Young, Hispanic folks are listening to a lot more Regaton than Tejano these days.

Tejano peaked with Selena and Emilio. The stuff you're hearing is probably from that era.

WestAustinAg said:

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TresPuertas said:

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Country music died with the following two words:

"Hello Darlin"

Fight me

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Conway was an all time hit maker. So no.

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So are Rascall Flats and Luke Bryan.

Hits aren't the barometer here.

Whoever included the first hand clap in a song should be strung up and hanged

John Michael Montgomery anyone?

This is the same debate as Old Army/New Army.

maca1028 said:

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John Michael Montgomery anyone?

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Last week I was drinkin and eating wings at the bar at a Roosters and that ******* auction song came on. I got a little salty and loud with my opinions about JMM, that song, and the state of country music since the mid-90s.

Everyone else was just staring at me like, OK Boomer.

And I'm Gen-X.

AggieChemist said:

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maca1028 said:

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John Michael Montgomery anyone?

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Last week I was drinkin and eating wings at the bar at a Roosters and that ******* auction song came on. I got a little salty and loud with my opinions about JMM, that song, and the state of country music since the mid-90s.

Everyone else was just staring at me like, OK Boomer.

And I'm Gen-X.

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Saw him at the rodeo when I was in HS and that idiot forgot the lyrics to one of his songs.

I grew up listening to 1070 AM in Houston (KENR, I believe?). When I got to high school, i started listening to rock and my favorite music is heavily guitar oriented - Zeppelin, SRV, some metal, etc. But I still have a soft spot for old Country (Waylon, Willie, Cash) and "Texas Music" that I've seen live (REK, Lyle, James McMurtry, etc.)

I have a drummer buddy who likes stuff with interesting/complex beats, so he listens to a lot of jazz-influenced music. His favorites are Tower of Power, Earth Wind and Fire and stuff like that. He got me to listen to a "new band out of Chicago" way back in the early 2000s. I liked the album, so I bought their self-titled CD, "Sonia Dada" and listened to it quite a bit for a while. One of the stand-out songs was "You Don't Treat Me No Good."

You could have knocked me over years later when I'm walking through a building that has the local "new country" station playing in the halls and I hear a nearly-completely true-to-the-original (rhythmically, vocally and melodically... just stripped down on the arrangement) cover of my favorite Sonia Dada song!. Turns out it hit #1 on the "hot country songs" charts (i just learned on wiki). Not sure when country died as a distinct genre, but this is certainly indicative of it!

Country Music sucking is definitely a generational thing. Hard to argue that.

That being said, if you want to blame somebody for the songs we have today, blame Big N Rich. Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy is the Godfather of the Bro Country we have today

jokershady said:

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Nah they were staring at you because you instantly became this guy:

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To be fair, I was a little deeper into the beers than I was the wings at that point.

The Milkman said:

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Something I noticed when we were at the Country Music HOF in Nashville was a quote talking about George Strait, saying how they thought he was much too pop for most country music fans tastes when he first came on the scene.

Just goes to show that each generation thinks the new one is too pop

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I was just at the CM HOF in the last two weeks and the thing that ticked me off the most was how little space and recognition George Strait got. He had like one little panel.

I do think the last ten years have led to a shift across all music of sounds kind of coming together. Technology has advanced so far so fast in this industry that fans have more access to artists, artists have more access to each other, there's so many ways and places to create/share/etc music.

So I think the lines are a lot easier to cross now sound wise. People try new stuff, and if people like that stuff, they make it. So you might hate 'Bro Country,' but obviously it's popular so they're creating music that people want.

As 'mainstream' country has seemed to go more pop sounding, you've seen a rise of more 'Americana' sounding artists that kind of flirt with the other edges of country music. Stapleton, Simpson, Isbell, etc.

But it's about to be 2020, if you don't like that music, you have literally endless options of other music to find. I probably never would have heard of Corb Lund if not for Spotify/Pandora, but now he's one of my favorite country artists.

The 90s is when country and R&B became interchangeable.

Elmo Lincoln said:

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Tracing the demise of country music is a difficult debate, but I'd argue this taco-hatted toolbag drove the nail in the coffin:

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Nice edit. I didn't think it was possible to find a different picture that made Toby look even more like a chode but you have succeeded.

A lot of today's country music is like 1970s rock and roll.
I grew up listening to my parents '50-'70s country, '50s R&R, then 1980s MTV music.
If I can still two-step, polka, and waltz to it with my wife, then I really don't care.
We are more eclectic with our music. If it has a C&W dance beat it works.
But I will agree that today's country is all over the map.

There's a reason Ken Burns ended his series with the rise of Garth Brooks.

Really wish the photog took a step back when he snapped that!

aggieforester05 said:

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Really wish the photog took a step back when he snapped that!

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This help?

There have always been formulatic aspects to country music. In the 90's, you had the "two-step" "snare-clicking" formula...and cheesy lyrics ('Watermelon Crawl'...seriously?). In the late 70's and 80's you had the orchestra-backed ballads like Glen Campbell others. Kenny and Dolly had their own flare to it as well.

Some just like to pretend it's only gone on with the recent bro-country fad. Heck, even in red-dirt/Texas country there's lots of parity where so many of the bands and singing style sounds the same.

Like most genre's, you have to dig to find the good stuff. But it's out there.

Songwriting is definitely fewer and far between though, but that's not limited to just country music. The songs and stories still make or break it...regardless of instrumental style. Case and point...Toby Keith's "Don't Let The Old Man in"...I didn't even recognize that it was him the first few times I heard it. Incredible song with depth and a haunting feel to it. Obviously Toby is known for a different sound, but I just like good songs regardless of the artist or their typical formula. Jason Aldean doesn't a good cover of Alabama's 'Tennessee River' that has a bit of an Alman Brothers feel to it.

And I do agree that Garth was authentic country...he just added flare to it with his music videos and live show that had never been scene before in country music...and became world-wide phenomenon like you would have seen from a pop star.