Welcome To Case's Column
Let me say a big welcome to all of you for joining me here. I'm going to call these blog meetings Case's Column. I wanted to use "Corner", but that was already taken.
Since 2008, it's been a real privilege to come on here and share some of my life with you, and it's a big world where we live.
In these blogs, I'll just speak whatever is on my mind, but we will be playing within the rules here. I may pick a particular topic, point out an event, or shoot the breeze. I'm a little bit of an essayist at times, so I'll just speak what's on my mind, and I might tell a story or two. Or, I might spew out an opinion or three. There will be some serious moments, some tender, some poignant, but there will also be those moments that you'll just bust out laughing. But, hopefully, everything will be in good fun here. And, of course, there's a place below for your comments and thoughts as we go along here. So feel free to join me for the ride -- I sure as heck hope I'm doing this right and not making any mistakes.
Thanks for taking your time in reading Case's Column. Hopefully, you'll enjoy being entertained by it as much as I've enjoyed putting these writings together. And thanks for the time you spend in City-Data.com, where it's great to be alive!
Regards,
case44
Let me say a big welcome to all of you for joining me here. I'm going to call these blog meetings Case's Column. I wanted to use "Corner", but that was already taken.
Since 2008, it's been a real privilege to come on here and share some of my life with you, and it's a big world where we live.In these blogs, I'll just speak whatever is on my mind, but we will be playing within the rules here. I may pick a particular topic, point out an event, or shoot the breeze. I'm a little bit of an essayist at times, so I'll just speak what's on my mind, and I might tell a story or two. Or, I might spew out an opinion or three. There will be some serious moments, some tender, some poignant, but there will also be those moments that you'll just bust out laughing. But, hopefully, everything will be in good fun here. And, of course, there's a place below for your comments and thoughts as we go along here. So feel free to join me for the ride -- I sure as heck hope I'm doing this right and not making any mistakes.
Thanks for taking your time in reading Case's Column. Hopefully, you'll enjoy being entertained by it as much as I've enjoyed putting these writings together. And thanks for the time you spend in City-Data.com, where it's great to be alive!
Regards,
case44
How Classic Country On Radio SHOULD Be Defined
Posted 11-13-2011 at 08:12 AM by case44
Radio is an ever-evolving, ever-changing medium, and there's simply no escaping it. Over periods of time, formats change among many genres. You've probably spent time listening to country music at some point, but do you remember a time when all popular music and all genres were condensed into one format and played on one station?? Hard to believe, but in another era, there actually was such a thing. Of course, those days are long gone.
Today, we can still appreciate how rock and country came into play with the history that brings itself to life through the songs that get played. Some like to call them oldies. Fine and good. Now, there is room for new music, good or bad, and we have to welcome such things. But as long as there is radio, for however many years it will continue to serve us, there must be room for expanded playlists and not limited ones. In the realm of country music (the genre I tend to frequent the most), something needs to be made very clear about the concept of classic country music. As a radio format, it must include some songs from the decades of the 1920s through the 1950s. I'm not knocking the '60s and '70s, as they were also great decades in country (the '60s were a particularly explosive decade in this genre), but the previous decades were the formative years of this genre, and we must never forget that. I mean, how can any radio station play classic country and not include artists such as Hank Williams, Sr, Red Foley, Ernest Tubb, Tex Ritter, and Jimmie Rodgers (the first, not the second)? The trouble is, corporate radio has meddled with stations and had done too much downsizing and fudging. They are trying to "fix" what they think is broken. In some instances today, some radio stations are leaving out artists from the sixties from their playlists (Buck Owens, Jim Reeves, Hank Locklin, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, and Merle Haggard's early works). I realize this is the 2010s, but who really cares about demographics? People out there are interested and there are actually those in these younger generations that are increasingly taking a liking to this stuff.
How should I define classic country? It's this: seven decades of country music (the '20s through the '80s) in its purest and most traditional, but diverse, form. From bluegrass to honky-tonk to trucking songs to western swing to countrypolitan to even some country folk, there's something for a lot of people in this thing called classic country, and all those are what makes it classic in the first place. Stations, please play them.
Today, we can still appreciate how rock and country came into play with the history that brings itself to life through the songs that get played. Some like to call them oldies. Fine and good. Now, there is room for new music, good or bad, and we have to welcome such things. But as long as there is radio, for however many years it will continue to serve us, there must be room for expanded playlists and not limited ones. In the realm of country music (the genre I tend to frequent the most), something needs to be made very clear about the concept of classic country music. As a radio format, it must include some songs from the decades of the 1920s through the 1950s. I'm not knocking the '60s and '70s, as they were also great decades in country (the '60s were a particularly explosive decade in this genre), but the previous decades were the formative years of this genre, and we must never forget that. I mean, how can any radio station play classic country and not include artists such as Hank Williams, Sr, Red Foley, Ernest Tubb, Tex Ritter, and Jimmie Rodgers (the first, not the second)? The trouble is, corporate radio has meddled with stations and had done too much downsizing and fudging. They are trying to "fix" what they think is broken. In some instances today, some radio stations are leaving out artists from the sixties from their playlists (Buck Owens, Jim Reeves, Hank Locklin, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, and Merle Haggard's early works). I realize this is the 2010s, but who really cares about demographics? People out there are interested and there are actually those in these younger generations that are increasingly taking a liking to this stuff.
How should I define classic country? It's this: seven decades of country music (the '20s through the '80s) in its purest and most traditional, but diverse, form. From bluegrass to honky-tonk to trucking songs to western swing to countrypolitan to even some country folk, there's something for a lot of people in this thing called classic country, and all those are what makes it classic in the first place. Stations, please play them.
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