NationStates Jolt Archive

AKA, If you don't like Hank Williams, you can KMA!

Alrighty, from the "is country music music" thread, I can tell there's a lot of people putting down what they don't know. So let's have it. Do you know what you're putting down? Have you ever listened to anything by Hank Williams Sr? Hank Jr or Hank III? Jimmy Rodgers? Bill Monroe? Kris Kristofferson? Willie Nelson?

I love johnny cash. (hides from disgusted friends.)

I love johnny cash. (hides from disgusted friends.)

Excellent.

I like Kenny Rogers, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams sr., Emmylou Harris (I guess she's alt-country), and some other country music performers. I'm not a huge fan, but some of that music is really cool.

Pretty much all of them. I love country music, despite my not owning a stetson nor having licked a cow. But Cash is the king.

Pretty much all of them. I love country music, despite my not owning a stetson nor having licked a cow. But Cash is the king.

Hahaha. :D You do realise that your replies to the poll contradict each other. You can't agree that country sucks after you've listened to so many, then say you like it. (Yeah there's a typo it's supposed to be "sucks". Can't edit polls. Sorry. But that shouldn't have been too hard.)

Oh sweet hell, I'm about to give up on the reading comprehension skills of people here. :headbang:

"Country suck(s)" isn't that hard to understand, is it?

Oh....shit, sorry. I thought the question was phrased oddly. I see what you meant. Well, put it this way: I think some country sucks - most of the modern CMA winners are shit, for example.

I like, and always have liked country music. If I were to list all the artists and songs, I'd be here for days.

I do find it amusing that everyone seems to like Johnny Cash. amazing what a movie will do to make something old, new and *shudders* Popular again. I wonder who here had even heard of Mr. Cash before the movie?

Until this thread, I thought country music sucked. Now I realize I just don't understand it because it is so complex and mysterious.

I like, and always have liked country music. If I were to list all the artists and songs, I'd be here for days.

I do find it amusing that everyone seems to like Johnny Cash. amazing what a movie will do to make something old, new and *shudders* Popular again. I wonder who here had even heard of Mr. Cash before the movie?
I haven't actually seen the movie. However, I do admit my interest in Cash is comparatively recent: I knew a handful of his old songs, then saw the video for Hurt, and decided to check out the American Recordings. I think Rick Rubin, far more than Joaquin Phoenix, is responsible for the revival of his popularity.

I've given country music a very fair chance, and while there are some decent country songs out there, I don't like it as a whole. It's just not my type.

I like, and always have liked country music. If I were to list all the artists and songs, I'd be here for days.

I do find it amusing that everyone seems to like Johnny Cash. amazing what a movie will do to make something old, new and *shudders* Popular again. I wonder who here had even heard of Mr. Cash before the movie?
It's not the movie. Johnny Cash is popular because he made an effort to cover songs like Soundgarden's Rusty Cage in the '90s, and therefore caught the attention of alot of younger fans.

AKA, If you don't like Hank Williams, you can KMA!

Alrighty, from the "is country music music" thread, I can tell there's a lot of people putting down what they don't know. So let's have it. Do you know what you're putting down? Have you ever listened to anything by Hank Williams Sr? Hank Jr or Hank III? Jimmy Rodgers? Bill Monroe? Kris Kristofferson? Willie Nelson?
ROFLMAO! I like some C&W, but I can't abide that whiny, nasal sound a lot of C&W singers use. To me, a suffering cat in a windstorm sounds better! :D

Oh....shit, sorry. I thought the question was phrased oddly. I see what you meant. Well, put it this way: I think some country sucks - most of the modern CMA winners are shit, for example.

Yeah. The poll is flawed. I may ask that it be closed.

I like, and always have liked country music. If I were to list all the artists and songs, I'd be here for days.

I do find it amusing that everyone seems to like Johnny Cash. amazing what a movie will do to make something old, new and *shudders* Popular again. I wonder who here had even heard of Mr. Cash before the movie?

Lets see, I probably heard Johnny Cash sing for the first time sometime around March 15th 1968 (the date I was born). :D

Until this thread, I thought country music sucked. Now I realize I just don't understand it because it is so complex and mysterious.

