I Give Up

[Franklin]

Paul,
True. Like Jimmy Rogers and Gene Autry. But did people complain about the whining country sound back then? Maybe. I don't know. It was Country-Western then, right?

Joe,

I've found that folks complain when music evolves into something different from the time period they fall in love with............In past history, hardcore purists ridiculed Hank Sr. saying things like "It isn't Hillbilly, its dance music"...And it was compared to Jimmy Rogers recordings.

Reporters find new names to describe each new transition..Hillbilly Music, Country and Western, Western Swing, Bluegrass, Newgrass, Texas Country, Outlaw Country, New Country, Uptown, Slick Country, Old time Country, Alternative Country.....and those are just a few tags I've seen written...With the addition of strings, Patsy, Eddy Arnold, and Ray Price are a few who were tagged with the uptown country label, while purist fans complained that their music was too slick to be classified as Country Music..........

Don't misunderstand.....I'm not trying to change anyones mind.....To each his own likes and dislikes......The history of "Recorded Music" is documented......I personally love reading about all of the critiques they received.....Yet they kept on doing it their way......Sounds like the youth of todays music.......Read up on the struggles Chet and Owen had with marketing Nashville as a music center......Billy Sherrill's history is a good insight......The barriers remain the same on a much larger scale.

Anytime one artist inspires another and adds that influence to their individual music, regardless of genre the musical form starts to change.
After years, and thousands of artists trying to find their own direction within their current times.....the boundaries stretch so far away from the original generations music that the original form is no longer recognizable.......Whether directly, or indirectly, the Beatles influenced nearly every musician on the planet.......there is very little of their sound left in current music.......The recording techniques, marketing, and business is where most huge influences remain strong......Folks may not copy Les Paul anymore but when they multitrack their songs his huge influence is clearly traceable.....


There are songs I dearly love....For the most part listening to all forms of music is a study tool.......I find that rap music is a great source for modern rhythmic phrasing......Rap is all about time structure....The subdivision of the musical bar...just like the drummer is free to mess with the time structure during a solo....Rap is doing the same with rhythmic phrasings on top of an obvious groove.........Try listening for a rhythmic phrase that you can apply melodic notes to.....Its a fresh area of rhythmic exploration for musicians........

Paul

[Bill McCloskey]

Nice post Paul.

This same thing comes up in Jazz. There are folks that think that bebop and everything that came after isn't jazz. there are those that think that bebop was the beginning of jazz and everything that came before isn't jazz. There are those that think mixing rock into jazz, like Miles Davis did in Bitches Brew isn't jazz. There are those that think that the avante-guard and so called "free jazz" isn't jazz.

Everyone has their favorites. As a musician and music lover, I try and not come in with any preconceived notions: I like to experience whatever I'm presented with with fresh ears and a beginners mind.

For instance recently went to a very free jazz concert. I had to adjust my ears: instead of looking for the standard chord changes, I looked at what they were playing as a sculpture created in sound, rather than look for a 32 bar progression of chords. When I looked at that way, and adjusted my mind to listen that way, it was an incredibly enjoyable performance, full of passion and emotion.

I'm a big believer that the audience needs to bring something to a concert, not just sit back and be entertained.

[scott murray]

I haven't tuned in a Top 40 country station in 30 years. When Dolly Parton came out with "Love is Like a Butterfly" I knew the party was over. That's not to say good country music isn't being performed and recorded, you just have to know where to look for it.

HERE'S a nice version with Curly Chalker on steel i do believe.

[Leslie Ehrlich]

I gave up in the early 1980s. As far as the mainstream stuff goes, I like country music from the 1950s and 1960s and rock and pop music from about 1965 to 1974.

[Clete Ritta]

Music as an art form as a whole is on a journey of its own, sculpted by the blending of different styles and techniques. Thousands of years ago, percussion and chanting was the chief form of music and tribal communication. Perhaps rap is simply a return to a very old style with a more modern message. Centuries ago, anything that was not in the classical motif was considered blasphemy in Western music. Then came electricity, recording and new technology which has certainly added much to music. Its initial acoustic form has expanded to a never ending array of new sounds created by chips and circuits.

The melting pot of musical forms we have today all stemmed from the same roots into different branches of the music tree. Elements of any style can be found in another sooner or later. Classical, jazz, folk, blues, rock, country etc, are labels we put on music to categorize it, but every genre has been cross pollinated with others to create new genres.

Our constitution grants us the freedom of speech, and though it is not a formal amendment, we also have the freedom of music. There has never been a greater availability and accessibility of so many different forms of music as now, and I for one cherish that freedom by enjoying and learning from as many different forms as I can. Everyone has a favorite style, but to limit yourself to a singular style is, well...limiting IMHO. A tree grows in all directions, even in Brooklyn.

Clete

[Theresa Galbraith]

Clete,
Thanks you!

[Johan Jansen]

There are songs I dearly love....For the most part listening to all forms of music is a study tool.......I find that rap music is a great source for modern rhythmic phrasing......Rap is all about time structure....The subdivision of the musical bar...just like the drummer is free to mess with the time structure during a solo....Rap is doing the same with rhythmic phrasings on top of an obvious groove.........Try listening for a rhythmic phrase that you can apply melodic notes to.....Its a fresh area of rhythmic exploration for musicians........

