3. "The video is funny, but it's nothing new" In response to Reply # 0
I think it was 1991 when I heard the joke about what you get when you play country records backwards... you get your truck back, you get your girl back, you get sober. I mean, I wonder if the guy would complain about a song like 'Ford Econoline'? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OBSo3G8LCg&feature=kp That shit is great, and it's about a truck. Well, a van, but the same thing.
Country's always had the romanticized, overly sentimental view of poor rural life as one of its guiding principles. The record that jumpstarted the country industry in 1923 (I think) was 'The Little old Log Cabin In the Lane.' Which of course was a minstrel song. So I don't hold that against it and in some ways those are more true to country's shared origins with the vaudeville/minstrelsy tradition, though thankfully not usually overtly racist.
And yeah it's true that the country greats have frequently superceded this core value (though usually while also embracing it with parts of their repertoire) while still staying country. That's why a lot of non-country fans like Hank, Willie, Johnny et al but don't get Trace Adkins.
5. "It's not the subject matter, but the cynicism." In response to Reply # 3
>I think it was 1991 when I heard the joke about what you get >when you play country records backwards... you get your truck >back, you get your girl back, you get sober. I mean, I wonder >if the guy would complain about a song like 'Ford Econoline'? >http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OBSo3G8LCg&feature=kp That >shit is great, and it's about a truck. Well, a van, but the >same thing.
Post David Allan Coe's third verse in 1975 — http://youtu.be/PYIrs1Dx4Ck — the thinking country artist must at least be aware of the irony....
>Country's always had the romanticized, overly sentimental view >of poor rural life as one of its guiding principles.
...but here and now it isn't romanticized or sentimental; it's cynical and formulaic. That's the reviewer's problem. And that problem dovetails with political polarization, with the rise of American anti-intellectualism, etc. And it's that the audience seems to be fine with this intentional vapidity, or possibly just too dumb to grasp the irony that Coe identified 40 years ago.
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