Have you ever listened to any of the artist mentioned? That's the whole point of this thread - you seem to be saying "I don't like it, even though I don't know anything at all about it." Snideness doesn't make you come across any better.

It's not the movie. Johnny Cash is popular because he made an effort to cover songs like Soundgarden's Rusty Cage in the '90s, and therefore caught the attention of alot of younger fans.

I've also noticed that a lot of Cash fans who liked him before '90s are usually life-long fans. They're not your typical grab-everybody's-attention-just-to-be-heard people (eh...usually). Most of the time, they just sit back and enjoy the music. Note: I said usually. This does not mean all the time.

Some country is good. The rest is just stupid oh-woe-is-me-in-my-trailerpark-let's-get-drunk crud.

...I do find it amusing that everyone seems to like Johnny Cash. amazing what a movie will do to make something old, new and *shudders* Popular again. I wonder who here had even heard of Mr. Cash before the movie?

I've also noticed that a lot of Cash fans who liked him before '90s are usually life-long fans. They're not your typical grab-everybody's-attention-just-to-be-heard people (eh...usually). Most of the time, they just sit back and enjoy the music. Note: I said usually. This does not mean all the time.

This is why I stay away from Country music. It's fans can be so elitist and snobby. I would really like to admit I like Johnny Cash, but would face ridicule from Old-School Hard-Core Country Snobs calling me a n00b or attention-whore.

AKA, If you don't like Hank Williams, you can KMA!

Alrighty, from the "is country music music" thread, I can tell there's a lot of people putting down what they don't know. So let's have it. Do you know what you're putting down? Have you ever listened to anything by Hank Williams Sr? Hank Jr or Hank III? Jimmy Rodgers? Bill Monroe? Kris Kristofferson? Willie Nelson?

What you're missing is that the best of these, Hank, Willie, the Man in Black, Patsie, Kris, are folk singers, not country singers. Country (Shania and her ilk) suck ;)

Country music classics are great. And, there's plenty of good country coming out today, but like rock and rap, it's not the music that gets played on the radio. It's your Loretta Lynns, Lucinda Williamses. Not Garth Brooks. Garth Brooks is a talentless manipulative hack.

Country music classics are great. And, there's plenty of good country coming out today, but like rock and rap, it's not the music that gets played on the radio. It's your Loretta Lynns, Lucinda Williamses. Not Garth Brooks. Garth Brooks is a talentless manipulative hack.

A talentless manipulative hack who is about to take Elvis' crown as best selling artist of all time...

I love soem country but alot of it i can't be bothered with.

I love country music- if you can't listen to 'You win again' by Hank Williams without evoking an emotional response you are a robot. Also, I recently heard Hank III's version of 'Ramblin' man' - very satisfying.

A talentless manipulative hack who is about to take Elvis' crown as best selling artist of all time...

I love soem country but alot of it i can't be bothered with.

Yeah, N Sync sold a whole lot of records too. They're still terrible. So did the Spice Girls. And the New Kids On The Block, and Vanilla Ice. And the single 'Macarena'.

Sales figures have more to do with image and marketting than actual musical quality.

im not a big fan of johnny cash. (although doesnt everyone love folsom prison blues?)

when he sings of being in a ring of fire, i dont feel any heat. its as if he's bored singing about how his passion might consume him.

same with walk the line, i dont believe for a moment that hes in danger of crossing the line.

im mostly into country music because i can relate to the lyrics and i can sing the songs without sounding like a fool. the only songs i hate are the religious ones with the cringingly awful theology. the rain is grandmas snotty tears falling from heaven; i was moved the day my son asked if he could help god pour out the milky way; if heaven was a pie it would be lemon merengue. *shudder* i have to change the radio station when they come on.

AKA, If you don't like Hank Williams, you can KMA!

Alrighty, from the "is country music music" thread, I can tell there's a lot of people putting down what they don't know. So let's have it. Do you know what you're putting down? Have you ever listened to anything by Hank Williams Sr? Hank Jr or Hank III? Jimmy Rodgers? Bill Monroe? Kris Kristofferson? Willie Nelson?

