# How many country stars do you think are bulls\*\*\*- as in, only out for money; liars? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 20, 2005, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-country-stars-do-you-think-are-bulls-as-in-only-out-for-money-liars/331920 "2005-11-20T11:23:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-country-stars-do-you-think-are-bulls-as-in-only-out-for-money-liars/331920/41 "2005-11-21T18:19:47Z")
> [@Tristan](#): > > So, if a label came to the Decemberists, or someone else that you are a fan of (which I’m sure has nothing to do with your stand… 😃 ) and offered them big bucks to make a video, and they did so, would that change your opinion? Not at all. I’d be thrilled for them, because it would mean they could make a better living performing music, and it would expose them to new audiences, and there would be more quality music in the mainstream. > [@Tristan](#): > > I feel too many people view commerical success as only attainable by “selling out”. > > If Tori Amos suddenly had a huge hit, and started touring and was on the radio constantly, did an episode of Cribs (hiding the coke mirrors, of course) and maybe was a guest judge on American Idol, would she still be on your list? And if not, why not? I’d still like her just as much (and I’m not one of the rabid Tori fans who thinks she is a fairy princess). I don’t think it would make much sense to have her on American Idol whether she was more popular or not, but if she was more successful, again, I would be happy for her, and I’d take some smug pride in knowing that more people finally “wised up” and like what I’ve liked all along. ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-country-stars-do-you-think-are-bulls-as-in-only-out-for-money-liars/331920/42 "2005-11-21T18:49:11Z")
Ok, I’ll ask. **Lou** … what is “good” music? Is there any good music, in your opinion, in the current top 40? ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-country-stars-do-you-think-are-bulls-as-in-only-out-for-money-liars/331920/43 "2005-11-21T19:11:14Z")
I find it incredible that in a thread this size about conntry music (well, sometime) that nobody has mentioned shania twain as being a phony. also, before the dixie chicks’ career was saved by their attack on the president, i saw an interview with them (i was misled that they were some primo babes, and i wanted to take a look). They said something about 'jamming to some GOOD (emphasis theirs) music" before having to do a concert, by Snoop or somebody in a similar vein. ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-country-stars-do-you-think-are-bulls-as-in-only-out-for-money-liars/331920/44 "2005-11-22T02:52:08Z")
> [@circus electrique](#): > > Here is one suggestion, but I’ve got to ask, **jackelope** , how do you know Madonna is just in it for the money? You’re right. I don’t. I only suspect. The reader is invited to substitute the name of someone suitably corrupt into my previous post. Which, by the way, contained a lot of words other than “Madonna.” ---
**Author:** ![circus\_electrique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@circus\_electrique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/circus_electrique)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-country-stars-do-you-think-are-bulls-as-in-only-out-for-money-liars/331920/45 "2005-11-22T03:49:16Z")
> [@jackelope](#): > > You’re right. I don’t. I only suspect. The reader is invited to substitute the name of someone suitably corrupt into my previous post. > > Which, by the way, contained a lot of words other than “Madonna.” The other words in your post didn’t have anything to do with what I was saying. The problem with guessing is that these guesses seem more to be about what one thinks of an artist’s music than the actual artist. Take **handsomeharry** ’s suggestion. Shania Twain is phony? What, man, she doesn’t really feel like a woman? Or then he suggests that the Dixie Twins are phony because they are ugly and because they (gasp! shock horror!) listen to music outside their genre. Saints preserve us! The Dixie Chicks listen to rap, that horrible jungle music! Don’t they know that true country artists have a diet of nothing but Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton 24/7? If this is the sort of basis on which guesses at “phony” or “corrupt” artists are made, then they aren’t even worth the time it took to write the post. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-country-stars-do-you-think-are-bulls-as-in-only-out-for-money-liars/331920/46 "2005-11-22T04:32:13Z")
I’ll never tell anyone who hates the current crop of country stars to start loving them. If you love pure, raw, old-fashioned country, then somebody like Garth Brooks is BOUND to irritate you, since his music sounds as much like mainstream pop/top 40 as it does like old-fashioned hillbilly folk music. But even though I don’t much like him myself, remember something: the life and the world a country boy growing up in the 1970’s was VERY different from the life and world a country boy knew in the 1930’s. Garth Brooks and Woodie Guthrie are both authentic country boys from Oklahoma, but Garth’s OKlahoma wasn’t Woodie’s. A country kid in Garth’s era grew up with Hank Williams and Merle Haggard, but he ALSO had MTV, and a mall down the road. He was exposed to Billy Joel and Boston and James Taylor and Journey and the Eagles as well as the pure country acts some people prefer. And ALL of those things went into Garth’s music. By all means, reject Garth’s music if you don’t like it. But don’t say he’s being a phony because his music isn’t pure. He’s being true to ALL his many influences. If anything, Garth would be a phony if he acted like a pure roots-country artist with no ties to modern pop culture. ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-country-stars-do-you-think-are-bulls-as-in-only-out-for-money-liars/331920/47 "2005-11-22T04:53:28Z")
