Country Radio is now 'Music of the Suburbs'

chas smith R.I.P. · Post by **chas smith R.I.P.** » 8 Mar 2002 9:51 am

More reinforcement that our fears are justified and not paranoia.
http://www.calendarlive.com/top/1,1419,L-LATimes-Calendar-X!ArticleDetail-52954,00.html

Jim Smith · Post by **Jim Smith** » 8 Mar 2002 10:04 am

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Stations are gearing toward women in their 20s, 30s and 40s--to attract the advertisers that covet them--so running songs about cheatin', drinkin', drivin' a truck and goin' to jail "doesn't fit anymore," Curtis said. "It's become more of an AC [adult contemporary] format."
As a result, artists such as Shania Twain and Faith Hill rule the airwaves, while Country Music Hall of Famers such as Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline can't crack the lineup. So it looks as though the Soggy Bottom Boys' "constant sorrow" will not let up.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Maybe this explains Theresa's view on country music.

Michael Johnstone · Post by **Michael Johnstone** » 8 Mar 2002 10:47 am

And this from Newsweek -
http://www.msnbc.com/news/718662.asp?cp1=1

Ron Page · Post by **Ron Page** » 8 Mar 2002 12:05 pm

Another recent thread on the subject got it through my head. Radio is not for listeners and music fans, it's for advertisers and hucksters.

Record companies are starting to complain about the conglomerate domination and control of the advertising market, made possible by FCC deregulation removing limits on how many stations one can own in a geographic area. I would say that the public good is not being served when companies can buy up the public airwaves and abuse their ownership in order to monopolize the advertising market. I would site this as an example of poor deregulation.

Guess I'll write the congress.

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HagFan

Pat Burns · Post by **Pat Burns** » 8 Mar 2002 12:14 pm

..Ouch, Jim!..

...this kind of relates to a topic we discussed a little while ago http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum10/HTML/001692.html in which I mentioned my wife never listened to country music but all of a sudden listens to The Dixie Chicks "Goodbye Earl"...Check out Kevin Hatton's (Rayman's) remark...

J W Hock · Post by **J W Hock** » 8 Mar 2002 12:22 pm

A couple of observations, one, central to this whole debate is the unavoidable fact that the genuine RURAL roots of the music we love are gone. And they'll stay gone as each generation gets farther away . As a fifty year -old baby boomer I did'nt grow up on a farm or ranch but my parents did . Country people forced by economics to live in the cities and SUBURBS provided the artistic tensions that produced the great Honky-Tonk era of the 50's and 60's. All that's gone. Today's typical suburbanite ( at least here in Texas) still might dream of owning a piece of land , raising horses etc. but they are not for the most part rural or even blue-collar people. Today's "music of the suburbs"reflects this. Bland and homogenized.
Second, it won't likely happen, but the industry needs to rename this music . This is not the first time a situation like this occured. In the early 50's the big fight was to change the name to country from hillbilly.
( Interesting fact, Hank never wanted to call the music country. He prefered the label
Folk. Nashville disagreed due to the term's association left-wing politics)

David Pennybaker · Post by **David Pennybaker** » 8 Mar 2002 10:35 pm

Simple demographics.

Now for the REAL question: if they called it "suburban music" (eegads, surely they could come up with a better name than that), but "real country" music STILL wasn't played much (and certainly had very few stations devoted strictly to it) . . . . . . . . . would you be any happier than the way it is today?

FWIW, I like a lot of the old stuff and the new stuff, and I don't like a lot of the old stuff and new stuff, too.

But overall, I still like it better than anything else I can tune into.

The best stations are those (like the local one here in Conroe/Huntsville) that actually play the "oldies" and stuff from the 80's, and the new stuff. Along with some "Texas Country".

Sometimes I feel like many of you want country music to be like Barbershop Quartet. Now those guys REALLY know how to keep a type of music from ever changing.

