Anyway, at the end of the video there’s a line saying “In memory of country music 1922-1999”. A quick Wikipedia search told me that 1922 was the year “A.C. “Eck” Robertson became the first fiddler and country musician on record when he recorded eight tracks for the Victor Talking Machine Company in New York City.” Okay, that’s a reasonable way to define when country music was “born” (with the amusing bonus of placing the birth of country music in New York City).
But what happened in 1999 that supposedly marked the “death” of country music?
At this point in 2015, any country music fan that even casually reads about the genre is undoubtedly tired of hearing about bro–country, the modern brand of derivative party anthems sung by men in trucks that has dominated country’s radio airplay and digital sales in recent years. Bro-country was coined by critic Jody Rosen in a 2013 New York magazine piece about the duo Florida Georgia Line that defined their musical stylings as “music by and of the tatted, gym-toned, party-hearty young American white dude”. Put in crasser terms: douchebag music. - SOURCE
Or…
“Bro Country” was huge for most of the last decade, led by Florida Georgia Line, Luke Bryan, and Jason Aldean.
But according to Hardy, “Bro Country” died the day Chris Stapleton sang with Justin Timberlake at the 2015 CMAs. - SOURCE
I said “supposedly”. I’m assuming the person had some event in mind when he posted that date. Whether or not that event actually marked the death of country music is a separate debate.
I assumed some huge “Bro country” albums came out in 1999 but, ironically, that year’s country charts were dominated by Shania Twain and by The Dixie Chicks (as known at the time).
When we built our house a few years ago, I learned via the plumbers there is now country rap… I’m conflicted, because it seems like a harbinger of the end of civilization, but I actually liked it better than twangy conventional country. At least it was a little dark and edgy. But I’m sure not seeking it out.
For a long time I tried to like contemporary country, out of regard for the old-school country legends, and the people I hung with. It started going downhill in the late 70’s and was mostly schlock by the 1990’s.
But to me, the watermark of where contemporary country turned absolutely stupid and unlistenable was September 11th, 2001. The target demographic had (has) an insatiable appetite for “argle bargle 'Murika #1” and I don’t think it’s really recovered since then.
I suspect whoever thinks it died in 1999 is noticing the decline that happened after 2001 and are blaming it on some woke-related incident in 1999. That demographic isn’t known for self-awareness.
The same thing that happened to rock and pop music in 1999, the year my overall knowledge of the subject ended: Clear Channel and Cumulus took over the airwaves.
As a couple people have mentioned, that was about the time I stopped listening to country music. I truly don’t recall why. My country music play list in the car is basically from 1990 to 2000.
Admission contrary to my interests: I really like a lot of 80s music and switched to country in the 90s because…well, you know.
Is there thoughtful, poignant, and/or poetic country music out there that avoids all of the usual cliched crap? Maybe it isn’t called “country” anymore, if so…
It’s Alternative Country. Carrying on the “outlaw” country tradition and much more. You can listen to it on the Outlaw Country Sirius XM radio station.
Some, but not all of the music of The Brothers Osborne is surprisingly instrumental compared to what I hear from pop country stuff. Some of their tracks are seven minutes long. They have a lot of banal popular songs about drinking but that’s not all there is to them. Also one of the brothers just came out as gay. I don’t know their politics, but that’s notable, and they have songs about tolerance which is not a popular topic right now.
My favorite song is Stay a Little Longer which has same sex couples in their video you can see if you squint.
