ILM's Top 77 Tracks of 2012

lol ok, it's true my childhood was all chevy trucks and dirt roads and (eric) church on sunday

here is a suggestion on how to listen to "Springsteen": Songs where it's fun to say HOOS in place of the actual lyrics

Funny how a melody sounds like a memory
Like a soundtrack to a July Saturday night
Hoosteen
Hoosteen
Woah Hoosteen

I try and try to appreciate the pro songcraft of modern country dudes like Eric Church — Jody Rosen, for one, writes very persuasively about them - but the songs just sound corny and hacky to me. Maybe idgi because I have no grounding in it this heartland stuff. Doubtless there are other kinds of pop that are equally corny and hacky but I love them because I grew up with them.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01004/sarah-palin-mccain_1004283c.jpg

well then lemme say: for REAL AMERICANS etc

For Americans, hating on anything country is like hating on religion: it kinda sounds like your childhood, & YOU'RE NOT A CHILD ANYMORE.

this is a shockingly dumb statement

my entire context for disliking country comes largely from it being championed by gigantic racists in a northern state who rocked Confederate flags and hated black people, and even with that context I still liked Kenny Rogers, Juice Newton, Dolly Parton and Patsy Cline; if the music is good, it's good, but don't act like country music is a universally appreciated genre across all demographics in this country

xp: well way to make it worse, even as a tongue-in-cheek statement that is an incredibly gross thing to say

if the that sentence started "For some Americans" i wouldn't really see that much wrong with it

omg who is rawhit3 on Spotify, lololol

that's me! why? (now checking for potentially embarrassing things)

you put a random EP on the shared playlist, it was great

omg so sorry. i thought a playlist seemed to vanish! ha

i mean do you need to be particularly steeped in mainstream country to "get" springsteen? i'd think for a song to place that high it would hold some more universal appeal but it....does not

I don't consider myself "steeped" in mainstream country, but there've been a handful of songs over the last decade or so that have appealed to me, including "Springsteen." Usually what gets me is a good melody and detail-driven, cliche-skirting storytelling. And I don't mind big, shameless emotions (which I'm guessing turns some people off). I don't love the genre enough to keep my ear close to the ground, but I'm happy to find a worthwhile single here and there.

What's maybe weird about "Springsteen" finishing #11 this year is that last year's consensus country favorite -- Pistol Annies' "Head on Heels" -- was only #75. Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" was #53 in 2010. None of Miranda Lambert's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend singles showed up in 2007, nor did Brad Paisley's "Ticks." For that matter, Paisley's "Alcohol" didn't place in 2005. No Dixie Chicks ("Not Ready to Make Nice") or Carrie Underwood ("Before He Cheats") in 2006.

However, Big & Rich's "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy" did finish #15 in 2004.

i'm just thinking that most of the people griping about it would never like anything by Eric Church or someone who sings like him though?

99% of my interaction with modern country music is when my wife and i on occasion flip through the channels that play music videos at night (mtv hits, mtv jams, gac, whatever cmt calls their video channel, etc). modern country - as it has been for decades - is basically just hot adult contemporary with some rootsy stylistic affectations. part of the fun is seeing how many tropes from rock 15-25 years previous get picked up a long the way - i saw a recent papa roach video the other day and it was a tragic glimpse of how butt-metal alt will gradually slip into the format. but i think the "sings like him" is a bigger stumbling block than the meat of the music - I love pop-rock as much as anyone but the little cornpone, red-state-bait identifiers still get in my way a lot of the time (i am curious if pop-rock fans who pay more attention to country actually like that stuff now or have just learned to live with it). kelly clarkson could probably win people over with an eric church song, though considering that she's already making plays for his market, she'd probably play up the countryness of it if she bothered to cover one.

last year's consensus country favorite -- Pistol Annies' "Head on Heels" -- was only #75. Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" was #53 in 2010

yeah that's why i thought "springsteen" had missed out once we got to the top 20, but i think last year most people voted for the pistol annies album (which placed in the top 10) rather than the (unrepresentative) single; and iirc "need you now"s impact was spread over two years?

'bandz a make her dance' shouldve placed, cmon ppl

― johnny crunch, Friday, January 25, 2013 3:53 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

fucking amen, man

DJP, I was being fast & yeah I meant "for some Americans, particularly those who feel like they have to comment on how they don't like country"; I don't know where you're from but if you grew up amongst racist country loving folks then you know the demographic I'm talking about: if those racist kids move away from home & get citied then they're gonna hate country too: it's what they're moving away from

where I grew up (down south) the racists also listened to metal, which is why I have a hard time listening to it now

I will admit to sticking mainly to the long ago timey folk/country for the majority of my country music enjoyment, but I went through a countrypolitan phase like...11 years ago? And it was fun, but I was also kinda trying to cheer myself up about life.

Contemporary country doesn't really interest me at all for a number of reasons, but I hear country songs on the radio occasionally (thinking in partic of that one with the lyric about people throwing rocks at things that shine) and I feel like "I'm way over this, next". I dunno, no one asked what I thought about country music, but Eric Church makes me feel like I am being forcefed something with corn syrup in it, and I don't like that.

