lavieenrose
Albania Superstar
Re: THE NETHERLANDS 2018 - Waylon - Outlaw In Em
I get really territorial and patriotic about country music. Not even sure why - I do concede that there are meatheaded American idiots doing far more damage to the genre than well-intentioned European imposters who think southern accents make them sound "artsy." Maybe it’s just that it’s one of the few things I get to say are “my country’s culture.” What else do we have besides it? Corn? Anyway, I digress.
2014's travesty of country pisses me off, and when I heard Waylon was going to Eurovision again, I realized that I was going to have to spend a full Eurovision season qualifying "this is going to be my worst entry of the year" with "except Waylon." When Germany came out with their entry, it was really difficult for me to say "this is going to be my worst entry of the year, and yes, that does include Waylon." My heart sank as I tried to gird myself for another round of miserabilism in country burlesque when Waylon has spent roughly zero seconds living the life that makes the misery of country something I feel passion and sympathy for.
What I got instead was different. And worse. But mostly different.
When I first heard “Donkey” by Jerrod Niemann, a smash country hit in recent years, my first response was “oh no, this must be how we’re perceived abroad.” And what I got from Waylon was vindication. In order to make himself look and sound “authentic” this time around, he’s not trying to imitate Glen Campbell, Johnny Cash, Gene Autry, and all the other great musical minds of bygone decades (that my grandfather, who grew up on a farm in Iowa, raised me on, lest you understandably point out that being from a city in makes me an imposter myself). Instead, he’s looked to a new generation of country artists whose world revolves around partying, getting drunk & enjoying it, driving like driving makes you special, and- well, actually, there isn’t the stupid sexualization there is in a lot of bro-country. I’ll give him that. Good for you, Waylon. This is not a sound that works for him. I don’t believe for a damn second that he has “a little outlaw in” him. But this stuff is tripe even in the hands of people who can pull it off. It’s the kind of unlistenable dreck that makes me weep for the state of country music. There’s no pain, no pathos, nothing to make me care about the artists involved. But I guess "no pathos" is what country is now, since that's the sound the unconvincing imitators are going to.
Go ahead. Screw it up. I’m not going to the mat for the “cultural integrity of country music,” or whatever, if this is the state it’s in.
(0, by the way, and I have some thinking to do about whether it goes to the bottom of my list or just close.)
tl;dr *throws rotten tomato*
I get really territorial and patriotic about country music. Not even sure why - I do concede that there are meatheaded American idiots doing far more damage to the genre than well-intentioned European imposters who think southern accents make them sound "artsy." Maybe it’s just that it’s one of the few things I get to say are “my country’s culture.” What else do we have besides it? Corn? Anyway, I digress.
2014's travesty of country pisses me off, and when I heard Waylon was going to Eurovision again, I realized that I was going to have to spend a full Eurovision season qualifying "this is going to be my worst entry of the year" with "except Waylon." When Germany came out with their entry, it was really difficult for me to say "this is going to be my worst entry of the year, and yes, that does include Waylon." My heart sank as I tried to gird myself for another round of miserabilism in country burlesque when Waylon has spent roughly zero seconds living the life that makes the misery of country something I feel passion and sympathy for.What I got instead was different. And worse. But mostly different.
When I first heard “Donkey” by Jerrod Niemann, a smash country hit in recent years, my first response was “oh no, this must be how we’re perceived abroad.” And what I got from Waylon was vindication. In order to make himself look and sound “authentic” this time around, he’s not trying to imitate Glen Campbell, Johnny Cash, Gene Autry, and all the other great musical minds of bygone decades (that my grandfather, who grew up on a farm in Iowa, raised me on, lest you understandably point out that being from a city in
makes me an imposter myself). Instead, he’s looked to a new generation of country artists whose world revolves around partying, getting drunk & enjoying it, driving like driving makes you special, and- well, actually, there isn’t the stupid sexualization there is in a lot of bro-country. I’ll give him that. Good for you, Waylon. This is not a sound that works for him. I don’t believe for a damn second that he has “a little outlaw in” him. But this stuff is tripe even in the hands of people who can pull it off. It’s the kind of unlistenable dreck that makes me weep for the state of country music. There’s no pain, no pathos, nothing to make me care about the artists involved. But I guess "no pathos" is what country is now, since that's the sound the unconvincing imitators are going to.Go ahead. Screw it up. I’m not going to the mat for the “cultural integrity of country music,” or whatever, if this is the state it’s in.
(0, by the way, and I have some thinking to do about whether it goes to the bottom of my list or just close.)
tl;dr *throws rotten tomato*
so far it's the most diverse year I can remember recently. I think Salvador's biggest impact was in the use of national languages and more diverse and risky styles of songs imo
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