But seriously, folks, I've gotten hooked of late on a news/political website called No More Mr. Nice Blog. Hosted and written by the charmingly abbreviated Steve M, who seems to be a weepy old bolshie like moi, it's consistently entertaining and thought provoking, and I recommend it highly in today's troubling times.
More to the point, Mr. M had this to say in a recent piece making sport of a conservative pundit at the NY Times who thinks the Republicans are winning the wider culture wars because there are a couple of hit western shows on teevee at the moment. M saves his larger thesis for the conclusion. To wit:
...As for music, country might be thriving because it continues to embrace satisfyingly basic pop song structures, at a time when hip-hop rarely does and there's no energy left in rock apart from eccentric acts like Geese and Angine de Poitrine, or abrasive, laryngitis-inducing metal. Noah Kahan, Taylor Swift, and Olivia Rodrigo write old-fashioned songs, and they're hugely popular (and all politically left-leaning). Maybe verse-chorus-verse songs are what Americans want, not social conservatism
And you know what -- I think he's onto something there. In any case, you can read the whole piece over at the link above.
Insert today's title here. 😎
10 comments:
My Go to sites:
https://digbysblog.net/ Lefty blog. Brings in many contributors
https://www.uncensoredobjection.com/ Lawyer Mitch Jackson. Analytical Dissection of the issues at hand. Substack is great
And I think the music comment is correct. Commercial Country is a vast wasteland of bros uninspired horse hockey.
Read both articles - they are equally flawed to me -. I don't feel like debating this but I rest on my view. As to the end of the NYT article you don't have to be red(neck) to love country music - "Waylon, Willie and the Boys..." 😉
Digby's one of my heroes. 😎
for news and views with a wider range than the mainstream corporate media i go to
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/ and
https://www.theguardian.com/us
i consider the drudge report to be quasi-frenemy territory which i reconnoitre
- and atrios at eschaton is worth a look, though he is not trying to be a news aggregator, just a grumbler
I’ve been a regular at Eschaton for close to two decades. How scary is that? 😎
I discovered the Lawyers Guns and Money blog about a year ago and I read it religiously. Very intelligent writers, most of them lawyers, who don't sugarcoat the shit that's going on in this insane country.
Rob: I played in many a country and bluegrass band in the 70's and 80's. I LOVE country music. But I feel 90% now completely formula schlock. Guys like Rayland Baxter are whom I follow.....humor, pop sensibility. I lean original countrypolitan; Hank Williams, etc. Maybe I threw out baby with the bathwater....
BAF -: LG&M interesting site. Thanks, rob
thank god for Sturgill & JBS
Dave, completely understand - I'm a a Marty Stuart guy who is holding a candle in the dark. I don't know what you think of Prine but there was something country in him.
As to the rest pretty much a deaf ear.
Post a Comment