After watching the CMT Awards last night (we recorded it from earlier this week), I can truly see why George Strait and Alan Jackson done the song, Murder On Music Row. Actually, they redone it. As people, like wife and I, that love the old country music, seeing the way the lady singers dress today and (here we go again LOL) the multitude of tattoos some country singers now have, it's really hard for us to swallow the new country music. The old Alan Jackson, George Strait, Diamond Rio, Little Texas, Garth Brooks, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Terry Clark, Travis Tritt and others from back then, are our Country Hero's. This is the meaning: The song laments the rise of country pop and the accompanying decline of the traditional country music sound; it refers to Music Row, an area in Nashville, Tennessee considered the epicenter of the country music industry. Also: "Murder on Music Row" is a lament and criticism of the ongoing trend of country pop crossover acts and pop influences on country music, a trend that has pushed traditional and neotraditional country music (and those who perform it) to the periphery. The lyrics metaphorically compare the pop trend to "an awful murder down on Music Row", and lament that "The steel guitar no longer cries and you can't hear fiddles play / But drums and rock and roll guitars are mixed up in your face."[3] In addition, the song states that older traditional country artists "wouldn't stand a chance on today's radio," Will take the old country music any day over this "other stuff" that is called country music today.
Well, like everything else, music changes and evolves. There's no reason you can't simply listen to your old favorites and ignore the new. I never dreamed that rap and hip-hop would be around so long, so thank goodness for the "Classic Rock" stations.
NO I don't like Modern country music at all.... I listen to all the oldies... Talking of Mary Chapin Carpenter whom I just luuurve... This is one of my favourites she sung with Teddy Thompson...at Transatlantic sessions in Scotland... they are a mix of British & American Folk ( folk music is my first love) and country singers. I've seen them LIVE...absolutely fantastic....
True that music "changes and evolves", but the older generation of country singers, like George Strait and Alan Jackson dislike the new music like us and other older folks. As far as rap and hip-hop, that kind of music is very popular here, whereas classic rock and the old country isn't at all. Then again, the population here, as in the Generations, doesn't call for that kind of music.
We don't get into the really old country, as in George Jones, Little Jimmy Dickens, Hank Williams (Sr), Hank Snow, Loretta Lynn or any singers from "way back when". Actually, I started listening to country music in 1983, when George Strait came out with Amarillo By Morning. Funny Tanya Tucker was at the CMT Awards and sang, but her looks were shocking. Pink hair and, what appears to be, a pretty bad face lift. Not the Tanya Tucker I use to know! And, now Carrie Underwood is being called "The Queen of Country".
Jimmy Dickens, Hank snow, Hank Williams snr , Jim Reeves, Jean Shepard, etc... are waaay before my time.... but I still enjoy the occasional song I might hear from them. Never could stand Tanya Tucker... Carrie Underwood, is not country as far as I'm concerned...