Fast Ryde – “Make It Rain”

Wow. You make some pretty huge statements in this piece, but I can’t say I argue with any of them.

Here at my office I played Fast Ryde’s “That Thang” to make my co-workers laugh. And it worked!

The title “Make It Rain” reminded me of Tom Waits, but assuming either of those two guys are musically versed enough to know any of his work would be giving them far too much credit.

well said, Jim. hopefully this will be their last single before Borchetta pulls the plug.

But wait! You haven’t heard their tribute to the military, “Crank That (Soulja Boy).”

Top 40 country radio has targeted and hooked an audience that loves crappy music! As long as these loyal radio listeners want sonic turds, the labels will be more than happy to keep polishing new ones for them both from new and established artists.

The comments about all of the styles lumped into the country music realm these days being mostly boring is spot on. I’m always on the lookout for artists that sound fresh and different from the vast majority of what’s out there, and that’s why I like Jypsi, The Tejas Brothers, and The Belleville Outfit because they don’t sound like any other current act.

“Creative exploration” seems to be the last thing Top 40 mainstream country radio programmers are seeking these days. They are risk averse and play it safe with sound alike artists. Rather than seeking to expand their listener base with a broader play list, they are just trying to keep the listeners they have with music that’s tested well in focus groups within the target demographic, i.e. the same old same old. ZZZZZZzzzzzzz……..

@JD: Wow, enamored much by the convenience of new media? Yes, what’s the point in reviewing anything if you can’t provide an immediate streaming version of it?

There is no available stream for this yet. We’ll have it for you as soon as possible. For now, check out YouTube.

Hey, I liked the way Jim used Fast Ryde as a means to jump into a very well thought out discussion on the overall state of both country radio and country music in general with this article. Considering the source I really didn’t want to hear this song, so its absence here was fine by me.

Well said Jim. It is so hard to take many of the “artists” seriously today because it is more about personality and image than it is about art and creativity. And unfortunately Country Radio and the Labels have fallen into the trap of trying to appease one audience of listener who cares more about what Taylor Swift ate for breakfast than whether she can sing on key. They have turned the genre into nothing more than a popularity contest with American Idol and Reality TV as its business model. In other words, they are looking for a person to cast in a role as the artist they are looking for to play that role to bring in new listeners. And just how loyal are these new listeners that are being brought in to Country Music? They’re not. They’re loyal to their “favorite” artist, not the genre. And the industry will pay the price eventually. Right now I see mainstream Country Music as nothing more than a Reality TV show and popularity contest with everybody copying whatever works, making everybody and everything look and sound the same (at least the new artists)…and the Industry goes about acting like its business as usual. So the only thing the Industry has created is a big mess…and it’s going to have to be cleaned up eventually by letting artists create themselves from the Bottom Up rather than the Top Down Industry created artists approach they are using now…and letting artists who have talent and love music and creativity have more control of their musical careers, and taking it away from the corporate execs who obviously don’t care about music or creativity. They care about the bottom line and quarterly profits, and trying to reach a wider fanbase that doesn’t necessarily even care about Country Music. Only that their “favorite” singer happens to be singing in that genre at the moment, and the Country Radio station just so happens to be playing it. And much like American Idol it’s all about voting, even if the votes don’t really mean anything since the winners have already been chosen for us. To me it’s obvious what the industry is doing…bringing in a wider audience and marketing exclusively to that audience to see to it they become hooked on Country Music. Unfortunately, they’re basically using the female artists as pawns to bring in that audience, and then building the male artists fanbases since they get all the radio play anyway. The problem is, they are also leaving out a huge audience in the process, and don’t understand that the audience they are bringing in aren’t ever going to be hooked on Country music…they’re more hooked on personality and image that parades as Country Music. And of course, artistry and music is suffering as a result.
As for this song…it will probably go number 1. Then again, so has practically every Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift song. That right there shows you the market and credibility of today’s Country Music (and the charts). LOL
Just my opinion of course.

Like Rick,I don’t need to hear the song to agree with the premise of the article.I’ve been disappointed that in the last 10 years of such extreme political differences in this country,there have been so few middle-of-the-road, or left wing songs released on any genre.The the hard right wing songs were very cliche’d.When you add to that lack a seeming dearth of new ideas from new songwriters,you have the blandness we hear now.
Songs don’t need to be politically biased to be good,but the lack of conflict within the songs is a large part of the problem.Hard times,love gone wrong,bad luck,chemical self-destruction.These were themes that resonated in all genres of music until recently.
I’m tired of love songs.

Lots of commentary here, and some some opinions thats makes sense. Let’s look at the facts:

1) Band got signed
2) The single has been worked at radio with some mild success in terms of spins
3) Most stations have either lowered or dropped spins all together
4) Label will try another single at radio
5) If it doesn’t get picked up by radio, they will be done

Move on….

I hardly think this song will ‘be the end of’ Fast Ryde.

That kind of negative thinking will get us nowhere.

Wow, I was reading the comments and I thought everybody was going to put these kids down. Glad two people who aren’t hacks showed up before me.

Judging by their picture, comparing/contrasting it by the level of sheer boring that is your writing, my guess is that maybe one of them picked on you in high school.

I just listened to some of the other ones you were bashing because of their titles, and maybe it’s just because I find you to be a poor judge, I found it clever, and I thought Riding Dirty and Top Down are hit songs. Maybe even Make It Rain.

Keep on writing about it Jim, while others are out there making it happen.

THis isn’t bad, I don’t know why you’d thrash it so much. Sure it’s not a masterpeice, but the harmonies alone make it worth while. I hated “That Thang” that doesn’t mean I will hold that song against them for their whole career. and as somebody pointed out Justin Moore just did the same thing. and he’s on a sister lable, coincedence?