The CMA Awards: Proving That It Ain’t Your Daddy’s Country Music Anymore – And That’s A Good Thing

This is just purely editorial comment on my part, but as I gazed at the CMA Award show, the way country music has morphed in the past several years was never more evident than last nite - and personally I think it's great - but are you with me here?

Boy -country music is changing more by the minute.  It's becoming a musical hybrid of sorts, dontcha think?      Exhibit A - Brantley Gilbert 

Did you see him singing "Country Must Be Country Wide?"  Did you watch his devil horn gestures?  How about all of the young girls in the audience copying him?  It looked like a hip hop performance.  His drummer had a mohawk!   And he's singing "Country Must Be Country Wide!"  Hysterical.

Exhibit B              Little Big Town 

Ok -their name has a "rural" flavor to it.  But look at their attire.  Do you see one cowboy hat?  Anybody have those fancy dancy Durango boots on?  Hell no.  And their hit song "Pontoon"?  That could be played on any format as far as I'm concerned

And then there's Carrie Underwood and her song "Blown Away"

There's a hybrid for ya!  But the song "Blown Away" is about as far away from a country song as you can get, but you don't see her being criticized for it, because it's accepted now.  And that's GOOD.

The only other radio station I ever worked at was an oldies station.  I ended up hating it because everything was ....OLD!  You didn't get to listen to new trends.  When they added a new song to their playlist,  there was no excitement.

Today's Country music is great for the simple fact that there is always somebody tthat throws it a curve and keeps it current , like Big and Rich, Toby Keith, Keith Urban, Taylor Swift (yes, I said Taylor Swift) and others.  But then again, we still play George Strait, Josh Turner, Reba, and Miranda Lambert to balance it out.

Hey, everything else has changed in this world -why should our format be any different?

What's your thought?  Would love to know!