I Am Totally OK! With This Kind of Country Coverage
I could sit here and be a music snob and pretend I only read high-end music magazines that have long feature stories about a band's rich, hypnotic sound, subversive melodies and haunting lyrics about the chaos of life.
But the reality is, I also have a soft spot for magazines like this week's OK! magazine. With 17 pages devoted to the lifestyles of America's favorite country artists, I already know all about their songs and/or, for the most part, the stories behind them. So it's a nice, easy read to flip through page after page of photos and facts like:
1. Carrie Underwood has been playing softball for nine years.
2. Julianne Hough had never played softball until this year's CMA Music Fest.
3. Miley Cyrus has definitely reconnected with Nick Jonas.
4. If you want to win Chuck Wicks' heart, wear jeans, a T-shirt and a smile.
5. Kellie Pickler attributes her good calves to wearing stilettos, especially ones from Christian Louboutin.
6. Pickler also hates sleeping on other people's mattresses.
7. Tim McGraw loves working with Sandra Bullock because she's not "Hollywood," but he's not going to quit his day job for acting.
8. Miranda Lambert's favorite reality show is Jon & Kate Plus 8. No word on which side she's on, now, though.
9. Martina McBride loves Chanel Glossimer lip gloss in Blizzard and Hermes Eau des Merveilles.
10. Lee Ann Womack hates to be without her black Gibson J-200 acoustic guitar.
11. Sugarland's Jennifer Nettles has a passion besides music: the Shalom Foundation, which gives aid to Guatemalan children.
12. Taylor Swift's laptop screen saver is a picture of her with Saturday Night Live's Andy Samberg.
©2008 Country Music Television, Inc., a Viacom company. A division of
lea says:
Some of it good some of it total junk!
AustinTX says:
Of course Taylor’s screesaver is a picture of herself…
trufanofcountry says:
LOL, Taylor sure loves herself, doesn’t she.
highwayman3 says:
Why is Miley Cyrus included in this list? Oh ya, I forgot, she’s supposed to be country now.
Noah says:
That’s great that Taylor loves herself and passes it on to our children. Maybe this generation will put a big dent in putting the plastic surgeons out of business.
But in my opinion I also think a big reason she has the picture of herself on her laptop is because it’s with (SOMEBODY) else like, Andy Samberg ;)
Rufus The Roadie says:
WoooWeee! Look at Kelly Pickler! Thanks for postin’ this. These little ditties was fun to read!
Michael says:
Hey, have you seen this news article?
New details about Michael Jackson’s Death Emerge
I was wondering if you were going to blog about this…
Shell says:
I thought that was Carrie that has the great legs and wears the stilettos oh wait- forgot, kellie copies everything Carrie does from being a vegetarian to the designers. I guess that’s a good thing plus taylor’s clout, it’s getting her noticed!
brian says:
ladies man TIM McGRAW. great artcial to,
and his new album will be in stores. in
NOVEMBER. cant wait to hear new music
Walter says:
Kelliepickler is an original.Also Kelliepickler said she loves all the fans while on the cmt awards.Kelliepickler means it.Also we have seen kelliepickler be great with the kids and we have met kelliepickler 3times.Kelliepickler is the sweetest person you can meet.Kelliepickler and carrieunderwood are best friends.Kelliepickler and carrieu and taylorswift get along great and kelliepickler and carrieu and taylorswift pull for each other.Ltes all please get along.Also please vote for kelliepickler on cmtpowerpicks and please vote for kelliepickler for top 20 and please vote for kelliepickler on awards and stuff.This ok magazine issue is great with a number of great articles about great artist like kelliep and carrieU and taylorS and timM and sugarland and jullianne hough and so on.Also kelliepickler said thank you to all the fans and Kelliepickler said thank you to cmt on the cmtawards.Kelliepickler is a greal role model.Thank you cmt for showng kelliepickler videos and thank you to all the fans for being the best.Take care everyone!Have a great weekend everyone!
Jack says:
Everything Walter says about Kellie Pickler is true. But he did forget to say that she’s gorgeous too !!!
Meg says:
Does every single post on here have to be about Taylor Swift? Seriousely. Some of us don’t really want to read a new post about her life every single day!
meree says:
Hey Meg, not only TS kellie pickler too. They are both over-rated!
Melissa says:
I agree with Meg. Seriously. I’d bet like 90% of teenagers and probably adults have pictures of themselves with friends or people they look up to. It’s not being self-absorbed. I’d rather do that than have a picture of some random guy that I think is hot. That’s just so much weirder.
BTW I like the one about Chuck Wicks! HAH! Julianne smiles a lot…. ;)
barb b says:
I cant wait for the day
when they start comparing
taylor to kelli that day
will come.
