Another Rant From an Audio Engineer - Bubble Gum Country...Ew
Another Rant From an Audio Engineer - Bubble Gum Country...Ew
"Bubble Gum Country." Now, that is the perfect name for this sticky, chewy, over manufactured nutritionally bankrupt wad of nonsense. I mean, it really is the perfect name! Who doesn't enjoy chewing bubble gum? But if you find bubble gum like stuck to the bottom of your shoe, or under your chair when you go to pull it in, or on a park bench when you are about to sit down... you don’t want anything to do with bubble gum, right!?! Yeah, bubble gum country is basically that. If you happen to be able to use it, to make money I can’t fault you for picking up a bag in this economy! If you can make enough money to buy a house off of sampling someone else's over-used beats and playing singalong to get along and be played on the radio then by all means put a twang in your voice and sing about how nice your boots are and brag about the size of your truck just like everybody else who is pandering to the masses.
Now it may appear to some of you, my little buttercups, that I am being overly harsh on the new style of country music. That I am being unfair and not giving it a legitimate chance. But that cannot be true as you see, I am not convinced it is even a true style of music to begin with. Country and its sub-genres; Oldschool Country, Modern Country, Southern Rock, Folk Music… these all are legitimate styles with one key trait, they have soul in them. There is meaning behind virtually all of the songs that come under those headings. There is some life there. Bubble gum country is like a photo copy of legitimate music, heavily edited to boot! Don't believe me? Look up a couple videos on Youtube comparing today's top country hits. Here, I'll make it easier, and trust me, you will appreciate it if this is your first time - https://youtu.be/FY8SwIvxj8o.
Country had a sort of way of storytelling and helping the artist express what they were going through, bubble gum country is a bunch of people trying to tell the same story. Might as well be reading from a phonebook with music accompanying. Bubble gum country is mumble rap for white people. In fact this genre is so easy to make fun of that Bo Burnham made an entire song (Country Song) bashing this genre...that actually sounds better than most of what is 'top 40'. Somehow it developed a following and now we are stuck with it because it’ll get you on the radio. This is what happens when the person doing the marketing is more skilled than the people doing the songwriting.
About the author - Family Tree Records is a recording studio / label located in Shelby, NC. Learn more by visiting their Facebook at www.facebook.com/familytreerecords2014.
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