'bandz a make her dance' shouldve placed, cmon ppl

― johnny crunch, Friday, January 25, 2013 3:53 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

fucking amen, man

― 乒乓, Friday, 25 January 2013 16:10 (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^ both otm

I've been trying to figure out what song it was that "Springsteen" reminded me of structurally (especially the chorus) and then I realized:

http://youtu.be/ne2uZFBl7Pw

"springsteen"'s cult is funny to me because while it's all drawly and sentimental on one side, it's also relatively alternapop sonically - why i referenced bowling for soup earlier. there's no "now my daughter's getting married" grab-the-gut third verse, no banjo interlude, just dramatic downstrokes and "woah woah woah"s

oh u dirty rotten fuck xp

awesome djp

it's also funny that the song is all "ohhh remember born to run and glory days" when it's way more Tunnel Of Love and "Secret Garden"

Honestly, I think part of what does attract me to (some) country music is that I had very little experience with it while growing up. I always kind of just assumed it was not for me, and even in college, when I began to say idiotic things like "Mainstream country music perpetrates capitalist hegemony!!!," I hadn't actually heard much of what I was criticizing.

Until I started paying attention to country music a couple years ago, I'm not sure I could name more than a few country songs from the past 20 years:

Garth Brooks, "Friends in Low Places" (1990)
Brooks and Dunn, "Boot Scootin' Boogie" (1991)
Billy Ray Cyrus, "Achy Breaky Heart" (1992)
Alan Jackson, "Chattahoochee" (1993)
Shania Twain, "That Don't Impress Me Much" (1998)
(if that even counts as country)

I know about Lonestar's "Amazed" just because it was the last country song to hit #1, and I know about Toby Keith's "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue" because of all the controversy it attracted -- but I can't sing you either of them.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, June 30, 2006 10:28 AM (6 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the twinkly piano and flat thudding drums of "Springsteen" aren't very country but i don't think 'alternapop' is a good description. i mean it could be an adult alternative type record, but not Bowling For Soup, i have no idea where that's coming from.

totes ok with country music, not ok with boring music/music that bores me

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7109/7591110028_e4e4ac792a.jpg

i always think about doing more threads about popular country songs, but pretty much any list i think about using for a poll includes one or two Taylor Swift songs and i just get depressed thinking about the inevitable result and forget about it.

David Gray! Absolutely OTM

but i don't think 'alternapop' is a good description. i mean it could be an adult alternative type record

this may be your best pedantic distinction yet

also if you honestly can't hear jaret singing that chorus you need to check out more bfs ballads ok actually you don't

Ha, love that Kenny Roger + lil' LL photo.

s

Little La Lechera kicking with Kenny! So awesome.

they both look so happy!

but i don't think 'alternapop' is a good description. i mean it could be an adult alternative type record

this may be your best pedantic distinction yet

― da croupier, Friday, January 25, 2013 11:37 AM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

what i meant was that i could imagine hearing it on a station that plays lots of Wilco, but not bratty punk pop Bowling For Soup type stuff.

he looks like he's about to throw her in a roaster

lol

is bowling for soup the band with the one huge fat guy?

hey, he has a name. his name is robert paulson.

First rule of bowling for soup is do not talk about bowling for soup.

i remember that so fondly! eddie rabbitt opened and i was like zzzzzzzz til he played "i love a rainy night" and i got super excited because i loved that song. a strange opportunity!
i looooooooved kenny rogers -- "ruby, don't take your love to town" was my favorite but i remember belting the shit out of "she believes in me".

hey, he has a name. his name is robert paulson.

― fonkytimez lemonade (some dude), Friday, January 25, 2013 11:58 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol

what i meant was that i could imagine hearing it on a station that plays lots of Wilco, but not bratty punk pop Bowling For Soup type stuff.

my point in reference the need to alter the pitch on "springsteen" to mistake it for bfs was to acknowledge that you wouldn't literally switch them on the radio and no one would notice. bowling for soup had their share of sentimental "hey remember your mom's car" pop-rock ballads, but it's my fault for forgetting not everyone associates them with more wry songwriterly guitar pop even though that's what they did

i couldn't tell if you meant speed up the tempo too or just Alvin & The Chipmunks it. either didn't totally make sense to me.

not much does

sorry, that was snipey, but "slow down and explain every connection to some dude" gets old

can we go back to talking about how Eric Church is the American David Gray

Its a shame you have to put on a fake accent to get radioplay as a U.S. singer/songwriter type these days.

haha totally xpost and not

not much does

― da croupier, Friday, January 25, 2013 12:08 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sorry, that was snipey, but "slow down and explain every connection to some dude" gets old

― da croupier, Friday, January 25, 2013 12:09 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah it's sooooo tedious the way i try to engage your tossed off metaphors and give you the benefit of the doubt that they can have any logic for anyone else, i'll just assume you're talking out of your ass in the future

thanks!