NPR Picks Up on What’s Happening in Nashville Songwriting
December 17th, 2010
Do Nashville’s professional songwriters think about country radio and its unspoken rules when they’re writing, or do they try to write the very best song they can, even if they know it’s veering off the commercial road?
It’s a fair question. You’re likely familiar with the long-simmering debate about the quality of music on country radio in the post-Shania Twain era. Veteran critic and pioneering Nashville reporter Chet Flippo vented just last week about the state of country music, calling much of it “pabulum.” But the aesthetic gulf between what’s working on radio in 2010 and the country music pantheon that most Music Row writers carry around in their heads and hearts is a bigger issue for some than for others.
more via Do You Have To Sell Your Soul To Write A Hit? : The Record : NPR.
Country Music Isn’t Country Any More? Who Says?
June 22nd, 2010
Almost everywhere you look, there’s somebody saying Country Music isn’t Country any more. Problem with that claim is somebody somewhere has been saying that for years and years.
As the story goes, even Hank Williams Sr., as legendary as they get in Country, was accused of something like heresy when he put some simple drums in his band. Many of the legends of the 50’s and 60’s were accused of ruining Country when they invented the Nashville Sound, a move that revitalized Country Music and made it bigger than ever. Read the rest of this entry »
Country Radio Helping in WVa Mining Disaster
April 15th, 2010
Leave it to Country Radio to get in the trenches with the people and help out where there’s need. Just like many stations have run recent fund raisers for St Jude hospital for kids with cancer, now they’re responding to the West Virginia mine disaster. As the Website All About Country puts it:
“COUNTRY Radio stations across West Virginia are stepping up to the plate in support of the families of the miners killed in the Montcoal Mine Tragedy, many working through the West Virgina Council of Churches and the Circle Of Hope….”
More via All About Country – News.