Special Comment - The State Of Modern Country Music 

"Zac Brown is right." *The Owl has entered the chat*

This is his best video. I cant help but keep coming back to it due to the magnitude of TRUTH that's being told in this video.

I appreciate your thoroughness and passion, man. Keep it up! I'd just maybe say look to camera more and don't read as much b/c you have really interesting things to say!

It's nice to see someone who is this compassionate about country music. It feels like a political broadcast. :-)

This is one of my favorite video of Spectrum Pulse. There is A reason why I barely buy country cd's anymore. Although he's not the best in front of the camera, yet. Now he uses jumps cut & he's better at it.

(2) ...been a longtime listener of country music, both traditional and contemporary, both corporate and independent, and I have long believed that country music is unparalleled in diversity and tradition among all American music genres. It is akin to a banyun tree: with the roots stretching out more expansively and deep in the soils than any other genre, and continuously branches out all the same. You have Red Dirt, Bakersfield, Appalachian Folk, Western Swing, Cowpunk and the Lubbock sound...

Congratulations on approaching your first five-digit achievement in viewership! You absolutely deserve it here! =)

AWESOME! @10:30 is the BEST comment ever regarding the media and country music ever! Though I don't agree with everything, I respect the shit out of the fact that YOU respect the nuances of the human condition, when your contemporaries act like that doesn't extend to those within the continental US.

Thank you very much for your intelligernt commentary on the sorry state of modern country music, and for not using foul sleazy language. What happened to some of the beautiful country music from years past?

I apologize for my comments on your Justin Moore review, I deleted them. And I think a few others should consider doing the same. I'm Canadian too and it is good to see another who is passionate about this issue occurring in today's "country" music. The loss of flavour, texture and feeling you speak about is what I miss and crave. My personal opinion about Justin Moore is not as strong as yours, but a country song should never have Kim K.'s name, and songs about trucks are getting monotonous.

7 years later this is still true just switch bro for love country.

P.S. Alan Jackson's new CD, just like his others, is like a breath of fresh air, compared to the listening experience country radio provides. The person named Noah who commented earlier mentioned Saving Country Music, a group I follow on Facebook that posts multiple songs throughout the day that are traditional country music. Definitely look it up! :)

When they started rapping in country music...I knew it was over

Entertainment Weekly isn't ignoring country -- at least not on my watch! ;)

Another great artist that got mostly ignored this year was Chris Stapleton. One of the best voices out of Music City in many years, and a tremendous writer. Not sure how high "What Are You Listening To?" charted, but it wasn't high enough. If you're not familiar, look him up. You'll be impressed, I promise.

Wagon Wheel was not written by Bob Dylan, Old Crown Medicine Show only used the chorus from an old Dylan song. In order to use those lines, OCMS agreed to give Bob Dylan song writing credits.

You are absolutely right!!!

NOTE: Farce The Music does push the envelope with their style of satire, and can be outright harsh, but they do indicate in their site description that nothing is meant to be taken seriously and is simply designed as a haven for those that prefer art over commerce. You may not always find their satire fully tasteful, but it is honest, and I do think you will appreciate it well enough.

The fact is this is not country music!!! You want to be entertained go see a movie or a concert!!! Country music is supposed to tell a story explain to me what story is being told now!!! It's the same story with almost every artist but the words are in different order it's a shame. The 80's and 90's country that was country music!!!!

I applaud you sir!

spot-fucking-on.... Im gonna crack another beer and listen to some Iris Dement...

I agree with you also look at all the canadian country acts trying to break into the charts

As a disciple of the late great Johnny Cash I love this guy:)

This has always been one of my favorites videos you’ve ever made. I feel like nowadays this could use another update. The state of country music is unfortunately getting worse.

Channeling your inner-Keith Olbermann I see! ;) I too lament how countless digital critics and publications like Pitchfork, The AV Club and Sputnikmusic tend to sneer at country music. They project this "holier-than-thou" attitude toward the genre and depict country musicians as well as its listening demographic as philistines because they assume the crass commercialization, red-state politics and stereotypes they see at face value reflects the genre at large. Yet, much like you, I have...

nice set of balls to speak the truth.

THIS IS IMPORTANT

I agree with you. I was born a fan of Garth Brooks and the great 90's country artists. Country has lost it's soul.

i agree about the music reviewing thing. for the life of me, why doesn't anthony fantano at least TRY to review country?

I agree with these comments and opinion 100000000000000000000000000000000%.

Murders been committed down on music row 🎶

Awwwwwwwwww, you're most welcome! I discovered you yesterday via word-of-mouth, and am grateful for that! =D I take all kinds of music seriously, but especially country music. Visit Saving Country Music. You won't regret it. I also frequent Farce The Music incessantly because laughter is the best medicine and the best way to cope with the depressing state of the genre is by laughing at it, while also supporting the silver linings betwixt the sewage.

