Country music, is it OK?

[Greta]

Isn't country music a little too repetitive in form ?

One can have a refrain but when there is no variation between the repetitions I find my attention wandering. Maybe country music varies in quality and I have heard only the more banal sort.

I get bored with it too. Aside from hillbilly romps, country music is all about the words and I've never been good at following wordy lyrics; if your attention slips for a moment you miss a crucial passage, then the song meaning can be lost.

So, to avoid distraction, each country song more or less finishes as it starts with few, if any, surprises. A buildup if you're lucky and a relative lack of flair, flamboyance, daring, excitement and imagination - delivered with exaggerated a lack of affectation to the point of affectation.

In truth, all music is OK. There's a saying that "hunger makes the best sauce". If you're starving then a Big Mac may seem like the most beautiful substance that ever passed your lips. So if I was deprived of music for a long time I would no doubt find Toby Keith's music to be nectar for the ears. Fortunately, there's plenty of other music around .

Think of people hose who have lived through dictatorships where the only music approved of involves tiresome praises to a deity or militaristic ditties about some "glorious" leader (ie. butcher). To the oppressed citizens of such places Tammy Wynette would be a source of excitement and beauty rather than insomnia aid.

-- Updated 22 Oct 2015, 17:09 to add the following --

Typo last para:

"Think of people hose who have lived" ... there is no hose.

[Alec Smart]

In truth, all music is OK.

No it isn't, Greta. Country music isn't OK. Please just back me up on this one, Greta, it's important to me.

[Greta]

In truth, all music is OK.

No it isn't, Greta. Country music isn't OK. Please just back me up on this one, Greta, it's important to me.

I see. For you, the pain of country music is sharp and raw. With the resurgence of country rock today (which at least in played by actual musicians) you must be suffering!

Yet, young Alfred, even you would feel differently if you'd been deprived of music for a long time. Imagine you'd been living under a dictatorship and the only music you'd ever been allowed to hear or play was in praise of the psychopath in charge (or his preferred deity). If the strains of "Staind Bah Your Maain" passed your ears it would seem like nectar from the heavens! In thirst the Perrier drinker and tinfoil hat man will lower themselves to tap water. In desperate hunger, the vegan will eat meat just as the redneck eats raw vegetables. With enough lack of human company a Muslim and Christian fundamentalist would be glad to see each other.

[3uGH7D4MLj]

I'm a little surprised that people are so deadset against country music. Even though I don't listen to it that much I find myself thinking it doesn't deserve to be so disliked.

It must be a a class thing. Or politics, this is the music of the Bible and guns demographic. It's not the music. Country music isn't that different from the folk and blues, rock, that people seem to like.

[Greta]

3uGH, I already said why country music bores me a few posts ago. You don't believe me? Do I have an untrustworthy face? Ah, I guess I am a pretty dodgy old bird so well done in seeing through my transparent attempts to appear credible.

Do you assume Aflie and me of being closet folk music fans while conducting class warfare against country rednecks? Alas, again, folk has too many words and not enough going on with the music. I loved it when Joni Mitchell shifted from folk to jazz - a beautiful combination of intelligent lyrics, quality vocals and generous instrumental breaks which, apart from being outstanding in their own right, also gave listeners a chance to mentally relax from following the words.

[Alec Smart]

Country music isn't that different from the folk and blues, rock, that people seem to like.

I've never seen people line dancing to folk, blues or rock.

[Greta]

I've never seen people line dancing to folk, blues or rock.

Weeeeellll ...

[Alec Smart]

I've never seen people line dancing to folk, blues or rock.

Weeeeellll ...

They're only dancing, Greta, they just happen to be doing it in rows. The automaton like brainlessness isn't there.

[Greta]

Isn't the funny, the things that piss us off? :)

[3uGH7D4MLj]

3uGH, I already said why country music bores me a few posts ago. You don't believe me? Do I have an untrustworthy face? Ah, I guess I am a pretty dodgy old bird so well done in seeing through my transparent attempts to appear credible.

I also posted why I don't listen, and I believe you -- but this topic seems to go beyond the personal "it bores me," to a more general "not okness." Who is more country than Johnny Cash? Willie Nelson? Patsy Cline? Hank Williams, Bill Monroe. That's all "not ok?" We're completely above the work of these people?

Do you assume Aflie and me of being closet folk music fans while conducting class warfare against country rednecks? Alas, again, folk has too many words and not enough going on with the music. I loved it when Joni Mitchell shifted from folk to jazz - a beautiful combination of intelligent lyrics, quality vocals and generous instrumental breaks which, apart from being outstanding in their own right, also gave listeners a chance to mentally relax from following the words.

