Open Letter To Country Music

Dear Country Music,

First.  Let me start off by saying I LOVE YOU!  I have grown up in the country music world before country was cool. See what I did there? 

Lately.  I am disappointed.  Disappointed that a song that mentions a hat or tailgate is deemed country.  What happened to our story songs?  I get music has an evolution process but have we evolved too far?  What makes or I should say, made, country music great are the stories.  The real life scenarios that you can picture as you are driving down the highway with your dog.  Yeah, I know country music haters say “all the songs are about trucks, dogs, and cheating.” But isn’t that what life is about?

It wasn’t too long ago that Rodney Atkins sang about his four-year-old little boy saying a four letter word.  That’s a story.  Even more recently Eric Church’s Springsteen takes you on this nostalgic journey to a simpler time in your life.  That again is a story.  Those stories seem to be on the back burner in favor of songs with little or no substance.

I am not anti-bro country as I know this may come across…I like it quite a bit.  I am just so tired of drinking songs and songs that don’t even try.  There is a place for these but its place is not every other song.  They are lowering the bar.  Being a huge proponent of surrounding yourself with people who make you better I think country music has found itself in a dangerous cycle.  Hear me out.  I don’t yearn for the sound of Hank Snow, Loretta Lynn or Johnny Cash (though brilliant) I yearn for their influence coming through my speakers.  Part of the reason Garth Brooks was as successful as he was in the 90s was because he had amazing showmen like Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw hot on his heels.  He had to raise his game to be on the top.  Who is pushing country music’s biggest stars now?

The competition between the men is fierce, but the competition between the women seems a little one-sided.  No one is pushing each other.  So we are at this point where the biggest stars can put out mediocre songs, have huge album and concert sales and coast….because after all, who is going to take their place?

As a country audience we are being used.  Used for our fierce loyalty to the artists who are on our airwaves.  Traditionally we as a country audience welcome new comers and support them until they make their way to the top.  It’s time for music to be better.  The people making country music are great, hard-working people and that’s why I expect more.  I may be alone in feeling this way but I just think we need to be better than we used to be.  (Get it?)