> [@circus electrique](#): > > The other words in your post didn’t have anything to do with what I was saying. …which is fine, because I was responding to **ultrafilter**. ---
**Author:** ![who\_me\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/87869e/32.png) [@who\_me\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/who_me_2)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-country-stars-do-you-think-are-bulls-as-in-only-out-for-money-liars/331920/48 "2005-11-22T04:55:19Z")
my take on the whole authentic/inauthentic is that the authentic tour, tour, make records/cds, and tour. Then, maybe, they get popular. the inauthentic hire a publicist. my 2c. ---
**Author:** ![Hometownboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5e9695/32.png) [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-country-stars-do-you-think-are-bulls-as-in-only-out-for-money-liars/331920/49 "2005-11-22T05:29:54Z")
> [@Godfrey Daniels](#): > > I don’t think much of what gets played on Top 40 “Country” radio stations really has anything to do with country music. It’s all about the $$$. > When I want country, it’s Lucinda Williams, Iris Dement, John Prine, Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle, Merle Haggard, George Jones, Johnny Cash, Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris, Asleep At The Wheel, a handful of others. Maybe there’s some ‘image’ involved, but it’s not what these people are about. The music is. I just want to say that **Godfrey Daniels** has the handle on it right there. Particularly if he adds Chip Taylor, Steve Fromholz, Lacy J. Dalton, and, yes, Willie. I saw him live last year, and he was anything BUT embalmed. He flat out cooked. (No offense to **Myler Keogh** , who may have caught him on an off night.) As an aside, I find it amusing that Alan Jackson would relese “Gone Country,” whose partial lyrics are: > [@](#): > > Well the folk scene is dead > But he’s holding out in the village > He’s been writing songs speaking out > Against wealth and privilege Is that a smirk I hear from Mr. Jackson? ---
**Author:** ![Southessex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Southessex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southessex)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-country-stars-do-you-think-are-bulls-as-in-only-out-for-money-liars/331920/50 "2005-11-22T05:40:03Z")
> [@Big Bad Voodoo Lou](#): > > Tom Waits, Ben Folds, Decemberists, Kate Bush, Tori Amos, Neko Case, New Pornographers, Shins, Raveonettes, White Stripes, Portishead, Belle and Sebastian, Jonathan Richman, Social Distortion, Less Than Jake… I could go on and on. Pffffftt! Tori Amos is nothing more than a third-rate Kate Bush on her best day. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-country-stars-do-you-think-are-bulls-as-in-only-out-for-money-liars/331920/51 "2005-11-22T07:59:18Z")
> [@Tristan](#): > > I think the problem lies in calling Britney Spears a Musician. She most certainly is NOT a musician. She is a singer, and a dancer. I’m sorry, but are you suggesting that singers are not musicians? That would be a statement of the most staggering ignorance, akin to saying that painters are not artists. I assure you there are many schools of music at fine universities that would disagree with you. ---
**Author:** ![marymargaret](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@marymargaret](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marymargaret)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-country-stars-do-you-think-are-bulls-as-in-only-out-for-money-liars/331920/52 "2005-11-22T12:39:24Z")
I think country music has been a whole lot of crap for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-country-stars-do-you-think-are-bulls-as-in-only-out-for-money-liars/331920/53 "2005-11-23T06:50:58Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I’m sorry, but are you suggesting that singers are not musicians? That would be a statement of the most staggering ignorance, akin to saying that painters are not artists. I assure you there are many schools of music at fine universities that would disagree with you. I’m sorry, I was a bit vauge. I don’t believe that Britney Spears is any more of an artist than someone who sings Kareoke, no matter how good. Good singing ability is not art, it’s talent. Song writing or composing would raise her to the status of artist, but as she doesn’t do those (as far as I know, I could be wrong, and will gladly apologize if pointed out), I don’t believe she is an artist. And in the context of discussing music and Mrs. Spears-Federline, I didn’t think it was necessary to include painters or sculpters. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-country-stars-do-you-think-are-bulls-as-in-only-out-for-money-liars/331920.md?page=2)