Where Were You:

Country Music 2000-2009

In the rockcrit community, mainstream country music remains the least esteemed of genres. Perhaps only excepting the rock-friendly Outlaw movement of the mid 70s, the kind of country music that sells is typically only noticed by critics either when making a cheap regional joke or penning a screed about the vacuous listening habits of the larger American populace.

In many ways, the past decade only served to worsen the tension between the chattering classes and country. More than ever, Nashville came to be seen by casual observers (sometimes rightly) as a blatantly propagandistic arm of the Republican party, thanks in no small part to the cottage industry of Persian Gulf calls-to-arms and family values testimonials that blossomed in Music City in the aftermath of 9/11. However, there were plenty of dissidents and nuanced thinkers amongst all the single-minded red-state rabble-rousers, some of whom were acknowledged (the Dixie Chicks, Alan Jackson) and some of whom were not (Toby Keith?).

More important for country’s survival in the greater pop marketplace, the decade also witnessed an encouraging blurring of boundaries in several places, from the crossover success of talent competition winners (Carrie Underwood) and teen sensations (Taylor Swift) to the commercially viable leaps into country made by veteran rock and pop stars like Jon Bon Jovi, Darius Rucker, and Jewel. As these and other artists continue to elbow their way into the broader pop discussion, we can only hope that more of our cultural gatekeepers will take notice.

– Thomas Inskeep and Josh Love

Thomas
I suppose “right now” is as good a place to start as any. So...Taylor Swift?
 
Josh
She's definitely a pivotal artist of this decade, primarily for how she's managed to cross over into mainstream culture in a way I don't think any country artist has ever managed. Or really, it's not even that she's crossed over, she's just completely erased those boundaries. I'm sure most people still think of her as a "country" artist, but when you decide to listen to her music you're not making such a concerted statement that "I'm listening to country right now." I mean, she's pop, really. Does any of that make sense? 
 
Thomas
I couldn't agree with you more. She's crossed over bigger than Carrie Underwood, even, or maybe even Shania Twain, and she's done so without re-mixing her singles (not that they were super country in the first place).
 
Josh
That's a good point. And yeah, I had Shania (and Garth) in mind when I was thinking about Taylor, because they sold way more records and were clearly way bigger icons than Taylor will probably ever be, yet when they hit big it was presented as this whole narrative, like "country is cool" or "country has gone mainstream" or something. You know a hell of a lot more about those two than I do, but do you think I'm right about that? And HOW did Taylor do it? is it just that there's such a vacuum for pop stars right now?
 
Hmm, maybe it's just that she's locked into the teenage demo in a way I don't think any other country performer has ever managed. God, why didn't someone else think of doing that sooner?!
 
Thomas
Even those teenage country stars of years past (cf. Tanya Tucker) were never marketed to teens. Credit Facebook/Twitter/MySpace for that, in part. And I think you're right about Shania/Garth in the '90s - they were still country, even when Shania was hitting #2 with "You're Still the One," which sounded more soft-pop than anything else. Whereas Taylor's not SO country - winning VMAs and hosting SNL will do that to you.
 
Josh
Exactly, that's a huge part of it: the platforms that exist right now that don't carry those stigmas, like MySpace and Facebook. If Taylor had really started out as being synonymous with, say, CMT, I don't know that she could have escaped that ghetto, but MySpace is a great leveler. She wasn't tied down by some unhip tradition. One thing that's really funny though is that while I still don't think a young artist can break through in a major way if he or she is totally identified as "country," one of the big trends this decade was how older rock and pop artists have "gone country" as a way to salvage their careers.
 
Thomas
Oh god, do we have to talk about Bon Jovi now? It took me a while to forgive Jennifer Nettles for that song.
 
Josh
Haha, no, we definitely don't have to delve into that too much because I've steered clear of most of that "gone country" stuff myself, but it is an interesting decade-spanning trend. I don't know if you watch "30 Rock" but there was even an episode about it a few weeks ago.
 
Thomas
Yeah I saw that. I'll tell you there are two guys I don't resent for that kind of reverse crossover.
 
Josh
Darius Rucker!