Ok list 10 rap songs you like.

when he sings of being in a ring of fire, i dont feel any heat. its as if he's bored singing about how his passion might consume him.


You should hear him doing gospel. 'Tis there you'll find his passion.

Part of his charm, for me, though is his seemingly bored response to doin' coke, killin' women, and bein' in prison for life.

How about the most obvious option:

"I have been suscepted to hundreds of country music songs on the radio and tv, but I do not actually know nor care about the names of the so-called 'artists'"

Legends:

Johnny Cash, Hank Williams (Sr.), Patsy Cline, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Roger Miller (if you're a participant or child of divorce and you can hear "Husbands and Wives" without at least some moisture in your eyes, you are simply not human).

Decent Recents:

Lucinda Williams, Dixie Chicks, Mary Chapin-Carpenter, Vince Gill, Monte Montgomery (his CD Mirror is outstanding -- who'd have thought country could happen in seven-eight time?).

Suckers of Satan's Pecker (apologies to Bill Hicks):

Shania Twain, Toby Keith, Garth Brooks(though I admire his enthusiasm and marketing savvy), Lee Ann Rimes.

I believe that Country, like EVERY OTHER IDIOM, has its honest artists, its decent journeymen, and its talentless whores. For every Norah Jones or Alicia Keys, there's a dozen Avril Lavignes or Aaron Carters. The modern Country sound is so affected and uber-twangy that it's genuinely difficult to listen to from a purely aesthetic and/or sonic point of view, nevermind the genre issue.

I believe that genre-bashing is largely done by lazy assholes who haven't taken the time to discover the full depth of whatever they're bashing. It might be because I'm a music prof, but I'd bet anyone here that I could find an example of any genre that you could enjoy (and several you could detest). Genre-bashing is colossally lame and those who delight in it need to be tied to a chair and beaten with a piece of heavy mining equipment (apologies to George Carlin).

Ok list 10 rap songs you like.

Okay:

"Lucas With the Lid Off" -- Lucas
"My Stash", "My Posse's On Broadway", "Square Dance Rap" -- Sir Mix-a-Lot (w/ Kid Sensation)
"Tennessee" -- Arrested Development
"Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)" -- Digable Planets
"Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)", "I Got it Goin' On" -- Us3
"Lose Yourself" -- Eminem
"Papa Was A Rollin' Stone" -- Was (Not Was) w/ G Love E
"Dog & Pony Show" -- Consolidated
"She's On It" -- Beastie Boys
"One Night In Bangkok" -- Murray Head (from Chess)

That's thirteen, but ten artists.

How's about anyone name me ten pieces of choral music they like?

How's about anyone name me ten pieces of choral music they like?

Does it have to be choral? Can it not jsut be classical? 'Cause personally, other than a few exceptions such as Carmina Burana, I find that the voice just detracts from the intrumentals.

Ok list 10 rap songs you like.

No prob:
"The Message" by Grandmaster Flash
"Fuck Tha Police", "Express Yourself", and "Straight Outta Compton" by NWA
"Planet Rock" by Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force
"Walk This Way" (yea, it's a cover - so what) and "Sucker M.C.s" by Run-DMC
"Fight The Power", "Prophets of Rage", "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos", and "Don't Believe The Hype" by Public Enemy
"Fight for Your Right", "Time to Get Ill", and "Beastie Revolution" by the Beastie Boys
"Lose Yourself" and "Just Don't Give a Fuck" by Eminem
"Colors" and "Squeeze the Trigger" by Afrika Islam

(With 8 to grow on.)

I'm pretty sure the loathing of country music that most people have is directed at line-dancing country, and such ground-breaking tunes as "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy".

I've given country music a very fair chance, and while there are some decent country songs out there, I don't like it as a whole. It's just not my type.

I concur. I did lights for a company that runs on the fair circut on the west coast. All I ever saw were once popular country acts that were on their last legs of name recognition. It had the same effect on me as getting sick drunk on a particular type of liquor, and never, ever being able to even smell that type of liquor again without vomiting.

