a deeper look into why i can't stand most country music which is completely arbitrary except for the fact that when i hear it i start thinking about how i hate it and since i have a master's in music i should be allowed to hate it. i also feel this way about most mariachi music.

Okay, so I’m going to try to clarify my country statements yesterday.  These opinions are just that - opinions.  Not even well thought out ones, just what my brain does when I hear country music.  So no getting offended.

I don’t think I can really articulate what exactly triggers my gag reflex (literally.  GAG).  Especially because there is music some categorize as country that doesn’t trigger it.  I try to call it Americana - real folk music.  GOOD fiddle.  A lot of Bluegrass is too glossy and too fast, but real fiddle is fantastic.  Case in point - I loved the music in O Brother, Where Art Thou?.  Is that called folk?  Nickel Creek - Canadian fiddlin’ - it all flowed from the Celtic tradition, mixed with American spirituals - it’s actual music.  Sugarland really sounds like it comes from that place and that’s why I can listen to it.  Even like it.  Ryan Adams too… although I think what helps with his is that he doesn’t have an affected accent.  I mean it, the accent… it’s like they are exploiting it.  I had a friend in college who was from Oklahoma with the thickest accent I’ve ever heard, and was a voice major.  When he sang, I barely if ever heard it.  Lyle Lovett is without reservation a country artist, but I think he’s great.  A wonderful songwriter - and I hear his amazing voice and not just an accent that sounds like it’s trying too hard.

What makes me sick is formulaic music in any genre.  People who aren’t actually very good musicians and take the template of the typical pop form and add their own insipid lyrics and 3 chords.  I hate it in pop music, and add a twang and glossy instrumentals that are almost exactly like every other song that’s being churned out?  *nuuuuuuuBLEGH!!!!*  It’s not country, but almost every song the Smashing Pumpkins wrote that wasn’t a single (their singles were really creative and great) sound completely alike and after 2 or 3 my head hurts.  A lot.

I guess what I’m saying is I dislike unoriginal music, and most popular country music sounds completely unoriginal to me.  Does that make any sense?

Now, I am human I do have some guilty pleasures… I’ll save those for another day.