Country Music History

 

Today I was able to work from home because I had an appointment in the afternoon. It was a very cold day, but I bundled up and went for a walk at lunchtime. Because I was so bundled up, I had no peripheral vision, so when a creature started making angry sounds at me, I had to turn my head really far to see what it was. It was a squirrel that was angrily chittering at me for no obvious reason - I was walking at a brisk pace and was well past it. I was annoyed and wished the hawk we see from our window would have it for lunch, but then I felt a little bad - we're all just out here doing the best we can. The squirrel is struggling to survive in the bitter cold as much as the hawk is. But why it was being so mouthy to me is still a mystery.

Tiffy mentioned to Travalon, who loves Ken Burns documentaries, that the one on country music is really good, so Travalon has been watching it the last couple of days. (I always think of a scene on Family Guy where Peter sits in front of the TV, which is showing "Ken Burns' Street Signs, Part Four: Yield," and he says, "I don't know, maybe you had to watch the first three to get this one. I'm totally lost.") As Travalon has been watching this documentary, and I have been half-watching it, I realize that I prefer the really raw, old music, like the western music influenced by cowboys and Mexican music, and the southern music that sounds like it came right from Scotland and Ireland. Apparently there was an actual moment when they created something called "The Nashville Sound," and that's when country music began to suck. Another thing that struck me is that the older artists came from desperately poor backgrounds and were often intimately acquainted with death from a young age; for example, as a child, Johnny Cash watched his brother drown. Maybe that's why their music seems so much more immediate and plaintive. The modern music that comes from a similar background then wouldn't be modern country, created by spoiled, middle-class white people with little proximity to death, but hip hop, because those people have seen death up close. Maybe when your own hold on life seems more tenuous, you are a better artist. Of course, not all hip hop is good. A prime example of terrible hip hop is Post Malone, who is - of course - a spoiled, rich white boy whose father works in the music industry. Hey, maybe this is why all Baroque music is good, because back in those days a person saw tons of death by the time they were old enough to write music. They understood that life is ephemeral, and so they wrote music to outlast themselves.

Famous Hat