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I don't recall where I heard it, possibly on the radio, but I recall hearing somewhere a while back (maybe a month or two) that some rock musicians had gotten out of the "mainstream commercial" music business and gone back to "their roots in" country music "so that they could write and sing about issues that matter". For some reason, I flashed back to that comment this morning as I was getting into the shower.
And you know, there's really only one thing I can say:
"If you think rock music can't be about important issues, you just haven't been paying attention, boy."
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Nashville don't think that way. Admittedly, a lot of what they think is along the lines of opening a can of whoop-ass on anybody that messes with God's Country, forever and ever amen... but they do tend to actually think about it, too...
The only people in rock who are thinking about anything other than the next bling are the OLD guys, people like Bruce and Dylan and Henley who've long since paid their dues and can pretty much get away with whatever they want to. And even then some of them have gone off the deep end, witness Boston.
On the other hand, somebody took a big fat eraser a couple years ago and ran it down the line that separates Country from Southern Rock.... there's a lot of stuff played on country radio these days that's in 4/4 time, doesn't have a fiddle, does have synth and drums, and tends to draw attention from the pop chart...
Let's put it this way. If Jimmy Buffett, perennial thinking rocker that he is, felt like Nashville was a better place to record his latest than Hollyweird... well, you tell me.
Which reminds me, I wish I could be on Finnish time right now, because it's five o'clock there, and I could just skip work and head for Margaritaville.... :)
Sure, old rock thinks. But despite the rah-rah of the Red States, Nashville is not totally full of neobarbs either. And you show me a rocker who's still recording thinking music these days, and I'll show you somebody over 40. On the other hand, if you put all the meaning in all the pop and rock songs recorded by acts that started after 1990 in a cider press, you wouldn't have to wring a sponge out twice to soak it all up. And, yeah, there's some indie folk out there that's dripping with it.... but see if they get any airplay on Clear Channel... feh.
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I haven't heard a thing from Boston recently. What's up with them?
On the other hand, somebody took a big fat eraser a couple years ago and ran it down the line that separates Country from Southern Rock....
True. And I find it a hell of a lot more listenable, not least because you can actually hear the lyrics and they're not about dogs dying, wives leaving, and pickup trucks breaking down.
If Jimmy Buffett, perennial thinking rocker that he is...
For a thinking rocker, he sure has a lot of unthinking let's-get-drunk-and-screw fans.
And you show me a rocker who's still recording thinking music these days, and I'll show you somebody over 40.
Check out VNV Nation and Assemblage 23. Take, for example, "Assemblage 23's "Let me be your armor". For the first two verses, it sounds like a straightforward "Let me protect you, let me be your knight in shining armor" song ... until you listen carefully to the third verse and realize he's saying that the knight in shining armor who's going to protect you from all harm is going to stifle you and control every detail of your life.
Absolutely, no-one's going to argue that commercial Hollywood pop is anything but teenybopper pablum. The innovation is going on in the alternative scene, in industrial music and electronica. And they're thinking.
"This is your world. These are your people. You can live for yourself today, or help build a better future for everyone."
-- VNV Nation