The State Of Mainstream Country And Corporate-Run Radio

The Tennessean has an interesting article about George Jones calling into a radio station to argue with the host about the state of corporate-run radio. During the argument Jones cursed, which ended the argument. Jones later apologized. The interesting part is what Nancy Jones, George’s wife, had to say:

“You can drive from Nashville to Washington, D.C., and listen to different radio stations, and you’re going to hear the same 20 songs they are programmed to play on every station you switch to,” she said Tuesday afternoon. “It’s not just George. What’s wrong with playing Jim Lauderdale, or Nanci Griffith, or so many other people that sing great?”

Most radio stations and mass media operations these days conduct extensive tests on the music that is aired. The validity and methodology of those tests is, of course, sometimes questioned. While radio playlists once varied significantly from city to city, it is now unlikely that a station in Chicago will sound terribly different from a station in, say, Greenville, S.C. As is the case with modern rock or urban radio, veteran performers are seldom part of the equation.

“If there weren’t fans out there who want to hear it, George wouldn’t be on the road playing so many concerts,” Nancy Jones said. Concerts by other country artists including Haggard, Emmylou Harris and Hank Williams Jr. — none of whom is featured on country radio — typically outdraw many contemporary country radio favorites.

“I thought the airwaves belonged to the people,” Jones said. “I was only trying to point that out. They’ve got payola going on, and there are fans out there who want to hear good country music.”

I’d like to add an amen to the points she makes. If you head on over to Radio and Records to take a look at the playlists from different country stations around the nation, you’ll notice the the majority of stations play a lot of the same songs by the more well-know, mainstream artists. One of my favorite stations in Austin, 98.1 KVET, plays a lot of different kinds of country, ranging from Texas country, to the new stuff, to the old school country, and I think that’s the way it should be.

The Jones’ aren’t the only ones fed up with the current state of country music. The other night at a Gretchen Wilson concert, Blake Shelton came out to play and while talking to the crowd had this to say: “I don’t know about you, but I like that older stuff more than this new crap coming out.”

When The Bakersfield Californian asked Jack Ingram if today’s mainstream country was really country, or more pop/rock-oriented, he answered with:

My impression is that it’s just not comparable to what it used to be. It never will be. It’s never going to be as segregated … as it was, maybe, back in the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s. So people who yearn for that can just listen to those records, because you’re not going to find too many artists these days sounding retro. Country music, for me, has always been America’s music. Right now, more than ever, it’s a product of its influences.

I think it’s a pretty fair assessment that country music isn’t comparable to what it used to be, but I disagree with Ingram about finding artists these days who sound retro. They may be harder to find, but if you look in the right places, there are definitely plenty of them around. For instance, Moot Davis, whose CD I reviewed the other day.

How do you feel about today’s mainstream country? Do you prefer the mainstream country or or the lesser-known indie artists?