At first blush, the success of modern country music ("Music: Why Country Not Only Survived but Thrived," Leisure & Arts, Nov. 19) seems a triumph for the musical taste of millions of middle-Americans. How unfortunate, then, that the popularity of today's country comes at the expense of authenticity.
Merle Haggard famously called the new country "bad rock and roll." In seeking ever-bigger market share, record label mavens have disregarded the maverick origins of a proud American music form. The result is popular, but also dull and homogenized; how can a station that plays no Johnny Cash, no Steve Earle and no Buck Owens be authentically country?
Millions of mainstream country fans probably care little for the hand-wringing of a few music critics and purists like myself. You need not know who Gram Parsons was in order to enjoy country radio, I suppose. Yet as an example of one more American art form made impure by commercial interests, country music's soul seems irretrievably lost, vanishing at roughly the same moment Shania Twain first shimmied her way onstage.
Apparently there were those in Nashville that do blame Shania for the New Country sound. Personally, I like the fact that there is a New Country sound as well as a more tradtional country sound. I don't see that as a bad ting.
Nashville just didn't like anyone crossing over to pop and they also opposed stars sprucing up their videos (showing more skin) but sex sells. Shania's midriff seemed to set it off. When Dolly Parton first clapped eyes on her, she said 'that's a girl after my own heart'.
I agree with lulu, there should be branches of country music. I don't like the old kind too much, or the new that include rappers. I like the middle, I think that's the most popular. They probably don't like Garth Brooks either especially when he would fly across the stage.