Sunday, November 11, 2007
What's That I hear? Oh, Nothing New.
I love Country Music. Which is why I listen to Country Music radio for a month or two each year. Yep, I can tune my radio to one of the three local Nashville radio stations right in the heart of the best music genre this great country has to offer and, after 4 to 8 weeks, hear all the newest releases for the previous year. Then I look for something else, bored with country. I know, being a consummate radio consumer, that all the radio stations, regardless of their genre, have a play list that changes little from one month to the next. Actually, the lite rock station I use as background while working hasn’t changed their play list by more than a dozen songs since I tuned it in two years ago. However, in a few weeks, they will go to wall-to-wall Christmas music until after the holiday and I love Christmas music this time of year. Probably the easiest job in america today is Program Director. What do they work, an hour a week? Let's see, I'll take this song out and insert this song. Done for the month. But I digress.
Country Music is the worst of the worst when it comes to their play list. You see, it appears that the industry has decided there must be one or two big stars who drag the business along and so they promote those big stars to death. But they are living in the past and killing the genre in the process.
Not so long ago, in a past universe, there was a great superstar named Garth Brooks. Just about everything Garth touched turned to gold and his ship lifted other smaller ships around him at the same time. Country Music boomed with Garth at the top of the marquee. Then he retired, probably bored but more than likely just plain tired of pulling the weight.
So the powers that guide Country Music looked for a replacement. In their infinite wisdom, they seemed to have determined to put all their efforts behind one and make him the big star Garth once was. That selection was or is none other than Kenny Chesney. This diminutive little bald guy with the chipmunk cheeks and the voice that sounds like someone perpetually chewing on tobacco somehow got the nod to take over Garth’s place at the helm. Lift the ships, the big guys commanded. As a result, you cannot listen to Country Music in the city of Country Music without hearing a Kenny Chesney song once every hour. And God help the radio listener when old Kenny comes anywhere near the city on tour. Then he is promoted to a nauseating point of infinity.
Here’s the problem. I don’t much care for Chesney and he is no Garth Brooks. Garth made Country Music come alive. He had a personality that drew the audience into whatever he was doing and a showmanship that made you look even if you didn’t want to. Garth’s music was country but it reached out to everyone. And at the end of his shows, Garth could take off his hat and take a bow.
Chesney is a bore. His music hasn’t changed since she thought his tractor was sexy. Yes, he did have a couple of catchy tunes with a Caribbean sound, okay, Caribbean tobacco chewing sound but, at some point it was decided that all his releases would sound the same. It is a pathetic, love sick dweeb who just can’t forget the past and she’s so darn perfect, remember how great it was and she is, blah, blah, blah, blah. Cheney’s music has no original thoughts or changes. The songs all have the same rhythm to them with the same guitar solo somewhere in the middle and the same chipmunk chaw vocals all the way through. And if you listen to the three main country stations in Nashville, home of Country Music, you are treated to this cardboard box music at least once an hour. Along with Faith and Tim, that’s it. Belch!
Country Music sales are pathetic. That’s not to say that any area of the music industry is booming. For that matter, entertainment as a whole is stagnant. I wonder why? Could it be that, instead of giving people choices, lots and lots of diverse choices, the entire entertainment business has decided to force-feed the consumer one brand of crap? Note to executives across the country, listen 24/7 to the noise you are programming and ask yourself if you would buy it.
In a couple of weeks I will be listening to Christmas music. Hey, Country Music, see you … or rather, hear you again in January. I’m going out on a limb here and predict I will be hearing nothing new.
Country Music is the worst of the worst when it comes to their play list. You see, it appears that the industry has decided there must be one or two big stars who drag the business along and so they promote those big stars to death. But they are living in the past and killing the genre in the process.
Not so long ago, in a past universe, there was a great superstar named Garth Brooks. Just about everything Garth touched turned to gold and his ship lifted other smaller ships around him at the same time. Country Music boomed with Garth at the top of the marquee. Then he retired, probably bored but more than likely just plain tired of pulling the weight.
So the powers that guide Country Music looked for a replacement. In their infinite wisdom, they seemed to have determined to put all their efforts behind one and make him the big star Garth once was. That selection was or is none other than Kenny Chesney. This diminutive little bald guy with the chipmunk cheeks and the voice that sounds like someone perpetually chewing on tobacco somehow got the nod to take over Garth’s place at the helm. Lift the ships, the big guys commanded. As a result, you cannot listen to Country Music in the city of Country Music without hearing a Kenny Chesney song once every hour. And God help the radio listener when old Kenny comes anywhere near the city on tour. Then he is promoted to a nauseating point of infinity.
Here’s the problem. I don’t much care for Chesney and he is no Garth Brooks. Garth made Country Music come alive. He had a personality that drew the audience into whatever he was doing and a showmanship that made you look even if you didn’t want to. Garth’s music was country but it reached out to everyone. And at the end of his shows, Garth could take off his hat and take a bow.
Chesney is a bore. His music hasn’t changed since she thought his tractor was sexy. Yes, he did have a couple of catchy tunes with a Caribbean sound, okay, Caribbean tobacco chewing sound but, at some point it was decided that all his releases would sound the same. It is a pathetic, love sick dweeb who just can’t forget the past and she’s so darn perfect, remember how great it was and she is, blah, blah, blah, blah. Cheney’s music has no original thoughts or changes. The songs all have the same rhythm to them with the same guitar solo somewhere in the middle and the same chipmunk chaw vocals all the way through. And if you listen to the three main country stations in Nashville, home of Country Music, you are treated to this cardboard box music at least once an hour. Along with Faith and Tim, that’s it. Belch!
Country Music sales are pathetic. That’s not to say that any area of the music industry is booming. For that matter, entertainment as a whole is stagnant. I wonder why? Could it be that, instead of giving people choices, lots and lots of diverse choices, the entire entertainment business has decided to force-feed the consumer one brand of crap? Note to executives across the country, listen 24/7 to the noise you are programming and ask yourself if you would buy it.
In a couple of weeks I will be listening to Christmas music. Hey, Country Music, see you … or rather, hear you again in January. I’m going out on a limb here and predict I will be hearing nothing new.
# posted by Richard W Black : 6:31 AM
