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Modern "Country"

bigboy_78

bigboy_78

Jun 1, 2011
1,362
2,089
Coraki, Australia
#1
I’ve just somehow ended up in a band playing modern country (and classic rock, apparently there are no guitar players who can gig without playing a Santana tune…..). Country isn’t real big in my area, but a young fella just moved into my town from the bush and he is country to the bone…anyway.

I had a look on youtube, and from I can tell Modern Country is what we used to call “soft-rock”, but with a banjo hidden in the mix to make it country. Anybody doing the modern Nashville tunes without a banjo/fiddle/steel player. It’d just be rock music, eh?

The artists I had a listen to were Florida Georgia Line, Brantley Gilbert, Blake Shelton, some other dude singing about jack-up trucks and hot girls.
Is this what country fans are into these days? Do they still want Alan Jackson and Garth Brooks? I really dig the new stuff, some great party tunes.
 
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#7
buldog5151bass said:
I'm in a band that does a lot of modern country. Just me, drums, guitar, and vocalist playing some sax/flute/acoustic. I spend as much time playing unison lines with the guitar as some metal tunes. It's rock with a black hat.
Click to expand...

You have a flautist in your modern country band? Are you sure? :D

Yeah, I think modern country is just pop rock with some twang and redneck subject matter. (And that's not a derisive comment toward the musicians or rednecks...I'm just sayin'.)

I'm really more of an alt-country guy.
 
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#11
One branch of country is heavy in harmony vocals, like Lady Antebellum, The Band Perry, etc... That's where my band is focusing, as I've got great male and female leads, with two more males than can do lead too.

I enjoy it, because it is not as tired as 80s pop/rock, the lyrics are not all about drugs and sex, and there are just a lot of fun songs.

Not for everyone for sure, but I get a kick out of it. Nothing like girls doing their Daisy Duke impression on the dance floor...

It is also what the bar bands pay for around here, although classic rock is still kicking too. Not much call for old country, unless it is mixed in.

Local band was trying to start up last winter on "nothing as new as Garth Brooks". They are still trying to form and find gigs.
 
#12
I agree. Modern country has felt like stylized pop music for the last 10 years.
Another segment is just rock n roll with a little country flair. Ie Keith urban. Have you ever been to one of his concerts. Rock star guitar solos, long hair etc.

This is the part in the conversation where somebody says something about how the Eagles were classic rock, until the 80s and 90s when country music started sounding like the eagles and other classic rock bands.

Seems like a pattern.

So in ten years from now, will country music sound like today's rock n roll?
 
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#14
I've never disliked a style of music more than modern country. Lyrically, it's like musical mad libs, only with a set list of approved words. "Girl" "Truck" "Pickup" "Listening to the Radio" "Listening to the radio with my girl in my pickup truck." It's completely uninspired garbage. I was watching the Tonight Show a few months back and some male country singer was on (it literally doesn't matter which one it was) and I turned to my girlfriend and said "I bet the first words out of his mouth are the above mentioned words." The first line of the song "It's just a beat up truck..."

There are plenty of other formulaic musical styles out there, but I really think that modern country is one of the worst.
 
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#15
Classic Rock is tired, the pubs don’t want it, the patrons tolerate it, but good-luck convincing any guitarists to play pop-tunes. This modern country thing is gold. 3 (and a bit) chords, Classic Rock style arrangements, plenty of guitar solo wankery, but still poppy enough for girls to dance to. No-one around here is playing it. Not sure if its because no-one wants it, or if its just because of the “country music” stigma for a serious musician. LOL “Not playing country, better do another SRV cover……

I’m off to buy a pair of jeans a size smaller than comfortable and get my country on. Yeeee-haw.
 
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#16
I play in a band doing this sort of stuff.
You can do it without fiddle/pedal steel/banjo. ... Just be sure the (rock) guitarist can pull off some County licks.
We struggled to get a regular gig for a while, but once we found the right venue.... All the punters know the words and we have a fortnightly gig there.
It is a stock standard formula tho.
Intro-v-Chorus-intro-v-ch-Solo-m8-ch x 2 .... All do the same thing. Que se ra
 
#17
Yeah I’m thinking once we find the right venue, there’s a crowd for it. I live “in the country”, not outback, but there’s enough cowboys around that I think we could find an audience. I’m always surprised by the complete absence of country bands around here.
 
#20
I always assumed Australian country fans were into Adam Brand, Keith Urban etc.
I don't listen to country because I think it objectively sucks. I've been called wrong before though, incorrectly of course.
 

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