%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
 |  A blog about music from my unique perspective (also a spot for some poetry I’ve written) |
A blog, generally about music, usually for projects hosted by Jeff  . I may also write about the 48-Hour Media Prompt Challenge if I don't feel like writing a story or poem inspired by the given song. Other bits of poetry or different topics of discussion might end up here as well.![Merit Badge in WDC Media Prompt
[Click For More Info]
Thank you for your participation in the 48-HOUR CHALLENGE: " Everywhere by Fleetwood Mac " Media Prompt hosted by [Link To User support] March 2024! We appreciate that you tackled this challenge... *^*Smile*^* *^*Thumbsupl*^*](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/WDC-WDC_Media_Prompt.gif) ![Merit Badge in WDC Soundtrackers BoMB
[Click For More Info]
Congratulations on successfully completing the 2024 [Link To Item #monkeys] challenge!](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/group-WDC_Soundtrackers_BoMB-1979333_12.gif){kind=tracking} ![Merit Badge in WDC Soundtrackers
[Click For More Info]
Congratulations on successfully completing [Link To Item #soyl] (2024 Edition) by writing all 29 entries during the month of February!](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/group-WDC_Soundtrackers-1979333_7.gif){kind=tracking} ![Merit Badge in Journaling
[Click For More Info]
Congrats on your Honorable Mention in Blog Week Birthday Bastion 2024](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/type-Journaling-2180.gif) ![Merit Badge in Bee A Rockstar
[Click For More Info]
We are bee-yond grateful for your generosity and assistance in spreading positivity throughout our community.
Thank you for supporting [Link To Item #1979333] through [Link To Item #bees] . Every donation goes directly toward enriching our community.
As a token of appreciation for your gift of charity, you are awarded this Bee A Rockstar merit badge.
*^*Bee*^* *^*Honey*^* *^*Heart*^*](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/group-Bee_A_Rockstar-2319168_14.gif) ![Merit Badge in Blogging
[Click For More Info]
CONGRATULATIONS on an excellent entry and winning 1st Place in the Flash Blog Contest!](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/type-Blogging-2180.gif) ![Merit Badge in Resurrection Jukebox
[Click For More Info]
Congratulations on successfully completing the 2024 edition of [Link To Item #resurrection] !](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/group-Resurrection_Jukebox-1979333_12.gif) ![Merit Badge in 12 Days of Christmas
[Click For More Info]
Congratulations on successfully completing the 2024 Edition of [Link To Item #12days] !](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/group-12_Days_of_Christmas-1979333_12.gif) |
| A few days ago, I mentioned For King and Country recently released a Christmas collaboration single with country music singer Gabby Barrett. I said in passing I don't think much of her as an artist. Yesterday I noticed her 2020 single The Good Ones in an exclusively soft pop public playlist, which means the song, and the artist, has officially crossed over into the pop genre. Seeing this, I thought I'd put together a few words on why exactly I'm not interested in her work. The Good Ones is probably the first song I noticed from her. It describes the narrator's relationship with the man of her dreams and declares he's "one of the good ones." At first, a few years ago, I thought it was naive and silly, like "you'll be singing a different tune when you find out the truth about him..." But after a while it started growing on me, until I would get chills whenever I heard it. So I took note of the artist's name and gradually started connecting the dots of her other work. I found she sings a pathetic song about "every time I see an F-150, all the memories come and hit me..." complaining about the truck her ex drives. She also sings I Hope (She Cheats), which became a pop crossover hit early on, so much so that she did a remix featuring Charlie Puth... Which doesn't even make sense from a lyrical standpoint. My long view of Gabby Barrett is that she's another one of a wave of young female country artists who have been showing up and crossing over to pop in the past few years. I feel it's part of an attempt by the country music industry to make it more palatable to a general audience. I've noticed over the years that "hot" country music has been substituted in certain situations for "hot" pop music, which these days is becoming rapidly trashier, rappier, and less suited for a general audience. I've felt as though country music is putting itself up as the "family friendly" alternative, which to me is laughable. Country has always been a genre which glorifies alcohol, bar culture, breakups, and making out in the beds of pickup trucks with chicks you picked up drunk at the bar. No amount of cutesy songs that mention Jesus and marriage and white picket fences, written by the same handful of producers who write the trashy songs, can make me think otherwise. Which brings me to the most important point of my dislike of country music as a genre. It is ultimately a soulless and highly commercialized genre run by a few top influencers you've never heard of who turn out hundreds of formulaic songs for dozens of artists. I can name at least three off the top of my head: Thomas Rhett, Hillary Lindsey and Ashley Gorely. My point being: any given country music singer does not write their own lyrics. They are simply a mouthpiece for whatever doggerel catches their fancy out of a pool of carefully crafted demos which draw from a playbook of cultural cliches and catchphrases. Therefore, I cannot say "oh yeah, I like so-and-so, they're good..." Because even if they happen to sing one or two decent songs, even cute songs, they've all sang the stupid ones as well. They're all drinking from the same Kool-aid... Or is it Jack Daniels? No one country music artist is any more "decent" or "sincere" than any other. Rather than pouring their hearts into their own work, allowing us to build a picture of their personalities from their words, they allow themselves to be used by a handful of "culture makers" who have their own agenda. It's not their story they're telling, but a story they've been told to tell. Coming back to Gabby Barrett, I have to admit I don't know much about her, but I suspect if I ran my eye down the credits of any of her songs I would find the same producers behind them as with all the rest. This in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing, as there are also a limited number of high-level producers in pop music. It's the fictionalized, cheapened, exaggerated cultural narrative these producers peddle (pop or country, either way) which I don't like. There's no way for me to "get into" Gabby Barrett as a person because she presumably doesn't write her own songs, so from one song to the next, there's no consistency of lyrical quality or overarching narrative. Think of it like how we write our stories here. After reading a certain amount of anyone's writing, I get a feel for who they are as a person: the type of language they use, the kind of stories they like to tell, their overall level of taste, decency, or class, their unique, distinctive idiosyncrasies. In other words, their writing style comes through consistently. This is impossible in country music, because there are no artists who write freely from the heart and sing what they wrote. (If you know of any, let me know.) So... Yeah. I don't think there's anything more I can say about it than that. Sure, there's always going to be a country song here and there where I'm like "oh, this is a good one," but it can never be personally connected to a given artist in the way I would like. There is no country music artist who only sings "the good ones." And that's a deal breaker for me. Words: 924. |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
