Friday, August 7, 2009
Hot Goss Kill Nashville Pop: Backward Is Forward for Country Music?
Posted by Steve Haruch on Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 10:10 AM
The Blount County Daily Times reports a new "movement" around town: Kill Nashville Pop. I know what you're thinking: "Oh noes! I like Heypenny!" Well, they're not talking about that kind of Nashville pop, they're talking about pop country. They want to kill Taylor Swift and Kenny Chesney. Or not!
" 'We're not an organization that goes out and bashes other people about their music,' acclaimed Nashville songwriter Larry Shell told The Daily Times this week."
Well, that's kind of disappointing, really. I mean, if you're gonna call your movement Kill Nashville Pop, shouldn't you want to, y'know, kill Nashville pop? I guess this is just that Southern "bless their hearts" politesse. Or not! "I want to be clear -- as far as young people today making music out of Nashville, we have no problem with it in the end," Shell says. Awfully non-confrontational from a guy whose movement has a pretty confrontational name.
So if they don't want to kill Nashville pop, what does Kill Nashville Pop want to do? Time-travel. Shell: "My biggest thing, going back to another time here, is that Nashville as the home of country music has some sort of responsibility to remain the home of country music and should create, manufacture, produce and release a certain amount of country music -- and they don't, because they follow whatever trend is out there."
I remember reading an interview with Loretta Lynn, around the time of Van Lear Rose, where she said--and this was kind of a surprise to me, since I figured she'd be all old-school about it--she was happy that country had gotten more pop, and that newer artists had "gotten us off hay bales" or something to that effect. In other words: Country music, like any genre, had to progress, and trying to keep it frozen in some kind of hick mythology was not doing anyone any favors.
The flip side of that argument is that country music can progress without turning into shitty mall-pop. And that's where it starts to resemble the whole debate over what it means to be "truly" punk anymore, or metal, or indie rock, or hip-hop or whatever. But if they just want a place for "real" country music, why don't the good people of KNP just say so?
"I've had a few people say, 'Why did you title it Kill Nashville Pop?' Well, No. 1, I like that phrase, and No. 2, nobody would notice it if we called it 'I Love Country Music.' "
Guess he's got a point there.
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Comments (6)
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Larry wrote, along with Larry Cordle, a song you might remember from awhile back, "Murder on Music Row." Alan Jackson made it famous.
Horrible font choice for your sticker, Larry.
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