...or, Hey, more ragging on Chet Flippo!
I have to laugh sometimes when I read in one of the radio newsletters a profile of a country radio station program director or music director in which he or she (usually he) talks about pivotal music that was career-defining and influential. And more often than not, it's usually some artist like Poison or Meatloaf or Motorhead. That kind of mindset does not translate well to a country sensibility.I have written of this before from the artist end of the country music business, but it deserves some examination from the radio end as well -- specifically radio programmers. If these radio programmers are going to program the pop country that Chet has defended before, then it only follows that these programmers are to an extent fans of other music. All of this only stems from marketing country music to fans of other genres and making it more palatable to them. I don't necessarily think fans of other genres getting to be fans of country is a bad thing, but I tend to think that the rise of acts like Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood and Rascal Flatts was made possible by people who talk of pivotal music being "Poison or Meatloaf or Motorhead." (One of those things is not like the other, one of those things just doesn't belong...) And I guaran-damn-tee you, one of these days some artist who's part of taking the genre in a direction Chet Flippo has defended, is going to be talking about bands like Queensryche, Megadeth, or Guns'n'Roses being music that defined him or her. (And if you click here, you'll see it's starting to go in that direction. "What country music artist hasn't been influenced by the Eagles?" Leave it up to Keith "I don't care if people download my songs even if that means the people who wrote them don't get paid" Urban to say something so spectacularly ignorant.) I can't WAIT to see what Mr. Flippo says then.
(h/t Country California)
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