Thomas
One is Kid Rock, because he didn't change himself at all; and, yes, the other is Rucker. Because I believe him and because – let’s be real – he makes a better country singer than he did a pop-rocker. I think it's amazing but also thrilling that he's up for the CMA for Male Vocalist this year, as a rookie. He fits the format nicely – frankly, he's always had a good voice, but it works better in a country idiom. "Don't Think I Don't Think About It" is a great single.
 
Josh
I'm glad you brought up Kid Rock too because I forgot about him but he's totally huge for this discussion. and you're right, it's not really that he changed to suit the trends but that the trends just happened to change to suit him. So how do we explain this trend of older artists going country? It's mostly because the country audience is more faithful with their pocketbooks, right?
 
Thomas
A decade ago, I'm not sure "All Summer Long" would've cut it country – but, really, he kind of IS the heir to Hank, Jr.'s legacy, isn't he? Bringing pot references back to the radio and all. And yeah, that's exactly it – Bon Jovi needed a hit, a revival, and frankly, country fans are very loyal. But not stupid, as Jessica Simpson discovered.
 
Josh
Country music in general gives you a lot more narrative freedom than pop-rock, so I can see the appeal from the artist's perspective.

Thomas
Another topic that strikes me is the fall of the female artist this decade. Until Carrie and Taylor, most of the big guns had really kinda fallen off; even Martina McBride's had a rough go of it lately. Reba McIntyre's the exception that proves the rule, I think (though her first half of the '00s wasn't full of many hits...). In terms of radio hits and record sales, I mean. If you look at the top 10 or 20 of the Billboard Country Singles chart most weeks, it's pretty much ALL male apart from Carrie, Taylor, and sometimes Jennifer Nettles. What's the last female artist to hit big apart from Taylor? Anyone?
 
Josh
So I guess the question is...where have all the women listeners gone? Roughly speaking the guys are more inclined to like the guys and the girls support the girls. I forgot who wrote about this (Chuck Klosterman, maybe?) but women certainly tend to be more intense as fans but also more fickle.
 
Thomas
Nope, you're wrong. The women love the guys – that's why every big male artist these days has some sort of sex appeal, save maybe for Zac Brown. If you look at the demos country radio pulls in, it's still heavily women 25-54. So the question becomes more, why are female listeners rejecting new female artists?
 
Josh
Right, because the guys aren't listening to them.
 
Thomas
Jessica Simpson didn't help. Sorry, I'll stop. She's just such an easy mark...
 
Josh
At least as far as veteran artists are concerned, I can definitely see why the guys would still be raking it in while the women struggle, and I think a lot of it is just the same thing that plagues aging actresses. Like you've indicated, so much of all entertainment is sex appeal and cool and whatever, and unfair as it is it's just a lot easier for a guy like Tim McGraw to still be exuding that than, I don't know, Lee Ann Womack.
 
Thomas
Exactly – and Womack's awfully close to falling off the major label-cliff like Patty Loveless and Trisha Yearwood and company.
 
Josh
Well, I guess over the course of the decade, just as the younger mainstream demo has become more accepting of a country artist like Taylor, perhaps more of country's younger core listeners have drifted into other genres. So let’s talk a bit about country and criticism. I think a handful of noteworthy critics have done some great work this decade as far as championing country music, but it still remains the last frontier in terms of critical respectability. I mean, is there any genre that has a harder time with pop and rock critics than country? I still don't think so.
 
Thomas
I couldn't agree more about criticism. First of all, there are almost no outlets, apart from the occasional blurb in Rolling Stone, or something Xgau chooses to cover – but then again, he can cover anything he'd like, for MSN.
 
Josh
The New York Times and Village Voice have sporadically done good things, but it's still very tough sledding. Unless it's alt-country of course, but we don't need to get into that. The big complaint I think people still have is that country is corny, but of course that's because the songs are actually about stuff. It's a lot easier to not be corny when your songs are about nothing.
 
Thomas
Exactly. Same criticism people have about emo – not that I’m defending emo...
 
Josh
Haha, that's a good point though! I know I wanted to touch on politics at some point in the chat too. I know country has had a long history of often being closely aligned with conservatism, but this decade still seems remarkable for the fervor and the rancor of that association.
 
