Country music's new marketing generation
Column: Runnin' amuck
Tara Muck, Lifestyles Editor
Issue date: 3/31/05 Section: Lifestyles
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I received my first nasty-gram about my last column, "Nashville Star." The reader, a former assistant to the executive producer of the show, felt I was too harsh about the contestants, although she did feel that the show lacked the quality it had in its first year.
Her biggest problem was that I said that two of the contestants were going to face some battles because they are in their mid-30s. Those two singers also happen to be female. One of those females, Tamika Tyler, was also voted off the show Tuesday night, albeit amid some controversial comments.
Country music isn't your grandpa's country music anymore. It's not even your momma's country music from the 1980s. Those days of the Judds and KT Oslin are over. Like it or not, country music is just as much about the marketing as pop music.
Singers and bands change their looks and delivery once they get noticed. Lonestar used to sing about rednecks and pick-up trucks, and they used to wear cowboy hats. Those are all true components of country music. They were fairly popular, but it wasn't until they changed their clothes, shed those cowboy hats and sang the crossover hit "Amazed" that they truly became a popular band.
Faith Hill is also someone who perhaps felt more comfortable in Versace, but donned Levi's and a denim jacket when her first couple albums came out. Then she met Tim McGraw, and suddenly their love for each other pushed out the country in them and opened them up to a whole new world of contemporary country. However, Tim still sticks close to his roots by wearing a much-needed cowboy hat.
The agitated reader felt that I don't understand the hardships of what it's like to move to Nashville or Los Angeles and develop the craft of songwriting and singing. She also assumed that I was 19 or 20 years old.
Here's the funny part.
I moved to Nashville when I was 20 years old to become a songwriter. Yes, I was once a dream chaser, like the "Nashville Star" hopefuls. However, after nine short months I realized that dreaming didn't bring home the bacon and I came back home to go to school. Now (this is the funnier part) I'm 25 years old and finally ready to graduate in May. I found this dream a little bit easier to attain. I'm proud just the same.
Her biggest problem was that I said that two of the contestants were going to face some battles because they are in their mid-30s. Those two singers also happen to be female. One of those females, Tamika Tyler, was also voted off the show Tuesday night, albeit amid some controversial comments.
Country music isn't your grandpa's country music anymore. It's not even your momma's country music from the 1980s. Those days of the Judds and KT Oslin are over. Like it or not, country music is just as much about the marketing as pop music.
Singers and bands change their looks and delivery once they get noticed. Lonestar used to sing about rednecks and pick-up trucks, and they used to wear cowboy hats. Those are all true components of country music. They were fairly popular, but it wasn't until they changed their clothes, shed those cowboy hats and sang the crossover hit "Amazed" that they truly became a popular band.
Faith Hill is also someone who perhaps felt more comfortable in Versace, but donned Levi's and a denim jacket when her first couple albums came out. Then she met Tim McGraw, and suddenly their love for each other pushed out the country in them and opened them up to a whole new world of contemporary country. However, Tim still sticks close to his roots by wearing a much-needed cowboy hat.
The agitated reader felt that I don't understand the hardships of what it's like to move to Nashville or Los Angeles and develop the craft of songwriting and singing. She also assumed that I was 19 or 20 years old.
Here's the funny part.
I moved to Nashville when I was 20 years old to become a songwriter. Yes, I was once a dream chaser, like the "Nashville Star" hopefuls. However, after nine short months I realized that dreaming didn't bring home the bacon and I came back home to go to school. Now (this is the funnier part) I'm 25 years old and finally ready to graduate in May. I found this dream a little bit easier to attain. I'm proud just the same.
