Dont get me wrong, all hicks arent bad , some are surprisingly funny and good people, my beef is with the direction of country music. When I was a kid, country players were really good, like Roy Clark and Chet Atkins,who were amazing, now we have a bunch of fake accent city boys and foreigners. Yes I said foreigners, because the country twang accent is inherent of the U.S. and U.S. only. I am from the south, ALL the rumors are true and yes people speak like that. Fortunately for me on the coast i am mixed in pretty well with different accents ,so mine cant be identified.The western country accent is different, I like it better, not so broke and cry cry. I just felt like complaining because a style of music that i dont even care for, but has its own beautiful past, has become so mainstream that people are buying into imitators and impersonators. Like I said, Im from the south and I am oh so very familiar with that twangy southern accent,,where people REALLY say things like : Up air where we from, wudder instead of water, down yonder, instead of siren its sighreen,aint no tellin, dog on it instead of damnit.
Thought of this because Luke Bryan was on the Today Show and he's one of the worst offenders - at least he doesn't wear a fake cowboy hat too.
I love country music, but this pop country crap not only all sounds alike but you can't even tell who the artist is because they all twang alike. Do the same people write this stuff - is it just me or does it all sound the same?
And then there is the accent that may be twangy naturally, but gets played up past the point of stupidity. Th racist rodeo MO state fair emcee fake accent drove me bonkers.
Ironically, I occasionally like some country-ish music where they lay it on real thick. No doubt that Steve Earle, and Lucinda Williams are southerners - but they can play it up into great [expletive].
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And then there is Neko Case -more of a vagabond than a southerner. Her twang is ssschwingggerffiic!
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Hence, I think it's one's appreciation for the underlying music that makes the twang cool or not.
Radbird wrote: It's not just the over twanging but the "it all sounds the same" nature of today's country pop that inspired this rant.
Yeah, they may be milking this cow dry It's like every other bad pop music(boy bands), just put a new nice face on the Sos.
We've had a rant on here recently about country pop. It is grating, to say the least. I guess it's the looks of the singers that keep it popular, coupled with a bit of nostalgia for a wholesome/idealized country life that doesn't exist. No Walmart hypercenter, screaming interstate highways, trailer courts and exurb Mcmansionland and obese folk in these videos - just amber-toned breezy fields of dreams and people that fill out their jeans nicely.
Radbird wrote: It's not just the over twanging but the "it all sounds the same" nature of today's country pop that inspired this rant.
Yeah, they may be milking this cow dry It's like every other bad pop music(boy bands), just put a new nice face on the Sos.
We've had a rant on here recently about country pop. It is grating, to say the least. I guess it's the looks of the singers that keep it popular, coupled with a bit of nostalgia for a wholesome/idealized country life that doesn't exist. No Walmart hypercenter, screaming interstate highways, trailer courts and exurb Mcmansionland and obese folk in these videos - just amber-toned breezy fields of dreams and people that fill out their jeans nicely.
I was tooling around facebook the other day and noticed a guy I went to high school with is attempting some sort of musical career. This guy never had any sort of accent, not even the minor Ozark redneck twang. But put a guitar in his hands and suddenly he's from Bum [expletive], Alabama or something. I was cracking up listening to it. I guess you have to go that route to be taken seriously in country music in the absence of any songwriting or musical talent.
The same guy grew up in a nice home, dressed preppy, was a football star, was highly popular and dated popular girls. But he writes this big post on there about how great it is that he's worked so hard and is now living the dream making music and working the farm, while all the people that used to "look down their noses" at him are now miserable failures. It's like he's created this entire alternate reality of a tough upbringing to go right along with his fake ass accent.
cardsfansince82 wrote:I was tooling around facebook the other day and noticed a guy I went to high school with is attempting some sort of musical career. This guy never had any sort of accent, not even the minor Ozark redneck twang. But put a guitar in his hands and suddenly he's from Bum [expletive], Alabama or something. I was cracking up listening to it. I guess you have to go that route to be taken seriously in country music in the absence of any songwriting or musical talent.
The same guy grew up in a nice home, dressed preppy, was a football star, was highly popular and dated popular girls. But he writes this big post on there about how great it is that he's worked so hard and is now living the dream making music and working the farm, while all the people that used to "look down their noses" at him are now miserable failures. It's like he's created this entire alternate reality of a tough upbringing to go right along with his fake ass accent.
You should point that out publicly. Just saying. These people should be shamed, embarrassed, and ridiculed.
Speaking of, I sat in with a local band a while back that plays more bluegrass/country but still country. Well the guy who opened for us was a complete fake douche from the city, cowboy hat and all. So he does his whole drinking beer on a country road country music [expletive] set and when we came on the lead singer goes "man I didn't realize they had so many back roads and hay fields in Springfield, nor did I realize people there had deep south accents. Kind of makes me wonder if that guy was just another poser [expletive] trying to pretend to be country." I was stunned he would say that, the 100 or so people in the crowd went nuts. I'm not going to pretend I had anything thing to do with it because bluegrass bass is pretty damn simple when you are just trying to learn the songs, but man the others in the band were on fire that night and everyone knew it. Completely blew away the poser. I hear he's since moved to Nashville because you know that's how you keep it real and make it in country.
When I hear any new country song in my head I instantly hear Waylon Jennings saying "do you really think Hank done it this way."
