Music...

[crestofwaves]

An amazing phenomenon happened this week. I gave my senior class some free time on Friday because it was the last day before vacation, and I offered to play some music for them. I asked what they wanted to hear, and they said COUNTRY!. These are highly sophisticated affluent suburban kids, and they wanted country music. When I put it on, I saw them singing along. GO COUNTRY MUSIC. Plus, the NYC metropolitan area hasn't had a country station since 1999. We now have one. What on earth happened?

[P.A.]

I don't know what happened. Country music seems to more popular in other places than it does here. Could be over saturation.

[ProblemAgain]

music is sort of a wave or tidal phenomenon. as one genre rises, the others recede to a degree but eventually people get tired of the genre du jour and cast about for other styles that feel and sound more fresh (to them at least)...country was really popular during the 40s..and it rose and ebbed in a way during the 50s and 60s...then had a huge surge in the 70s' (the outlaw country such as waylon jennings and willie nelson) leading to things like Urban Cowboy and lots of people clomping around in boots and rhinestones as a fashion trend...then it died down and it seems like kids are picking it up again..maybe cause the rock genre pretty well has become noise...rule of thumb for music is just wait  and it will change

[blithe spirit]

I've always had pretty eclectic taste when it comes to music...

I know my middle schoolers are funny...they so identify with whatever their "group" is...they don't explore too much.

[0qbw0p9940ht5]

Maybe people discovered how good country music really is.  Of course, lots of us already knew that.  :-)

Like ProblemAgain said, music does seem to go in waves.  I was a country only fan for all of the 90's, then I kind of went back to my classic rock roots.  Now I like pretty much all kinds of music, except rap and electronic screeching.

[Karin M Fichtner]

I think the reason is young Country artists like Taylor Swift....Carrie Underwood......Scotty McReary .......and Hunter Hayes.  I know my 17-yr-old granddaughter is so excited because her older sis gave her tickets to see Carrie Underwood and Hunter Hayes in Fort Wayne, IN, in April.  It's her very first concert.  She's such a Country fan.  She plays videos on Youtube and sings along with them all.  She knows all the words.  The music isn't just being written for old married/divorced folks anymore. 

[Lifesighs]

When I think of country music I think of all that old twangy stuff about wife's gone and so is the dog. I do love to hear the fun country music from Roger Miller etc. I'm not very familiar with what is happening in country music now because I don't listen to those stations.

Now I'm singing "trailers for sale or rent, rooms to let 50 cents......

[ProblemAgain]

[Karin M Fichtner]

I've seen Sawyer Brown live; they opened for Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton's show.  Great fun. 

[ProblemAgain]

“There are only two kinds of music—good music and bad music” Louis Armstrong

good music makes you tap your feet and bad music makes you want to beat feet to get away....i even admit to a fondness for a selection of the old country music tho not a lot...i mean let's face it, kitty wells couldn't carry a tune in a bucket. and for a lot of musicians it is not as much about the music as it is posturing to "be" the music....but there is great music in all categories... (cept maybe mitch miller and what he produced....)

[ProblemAgain]

actually miller was worse than you thought...it isn't the bouncing ball choral thing....he was also head of artists and repertoire first at mercury and then at columbia...in addition to which he was a producer including such steaming piles as mama will bark by frank sinatra and come ona my house by rosemary clooney

"Music historian Will Friedwald wrote in his book Jazz Singing (Da Capo Press, 1996) that "Miller exemplified the worst in American pop. He first aroused the ire of intelligent listeners by trying to turn — and darn near succeeding in turning – great artists like Sinatra, Clooney, and Tony Bennett into hacks. Miller chose the worst songs and put together the worst backings imaginable – not with the hit-or-miss attitude that bad musicians traditionally used, but with insight, forethought, careful planning, and perverted brilliance."[Wikipedia]

it does make you wonder...even back then, companies were rewarding stupidity yet miller was a trained classical musician so he had to have some taste just from education. perhaps he just considered the american public to be a collection of barney fife and gomer pyle goobers with feces for brains

on the plus side, it was a causative factor in sinatra forming reprise records to get away from such mediocrity.in fact, sinatra blamed miller for sinatra's decline in popularity when miller was producing.

[ProblemAgain]

[Karin M Fichtner]

One of my absolute favorites!!  I love it when the Boston Pops does it on their "Pop Goes the Fourth" concerts on the 4th of July. 

Speaking of Boston Pops.....I got to attend their Christmas concert in Chicago.  Black tie and all.  It was a beautiful way to spend the night.