I hate country and I grew up with it in the house and i hang out at a country bar at least once a week.

I'm pretty sure the loathing of country music that most people have is directed at line-dancing country, and such ground-breaking tunes as "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy".
Aw fuck. I'd managed to get that song out of my consciousness and you come along and remind me of its loathsome existence. Thanks. Thanks a heap.:mad:

Aw fuck. I'd managed to get that song out of my consciousness and you come along and remind me of its loathsome existence. Thanks. Thanks a heap.:mad:

Maybe this will help.

Po Sum Shugga on Mehhhhh!

Does the trick for me, anyway.

Gotta love Cash,

I've long had a connection to country music--my uncle has been in Willie Nelson's band for over 35 years now--and like all genres, there's some good, a lot of crap, and a bit that's genius. I actually got a greater appreciation for Hank Williams after watching Ken Burns' jazz series and heard how Western Swing was actually an offshoot of the Jazz Age--I'd listened to that as a kid (because my dad forced me to) but never made the connection on my own when it's so obvious if you pay attention.

The thing that gets me about some country music, that turns me off, is the faux-tough guy/uber-patriot/he-man macho bullshit that comes out of it. That's part of the reason I like Willie Nelson so much--not only is he a great songwriter, he breaks the stereotypes.

Aw fuck. I'd managed to get that song out of my consciousness and you come along and remind me of its loathsome existence. Thanks. Thanks a heap.

Yeah, same here.

Bill Monroe is fantastic. You have to like listening to a band that can sing harmony to appreciate bluegrass, but it is the best and Mr. Monroe is the best of the bunch.

Forget Newgrass Revival and those other modern bands, they can't hold a candle to folks like Monroe, the Stanley Brothers, Jim and Jesse McReynolds, Flatt and Scruggs and a bunch more.

Does it have to be choral? Can it not jsut be classical? 'Cause personally, other than a few exceptions such as Carmina Burana, I find that the voice just detracts from the intrumentals.
Uh, what? If I say choral music, that's what I mean. "Classical" is representative of ANY music composed between roughly the death of J.S. Bach (1750) and roughly 1820.

Medieval ~ 1100-1450
Renaissance ~ 1450-1620
Baroque ~ 1620-1750
(Rococo/Empfinsamerstil ~ 1740-1770)
Classical ~ 1750-1820
Romantic ~ 1820-1915
Impressionist ~ 1880-1915
20th Century (pre-tape) ~ 1915-1950
20th Century (tape) ~ 1950-present
Abstract/Postmodern/Minimalist/Aleatoric/Neo Classical/Neo Romantic/Serialism/Mathematics ~ 1925-present

As you can see, lots of overlap and arguments could easily be made for any number of other demarcations.

The main point is that most folks don't even know any choral works beyond Carmina and Handel's Messiah. As for voices "detracting" from the instrumentals, I have no idea what you mean. If the piece was written with the chorus as the main instrument, that detraction isn't possible. That's like saying the horn detracts from a Mozart horn concerto. You could have a case with, say, "Uranus" from Holst's The Planets or the 4th Movement of Beethoven 9, and any other piece where the chorus is not the main instrument, but that's about it.

Bill Monroe is fantastic. You have to like listening to a band that can sing harmony to appreciate bluegrass, but it is the best and Mr. Monroe is the best of the bunch.

Forget Newgrass Revival and those other modern bands, they can't hold a candle to folks like Monroe, the Stanley Brothers, Jim and Jesse McReynolds, Flatt and Scruggs and a bunch more.
One of the things I absolutely loved about O Brother! Where Art Thou? was the way it gave a stage to a lot of people who should have greater recognition, especially Ralph Stanley.

I'm pretty sure the loathing of country music that most people have is directed at line-dancing country, and such ground-breaking tunes as "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy".
I don't have so much a problem with that song as I don't really like the genre.

What I find funny about Big & Rich is that one guy is obviously a country western singer and is there to be country while the other guy is a showman going 80s rock all the time. Whenever they are performing on stage the country guy just stands in the back glaring loathingly at the other one is hamming it up.

Maybe this will help.

Po Sum Shugga on Mehhhhh!

