I used to think country music was something old people liked (just as rap music was something black people — and the white kids of Fargo, N.D. — liked). I feared maybe I would end up liking country music more and more as the years went by. I had seen my dad, who liked the Beatles when he was younger, listening to Dwight Yoakam. And my sister, who liked Green Day as a kid, suddenly had Deanna Carter in her CD collection.
I always resisted. Then last year, Darius Rucker — Hootie himself — released a country album that didn’t suck. And now I like two country songs in the VH1 top 20, Miley Cyrus’ “The Climb” and Taylor Swift’s “You Belong with Me.”
Actually, let me re-type that: I like two “country” songs, because if I like them, they can be country in quotes only. In reality, they must be pop songs.
On the other hand, these same videos are played on CMT. And Swift started out in country, and Cyrus comes from country lineage. So they must be country songs.
Clearly, this was a question for my music geek buddy, Matt, so I e-mailed him. His suggested label: “Pop country.”
In our discussion about pop country, we also struck on last year’s “Bartender Song” by Rehab. It goes: “She stole my heart in a trailer park/So I jacked the keys to her father’s car/And crashed that Chevrolet/And then stepped away.”
Thematically and vocally, “Bartender Song” is modern country (or a parody of it), but there are a few major giveaways that mark it as a pretender: 1, It’s too well-written to come from a major country star, 2, there’s a section in the song that is clearly a rap breakdown, and 3, the lead singer isn’t wearing a cowboy hat in the video (meanwhile, he makes a lot of “rap” movements with his hands).
“I feel bad for the loyal CMT watchers,” Matt wrote in his e-mail. “They all thought that was the best song and then bought the disc and realized every other song was rap rock. Pretty funny stuff.”
It is funny to think that someone could enjoy a rap-rock song that has a tacked-on country aspect, and then be disappointed by a disc that sounds like the same as that song, just minus the tacked-on stuff.
Rehab’s brief inroads to the country community (dirt roads, I imagine), along with the marketing tactic of remixing songs for different TV channels (a practice that, to their credit, isn’t followed by Swift and Cyrus on the aforementioned songs), points to something ridiculous about music marketing. The marketers think that even though we all like any song that sounds good to our ear, we also need labels to define what we like.
This is how they think we think:
From a pop-only fan’s viewpoint, Swift can be dismissed until she drops the twang for one song, then she’s OK. And “The Climb” would be better if Cyrus didn’t sound twangy on the lyric “It ain’t about how fast ah git thare.” Mostly, she should get back to being Hannah Montana.
From a country-only fan’s viewpoint, Rehab is good up until the point that they’re outed as not being country. Swift is good because she’s country and always has been. She “dresses” country, wearing a lot of beiges that call to mind wheat fields, and her hair is in that wavy style that suggests she doesn’t care too much because she has to go milk the cows.
Cyrus is normally not good because she’s pop (even though Hannah Montana sounds like a country name), but when she does a country song, she’s good; after all, she’s Billy Ray’s daughter.
(Of course, the real irony of this is that country music hasn’t sounded like country music since 1970, so by that definition, modern country music fans aren’t true country music fans. But I don’t want to get off track, so I’ll leave that alone.)
But from a music fan’s (me) viewpoint, what sounds good sounds good — “Bartender Song” is funny, “You Belong with Me” is catchy and “The Climb” is actually kind of epic.
It’d be nice if we were marketed to more often.
Comments
John, you don’t like country music. Country music has evolved into pop/mainstream music and therefore you now like some of the cross genre artists and their tunes. Do you like George Strait? Do you find yourself digging into the back catologs of some of these new artists? I assume the answer is no.
The only country (what I consider country) that I like are the huge stars of the 90s. Example being, Tim McGraw, Garth Brooks, Kenny Chesney, etc.
The next time you feel like you want to like country music, put in Vertical Horizon and listen to ‘Best I ever had (Grey Sky Morning)’ and then go to youtube (because you don’t have the disc) and listen to Gary Allen’s version. That should reinforce why you like rock/pop music and not country.# Posted By shaune | 8/5/09 2:45 PM
Another example: I remember hearing a country version of Bruce Springsteen’s “Atlantic City” in a grocery store one time. The artist basically just took all of the raw feeling out of the song and turned into something that fills the background without you having to notice it. In other words, he countrified it.
In all honesty, I did like some country music CDs that came across my desk in Brainerd, but those were definitely pop-country. And even with those, it wasn’t something I’d pop into my CD player for enjoyment. It was more like, “If I liked country, I’d think this is good.”
And I do like bluegrass music festivals (bluegrass is sometimes lumped in with country, but bluegrass tends to have a lot more emotion to it).
But those three artists you named, I cringe to even think of listening to their stuff. I just don’t like country.# Posted By John Hansen | 8/5/09 5:17 PM
I don’t consider anything from late 70s on country music. Jerry Jeff Walker, Waylon Jennings, David Allan Coe, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and a few others are the only country artists who occupy a place on my ipod. The Garth Brooks types, ehhh, that’s all pop country to me. None of the new artists carry half the soul these men carried in their left testicle.
Also, I prefer the Bartender Son unedited version. “She stole my heart in a trailer park/So I jacked the keys to her father’s car/And crashed that PIECE OF SHIT/And then stepped away.” I’ve never heard Chevrolet placed in there and it almost ruins the song bc everyone in my college town’s bars would unite for that verse.# Posted By Seth Stringer | 8/14/09 8:52 PM
And I am a Texan, so naturally I have an entitlement of what true country music is. haha# Posted By Seth Stringer | 8/14/09 9:02 PM
Interestingly, while you often hear about how country “switched” from traditional country to pop in the ‘70s, that’s not entirely accurate. Maybe country radio made that switch, but of course, there is still traditional country being made (mostly by old guys who put out self-pressed CDs which they sell via mail out of their homes). Perhaps even more surprising to know, pop country actually predates the ‘70s. For example, Leroy Van Dyke, who will be playing in the Country Gold Tour at the Missouri State Fair, was popular in the ‘60s, and a lot of his music — including the most successful “country” song of all time, “Walk on By” — was very much pop country.
I did not know the unedited version of “Bartender Song” went like that. Are you sure people weren’t just yelling their own lyrics over the actual lyrics? Because “Chevrolet” actually rhymes with “away.”# Posted By John Hansen | 8/15/09 1:13 AM
Good history lesson, but I guess it’s all relative to one’s view on “pop country.” I grew up in the early 90s and was born a big fan of the country musicians i mentioned through my grandfather. But I never found a current country band or act I liked so I deemed 80s on trash country.
And John, after looking it up, i was wrong in labeling it the unedited version. It’s actually the original version according to the band’s Web site. And instead of father’s car, it’s actually fu****’ car. I’m surprised you’ve never heard that version (more popular with our age group), but then again, I’ve only listened to it at parties, bars and on my ipod, not the radio.
It’s kind of like listening to The Black Eyed Peas’ unedited version of Let’s Get Retarded. Ruins it.# Posted By Seth Stringer | 8/15/09 9:48 PM
I only know about “Bartender Song” because it was on a Best of ’08 mix CD a friend made for me. I assumed that he would be including the original versions, not radio edits, but I guess not in this case. Sometimes if you don’t look closely at the label, you can end up mistakenly buying the edited version. I’ve done that before.# Posted By John Hansen | 8/16/09 1:24 AM