At least country is considered mainstream by Billboard and the Grammy awards. The blues was shifted to "other genre" by Billboard and has just one category on the Grammy award while country has four. 2013 as even one of the best years for blues as far as talent. In 2011, Beyonce released 4 and Joe Bonamassa and Beth Hart released Don't Explain. Right now on Amazon, the sales ranking in music for Don't Explain is 1,071 while 4 is ranked 1,985. Don't Explain is still on the top 10 Itunes blues charts in some countries while 4 is not in the 10 ten Itunes R&B chart of the countries it tracks. Any artists with talent can get connection to get the audience to outlast the pump and dump pop scene. There is a youtube former hired country guitarist (actually the whole band he was in was the backing band for big named artists) in the late 80s and into the 1990s. His biggest grip then was the music went from traditional finger plucking to sounding more like 1970s rock. Country music hasn't been "country" since Garth Brooks sounded like a KISS style act.

...just to name a handful. And yet no one would ever know it if they were only listening to what corporate country radio is playing. You don't hear any of these branches of the same tree represented here. Nashville, rather, is capitulating to all other demographics and trying too hard to be something to everyone. Thus, the obsession with the country-rap trend, the pandering to younger demographics who lean toward EDM with the explosion of frat-boy country, and the invasion of Auto-Tune.

Hank 3 is amazing

Male Country singers all sing and write songs about four things trucks; girls; partying; and beer. Female Country singers all sing and write songs about three things cheating boyfriends; partying; trucks; and beer.

You can't summer music like that yes, I agree that there are more commercial singers around but yeah, you allowed the pop industry a free ticket to do the commercial s***.

All in all, I agree. Mostly on the basis of arrangement, the phrasing of the vocals and some of the production elements. Lyrically I can't attest to that because "Colder Weather" is of a whole other breed of songwriting strength with all the imagery (headlights through the windowpane, coffee at a Lincoln truck stop diner, whispering pines) while "Old Habits" approaches the same topic without the poetical descriptions.........but I think the former justifies enough of a plagiarism charge.

The best place to start in broadening your perspective and appreciation of country music, as I know you already do, is through a site called Saving Country Music. The site's founder and visionary, Trigger, prolifically offers reviews and commentary on both traditional and progressive gems of the genre, as well as deconstruct and critique (oftem lambastes) pop country and its architects (most notably Big Machine CEO Scott Borchetta).

It's pretty simple really. It's business as usual. You have to realize that radio is selling time to advertisers. The advertisers think they are reaching a certain buying audience by advertising on the radio stations playing those type songs that you are talking about. it's not about good songs anymore or great songs, it's about selling product to a certain age bracket or audience. An audience that doesn't know they are not being given the best Nashville has to offer. Radio is counting on the audience being uneducated about the music they are being given. Le't's just party on and don't think about the music. It's basically the tail wagging the dog. The record companies that pay radio to play these songs are basically paying radio to tell them what they can record on their atrist. What a strange twist. Shhhhh!! Don't tell the record companies that's what's going on,they don't know it, and radio doesn't want them to know it, it's a sweet deal. We all long for the day when a real music person will head up a major label that really knows and cares about good soulful music, great songs and a real artist. They will still have to pay to get it played ( it's always been that way) but it will be worth it. That he or she doesn't head a label right now, but maybe one day.

totally agree but that Justin Moore album is not terrible as you say it is

(4) I, too, am pessimistic about where traditional country music and its culture are heading. I fear the genre is going to implode much like the rock genre did during the late 90's (which has since slipped into general irrelevancy). Until Scott Borchetta begins to lose clout and the songwriting monopoly represented by Dallas Davidson, Ashley Gorey, Luke Laird and Rodney Clawson most notably is broken and diversified, we can expect more of the same! -__-

Kieth Olberman much. Btw he works for espn now

Ween's country album was actually a true country album compared to top 40 Nashville bullshit. Way to go Ween. Boognish!

Sounds like he's trying to emulate Bill O'Reilly's Talking Points Memo, same tone, style etc.

I don't listen to Trashville pop and I won't associate with anyone who does.

Good stuff

I love Justin Moore

Why do you look like Jon from ARTV here? Hahaha

More specifically, flummoxed at the vocally positive reviews for Justin Moore's god-awful "Off The Beaten Path" among fans and even ass-kissing sites specializing in covering country music that are nonetheless bereft of journalistic integrity like Taste of Country and Roughstock (their reviews will make you cringe, trust me)...........I finally came across a link to your video through the comment section on a country music blog that is more honest. That's what I meant by word-of-mouth.

This is why I listen to hick hop

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Male Country singers all sing and write songs about four things trucks; girls; partying; and beer. Female Country singers all sing and write songs about three things cheating boyfriends; partying; trucks; and beer.