I grew up with a brotherly camaraderie. Four specific friends that were of the "thick and thin" disposition. With this time my peak were two specific summers; June-September 2007 and June-August 2008. During which time I came to a point with why I'm rambling right now: Country Music.
I should preface that I began scribbling this at a diner knowing I promised myself to get the juices flowing. I am now drinking probably the biggest fucking iced tea I think I've ever been served:
The man next to me is discussing some sort of drug rehabilitation and divulging insane stories to the woman he's eating dinner with, and for some reason I keep hearing the sound of duct tape being pulled off of the roll.
...so naturally my mind escapes to the idea and history of country music.
Now I preface this story like that because my "modern" experience with country music came out of those two summers. Before that I kind of resented it. Mostly because after the 90s it became more beach/hypermasculine. Now while it's debatable that this genre has ALWAYS been hypermasculine, it lost whatever subtlety it had intact.
I grew up in rural Washington (and it was RURAL in 1993). My family moved there in 1993 after being born in Bakersfield, California. Let me explain to you something about Bakersfield. In the 1930s during the heart of the Dust Bowl's destruction of mid-western farmland, Bakersfield became a final destination for much of the migrant population looking for anything that was better off. In this time Bakersfield began to develop its own music scene based on a, I guess one could say, "unrefined" version of country . Let me put it to you this way: in the early part of last decade when garage-rock took over with a dirtier rhythm influence, this was country's version of that. Bakersfield/Merle Haggard were The White Stripes of Nashville Country.
Now I was BORN there. It gathered my attention so much so that I'd later come to realize 21 years later that in my Junior year of college, I'd write a qualitative analysis of "Okie from Muskogee" because of that.
So there's that subtle influence... but this is deeper. My mother loved Reba Mcentire and early Shania Twain. My father was somewhat partial to Clint Black. At the age of 6 my two favorite songs of all time were Brooks and Dunn's "Boot Scootin' Boogie" and Alan Jackson's "Chattahoochee". I heard every popular country single between 1994 and 1998 without missing beat. Now at this time it seemed really good. It had this duality in both a neo-traditionalism (Randy Travis "King of the Road") and sheer enormous popularity (Garth Brooks' entire career). It had a fucking pulse. Lyrics were somewhat structured and evocative. I realize it now that starting my life hearing that was a great introduction. Believe it or not Shania Twain at the early point of her career (before she crossed over) was almost par.
...so let's skip ahead using major stepping stones in my influences: Disco, Frank Sinatra, Chumbuwumba, Boyz II Men, pop radio, Green Day, The White Stripes, most of the 2000s, now. Now in that second to last step I lost my roots. After Johnny Cash passed away in 2003, I grew to love him slowly, but as far as much else, I thought it was useless and hated the music. I think it was a combination of me being out of the game for ten years and experiencing the shit-show that was the country music scene at this time. The emergence of Brad Paisley, Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw, Trace Atkins, and the devolution of Toby Keith all caused the downfall. By the time Taylor Swift showed up it was all over anyways. The early mark of it was started with the beach orientation... and then Jimmy Buffet showed up.
TO BE CONTINUED
Part II; further examination into the duality of hypermasculinity and the beach, extreme patriotism, and the triumph of brotherhood and nostalgia.
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