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13 Jan 2008 You read it here!! For any Country Music fans, this is to let you know that I will be performing in the CCMA Talent Quest in Tamworth on Friday the 25th. For customers of Trojan Vehicle Protection who will be at the festival this year, please feel free to come along to the Tamworth Community Centre and cheer loudly (or heckle, if I'm not real good). Y'all didn't know I sang did you? OK. I'll admit it. When I tell people I sing country songs, I can't help but brace myself while I wait for the reaction. "Country songs? Aren't they those daggy, God awful, sorrow riddled moanings about losing dogs, cheating and drinking? Yoddle eh eeh ooh." Well that's how it used to be. Lately, I've started to notice a trend. It's almost OK to be into country. Yaaahoo!! (That might be a bit much hey?) Now the reaction is, "Oh yeah." followed but some questions that seem to be designed to show some insight on the subject while allowing the listener to become a little more enlightened without seeming ignorant. People don't want to seem completely anti country anymore and are starting to have a peek, in the same way alternative acts have become trendy in the last ten years. Mainstream sucks.
That can only mean one thing. Country is the new black.
Yeeehaa!! (OK, I won't do that again)
Today's country performer and fan base can range from traditional to completely contemporary pop based. And the average age of crowds at country festivals appears to be dropping. When you look at US based artists, they are some of the coolest people around. Their dress and demeanour is having an influence how we dress, act, perform and so on. So, it seems like the right time to launch a new term onto the scene. Country Mods.
First a little history. The January 2008 issue of Scooter Torque features an article by Matt O'Connell on the subject of the Mod or Modernist movement of the 1960's. Back then, the established cool bad boy image was wearing black and riding motorcycles. Then, the Mods or younger cashed up teenagers who were enjoying the post war boom, began to redefine cool by riding scooters and wearing some way out clothing. (Talk about history repeating).
To quote Mr O'Connell "Listening to The Who is mod. Playing a Rickenbacker guitar is mod. Wearing Ben Sherman clothes is mod." For more on this, walk into your local motorcycle shop and grab a free copy of Jan 2008 Cycle Torque or rent out a movie called 'Quadrophenia.'
So is it time to start using Country Mod to describe performers and country fans like us? Well let's see.
Today's new breed of teen to 45 age bracket country fan is listening to acts like Brad Paisley, The Pigs, Adam Brand, Carrie Underwood, Jetty Road, Col Finley, Keith Urban, Amber Lawrence, Morgan Evans and Big and Rich. They also tilt their hats to yesterdays performers (Johnny Cash, Slim Dusty, Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, Jean Stafford) that built the highways that today's big names ride on, and, they also really enjoy artists who perform songs that look to the past for an influence while remaining fresh and appealing today like Troy Cassar-Daly, Brooks and Dunn, George Strait, Lee Kernaghan and Adam Harvey.
They are starting to dress in clothes that the older generation would consider gawdy and almost soft (ie gay) but they retain some element of the rugged country look. They make a real statement with the utes they drive and are hip to the jive when it comes to the latest.
Plenty of 'real' country people, the originals as it were, will look at these newer converts and run them down for not being down to earth, for being too cool. And then they will look for a word or a term to classify them.
Country Mod. That's it.
Jon |