It’s hard to escape the effects of the recession. Even when you don’t have a TV. Every summer barbecue has the same stories. Everyone’s either out of a job or looking for a better one. My parents’ friends talk about how their retirement is nearly gone. My own friends talk about how their dreams of grad school have to be deferred. There simply isn’t enough money to make it happen. And that’s when I turn to country music.
Anyone who knows me knows I love country. Always have. Always will. And during times like these, one only has to listen to country to hear the echoes of American struggling during this time.
“Despite the sour economy, radio has been remarkably free of songs about tough times. The top songs from this week’s Billboard’s Hot 100 are heavy with dance tracks by the Black Eyed Peas, Lady GaGa and Flo Rida. “I think people are partying on,” said Silvio Pietroluongo, director of charts for Billboard magazine, who couldn’t think of a single song about the nation’s economic woes in pop, rock or R&B.” [Link.]
Check out these videos, which were featured among Country Music Television’s Top 20 Countdown.
Hank Williams Jr. singing “Red, White and Pink Slips.” Yes, this is the same guy who sang the infamous “The McCain-Palin Tradition” song.
And John Rich, of the band Big & Rich, who sings the heartbreaking “Shuttin’ Down Detroit.” (Yes, he is the same guy who sang “Raising McCain.” Why does country make it so hard for me to love it?)
Watch it here.
Anyone notice any other genres that avoid the glib/escapist route?
i have more country than you can stand. so much country, old bluegrass and honky tonk, and good 60s country, and even some decent 70s and 80s country.
for the record there are great coutnry performers out there who are not reactionaries like big-n-rich (who i enjoy in small doses). like the dixie chicks, who are great. or (from earlier days) hazel dickens and alice girard. doc watson is great all the time. and while hank jr is fun, his dad is the greatest ever, and hank 3 is fucking awesome.
i can write more about country later. check out the bluegrass brothers doing “country poor and country proud”.
for the record as well, there
i almost forgot to add: loretta lynn. that is the SHIT. Some of the best early examples of feminsim in country music, from The Pill to When the Tingle becomes a Chill and so many others.
we were diggin’ some Loretty last night actually.
Pingback: Let’s not forget about domestic violence « My Philadelphia Story