I don't even have a good title for this

[mikehalloran]

In case anyone doesn't think there's a formula...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY8SwIvxj8o

[stubbsonic]

That was funny, but also kind of nauseating (no offense to country fans). I think that is a good example of why I don't care for that particular genre very much. But perhaps to fans, that was awesome. Who knows.

[Phil O]

I listen to a lot of country music (ok, I admit it, I play banjo ), and I've noticed this as a recent Nashville trend. There seems to be a lot more shared recognizable licks, shall we say, in the new stuff coming out. It's to a point where it's easy to confuse one song with another.

Phil

ps, I realize that I've just opened the floodgates for a deluge of banjo jokes, so be gentle.

[mikehalloran]

[Phil O]

[Michael Canavan]

OK this isn't an old codger thing, I thought the same thing when I was young, for pop music, (which rock, blues and country fall into the category of if approached from a classical/jazz standpoint in terms of arrangement etc.), there is a definite curve where a genre is good or even great at the beginning, but once the style becomes completely standardized, it becomes a formula and only the part of your brain interested in 'comfort food, mindless TV etc.' can appreciate it.

Early country has all the same intensity of rock without the trappings, (they actually featured banjos sometimes! ) now it just sounds like beer commercial music, and it's no surprise it's used in them.

[Phil O]

And that photo of Mike H looks like a beer commercial. Check out the fine amber color of that brew on the table in front of him. Mmmmmm.....beer.

Wait, I recognize those chairs. I have the exact same chairs in my dining room. I'm just babbling. Pay no attention.

[James Steele]

I like banjos! Still... I always laugh when I see this one:

[monkey man]

Ha ha! Too funny Jimbo. Hope you're well, my saviour personified.

OK this isn't an old codger thing, I thought the same thing when I was young, for pop music, (which rock, blues and country fall into the category of if approached from a classical/jazz standpoint in terms of arrangement etc.), there is a definite curve where a genre is good or even great at the beginning, but once the style becomes completely standardized, it becomes a formula and only the part of your brain interested in 'comfort food, mindless TV etc.' can appreciate it.

Early country has all the same intensity of rock without the trappings, (they actually featured banjos sometimes! ) now it just sounds like beer commercial music, and it's no surprise it's used in them.

It seems to me it has become much like Christian pop-rock these days. Sounds impressive / classy upon first few encounters, then tends to get lost in a generic caricature of itself. It goes without saying that said caricature is no longer country (IMHO), but more like, well, pop rock.

I'm just babbling. Pay no attention.

No danger there, Philly. LOL

[BKK-OZ]

I heard Scotty Moore once in an interview tell the old joke:

• 'Perfect Pitch: when you throw a banjo into a dumpster and it hits an accordion.'

[mikehalloran]

And that photo of Mike H looks like a beer commercial. Check out the fine amber color of that brew on the table in front of him. Mmmmmm.....beer.

Wait, I recognize those chairs. I have the exact same chairs in my dining room. I'm just babbling. Pay no attention.

I wish that was a beer ad. That would have been fun. Actually it was an extremely hot day in the gold country, well over 100 degrees. That was about the tastiest beer ever.

I was jamming with a friend -- we were both playing our ODE banjos, otherwise I would have had my Vega Pete Seeger. I had around 20 banjos at the time. Now that I no longer play, I'm down to eight including the four I loaned to the museum last year.

That 2009 shot turned out to be the next to last picture of me playing before I became disabled. There's an orchestra shot with me heading a bass section taken a couple of weeks before my stroke.

[Phil O]

I only have one right now, It's been with me since my 25th birthday - an old friend. It's an Allison 5 string, serial number 1007 which doesn't seem all that impressive until you realize that the serial numbers started at 1001.

[monkey man]

I heard Scotty Moore once in an interview tell the old joke:

• 'Perfect Pitch: when you throw a banjo into a dumpster and it hits an accordion.'

Too funny, BK.

[philbrown]

I just watched a show about the beginnings of heavy metal. Shopping Black Sabbath's first album they were turned down by everybody because it 'wasn't like anything else out there'. The risk-takers were the ones who opened up new music but- could also fail miserably. We hear about the ones that worked out of course. You know, we can point fingers and criticize, but if you were some young A&R guy trying to feed your family and 3 of your cohorts just got canned last week, you might be looking for the "the next Beatles" "The next Garth Brooks" or whatever instead of blazing some unknown trail that was very likely to get you fired and maybe even ostracized from the whole business. Just a thought alongside the usual ranting we do about this.

Our local "country" station plays the new pop-country, a lot of which I call "70's rock with a twang" (sometimes 80's). I think I would mind it less if they would just name it something beside 'country' and ditto for 'smooth jazz'.

Bandwagons will be bandwagons.

[Tritonemusic]

'smooth jazz'

That is one of the lamest terms I've ever heard. I've yet to hear "Smooth Jazz" that sounds anything like real jazz.