On Country Music

tl;dr?  Mainstream music is severely lacking in stories.  Country music has the monopoly on that.

Note:  this is preliminary post, explaining some of my thinking behind the next post I need to make.  The next post will be an answer to a challenge that was posed by someone: showcase an artist that’s affected me somehow, and why I like him.  This next post is something I've wanted to write for a year or more, but never got around to it.  It’s just as well, because it was just yesterday that I realized exactly why I like him so much, and suddenly it required fleshing out this other idea first…

I listen to what I feel is quite a lot of music.  Or rather, I go through phases of listening to a few artists/albums repeatedly.  A particular phase might last a week or a couple months, during which I heavily favor a certain artist or album.

So with listening to the same things over and over, you’d think I’d become pretty clear on what’s actually being said in the songs, right?  Not so much.  Mainstream music (and by that I mean “music I tend to listen to” – rock/alternative/electronic) seems to be so fixated on the beat, tune and production that vocals and lyrics become secondary concerns.  If they aren't too quiet compared to the music that backs them, then they have some effect applied to them that obscures the actual words.  Or perhaps more often, meaning can be hidden behind layers of metaphor and abstraction such that only a limited audience has a chance of understanding it.  I can memorize all or most of the lyrics to a song and still not know how A relates to B relates to C.  Maybe I’m just bad at listening, but I couldn't tell you what a significant portion of music that I listen to is actually about.

Most of the time, this doesn't bother me.  I like beats and hooks just fine, and vocals can just fade away and become another instrument.  Maybe it’s even a good thing sometimes to not understand the meaning behind a song and just enjoy it.  See: Rammstein.  Friggin’ creepers.  The sheer number of songs about incest in their repertoire is staggering.  Still fun to listen to despite knowing that!

But sometimes it’s refreshing to actually clearly understand the meaning of a song, and to listen to a story presented in that fashion.  The only genre of music that reliably does that is Country.  Seriously.  And possibly things like folk, although I think they tend to fall into the metaphor trap.  In high school, I was decidedly anti-country.  I’ve since (been forced to) become more tolerant of it, although I tend not to actively seek it out, since the twang and the ubiquitous accent are annoying, and the surrounding culture and politics are usually pretty terrible.

But you can usually count on any given country song to tell a story or state a point, and do so clearly.  Not skirting around the issue or dismantling it into metaphor, just straight and to the point.  A song that you can understand is much more likely to evoke emotions… and isn’t that really the point of music these days?  You hardly ever hear a ballad in the mainstream (although I’d love to hear about your favorite exceptions to this.)

Some examples.  Whenever I listen to Don’t Take the Girl or Fancy, I get goosebumps.  These songs embody emotion so well that it’s hard not to get wrapped up in them.  On the lighter side, I’m Gonna Miss Her is a good joke wrapped up into a song (Brad Paisley’s specialty), and Before He Cheats is a great depiction of jealous rage and revenge.

Fortunately, I've found at least one artist who tells stories the same way, and without the same accent.  But that's another post entirely, as this one feels quite long enough already.