Who watched the three hour long CMA Music Fest on ABC tonight? :)
It was so awesome! I still think Hunter ought to release "Cry With You" or "Love Makes Me" as singles...they'd both do really well. And congratulations to him for "I Want Crazy" hitting number one! I can't wait to see him in October. He was fantastic tonight. :) ("Everybody's Got Somebody But Me" is stuck in my head...XD)
Actually, everybody was fantastic tonight. It never fails to amaze my mom and me how good country singers sound live...I practically died when Eric Church started playing "Keep On."
People complain about how today's country isn't true country and Taylor Swift is pop and what the heck is Jason Aldean doing rapping and blah blah blah.
I'll admit—country is branching out quite a bit. "Red" is a lot different from Taylor's debut. And I was kind of confused by Jason rapping in "Dirt Road Anthem" and "1994," too.
For the most part, I still call today's country country. It's not, of course, traditional country, but I'm not calling it traditional country. I'm calling it country—as in, one of the branches of country.
While I defend Taylor in saying she may be pop now, but she should still be considered a country artist in that she started out country and will still play country songs, I'll admit that I have a bit of trouble calling someone like Kelly Clarkson country. Taylor started out in Nashville—Kelly didn't. Don't get me wrong, I think Kelly's a fantastic singer, but I'm always going to associate her with pop.
As for Darius Rucker, I think of him as a country artist immediately because, well, I never heard any songs from Hootie and the Blowfish. My mom, on the other hand, always exclaims, "Hootie!" whenever he's on the radio, haha. :)
I think bands like Florida Georgia Line are really interesting. They have a little bit of everything (Keith Urban reference ;)) in that they're on country radio, pop radio, and who knows what other genres are on their album. They're a ton of fun to listen to, and that's pretty impressive when an artist's first single hits number one. The same happened for Taylor, and that's not something that happens very often. I think "Storm Warning" was only in the top twenty (it should have gotten to number one, though...:P).
For those who believe today's country isn't country, well, fine, no one's forcing you to believe anything. But just remember this—artists today like Florida Georgia Line and Taylor Swift were influenced by artists like Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton. You may not hear traditional country in their music, but believe me, it's there in their hearts. (Wow. That was super cheesy.)
And you know, it's fun to switch things up a bit every now and then. My first time listening to Pip was really funny—I wasn't used to pop. The closest I came to pop before then was "Forever & Always" by Taylor Swift. (Since it was before "I Knew You Were Trouble" and "22" came out.) The same goes for Nathan Parrett—although I've only heard one original from him...I'm so writing a song for him. XD
And then there are some artists that are keeping the traditional sound—like Justin Moore and Ashley Monroe. Their music is really awesome and inspiring, too.
So the summary of this post? I'll listen to anything country. It's all at least a little country to me, and although the rap thing is odd for me, I can get used to it—as long as there's not too much of it. I really like Jason Aldean, but even two songs is pushing it for me, and that's not counting the kind of rap verses in "The Only Way I Know."
Thank you for reading! Things are going really well with my own songwriting. I wrote a song I plan on sending to Justin Moore, and I'm going to see Rascal Flatts and The Band Perry this Saturday! I'm unbelievably excited. :)
Have a great day/night/whenever, everybody! :)
~Naomi
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