Actually the metal analogy works kind of if we only talk about hair metal. By the mid 90 you had a few really good hair metal bands and the rest were shit. (taken from the Metal Evoluton ep Nu Metal). Basically generas that don't change get stagnate.
Untitled Power Rangers StoryMy previous statements kind of seem like I'm saying country isn't stagnant.
It is. There're still popular artists like George Strait and my secret girlfriend <3 Dolly Parton that are still great, but the majority of the current popular artists sound exactly same. Everyone's either a clone of Toby Keith (who I dislike) or Taylor Swift (who I also dislike).
I think it's largely because Nashville is trying to appeal to a younger demographic. Country has normally been targeted to 25 year olds and up. It has lost a lot of the subtlety that it once had.
EDIT: Wait? Garth Brooks started the fundamentalist trend? The hell he didn't; the song I think you're thinking of (We Shall Be Free) is for gay equality and how it isn't sin. He won a GLAAD award for it and gladly accepted it.
edited 19th Jan '12 10:52:36 AM by Completion
Right sorry I was thinking of the twat know as Toby Keith, garth Brooks started that "it's cool to be a redneck" stuff. I'm not talking "dress in buttondowns, wear a stetson, and cowboy boots thing" ( I'm cool with that it can actually look really badass), but the stuff the now gives us songs like "hicktown" -shivers-
Untitled Power Rangers Story
I always find Johnny Cash to be a nice counter-example. Sure, he was probably right-wing on a lot of issues, and often sang about Christianity, but he wasn't quick to pass judgment on those who didn't share his world-view: he was friends with Bob Dylan, for instance, and in "Man In Black", he expressed his mourning for 'the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold'. There's also "Don't Take Your Guns To Town", which teaches us the Aesop that it's a bad idea to be carrying around guns everywhere - present-day U.S. conservatives would probably call him an 'OBAMA-FASCIST WHO IS TRYING TO TAKE AWAY THE PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS!' for that. And then there's "Highway Patrolman", about a man who 'works for the state' (he's a police officer) and is mentioned to be 'doing an honest job'. That's not something you'll hear from the current, violently anti-government U.S. conservatives, either.
He represents the gentle kind of conservatism that I, a Social Democrat in a European country, can actually sympathise with on some counts.
edited 19th Jan '12 2:03:44 PM by MidnightRambler
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Apologies for going off-topic here, but... how in the world is Heavy Metal "stagnant"?
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