Walter says:
Hi.Yes kelliepickler is georgeous to.Kelliepickler truly loves all the fans.You can tell.Kelliepickler has the best personality to.Also this ok had great stories about a number of great artist!Its all good!Also please vote for kelliepickler on cmtpowerpicks and for the top20 and awards shows and so on.Its great how the atist get along great and pull for wach others alos.Also we have met kelliepickler 3 times.Kelliep is the sweetest person you can meet.Oh and kelliepickler has her own original style that is great!Take care everyone!Have a great weekend you all!Have fun!Love everyone!Also thank you cmt for showing kelliepickler videos!
Big Al says:
Another fluff piece by Allison. More proof that she doesn’t appreciate Country she is a Bubblegum Pop fan.
Please Allison give up the Idea that you like country. You like bubblegum air head teeny bopper crap.
solongsowrong says:
Big Al: I thought from conversations the other day, you were understanding the difference between Roots Country and Mainstream Pop Country, but here you go lumping them both together again.
Maybe Alison doesn’t appreciate Roots Country, but that certainly doesn’t mean she doesn’t like Country music. The Pop of Country has it’s place, even if it is industry created. Alison and the sheeple like her, are doing just what is expected of them, and if that’s what they like, why should it bother you?
Fluff pieces like this is what is important in Pop Culture and to the fans that follow it. Just look at the amount of hits on a typical Alison blog, as compared to, as an example, a blog from Craig about the music and musicians from the Telerude Festival. Many don’t even know music like that existed, or think just because it isn’t on top 40 radio, it must not be any good.
Accept it for what it is, it all has its reason for being. As T.Bone Burnett… who has been involved with two albums in the past decade that have won for Best Album of the Year at the Grammy’s… recently said, “Not everyone loves music, but the majors try to sell to everyone.” So they formulate music to appeal to the masses. It stands to reason, when music isn’t the main focus, things like good calves, lip gloss, and who’s connected with who, is what is important.
Have you listened to any of the new music from Melonie Cannon lately?
nikkis120 says:
my comment is directed to solongsowrong, I just wanted to let you know that theres awhole lot of us out here who dearly miss country music, I keep going back to AJ when he came up with Murder on Music Row, wow did he ever hit the nail on the head. I love country music when I say country I mean just that, George Strait sings country music, AJ sings country music, my photo on my computer is of Tim McGraw another who sings country music, Toby Keith is an artist who also sings country, I just wish they’d have a station for videos of the pop artists and one for our music so we’d all be happy. The way it is now I feel its just plain not music I seldom even watch the videos anymore I go to you tube where I can hear Vern Gosdin, Lori Morgan, Loretta Lynn, Tammy and George, the late great Conway Twitty ofcourse there are many I haven’t mentioned but theres a channel and btw the artists that alot of folks seem to be complaining about do get played on much music so why not just keep the pop and rock on much and that way when we feel for it we can listen.
Tonite the BET Channel is having their award show, I don’t usually ever watch that channel but I am tonite as it is a tribute show to Michael Jackson and I feel he is more than deserving of it. I find it more than alittle sad that I haven’t noticed a single blog on cmt about his passing, this is just plain wrong as he was a music icon and is more than deserving of a writeup. I love cmt always have and I always will, but I must say I am ashamed of you all, you should have the class you always demonstrate and someone for pete’s sake write a blog on his life, and by that I mean his music, not the bs and crap that the media did about all the lies that were spread about him. He never had a childhood of his own, at the age of 5 he would rehearse, when other kids were playing he was forced to go to the studio and sing, and sing then some more till he was so tired he couldn’t sing then he went to bed. He cried passing the park cause he so much wanted to be able to play with the other kids, when his father found out why he was crying he beat him. So when he had the money he built himself Neverland, you see the youngman who was really a boy who had never grown up he never had the chance, so he became Peter Pan, he did so much for so many, do you know he contributed to 38 different charities, more than any other artist in the history of Hollywood. So I feel he deserved his Neverland, but a monster who wanted Michael to help him get his screen play written forced his son to lie about Michael it cost him 23million dollars to settle. He didn’t settle because he had hurt that child, nor had he done anywrong, he settled because all the media lying about him was literally killing him. His dearest friend Liz Taylor even stated she knew the father had got his son to lie. Michael had so many children at his home, I remember one distinctly he was very sick with cancer, he wanted to stay, he asked Michael if he could stay at Neverland, ofcourse he was told yes. This youngsters parents were thrilled that his son’s dreams were coming true, however when he died not very long after Michael cried his heart out, he honestly believed in his heart that this young boy would live and be alright as long as he was there at the ranch, he believed in Miracles. Personally I feel not enough of us do anymore, if there were more people with hearts as big as his we’d have alot more love in this world and to me this is a good thing. I didn’t mean to write so very long, my appologies however I don’t appologize for anything I have said as I totally believe all of it to be the truth, he was so hurt by so many, gosh Marlon Brando’s son was one of his dearest friends, he was with Michael the very night before he died he stated he was in excellent shape, had sang and danced like he was still young as before, one of the producers who was also there said the same exact thing, now these men were there with him, yet still the media reported him in frail health and were ignorant enough to show photos of him in a wheelchair that we all know are from four years ago, he has taken good care of himself since then. The coroner’s office said they were shocked by how healthy he was, so another one stating the truth. I just hope everyone stops and remembers he has three children, two of whom are old enough to acsess the internet so please before you write anything about this great artist, remember that very item, his children, they just might read what you wrote, do you really want to hurt innocent children, no matter what you might feel, please do think about that. Thank-you, and Michael thank-you for all the amazing years of wonderful music and sheer joy at watching you entertain, by golly nobody will ever be able to out sell or out perform you.
