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Permalink Reply by Jason Wilson on May 16, 2011 at 11:26am

Did Nashville go bad or just get successful?  Successful implicitly means that you are pandering to the widest possible tastes and Garth Brooks isn't bad per say (I mean he's the damn devil and all) he's just not country music. 

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Permalink Reply by John Graveling on May 17, 2011 at 8:51am

Many years ago there was a pop hit "Video Killed The Radio Stars" by the Buggles. Well t0 my ears "radio killed the real country stars". Mainstream country radio catering to those who listen to daytime shows killed the potential for greatness in many artists. It gave us 'pop, easy listening country music' and the 'hard-core'  talent got surpressed. I have been visiting Nashville for 21 years or so, since the late 80s and it has a thriving music scene offering a wide diversity of music (just scan www.nashvillescene.com if you don't believe me) and the musical talent in the city is second to none, pickers from all types of music live there. If you don't like mainstream you can go out and listen to Will Kimbrough, Pat Buchanan, Rod Picott, Amanda Shires, Kate Campbell, Tom Kimmel, Jeff Black, Sally Barris, Suzi Ragsdale, Matraca Berg, David Olney, Tommy Womack, Elizabeth Cook, Tim Carroll, Darrell Scott and many more like them ply their trade. It's wonderful and a joy to listen to. There are great studios, not just the big names but David Henry's True Tone where great records (Slaid Cleaves for one) get cut. When did Nashville go bad? It never did, it may have become glitzy and mainstream, but the core still glitters with diamonds, go there and find out. It's a great city to spend time in to listen to great music and relax. Go to the Bluebird, Douglas Corner, 12th & Porter, 3rd & Lindsley, Exit-In and many more of the great venues and let your ears decide, not the 'deaf' who tell you Nashville is bad!!!

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Permalink Reply by Seth Williamson on May 17, 2011 at 9:29am

To be fair to the question as originally phrased, I think "Nashville" in this context refers to recorded country music and the industry that produces it, not to the town itself.  We all know that "There's thirteen hundred and fifty-two guitar pickers in Nashville / And they can pick more notes than the number of ants on a Tennessee ant hill."  But too few of the good ones have been promoted by the big labels in recent years.

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Permalink Reply by dennis glaser on May 17, 2011 at 11:25am

Agree with both points of view. In my mind, the music changed when the guys i,n the suits came down from New York and took over the record companies. And the Japanese bought the biggest music publisher in town. There was no place then for the new blood that used to reinvigorate country music. Songwriters had to be either able to qualify as singers or be one of the clique who were selected to "co-write" for the artists who had record contracts. In my book I tell about Jimmy Bowen, a producer, who came to town from Hollywood--and within the next few years, was president at damned near every label in town! Including Garth Brooks' label. During the 90s, when TV discovered "country," all of a sudden you had to be female, 18, with long hair. But before that, artists who used to make money for the label by selling 50- to 100 thousand records were discarded (ala Johnny Cash) in favor of the new breed. Yeah, it is still a great town for live music--becuz working for minimum gate or the tip jar is now the only way a picker can survive in Nashville. I really hope you old timers who remember the day will take a look at my book-it tells the way it was--and some behind the scenes stories of the people who made it that way. (Music City's Defining Decade" is available from Amazon.com and sposed to be from Barnes&Noble.com)

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