111–120 of 151 posts
Off-topic: I never understood why native English speakers use Sahara and desert and think they are different things. Sometimes they even say "Sahara desert".
American country music has been heavily influenced by African Americans since the beginning (often without recognition, though that's starting to change.) The banjo is based on African instruments, and many musicians like Huddie Ledbetter, Elizabeth Cotten, Mississippi John Hurt, Arnold Shultz, and DeFord Bailey helped shape the genre. It's great to see this popularity in Africa--in a weird way, it's almost like comi…
I feel pretty strongly that with music - disparate influences makes it better. Or maybe I just say that because I like detroit techno...
American country music buff here. Until recently Ghanaian music was mostly about the lyrics—it was impossible to make music that didn’t have great lyrics about love, life, work, religion, you name it. Music was a great instructor in traditional values. For lovers of the old music American country music fits right in since it’s probably the only(?) music export from the US that doesn't glorify crime, debauchery, all t…
A fantastic observation, and a sad indictment on modern American culture.
Such music has a long history. For instance Mozart's "Leck mich im Arsch" from 1782 [1]. The title is German for "Lick me in the ass". Or Bach's cantata "Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht" (German for "Be still, stop chattering") which glorifies addiction to coffee [2]. (Turn on closed captioning to see an English translation).
I would wager that this came about as a result of the Internet. I can't imagine some record company deciding Africans would like country music and investing there. No the interest started first and then it pulled the record companies along. Next question is when will country music stars start touring there?
The second and third tweets in that thread refute that hypothesis.
But that's OK because I learned something today. Apparently the Internet didn't have much influence over the popularity of country music worldwide.
A lot of people don't really know it, but American country music is the most commercially successful music genre worldwide and is popular in places such as southeast Asia, Mongolia, sub Saharan Africa, even India and Latin america. Europeans and city dwelling Americans love to shit on it but the world loves it, probably because it's easy to relate to lyrically and uses pleasant melodies and simple to follow rhythms.…
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Or shooting a man in Reno, just to watch him die.
Everyone always brings this song up. It's very clear that Cash is playing a character of a foolish and almost-repentant criminal in the song; traditional American music records were half morality plays on rogues and half religious pleas for virtue. It is an unfair comparison to modern hip-hop, which is primarily warrior bragodoccio. Go to WorldStar if you want to see.
I’d hope country fans also wouldn’t want their genre being judged solely by what’s being churned on the radio.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Everyone always brings this song up. It's very clear that Cash is playing a character of a foolish and almost-repentant criminal in the song; traditional American music records were half morality plays on rogues and half religious pleas for virtue. It is an unfair comparison to modern hip-hop, which is primarily warrior bragodoccio. Go to WorldStar if you want to see.
Don't see what the difference is between Cash and Gang Starr's Just to get a Rep. Here's where it ends up, that's the story and that's the song. There's some bragodoccio in it, both Cash and Gang Starr. Just to get a Rep is a morality play.
As a matter of fact, I'll start. Here's "Holy Ghost" by Future, one of the most popular artists alive right now:
> Feeling like a cigarette boat, all this water on me
> I was at my big truck, my wrist up, gettin' my dick sucked
> When I switch my wrist up, switch my car, switch my bitch up
> Every time I hit her, I broke her off then dismissed her
> I been counting this paper all day, I'm getting blisters
> Roadkill, every time I pop out in a new whip
> Gettin' you wacked, niggas ain't running off with my new drip
> Rolls hit, lights hit, platinum set, overkill
And here's Cash:
> When I was just a young boy, my mama told me son
> Always be a good boy, don't ever play with guns
> But I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die
> Now I hear that train a rollin', I hang my head and cry
Wow, so similar. You can really see how they're both speaking the same language overall and have the same effect on society and their listeners.
To be clear, I am sure that you can find nakedly self-indulgent and violent country music if you look hard for it. But you won't find it on the top of the country charts. You don't have to look hard at all to find outrageously vulgar, explicit, and criminal hip-hop. People need to stop pretending that Folsom Prison Blues holds the same place in culture that "Holy Ghost" and its ilk does because it tells the story of a man who shot someone.
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Everyone always brings this song up. It's very clear that Cash is playing a character of a foolish and almost-repentant criminal in the song; traditional American music records were half morality plays on rogues and half religious pleas for virtue. It is an unfair comparison to modern hip-hop, which is primarily warrior bragodoccio. Go to WorldStar if you want to see.
Hip hop isn’t all top 20 pop hits. I’d hope country fans also wouldn’t want their genre being judged solely by what’s being churned on the radio.
My main point is that the equivocation of Folsom Prison Blues with violent popular hip-hop today is ridiculous. If someone wants to compare it to Dance With the Devil or or The Story of OJ or Just to Get a Rep, that's fine, but that's not the context that people usually bring up FPB in. Violence and criminality in country music very rarely touches the rhapsodic and elevated status it achieves every week in popular hip-hop, and to pretend it does so often and that they're perfectly comparable is disingenuous.
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I upvoted you because I'm also skeptical about the object-level claim, but this is a little dramatic: > Also, as a city dweller, why do people like you constantly attack us about everything? That feeling of persecution is destroying us. Rural people can easily levy the same accusation in return.
Why is my comment more dramatic than saying city dwellers "love to shit on it"?
I have to admit that I did not consider that I would see a video of people in Africa line dancing to Old Crow Medicine Show. I love their style of bluegrass and to see it getting this level of exposure is great because you can see the people dancing and enjoying it.
This post made me very happy. It was blistering hot outside today and the only shade was all under my son's vehicle where I am doing some maintenance for him. Listening to those short takes in that thread took all the edge off of the day and was reinvigorating. I really enjoyed that and now I have my work cut out for me tracking down some of this music for another Spotify collection that I can share with my kids.