A few decades ago even the classical music people were completely down with folk music. Now folk is fading, waves of popularity, okness, come and go. Musical genres shift in and out of fashion for complex reasons, but the anti-country position seems to endure.

That makes me wonder, is it class, politics, elitism? -- bigotry?

-- Updated October 24th, 2015, 9:57 am to add the following --

I've never seen people line dancing to folk, blues or rock.

I'm in favor of line dancing, circle dancing, round and square dancing, step dancing, contra dancing, folk dancing. I do recommend!

Cakewalk, boogie woogie, flamenco, lindy hop, Polka! Absolutely ok.

[LuckyR]

I'm a little surprised that people are so deadset against country music. Even though I don't listen to it that much I find myself thinking it doesn't deserve to be so disliked.

It must be a a class thing. Or politics, this is the music of the Bible and guns demographic. It's not the music. Country music isn't that different from the folk and blues, rock, that people seem to like.

Best post in the thread.

There are many aspects to country (which I personally happen to dislike, BTW), one is the twang factor, another is the lyrical story/point of view, yet another is the slice of society that makes up the majority of the fans.

I agree with you that the last is the one that makes it fodder for Philosophy Forums.

[Alec Smart]

I'm a little surprised that people are so deadset against country music. Even though I don't listen to it that much I find myself thinking it doesn't deserve to be so disliked.

It must be a a class thing. Or politics, this is the music of the Bible and guns demographic. It's not the music. Country music isn't that different from the folk and blues, rock, that people seem to like.

Best post in the thread.

The second part has some merit but the first part is totally misguided. Country music most certainly does deserve to be disliked. Before this thread I didn't realise that so many people did dislike it, it has cheered me up no end. Adopting a reasonable, common sense attitude towards country music will only lead to toleration of it.

-- Updated October 24th, 2015, 8:32 pm to add the following --

I'm in favor of line dancing, circle dancing, round and square dancing, step dancing, contra dancing, folk dancing. I do recommend!

Cakewalk, boogie woogie, flamenco, lindy hop, Polka! Absolutely ok.

You've been nominated for best post in the thread, don't undermine your achievements and blow your chances of winning a prize.

[Jklint]

Country music has some real classics of its own but as usual it's mostly the older stuff. Almost all that exists now is crap. Regarding literature and music real talent it seems is mostly defunct.

Two of the classic in country music or ballads is...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkIlxZxeK1s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XnhL4DPebE

[Greta]

That makes me wonder, is it class, politics, elitism? -- bigotry?

Can't you see that this thread is about laughing at human goofiness? Country music is goofy. That's okay, not a hanging offence, but it is something we can joke about. Do you *really* believe Alec - and we are talking about Alec here - is serious when he talks about the need not to "tolerate" country music? I am in full agreement with him, of course. We should clap the bastards in irons until they desist - every damn check-shirted and fringe skirted guitar-wielder and caterwauler

The only serious criticism made all thread is that country music and its deliberate lack of flair bores a lot of people, although Alec has a particular allergy to line dancing. I expect that in a previous life he was trampled to death by line dancers.

Your bigotry hypothesis looks like an attempt to imbue philosophical meaning to a joke. Plenty of people who find country music to be dull and prosaic will respond positively to a lively hillbilly romp. Yet hillbillies are the epitome of what anti-country music people are supposed to be prejudiced against. Identity politics exists in music as it does in everything humans do, but only to a great extent in very young people, after which time identity tends to be more associated with relationships, work and skills.

-- Updated 24 Oct 2015, 20:49 to add the following --

JKlint, I liked Comanche's raw sparseness but I couldn't sit through it.

[Jklint]

JKlint, I liked Comanche's raw sparseness but I couldn't sit through it.

To each his own. I like a number of Johnny Horton songs but what's really in my bone marrow since before I was 10 are the likes of the following which for certain is beyond anyone's interest on this site and far too long for anyone to listen to in toto. Music is the incipience which causes everything else to flow and move outward in many different channels and directions. It's the human version of power and voltage.

Bored you all long enough. Here is some of the long winded boring crap I'm talking about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rjzf_cWzlp8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVQX35lW1jg


If God could ever forgive the human race for all of its misdeeds and crimes, the music for that announcement would already have been written:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KUDs8KJc_c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okFlNAl7HQQ