Okay... I am crawfishing a little. I don't dislike (and certainly don't hate anyone... I hope) Taylor Swift. She's great... just doesn't fit my personal taste concerning what belongs in "Country" music... Same for Carrie Underwood.
This was my hunch. I pretty much agree with all of this. I don't hate Nickelback, I hate the radio and tv stations that play their music. It makes me want to stab myself in the ears, which would be a thousand times less painful than listening to another Nickelback song. It is perhaps the only band/musician in existence that makes me immediately curse when their song comes on. And they're Canadian. Its like they want people to hate them.
I'm on the fence on this one. I can see how some could take this stance of not appreciating a singer as much because they didn't write the song. But for me it's about the song. I don't relate the song or the words of the song to the person singing it as much as I relate it to my experiences. Some singers will take a demo that might just need the slightest tweaking, and with the backing from the publishing company and record label, turn that song into a huge hit that the songwriter might not have been able to. One of the better country songwriters was/is Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits. If he were to approach his label about singing the country songs he's written or co-written they would probably laugh at him. It is certainly in his best interest to write the song and have an artist that records demo's sing it and attempt to sell it to an established country singer.
A buddy of mine in college wrote and sold some country songs while we were in school. He had sang and played guitar since he was a very small child. He had the option of selling his songs to a publisher with or without rights. He would be paid a LOT more if he sold full rights. Many artists wont even record a song unless they can own the full rights. So, ofcourse that is exactly what a poor college kid would do. A couple of those songs ended up being recorded and one even went to the top of the charts. But, when you sell the rights, the artists claim them as their own. It happens all the time. There are a lot of people making a living writing songs and content to let the artists claim them as their own. Dont always believe that anyone is writing any or all of their own music. At the very least, most are collaborating with individuals that write music as a full-time profession. Some even take the writers on the road with them and work on new stuff while they travel between concerts. My buddy was even flown to Nashville by the publisher and worked with several other professional writers to "tweak" one of the songs before it was recorded. A lot of smoke and mirrors in the music industry. There are some true singer/songwriters, but very few. I would guess Bob Dylan and Neil Young wrote a lot of their own stuff.
I think yinz all make way too big a deal about it. Some people are born with great voices & performing talent. Why should that go to waste just because they can't play an instrument or write a song. That would like telling all the songwriters out there not to write songs because they sound like kermit the frog. Imagine all the great song we'd be without, if we only accepted songs from people who could also sing.
I'm not saying anyone should stop doing it - they're all making money and providing us with music that we love so good for them. My only point was I feel a little disappointed or let down to find out an artist I really like is just the face & voice and not that actual talent or inspiration for a song. To me, it means something more when the artist writes or at least participates in the writing of the song and the music they're performing. I won't stop listening to Aldean & Shelton, I just don't appreciate them as much knowing they don't write their own stuff. Doesn't mean I don't still like it. Let's be honest here - singing songs and playing music that someone else wrote is what a cover band does. Songwriting and musical ability is what really separates the true talen from just those with a pretty face and a nice voice.
I get whats JZ is saying. Look at it this way...its kind of like when a hunting celebrity shoots a big deer, and you're all impressed, and then you find out it was an outfitted hunt. Or they hunt in Illinois where big deer are like squirrels. The deer (song) is still cool to look at, but it takes away from it a little.
This is what Country music does to a person. http://www.foxnews.com/entertainmen...parking-lot-injured-hospital/?intcmp=features
No, that's what living in Texas does to a person. Naked joy rides in your TransAm and fights in the church parking lot? That's just your typical Friday night down there.
I get what your saying, but it doesn't really bother me. I suppose you could relate it to nascar. Drives used to work on and tune their own cars, but now, they pretty much just drive them. Do we look at them as less of a driver because they can't fix their own cars. Disclaimer: I in no way am associate with nascar, nor do I even enjoy it. It's just a comparison that worked for me.
I don't care who wrote it or who sang it, these here are some of the finest and most meaningful CW lyrics ever written: "Well, I was drunk the day my Mom got outta prison. And I went to pick her up in the rain. But, before I could get to the station in my pickup truck She got runned over by a damned old train."
Let me guess, you play golf with him and hold him to "legendary" status? Please dont send me any nasty PM's on the subject.....
I know a guy who lives in Nashville and writes music for some big time folks. He’s doing pretty well, actually very well. He would sing the songs himself, but the problem is he’s not pretty enough. Fact is today’s country is marketed to girls age 13-35 and to be successful you need to look like you get your hair cut by the same lady who cuts your wifes hair. You also need to be in shape, not have any bad “public,” habits, and be willing to wear jeans from the GAP along with your shinny/ never seen mud boots. Ask yourself, when was the last time you saw Kenney Chesney without a hat on? Probably just in his mug shot because he’s bald. Certainly never on stage. That would make him look too much like your dad, and people would realize all his songs sound the same, and girls would stop buying his records. Fact is, people in the music industry have been singing others peoples songs forever…but what has changed in the past few decades is that now the ones singing the songs have too look like foo foo models with the industry placing looks first, and talent a far second.. Oh Taylor Swift is hot…but she had to be one of the worst live shows I’ve ever seen. Seriously, she sings like a goat, but she’s hot and looks like that one chick next door you wanted to get with in high school. A few pictures to elaborate on my point. First the old and then the new…
