Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Country Music Suddenly Doesn't Dig "Outlaws"...
Don't tell Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, or any of the Hank Williamses, but country music no longer has room for "outlaws".
This article about country radio's rejection of the Dixie Chicks is hilarious. One particular passage really cracked me up.
“If you’re trying to offer an olive branch to country radio, that’s not the way to do it,” said Ken Tucker, Billboard country music correspondent. “The Chicks are celebrating being the outlaws.”That single quote points to a far larger point: Country music is nothing more than a soulless carbon copy of its former self.
I'm not a huge fan of any time period of country music, but there are a handful of old school country tunes I do enjoy. Very bluesy stuff.
That being said, the music fan in me realizes that there was a time when many country music artists revelled in being different, experimenting with different sounds and ideas, and going against the Nashville hierarchy.
Fast forward to 2007, when country music is all about marketing, making money for corporate interests, conforming to conservative America's idea of what's "acceptable" and churning out the same droll songs perpetually in order to make money, money, money.
Put simply: It's SAFE.
Today's country music has no edge whatsoever. So, naturally, when an act like the Dixie Chicks came along and (God forbid!) spoke their minds, the shock troops of "conservative correctness" and the country music business itself freaked out.
That's how washed-out and safe country music is now. So safe that one can see how these eleven words...
"Just so you know, we're ashamed the President is from Texas."...can be inflated into an all-out anti-patriotic assault against the nation's chief executive.
The Dixie Chicks are lucky. They're more creative and more interesting than anything else country music has going on, and they'll be better off on their own.
Maybe you disagree. If so, maybe you'll be tempted to buy a Ford truck because big, bad Toby Keith told you to...
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