fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #4136 ]

[ SECRET POST #4136 ]

⌈ Secret Post #4136 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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04. https://i.imgur.com/bjoiN3a.jpg

Have you seen Bo Burnham's take on Today's Country Songs?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPTKR12cUqc

I was thinking of Gone Country: https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/alanjackson/gonecountry.html

Hm. It's tough.

Like, personally, I definitely agree with you and I get where you're coming from. For me, pop country is mostly unlistenable.

But I also feel like I don't know enough about the economic and cultural background that pop-country is drawing from, and marketing towards, to be able to totally dismiss it out of hand. Maybe it is a basically middle-class genre but I don't know for sure.

And in general, the way that class intersects with popular music is so fucking complicated that I can't even pretend to make broad judgments about it.

the way that class intersects with popular music is something I should have done my graduate thesis on 20 years ago. oh well too late now.

but I really do feel like OP is onto something with that. even though it would be a much less popular topic of social criticism than 90's rap and violence. white people don't like to be told that they're doing it wrong even when they're so very, very wrong.

That's maybe true for social criticism but definitely not applicable to academic criticism

true! but I'm too old for academic criticism. the kids these days think my Black Flag is oldies and I can't handle that.

It's become a genre for people slightly above the median income who think that owning a truck and a hat makes one salt-of-the-earth. There's a lot of feel-good wish fulfillment for conservatives going on.

In other words, Ryan Zinke?

Yeah.

A large part of the problem was deregulation of radio in the 80s, and the largest networks were as sycophantic to Reagan/Bush as they could get away with. The Dixie Chicks were just one of the more explicit examples of artists getting blacklisted for having the wrong opinion.

DA. I still miss the Dixie Chicks. They were awesome.

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(Anonymous) - 2018-05-02 01:40 (UTC) - Expand

I'm a day late, but I've found that most people around here (northern suburbs of Pittsburgh to be slightly exact) that listen to country are middle to upper middle class white kids who don't like rap or alternative, have racists/prejudicial thoughts that they may or may not admit to, and think that owning a truck, fishing, and listening to country makes them "hicks". Meanwhile, not one of them could actually tough it out in the "stix"...

Look on the bright side, they probably don't have the same oh-so-icky political beliefs as the real deal.

The poser pop-country stars - demographically speaking - probably have ickier political beliefs than the real-deal ones. For instance, support for Trump was stronger among upper- and middle-class white voters than among working-class white voters.

It is deeply incorrect to blame poorer voters for bad policy and electoral outcomes. It is also extremely pernicious, distracting, and generally shitty.

Seconding this entire post. Thank you.

I also agree with the sentiment of this secret in general. I live in an area where LOTS of people listen to country music, and have heard some of it on the local radio stations as a result, and a lot of it definitely comes off feeling rather phony to me as well.

I'm not blaming anyone. I have no problem with "icky" political beliefs. I can separate people from their politics.

That said, I would assume celebrities have to toe a more cautious line than Bubba from the trailer park. And as a southerner, I'm LMAOing at your naive belief that Bubba didn't vote for Trump.

And as a southerner, I'm LMAOing at your naive belief that Bubba didn't vote for Trump.

Yes, many lower-class white voters did vote for Trump. But - demographically speaking - more upper- and middle-class white voters did.

Not in Dixie, dear.

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(Anonymous) - 2018-05-02 00:05 (UTC) - Expand

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(Anonymous) - 2018-05-02 00:10 (UTC) - Expand

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(Anonymous) - 2018-05-02 00:45 (UTC) - Expand

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cbrachyrhynchos - 2018-05-02 00:47 (UTC) - Expand

Yep. Dolly Parton, for instance, has done amazing work supporting poor kids' literacy. Johnny Cash advocated for prisoners and refused Nixon's request that he sing songs (not ones he'd written) mocking hippies and welfare recipients, and sang about the mistreatment of Native American vets instead - and sang "Man in Black", which is an entire song about how Cash understood his role as an artist to be to give voice to the poor and oppressed. Glenn Campbell, who was a share-cropper's kid, wasn't exactly woke (he was much less sympathetic to the anti-war movement than Cash and he played for the RNC a few times), but he was still a registered Democrat.

Glenn Campbell, who was a share-cropper's kid, wasn't exactly woke (he was much less sympathetic to the anti-war movement than Cash and he played for the RNC a few times), but he was still a registered Democrat.

Unfortunately, someone born in a rural area of a center-south state in 1936 being a registered Democrat is not at all an indicator of wokeness

(no subject)

tree_and_leaf - 2018-05-03 12:16 (UTC) - Expand

The icky political beliefs of, say, Willie Nelson?

I totally agree OP. But you have to remember that like any POP music a good portion of it is about making money and not music. Sure there are some great pop artists in all genres but there are just as many who are created the same way any product is created and promoted.

Pretty much all pop music is (almost by definition) about making money. Whether or not something is made for money is orthogonal to whether it's good music.

Pop country's just Christian pop with lower standards.

LOL!

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