Paul

personally I can understand the rhythmic phrasing as a studyobject.
I can't stand rap as an expressionform, maybe it is mostly full of hate and violence, I mean to my ears. I'm studying a lot of old soulmusic, esspecially the horn-parts. To me food for new ideas in backing up.
Please, don't give up. Music had and has a lot to offer , also in the future.
regards, Johan

[Herb Steiner]

personally I can understand the rhythmic phrasing as a studyobject.
I can't stand rap as an expressionform, maybe it is mostly full of hate and violence, I mean to my ears. I'm studying a lot of old soulmusic, esspecially the horn-parts. To me food for new ideas in backing up.
Please, don't give up. Music had and has a lot to offer , also in the future.
regards, Johan

Music is an expression of the state of the culture from which it comes; "gangsta" rap music is full of discord, tension, hatred, mysogeny, and violence because life in the ghetto is full of those things.

Songs about drinkin' and cheatin' in honky tonks is like Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood to those people. Everyone in the ghetto knows someone who's been murdered. It's their way of life. If you don't like rap music, fine... be glad you don't live in the environment that produces it.

[James Mayer]

Well... I have given up on contemporary country music.

I have given up on modern Country several times. I keep thinking that they'll finally realize the 80's are over and get rootsy. The most recent "last straw" was "It's gotta be 5'0'Clock Somewhere" by Alan Jackson with Jimmy Buffet. What a great idea! Let's bring in Buffet to have a really lame conversation in the middle of a barely musical song. Pure gimmick. That one jumped the shark and was still a hit. It says a lot about that demographic and what to expect next.

However, I'm not alone in thinking we are experiencing the most intense and diverse renaissance in human history. I was born in '75 and spent the 80's and 90's complaining about how the music was better in the 50's, 60's and 70's. Then the internet arrived.

If you can't find music that you enjoy, these days, then you either aren't exploring or you simply don't enjoy music.

[Barry Blackwood]

If you don't like rap music, fine... be glad you don't live in the environment that produces it.

But Herb, we are all living in the environment that produces it. I can't get away from it!

[basilh]

But Herb, we are all living in the environment that produces it. I can't get away from it!

Not quite "All"..Thank God..

[Barry Blackwood]

Sorry Basil, exception noted. My point was, in this age of "global" mass-marketing, it's hard to avoid what you don't like.

[James Mayer]

I can't stand rap as an expressionform, maybe it is mostly full of hate and violence, I mean to my ears.

I made this point before and was called out on it. My friend, Karl, kindly pointed out that my recording of Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison has a point where the crowd cheers after Johnny sings "I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die". How about the "shoot him with my old 45" line in "Country Boy Can Survive". Plenty of gunfights depicted by Marty Robbins, etc.

That being said, I'm not a fan of drum machines and equation based music. I like instruments played by humans and their beautiful flaws. Most rap and hip hop employs sampling and drum machines.

[Joachim Kettner]

My God, Johnny Cash was talking about a man to man fight, these gangs are about criminal things, you name them!

[Johan Jansen]

As I said, I don't like the subjects a lot of rappers sing about and their choices of words. That doesn't mean I disrespect it as a form of music. It's not my world and I don't manage to open my mind for that. I guess that is my problem......
regards, Johan

[John Ed Kelly]

Bill McCloskey wrote ''Never understood to need to lock out a complete genre of music.''

I fully agree Bill but you also mentioned rap music.

I feel that although it's fairly clever to a point - it is not really music.

I saw a BBC documentary on TV this week where Louis Theroux visited the deep south and spoke with a number of rappers who demonstrated their offerings.

I don't recall hearing much beyond a disco sort of beat and some lyrics (more pop poetry really) recited in a monotone. That's OK in itself and I believe, according to the BBC programme, that it is very popular and lucrative for some of the more successful performers.

It's not music though - at least the reciter of the verse is not really singing - as the stave is pretty much ignored.

[Keith Bolog]

Check out WBZI, myclassiccountry.com, streaming on the web now. They dont play any comtemporary country. good old stuff and none of the rock which seems to have taken over country. Chubby Howard does 2 weekend shows and always features steel guitar and talks about the players.
cheers

[Lane Gray]

That struggle that Paul noted at the top of this page actually slightly predates even his narrative. 1924: Fading opera 'star' (he was good enough to get hired in major companies, not good enough to keep the jobs later on, IIRC) recognized "there's gold in them hillbillies" and started recording hillbilly music in his slick uptown style, alienating the Bradley Kincaid fans.

The battle has raged ever since.
At every time that you can point out proof that it's going to hell, there was someone making hits in the more traditional vein.
Shania Twain? George Strait
Kenny Rogers? Mel Tillis.
Eddy Arnold? Ernest Tubb.
Patsy? Kitty (Sorry, Patsy was never a force for Honky-tonk, she crossed over as hard as Shania) and Norma Jean
Brooks and Dunn? Alan.