Thomas
It's funny - I'm on the lists of a couple Nashville PR firms, and almost every week I get a couple of emails reminding me that some artist is going to appear as a guest on some show on Fox News. Usually it's some faded star of the '80s, but still. Suffice it to say the Oak Ridge Boys aren't appearing on MSNBC a lot.
 
Josh
Would you say that politics maybe helped cause country to lose some of the mainstream inroads made in the 90s with Garth and Shania?
 
Thomas
I think that may have played a small role, but the bigger issue was that hip-hop became the new pop. There's still a LOT of crossover going on - at the A/C chart.
 
Josh
Yeah I guess most listeners can compartmentalize the A/C pop-friendly stuff and the more rabble-rousing propaganda.
 
Thomas
And isn't it weird that the artist probably most immediately thought of at the intersection of country/politics this decade - Toby Keith – isn't really all THAT conservative? He's basically a Blue Dog Dem.
 
Josh
That's true, he's a special case. I just think he's way savvier than most.
 
Thomas
When the whole TK/Dixie Chicks thing broke back in – God, was it 2003? – I was firmly on the side of the Chicks. I still attest that the way radio immediately rejected them (I blame Clear Channel for a lot of that) is/was appalling. BUT, once their “fuck you country radio” album came out, my loyalties shifted. In part because I thought that it was a really shrill album. A very stupid move. Because the fans who embraced them for rejecting country fans/radio will not be there next time around.
 
Josh
They got above their raisin'! Well, it was a little sad that they apparently felt like they had to flee country and hide out in NPRland. The most defiant thing they could have done would have been to make a REALLY country album.
 
Thomas
Gotta admit, no format/genre has fans as loyal as country. I honestly think if they'd simply come back with a killer album a la Fly they would've eventually been forgiven. Country's base is soccer moms, women between twenty-five and forty-nine. They're not going to hold a strong political grudge. And frankly, I betcha a lot of 'em voted for Obama. But instead, the Chicks went and cried about it and said fuck you Nashville, El Lay loves us. Yes, they had every right to speak their minds, and I'm glad they did. Yes, they got wronged by the Nashville establishment, at least. But they turned around and responded just as badly.
 
Josh
Yeah, I feel like country listeners and artists and the industry in general are a good microcosm of the US as a whole in the sense that most of them are not real extreme politically, but the squeaky wheels get all the grease. I suppose the artists confused their audience with the industry.  I can understand them feeling like Nashville had let them down, but you're right that their listeners would have likely remained faithful.
 
Thomas
Speaking of the intersection of politics (or at least world affairs) and country, we haven't even touched Alan Jackson's 9/11 song. Which, in spite of the Iraq/Iran lines, I still find profoundly moving. I still remember seeing him debut that song at the CMAs. Wow. What a gut-check moment. And yeah, I know he's a big Bushie, etc., but he spent the '00s making music a lot better than he did in the '90s
 
Josh
Well, Alan Jackson is a smart guy too. He knew how well that line would appeal to his listeners. Again though, with country, we have the blessing and the curse of dealing with a genre where artists are just going to come out and say things upfront and not feel compelled to dress them up with fancy metaphors. We don't have to deal with so many “concept albums” about what's going on with the world, the artist will just come out and say it in plain language. And that's how you get things as deep and heartfelt as Jackson's song, but also how you get some of the more blatantly jingoistic crap we saw this decade. And that kind of thing is going to draw attention from the mainstream media, both good and bad.
 
Thomas
Oh god, like that horrid Darryl Worley post-9/11 record, “Have You Forgotten.” I don't think it was really 9/11 as much as pro-Iraq War. Mainstream media only seems to notice the extremes in country.
 
Josh
Right, and it became very easy to just associate all of Nashville with the Republican party just like a lot of conservatives associate Hollywood with the Dems. That’s country’s reputation for better or for worse in the minds of many Americans. With the way political media continues to become more and more polarized, and knowing country’s unrepentant penchant for straight-shooting, it’s unlikely that perception’s going to change much in the near future.