Does the trick for me, anyway.
Aw fuck, part two! Stop. Stop! AAAAIIIIGH!!!

I grew up listening to country cuz it was all my mom listened to and she had a ton of records.... the majority of it sucked. There were a few songs I liked because of the story or perhaps they are just good like Cash's stuff, but in general the music and song lyrics make me feel ill.

One of the things I absolutely loved about O Brother! Where Art Thou? was the way it gave a stage to a lot of people who should have greater recognition, especially Ralph Stanley.
I met Ralph Stanley at a bar in Columbus, Ohio. We had gone to see him, but the owner kicked him out over an argument about the propriety of singing gospel in a bar. So we invited him home, he accepted, and we picked and drank with him and the band 'til early in the morning. Still one of the best times I've ever had.

I've probably listened to songs from all those people in the poll but my favorite country singer is Johnny "The man in black" Cash!

I met Ralph Stanley at a bar in Columbus, Ohio. We had gone to see him, but the owner kicked him out over an argument about the propriety of singing gospel in a bar. So we invited him home, he accepted, and we picked and drank with him and the band 'til early in the morning. Still one of the best times I've ever had.
Wow! That's great!!!

This thread is bullshit. You know what? I don't need to listen to a select group decided by one person to know that I dislike country.

I had to listen to country for four or five years on the bus every day. I KNOW I don't like it.

Hmph.

This thread is bullshit. You know what? I don't need to listen to a select group decided by one person to know that I dislike country.

I had to listen to country for four or five years on the bus every day. I KNOW I don't like it.

Hmph.

Indeed, I so agree.

Wow! That's great!!!
It was. It was also more than twenty years before he became widely famous in the "O Brother" movie. The only thing that would have made it better would have been an offer to play banjo for him.

This thread is bullshit. You know what? I don't need to listen to a select group decided by one person to know that I dislike country.

I had to listen to country for four or five years on the bus every day. I KNOW I don't like it.

Hmph.

Sorry, but you missed the point completely. All I'm asking is if you actually listened to what many consider the founders and greats before you rejected country, or if you just spent 4-5 years listening to crap.

If someone came along and said "I hate rock." and it turns out they've never listened to anything but NSYNC, Briteny Spears, Christina Aguilera, and that sort of shit, I'd ask if they'd listened to an equivillant list of rock greats.

And if they said yes, I'd feel just as sorry for them as I do for you. The same goes for people who hate rap and hip-hop, but can't name a single artist. And the same goes classical, jazz, and just about anything. Open your mind a little, and stop depriving yourself of some good music.

The final lines of the chorus of the Kris Kristofferson song I used in the title speak volumes:
"You're the only one that you are screwing,
When you put down what you don't understand."

Country still sucks.
"What you can't understand" pretends that there is something to understand. Country deserves that service as much as a porcelain great dane deserves to be called "a sculpture".

I like a number of recording made by Patsy Cline, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Tammy Wynette. That doesn't mean I like anything other than those four musicians.

Country music sucks.

Johnny Cash isn't bad, but he's hardly good enough to save the rest of a genre from being made up of singers who sound like they're still in the middle of puberty, singing about their redneck buddies and their woes.

Don't get me wrong, but I'll take other forms of folk over the horrible sounding, abrasive sound of "country".

Coincidently, is Old Crow Medicine Show a country band?

Yeah, N Sync sold a whole lot of records too. They're still terrible. So did the Spice Girls. And the New Kids On The Block, and Vanilla Ice. And the single 'Macarena'.

Sales figures have more to do with image and marketting than actual musical quality.

Perhaps i should have mentioned that I detest Garth Brooks.

Of coruse i live in the UK and as such i am not exposed toa huge amoutn of country, you sometiems get a bit of the folkier stuff on radio scotland in the afternoon, but then Metal gets pretty much no attention from the UK media and i managed to get into that...

Whn i say i can't be bothered with most of coun try i really mean the sort of stuff Billy Connolly takes the piss out of in his coutnry song (ie evrybody dies or suffers terribly).

I like none of the above, but I do like a little band called 16 Horsepower :)