Why I Listen to Rock and Country Music
I get a lot of shit for listening to country music. A lot. You’re probably trash talking me in your head right now.
Get it all out, I can wait.
In my opinion, popular music today is getting crappier and crappier. By “popular” I mean the majority of top singles on iTunes and almost everything on the Top 40 charts. Maybe I’m just getting old, but stay with me on this one. I have absolutely nothing against rap, pop or any other genre. I actually love Jazz music, too. The problem I have is: the lyrics and message of the songs are absolutely ridiculous. They don’t make any sense! There is no effort behind it.
I used to be a huge rap fan because I loved the poetry behind it. Artists like Jay-Z could tell a story that would have you mesmerized and kept your attention throughout the song. Today’s rap music is nothing but an attempt to see how many times you can rhyme a single word together while telling a story that absolutely no one can even relate to or that are complete gibberish. I don’t understand what people see in this music? Why can’t they look beyond the beat and the nonsense chorus and listen to the most important component of a song: the lyrics.
Let me state that again because I seem to be among the minority on this one. The most important component of a song to me is the lyrics. That’s why I follow such awesome bands like Jimmy Eat World, Linkin Park, 30 Seconds to Mars, Dierks Bentley and Josh Turner to name a few. Music is meant to be an expression of yourself. How can you identify with a song like “I Got a Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas who just say the same thing over and over again. There is no creativity there! There is no message, no story, no point!
Both rock and country music provide that (for the most part, anyway). On a consistent basis I can find music in these genres where I can relate my life experiences and my thoughts with. Why isn’t that important to people anymore? And while I’m thinking about it let me put to rest all of the country hate you’re thinking right now.
Country music describes all of the things I love in my life: my family, my wife, my friends, sports, drinking and God. Who can’t relate to that? Well, I’ll give you the God thing. That’s not for everyone. The point of this post isn’t to get you to run to iTunes and download the latest Kenny Chesney CD. I’ll save that for another post 
What I’m encouraging you all to do is to make musicians work harder. Support and bring back the bands that actually try to produce good music. Stop supporting the unimaginative nonsense that has rapidly transformed so much of the industry into the crap that it is today.
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