Loretta Lynn: They've Killed Country Music

Like all media it has exploded to encompass enormous numbers of performers and the young people don't sing much about being a Coal Miner's Daughter. It is not really new when you think of bands like Lynard Skinard and such. I always loved Waylon Jennings and he was not the Grand Old Opry type.
 
True country music died long ago. These days, it's almost all a hybrid of country, rock and pop. Most tunes sound very similar, and I say that with a musician's ear, as one who made my living playing music for thirty years.
Modern country music is awful. Punked-out "bros" singing about pickup trucks, fishing and beer. Country music really had its golden era from about 1955 to 1975, the time of Cash, Nelson, Jones, Haggard, Lynn, Parton and so many others. Not much of interest since.
 
Modern country music is awful. Punked-out "bros" singing about pickup trucks, fishing and beer. Country music really had its golden era from about 1955 to 1975, the time of Cash, Nelson, Jones, Haggard, Lynn, Parton and so many others. Not much of interest since.
I totally agree except instead of not much interest, I have absolutely no interest.
 
Modern country music is awful. Punked-out "bros" singing about pickup trucks, fishing and beer. Country music really had its golden era from about 1955 to 1975, the time of Cash, Nelson, Jones, Haggard, Lynn, Parton and so many others. Not much of interest since.


I agree, but I will extend the time up to maybe even 2000. Alan Jackson,George Strait , Vince Gill, Emmylou Harris......and select others come to mind. Strait & Jackson even had a song {Murder on Music Row} about the death of country music & for the most part Nashville..

But I do agree the "downfall" started earlier.
 
We don't listen to the old, what was called "cry in your beer" music. We don't listen to the new stuff either. We listen to the old, as in: George Strait, Diamond Rio, Garth, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Chris Le Doux, Terry Clark, Shania Twain, Tobie Keith, Brooks & Dunn and so on. We loved seeing Terry Clark on the CMA Awards, because she wore a Western slicker and a nice black Felt hat. Definitely not the mainstream for female country singers. When a cowboy hat is on country singers, like George Strait, Garth Brooks and Kix Brooks...…….we love it!

Today, country singers look more like "rock stars".
 
I agree, but I will extend the time up to maybe even 2000. Alan Jackson,George Strait , Vince Gill, Emmylou Harris......and select others come to mind. Strait & Jackson even had a song {Murder on Music Row} about the death of country music & for the most part Nashville..

But I do agree the "downfall" started earlier.
You have a point. Don't forget David Ball!
 
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We don't listen to the old, what was called "cry in your beer" music. We don't listen to the new stuff either. We listen to the old, as in: George Strait, Diamond Rio, Garth, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Chris Le Doux, Terry Clark, Shania Twain, Tobie Keith, Brooks & Dunn and so on. We loved seeing Terry Clark on the CMA Awards, because she wore a Western slicker and a nice black Felt hat. Definitely not the mainstream for female country singers. When a cowboy hat is on country singers, like George Strait, Garth Brooks and Kix Brooks...…….we love it!

Today, country singers look more like "rock stars".
You gotta’ be kidding. No one sings any song any better than George Jones. I never heard any singer that was able to change octaves in the middle of a song like George.

Besides, the heart of Country music was all about sharing their pain of losing their love, dog or pickup truck. A lot of those good old boys were heavy drinkers and a lot of them played and sang with a drink nearby. Look at all the crap George Jones and Randy Travis got themselves into. Today, they just switched from booze to cocaine. Alan Jackson was the last clean cut Country singer that I can remember.
 
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Will forever love the music from the mid 80's thru early 2000. When both wife and I started going to country-western nightclubs, a number of years before we met, the bands and DJ would only play the music from those years. It was the only kind of music a 2-Step, Cowboy Cha Cha, Line Dancing, California and Texas Swing could be done to. The people wanted music from then, not George Jones, Tammy, Loretta, Lefty, Hank or any of those. The music from those mid 80's and on was "party music" and that's what the folks, including wife and I, loved. Songs like Boot Scootin' Boogie (Brooks & Dunn), T-R-O-U-B-L-E (Travis Tritt), Amarillo By Morning (George Strait), Wild, Wild West (Escape Club) and others, really got the dancers out on the floor. The dance floor was literally packed at these nightclubs when these songs were played.

We have these songs and number more, on cd's, just like them from the mid 80's thru early 2000.
 
George and his lawnmower already mentioned.
Video shows George Jones sloppy drunk driving his lawn mower to beer store.
His wife had left, took George's car key's
'Hey, I'm too drunk to walk, got drive my lawn mower to beer store.'
He was a surly drunk.

Emma Lou Harris-highly thought of for artistic ability when singing.
I never thought she was 'special,' as a singer. She's difficult to understand and sings
very softly.
However, she is a 'looker;' she is one of my girlfriends.

I suppose all music runs in cycles, as in most other endeavors.
 

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