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The Unofficial Photographer of The Wilkinsons

Dave Birkett · Post by **Dave Birkett** » 8 Mar 2002 11:20 pm

Stations are gearing toward women in their 20s, 30s and 40s--to attract the advertisers that covet them--so running songs about cheatin', drinkin', drivin' a truck and goin' to jail "doesn't fit anymore,"

Do these women live boring lives or what?

Jeff Evans · Post by **Jeff Evans** » 9 Mar 2002 11:25 pm

McMusic. Ha! (Surprised Donny Hinson hadn't thought of that already.)

Great articles, Gents; Thanks for bringing them to our attention. Reading them is far more inspirational than listening to bottom-of-the-barrel "Top-25" radio.

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Jeff

You can call a hog a duck but it still needs to stay out of the pond. --A. Alford

Steve Miller · Post by **Steve Miller** » 10 Mar 2002 3:18 pm

I had never heard that song "Goodbye Earl" so I went to a Dixie Chicks website and read the lyrics. I've heard a lot of anti-male songs on "country" radio but this one takes the cake. This one actually advocates MURDER! What's next, "The Ballad of Ms. Bobbit"?!!!!!?

I guess women must spend ALL the money if advertisers feel the need to target them to such an extent!

Ladies, aren't you the least bit embarrassed by this? If a man were to write a song like this about women it would never be given air time and he would never be heard from again!

Jeeeez!

Steve

Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 10 Mar 2002 3:30 pm

This one actually advocates MURDER!

Not to sound like a women's lib femi-nazi type, but...

Listen to "Knoxville Girl" (Louvin Bros. and others), "I've Got Someone to Kill" (Johnny Paycheck), "He Thought He'd Die Laughing... And He Did" (Bobby Helms), "Cold Hard Facts of Life" (Porter Wagoner), "Cocaine Blues" (Johnny Cash), "I'm the Man" (Justin Tubb), "Miller's Cave," and no doubt countless other country songs... back when "real" country was aimed at a blue-collar MALE demographic. You'll find that there was no shortage of songs advocating murder as a solution to the problem at hand.

But when it's the WOMAN that does the killing?... holy crap, NOW it hits the fan?

Someone get a rope!!! We gonna string that murdering b*tch up!!!!!!!

How could radio play such stuff?!?!?!

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Herb's Steel Guitar Pages
Texas Steel Guitar Association

Jeff Evans · Post by **Jeff Evans** » 10 Mar 2002 9:17 pm

Many of the old murder ballads (and describing an act isn't necessarily endorsing it) did have a moral sensibility about them. How many times is the transgressor recounting his deed from prison, watching the scaffolding go up, waiting on the warden and the "sad 'ol Padre" and generally accepting the just consequences of his criminality?

"Earl," on the other hand, sports all the moral weightiness of a flippant, giggly, cackling hen party. The Chicks laid a real rotten egg here.

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Jeff

You can call a hog a duck but it still needs to stay out of the pond. --A. Alford

Kevin Hatton · Post by **Kevin Hatton** » 10 Mar 2002 11:30 pm

Herb, I saw a re-run of one of the Wilburn Brothers show. Lorette Lynn was singing a song called "Its Good To Have A Man Around The House". I couldn't believe the lyrics! It was literally advocating domestic male violence against women. Slapping women around and the like. I am glad times have changed. I thought the Chicks With Dicks Earl tune sucked.

Steve Miller · Post by **Steve Miller** » 11 Mar 2002 11:04 pm

Jeff, well said!

Herb, I'm aware that there have been many songs in the past where murder was the preferred solution. Read my comments again while considering the context of this thread. We've read that women are being catered to by advertisers while songs with a male perspective are being purposefully excluded, thus empowering women. It is what is being done with this power that disturbs me. When I listen to modern country lyrics these days I hear a whole lot of females singing about how terrible us men are and a lot of male vocalists agreeing with them and (gag) apologizing to them for it. I was simply trying to point out how bad it has gotten with my "Earl" statement. BTW, I don't recall a lot of female bashing in those old tradition songs!

P.S. What? You wanna let the murdering b*tch go!?!?!

Steve