I'm glad you included Elvis in the discussion of the countrypolitan sound. For me, he was the artist who made the best records with that sound. Polished yet gritty (there was a lot of force in some of them) and endlessly listenable.
There’s a much more interesting and parallel country path that comes out of the Hank Williams’ honky-tonk. The Bakersfield sound from the late fifties through the mid-sixties eschewed the syrupy strings and production of Nashville (and the late sixties and early 70’s saw the birth of Cosmic American Music and country rock with the Flying Burrito Brothers, Gram Parsons, and Poco). And that was followed by the Outlaw County movement of the 70’s (Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson). And even the 80’s saw the establishment of such great and varied artists such as Steve Earle, Dwight Yoakam, and Lyle Lovett. Then the late 80’s and early 90’s saw the rise of cowpunk and alt-country, with the likes of Lone Justice, Uncle Tupelo, and the return of a clean and incredibly prolific Steve Earle. And this was followed by the larger genre of Americana, with the more recent likes of Colter Wall, Sturgill Simpson, Margot Price, Tyler Childers. I know a lot of these didn’t necessarily crossover into mainstream pop (with some exceptions), but it’s largely the much more interesting country music path to take. Would love to see you take a deep dive into this territory at some point.
I think it would be more accurate to say that Country has internalized rap, not hip-hop. The way I understand it, rap refers to music and hip-hop refers to culture.
Country music is and always has been pop music for the stars and bars crowd. With MAGA in charge of things I'm not surprised that it's having a moment.
You note “I’d argue the 1970s had the most country songs to top the Hot 100 of any decade.”Well, it depends how you look at it: If we look simply at country number one singles that also topped the Hot 100, the current decade has already surpassed the 70s, and we’re only 60% into the decade. (There were only 9 of those in the entire 70s). Of course, you might want to also count songs that hit number one on the Hot 100 that didn’t hit number 1 on country, but that sound kind of country, like Annie’s Song, Let Your Love Flow, or You Needed Me. But probably there aren’t more than a half dozen or so of those. And, in this decade, I can’t think of any Country songs that hit number one the Hot 100 that didn’t also hit number one on the country chart. But we still have a ways to go before this decade ends, and I’m sure there will be more country songs topping the Hot 100 in the next 4 years.
I'm glad you included Elvis in the discussion of the countrypolitan sound. For me, he was the artist who made the best records with that sound. Polished yet gritty (there was a lot of force in some of them) and endlessly listenable.
There’s a much more interesting and parallel country path that comes out of the Hank Williams’ honky-tonk. The Bakersfield sound from the late fifties through the mid-sixties eschewed the syrupy strings and production of Nashville (and the late sixties and early 70’s saw the birth of Cosmic American Music and country rock with the Flying Burrito Brothers, Gram Parsons, and Poco). And that was followed by the Outlaw County movement of the 70’s (Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson). And even the 80’s saw the establishment of such great and varied artists such as Steve Earle, Dwight Yoakam, and Lyle Lovett. Then the late 80’s and early 90’s saw the rise of cowpunk and alt-country, with the likes of Lone Justice, Uncle Tupelo, and the return of a clean and incredibly prolific Steve Earle. And this was followed by the larger genre of Americana, with the more recent likes of Colter Wall, Sturgill Simpson, Margot Price, Tyler Childers. I know a lot of these didn’t necessarily crossover into mainstream pop (with some exceptions), but it’s largely the much more interesting country music path to take. Would love to see you take a deep dive into this territory at some point.
No mention of Shaboozey for this decade? “A Bar Song” still goes hard in NC 2 years later.
I think it would be more accurate to say that Country has internalized rap, not hip-hop. The way I understand it, rap refers to music and hip-hop refers to culture.
Country music is and always has been pop music for the stars and bars crowd. With MAGA in charge of things I'm not surprised that it's having a moment.
This should have been titled the gentrification and colonization of Country music, but then again You never can tellllll LOL
You note “I’d argue the 1970s had the most country songs to top the Hot 100 of any decade.”Well, it depends how you look at it: If we look simply at country number one singles that also topped the Hot 100, the current decade has already surpassed the 70s, and we’re only 60% into the decade. (There were only 9 of those in the entire 70s). Of course, you might want to also count songs that hit number one on the Hot 100 that didn’t hit number 1 on country, but that sound kind of country, like Annie’s Song, Let Your Love Flow, or You Needed Me. But probably there aren’t more than a half dozen or so of those. And, in this decade, I can’t think of any Country songs that hit number one the Hot 100 that didn’t also hit number one on the country chart. But we still have a ways to go before this decade ends, and I’m sure there will be more country songs topping the Hot 100 in the next 4 years.