That’s the question that sometimes compels me to tune into a local country station to study up on what the average mainstream music listener in 2012 conceives of as ‘country music.’
More often than not, I end up surprised, reminded of why I stopped listening to country radio some time ago and haven’t bothered reviewing any singles since last April. (Basically, I got tired of being disappointed all the time and decided to focus more of my attention on things that don’t drive me crazy.)
Now, my friend Trailer at Farce the Music has done the impossible – he made commercial country radio tolerable again! – by turning the format’s mediocrity and abuse of familiar calling cards into a bingo game, which you can find here. Never one to turn down a good game, I sat down in front of the radio with my printout to gauge how well Trailer’s joke actually summarizes the current state of country radio.
And the result?
After getting my first bingo within 20 minutes, it took less than 10 more to rack up two additional bingos and get within spitting distance of a full blackout:
One song by Justin Moore and I would have been set.
Most of the tracks I heard were recurrents. I’d like to say the picture is brighter looking ahead, but within hours of completing this exercise, I received Mediabase’s list of this week’s most-added songs at radio. Up at the top, with twice as many adds as most anything else, I found
RASCAL FLATTS/Banjo (Big Machine) 69
JANA KRAMER/Why Ya Wanna (Elektra/WAR) 48
To summarize: the most disingenuously-titled song ever by a Nashville-based boy band, followed by a debut country single from an actress on the CW show “One Tree Hill.” Both doing quite well.
Oh, so that’s what I’ll miss out on by spending my listening hours with new music from The Little Willies, Gretchen Peters, and Darrell Scott. Oh well.
I quit voluntarily listening to local country stations years ago, with the exception of the oldies station. Hubby & I have a sad affection for BBQ restaurants, though, so we’re subjected to this crap on a regular basis–even from Cooper’s, which is in a town with an excellent Americana station. These cards might make it somewhat bearable, but would hurt my tune-it-out practice.
The bingo card is both hilarious and distressing! In Chicago we have one major station that pretty much sounds like what you describe. I’m always on the prowl for good, original stuff and the Little Willies definitely did it for me! The Pistol Annies were a pleasant surprise on this front with a Nashville darling leading the way, but playing really non-cliche’d music.
Unfortunately the music’s history points to the trend of familiar themes throughout its development. It might just be part of the whole package you know?
I’m trying to think of a song that mentions both a bikini and Jesus. I’m sure there’s one on the new Luke Bryan album, but that would mean possibly hearing “Country Girl Shake It for Me” again. It’s not worth the risk.
The station I work for must be much better than what most of you have. In two hours I couldn’t get any bingos. Of course, it helps that we have a pretty even mix of new and old stuff.
All is not lost! On January 9th I stopped in the cool roadside attraction “Casa De Fruta” on Highway 152 in Hollister (east of Gilroy, CA) and “Takin’ Pills” was playing on the local “Hot Country” radio station they were tuned to! If that song came on LA’s lone Top 40 country station I think I might have fainted! (lol)
LA’s station KKGO (“Go Country”) does have a 2 hour “classic country” show on Sunday mornings from 8 to 10 AM that I ilke to listen to. The show features mostly 80′s to mid 90′s country hits but can pop in classics from the 50′s through the 70′s to add variety. Sometimes I will leave it on after 10 AM and I can normally only make it through a couple of songs before I’m compelled to turn it off. I don’t mind The Band Perry or Zac Brown, but as soon as Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts, or Taylor Swift comes on its over. So yes, the current state of Top 40 mainstream country radio is still pathetic and I’m not expecting big changes for the better any time soon. It still solidly deserves the title “AirHead Country Radio”. Still just pathetic…