.

If I like it then it must hve been George Strait.

I rarely like anything Brooks and Dunn do.

I decided to put myself through listening to one of the bad songs and it was a female singing about Romeo and Juliet. Nothing about it except harmony distinguished it from AC.

 

[vchimpanzee]

vchampanzee, Junk is subjective. Do you think Taylor Swift is Junk? Well she happens to be one of the top selling artists right now in a very tough music climate. Millions of people love her.

If there was a country station you approved of it would have to have both a mass audience and have attractive demos or it wouldn't be viable.

Out of curiosity could you list a sample hour of what you would consider a good country station?

I don't want to hear Taylor Swift.

My country station does just fine. I can't think of all the songs a smaple hour might have. I can't pick it up at home. I have to be in the car. It is online.

Though I never hooked up my spekaers and the connection is too slow to listen to anything streaming.

countrylegends983.com I think is the address.

 

[Brother Bear]

The fact is Country music is now (and has been for some time) the new Pop, and therefore is frequently programmed like Top 40 and CHR's, where power songs repeat every 90 minutes and sometimes more frequently. Some of the biggest Country stations have a playlist just 85 or 90 songs long, which is tragic and does a severe disservice to the format.
Like it or not, Taylor Swift sold over 5 million albums in '08 when most everyone else across all formats was sucking wind in the sales department. Tough it out and be happy that traditionalists like Craig Morgan, George Strait, and Blake Shelton are still writing and making music and will be for some time.
btw, why the hateration for B&D?

 

[TheBigA]

The fact is Country music is now (and has been for some time) the new Pop, and therefore is frequently programmed like Top 40 and CHR's, where power songs repeat every 90 minutes and sometimes more frequently.

And yet the irony is that country radio's median audience is about 45 years old! Even though most of the artists are younger.

 

[luvhonkytonk]

The fact is Country music is now (and has been for some time) the new Pop, and therefore is frequently programmed like Top 40 and CHR's, where power songs repeat every 90 minutes and sometimes more frequently. Some of the biggest Country stations have a playlist just 85 or 90 songs long, which is tragic and does a severe disservice to the format.
Like it or not, Taylor Swift sold over 5 million albums in '08 when most everyone else across all formats was sucking wind in the sales department. Tough it out and be happy that traditionalists like Craig Morgan, George Strait, and Blake Shelton are still writing and making music and will be for some time.
btw, why the hateration for B&D?

FYI.....George Strait doesn't write anything. He's a great interpreter though. I would like to know why the B&D hate also.

 

[vchimpanzee]

One good song I heard: "Good Directions" by Bily Currington.

Despite what they say about him, I don't hate a lot of Kenny Chesney's music. "How Forever Feels" is actually pretty good. And "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems" is a good country song. Also "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy". I don't really have a problem with "Living in Fast Forward" except that it's kind of loud. And I like "When the Sun Goes Down" with Uncle Kracker. Even though that's one of the songs that gets criticized.

I heard one song called "You Ain't Much fun Since I Quit Drinkin'". Oh, I looked it up and that's Toby Keith. I like a lot of his stuff. But not the one about the boot in your you-know-what. And that one where he wants to talk about ME is so annoying. Even though I kind of agree. I don't like "Stays in Mexico". Now, "Beerr for My Horses" is good because it's got Willie.

 

[Lancer]

Let me pretend to be a country songwriter. Guess my day would go like this.

I will throw in a few cornball lyrics about Grampa, pickup trucks, sexy tractors or double-wide trailers with redwood decks - onto a rock-n-roll beat and you have an instant country song. Replace any steel guitars or dobros in sight with Ted Nugent roaring guitars, and get rid of any smooth fiddle so you can add the new screechy distorted fiddle. Crank the drums up. As loud as possible.

Next, get someone hot - but who can't sing. Have them lip-sync the polished studio crap at their concerts. Then sit back & wonder why it doesn't translate well on radio.

But I get paid, so why do I care?