Country Time
Evolution
By: Matt Bjorke
Last updated July 16th , 2010

Recently Sugarland caused concern when they announced their next album – The Incredible Machine – would feature music that expanded their already expanded notion of what country music is.  The Zac Brown Band has been doing much of the same thing with their blend of country, roots rock, pop, folk, soul and reggae, but didn't get as much of a concerned audience.   

Reba McEntire, the 55 year-old singer who literally has been recording music for longer than this columnist has been alive, recently released a new single called "Turn On The Radio." While I think it's a nice blend of her sassy old school style with a modern, new school melodic style, many longtime Reba fans are calling it a 'debacle,' 'her worst song ever,' etc. 

Really? 

Shouldn't country music evolove? 

Shouldn't fans want their artists to expand on their sound?  

Shouldn't artists try to create something new instead of trying to recycle the same song or pair of songs over and over again?  

The answer is yes to all three of the questions because country music should evolve and fans should be understanding and accepting of the fact that the true artists – those in it for the love and not so much because they can do it/money – want to make the best music possible, even if they never return to the same 'theme' or melody again.

Country music is as familiar as a pair of jeans.  You know it's going to feature songs about, life, love, god, family and all the above but that doesn't mean it can't also have some new sounds behind it.
  
As a child of popular culture, I am all for expanding the genre I love and getting more and more fans to like it.  I'm that type of person, an inclusive person.

I also don't think every song needs to forever be 'three chords and the truth.'  It should be at least three chords and if it calls itself a country song, it should have a lyric that's relatable in some way.  

To me that's what makes a song country; the lyrics.  In fact, I think there are a lot of pop or pop-rock songs that could work in country music.  I even thought somebody could record Train's "Hey, Soul Sister" and make it a new country classic.  I just didn't expect it to be remixed for country radio with Train, a band who has always had country music influences, to be the band releasing it to radio.
  
Look, if an artist wants to evolve or the genre itself evolves without losing where it came from, why not let it happen?  Country music has routinely 'fixed' itself when it strayed too far from its roots and I think that it will do that again – if it isn't already – when the genre strays too far.
 
Mainstream country music 'ain't what it used to be' but the same thing can be said about the genre every 10 years or so.  Listen to an old Carter Family or Jimmie Rodgers song.  They sound NOTHING like what came out in the 60s which sounded different than the 70s, the 80s, the 90,s the 00's and now the '2010's.  Evolution and change is a fact of life and if by Sugarland, Zac Brown Band or Reba's evolution and incorporation of 'new' sounds helps the genre expand, I'm all for it and you should be too.

[Tags] Country

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