Since I've been on a country music kick, I think that I should end the week on that topic before I go on to something else. I know most people who read this blog hate country music. Tough. I don't. Most of country music is not good, I agree. But it tends to be way better than any pop music out there today. A fair amount of it is at least tolerable to listen to. That's not a ringing endorsement, I know. But I do listen to new country music for a couple of hours every month.
I note that every once in a while Hollywood decides to make a country music movie. For example, this January they're coming out with a new one, Country Strong. Making country music themed movies is an odd thing for Hollywood to do because as far as I can tell, Hollywood doesn't have a clue as to what country music is about. Instead Hollywood directors make these movies using cliches and never do the homework to see how their preconceptions differ from reality.
I guess that's not surprising. Hollywood directors do the same thing with college themed movies. Usually, they focus on some English professor and his ability or lack thereof to transform students. But English departments and the humanities have been in decline for decades. Less than ten percent of all student enrollments are in the humanities. If it weren't for distribution requirements that force students to take humanities classes, the numbers would be even smaller. Earth to Hollywood: English professors don't matter anymore. Want to really depict college education? Focus on an accounting or economics professor, please.
So it goes with Hollywood and country music. The disconnect with reality maybe began in the 1970s with the widely acclaimed Robert Altman movie, Nashville. Henry Gibson rambled on and on singing songs that wouldn't make it within 100 yards of a country radio music station, and we were supposed to believe that this little pipsqueak was a Nashville country music legend. You've got to be kidding. The movie was completely unbelievable. Nashville was hailed for its slice of life realism, but in fact it was a fantasy.
Last year, Jeff Bridges kept the tradition of Hollywood creating an alternate reality for country music alive. Bridges won an Oscar for a performance as a country music legend has been who is forced to play bowling alleys to try and make a living. Sorry Hollywood. I guess the closest real life analog to the Jeff Bridges character Bad Blake would be George "No Show" Jones and as destructive as he was, Jones could (and still can) always find a decent gig. Earth to Hollywood: there's a lucrative county and state fair circuit for country music has beens. Country music fans stay loyal to those that made hit albums decades after country music radio has forgotten them.
But forget about the stupid stories Hollywood comes up with. I want to focus on the music for a bit. Hollywood seems to think that country music is still all about losing your truck, your wife, and your job set to a melody that is backed by a mere three chords. It hasn't been that way for decades. Just like Hollywood is lost in the 1950s with regard to college campuses (English professors not only don't matter anymore, they don't wear tweed and bow ties anymore, either) they are in a time warp with regard to the music country radio plays.
There are still songs about loss in country music. Here's the best of that today, Jamey Johnson:
Jamey Johnson is a wonderful throwback, and I only wish that Hollywood would find someone who could sing and perform with half his power in their little fantasies. But you hardly hear people like Jamey Johnson on country radio today. What dominates country radio is what Hollywood knows everything about, fantasy. It's often about love gained - either god or a man or woman - rather than love lost. It entreats people, like a Sunday sermon, to do better. Here's one of the practitioners of that brand of country music today, Josh Turner (actually he mostly does treacly love songs, but here he is singing from his heart about God, albeit in a treacly way):
And much of country music today is about affirming the superiority of Red State values and attitudes with ass-kicking drums and rock guitar as Montgomery Gentry do with just about every song they perform (they're not exactly one of my favorite country bands, but I do have a photo of me and Eddie Montgomery arm in arm somewhere on my laptop):
But most significantly for me is that country music is about being funny, laugh out loud funny. That side of music used to be present in pop as well. The Beatles weren't afraid to be jokey in their music, that's for certain. But sometime between 1968 and now, humor left pop music altogether. That's not so in country music, whose king jokester is Brad Paisley. He made his name with this cute little number:
Jamey Johnson, Josh Turner, Montgomery Gentry, and Brad Paisley are just a slice of what country music is about today. It's mostly about - like Hollywood movies - wish fulfillment. Mr. Turner and Mr. Paisley are both clean living, Belmont University graduates. Eddie Montgomery works out religiously and has had his teeth whitened to such a degree that when he smiled at me I suffered from temporary snow blindness. Why does Hollywood focus on broken down performers singing about their hard luck when it makes country music movies? Hollywood likes its cliches and in its movies it tends to avoid real life. Country music is about loss according to Hollywood. Colleges are about teaching poetry. And don't get me started about how Hollywood treats the EPA and EPA employees in its caricatures.
I don't know if I'll go see the movie Country Strong. In it, Gwyneth Paltrow plays a country diva just coming out rehab. That's a bit of casting against type, but who knows, Paltrow is a solid professional and just might be able to carry it off. Her comeback song in that movie, though, leaves me a bit worried. Here's Ms. Paltrow performing it live recently to promote the movie:
That's a very impressive performance for a singing amateur. But is that a hit song? Yeah, maybe in 1979. It's the kind of thing that Vince Gill (singing backup) would have written for his old band, Pure Prairie League. Hollywood is, as always with regard to country music, stuck in the past.
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