R.I.P
solongsowrong says:
I’m not sure why you directed this at me, I never have, nor ever will, say anything about Jackson. He’s part of the Pop world that I pay little attention to.
The only other thing I will comment on, is your list of current Pop Country artists you listed. While the ones you mentioned may have a different sound than others in the Pop Country format, please understand that commercial radio is the format that plays their music. They are a part of Pop Country as well. What gets played on commercial radio, only represents about 10% of the Country music that is available to listen to.
I listen to Country music everyday, and never hear any of these artists you mentioned, nor the ones that make you “miss” Country music. Country music is out there in spades, you just have to turn off you FM dial and make a little effort to find it.
Country music under the Americana umbrella, is a good place to find new Country music that still respect the Roots of the genre. Texas and Red Dirt Country, Western Swing, Alt. Country, Outlaw Country, Bluegrass, New Grass, are only a few samples of Country music you can stream over the internet on Independent radio stations that do not play the Pop Country of commercial radio. All you need to do, is use any of these keywords in the search engine of your choice, find some of the artists listed, and go to their official web sites and myspace pages to listen to their music. You may also be able to find radio stations to stream as well, where these artists are listed. May I suggest some names to get you started… check out Dale Watson, Wayne Hancock, Ryan Bingham, Justin Townes Earle, and Sunny Sweeney. Kathy Mattea has been on the Roots Country charts for 68 weeks now, with her latest album, “Coal”.
As far as I’m concerned, Country music is a good as its ever been, and I don’t feel a need to “miss” anything. I simply stopped listening to what commercial radio has to offer, and moved on to where the music I wanted to hear was being played. Since you are familiar with youtube, why don’t you check out some of the artists I mentioned on there, and see if their music is more to your liking.
Redmaz says:
Why?…(seriously)…why is this so difficult for people to understand? To,nikkis120 you really have no idea what solongsowrong is talking about do you? Let me ask you this straight out, do you know anything about today’s Americana/Roots music and the list of artists solongsowrong spoke of in their post?
to solo, really…is it the way we are talking about this music, and introducing it, or could it really be true, that people cannot grasp onto this whole music scene concept? It’s just basic music fundamentals, and in my opinion should be common knowledge to everyone who listens to music.
solongsowrong says:
Well Red, one day while streaming some music at work, a vender came into my shop, heard the music I was listening to, and promptly said, “Boy, I wish they’d get back to making Country music like that again.” When I explained to him it WAS new music, they were surprised and asked a few questions, but it was obvious by the glazed look that it wasn’t hitting home. They couldn’t get past that concept of why something that good wasn’t being played on local radio stations, and why they never had heard of the artist. His final comment was, “I like what I’m hearing, but I ain’t taking the time to look for it.” Obviously one of those that was willing to take the easy road, even though they didn’t like the direction it was going.
I guess some don’t care to hear about it, some don’t want to be bothered with it and would rather complain, and others just don’t grasp it because it’s foreign to what they’ve always been led to believe.
Personally, I don’t really care what the reason, but as long as they keep coming here to complain about the current state of Country music, I’ll keep coming here too. Every once in awhile someone listens and is willing to learn. Back when CMT had message boards for ALL the artists, it was fun and gratifying to talk to people who posted on these little known artists pages, and actually wanted to talk about music, rather than things like the subject matter this blog pointed out… although I was glad to hear Cyrus reconnected with Jonas… I had a few sleepless nights worrying about that one!
Dan says:
I don’t care if Kellies coping or not NICE LEGGSS