I listen to all types of music: Rock, metal, blues, jazz, rap, pop, etc. I listen to pretty much all music except for today’s country. Ugggghhhh, I hate today’s country. The reason I hate today’s country music ’cause it all sounds pretty repetitive… aka all sounding the same. It’s true. Country music doesn’t sound like country music anymore and it’s pissing me off.
How much do you want to bet that all these young kids that listen to today’s country don’t even listen to classic country? Do people in today’s generation of country music even listen to artists like Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Hank Sr., Merle Haggard, Jimmie Rodgers, George Jones, early Loretta Lynn, Buck Owens, etc.
When it comes to Johnny Cash, I’m sure young people have heard of him; I bet they just listen to his newer American recordings and never his classic songs. They probably just know him by “Folsom Prison Blues”, “Ring of Fire” and “Walk the Line” and that’s it. Johnny has a lot more amazing classic songs with songs such as “Cocaine Blues”, “Ghost Riders in the Sky”, “Don’t Take Your Guns To Town” and “Jackson” (in which he duets with June Carter with). Mostly older folks would know all those songs. Ask any 20 year old so-called country fan if they heard “Ghost Riders in the Sky” or “Cocaine Blues” and I bet they’ll say, “no”. Sad isn’t? That’s what the country music industry wants to do… they want to get people’s minds off the older country and evolve into something different.
These days people are listening to garbage like Florida Georgia Line, Luke Bryan, Rascal Flats, Dierks Bentley and shit like that. Blech. Not country to me. Listening to that stuff to me is like listening to Britney Spears and Justin Bieber almost. That’s what today’s country music sounds like… pop music. If you want to listen to real country, listen to the older stuff.
Admittedly, I used to listen to country music when I was young but I was listening to true country like some of the artists I listed above… I also listened to some Clint Black, Randy Travis, George Strait and Hal Ketchum over the years. I also listened to some Reba McEntire and even saw her in concert once.
Don’t get me wrong… there are a few modern country artists who I find talented like Toby Keith I actually like — I can listen to some Toby Keith — he’s actually very talented. Good singer and songwriter. Keith Urban is pretty good and so is Brad Paisley.
George Strait is one country artist who never changed that “country” sound… he still sounds the same after all these years which is good. I remember George wrote a song called “Kicked Outta Country” which is about the direction the country music industry was headed. The industry had a hard time accepting George ’cause he’s still sounding way too “country”. Youtube that song if you want to hear it.
It’s hard finding good country music these days. The industry won’t stop the country/pop trend… they’ll do whatever makes them the big money and this genre is unfortunately, making them big money. They’re doing all they can to ignore “true” country music which is why they’re trying to act like George Strait never existed. They’re trying to dominate the pop & rap scene is what they’re trying to do. It’s a competition for sure.
I used to be a country fan but I still love to listen to Johnny Cash, Patsy and Hank Sr. Listening to them never gets old. Next time you talk to a young country fan about country music and if they say they’re a fan of Florida Georgia Line or some dumb shit like that point them out to either Johnny, Patsy or Hank Sr. Get them to listen to real country instead of today’s junk.
Kev