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EDITORIAL:
Nashville's Thinkin' Problem

Mainstream country music appears to be on life support. The past month brought nothing but more bad news. Although country music sales were up slightly, it’s still sitting in the cellar. The rankings came out, and country music which once held the # 2 spot for decades and slipped to the #4 spot a couple of years ago, still sits there- behind rock, rap and R&B. The only genre that fared worse is pop, which fell from #3 to #5. Selling a paltry (by post-Garth standards) 10,000 CDs in a week is good enough to land an artist the number #1 slot on the country chart these days. More roster cuts were announced at the major labels. After Sony’s latest purge, that leaves a grand total of 11 country artists on the combined rosters of their various labels. Pretty scary stuff. Artists are being banned from the airwaves over differing political views and personal grudges by radio station owners. On June 11th, the staff at Country Music magazine, a well respected publication that’s been around for more than 30 years, was told that the issue they’d just sent off to press would be the magazine’s final issue, and the doors were closing. That now leaves the tabloid Country Weekly as the only national publication for mainstream country music ‘news.’ Now that’s some very scary news. Country Weekly more resembles it’s sister tabloid, The National Enquirer, heavy on sensationalism and fluff pieces and very short on anything of actual substance. The latest ‘scandal’ (real or imagined)? Check. Kenny Chesney’s mother’s friend’s cousin’s recipe for double chunk brownies? Check. The hottest fashions worn by ‘today’s hottest stars’ who look like they forgot to look in the mirror before walking out in public? Check. Advice for people who don’t seem capable of deciding whether to put on their left or right shoe first? Double check. Features that are nothing more than yet another re-write of some feature or interview they have on file that was done a decade ago? Triple check. Looking for information on the upcoming Johnny Paycheck tribute in the works? Sorry. Want to read about what finally prompted Ray Price to write his autobiography? You’re out of luck. In search of an honest, objective music review? Uh, nope. CMT’s latest offerings? "Video Babes: Secrets Revealed!" and "Video Confessions." Perhaps Viacom got their stations confused and sent the programming for their new men’s ‘Spike’ channel to CMT by accident? The film "Country Music" was just previewed and will be released to IMAX theaters later this summer. The movie is just 37 minutes long, and is supposed to cover 100 years of country music! It happens to be a Gaylord presentation, and 37 minutes sums up their vision of country music. Not a mention of Buck, Merle or Bakersfield. The 70's Outlaw Movement is represented by Jo Dee Messina (huh?) singing "I Wear My Own Kind Of Hat." Roger McGuinn of the Byrds is featured, and the Pete Seeger penned "Turn, Turn, Turn" is heralded as a major country song.

So where is the CMA, you know, that organization that’s supposed to be preserving and promoting country music, amidst all this gloom and doom? Why aren’t they stepping up to the plate to do something about this dire situation? Seems they were off busily doing the genre wrong themselves. Turns out they’re the ones who voted the ranking of the songs CMT picked as the final 100. Mainstream fare has gotten so dull that the ratings are sinking every year for their annual CMA Awards broadcast. It’s a sad statement when their Website touts in it’s history, how the program consistently was the top rated special of a given year. Over the past few years, it’s gone from the highest annually rated special (or ranked minimally in the top 5), to the highest rated special for that given week, and now it barely wins the night’s ratings. So they were also busily off getting the show moved from October (which was previously switched from September because it conflicted with TV series season premiers) to TV’s November sweeps period. Ah yes, and then there’s their latest bombshell that they sprung during this year’s recent Fan Fair. Since moving Fan Fair from the Fairgrounds to downtown Nashville, attendance has been steadily dropping. According to CMA Executive Director, Ed Benson, "Research we’ve got tells us that the word ‘fair’ was a problem because it [describes] how people feel about something that is more rural, more agricultural, more like a state fair." Somehow they interpreted this as a ‘negative,’ so based on their ‘research,’ the CMA decided to do away with ‘Fan Fair’ and in it’s place will be the ‘CMA Music Festival,’ which will include non-country performers along with sports, film, TV and other celebrities and entertainers. This is helping and promoting country music? Ah yes, but then these are the same people that came up with the half baked idea that country music needed a slogan and came up with one so dim witted, that the feedback was so negative it thankfully never saw the light of day..."Country. Admit it. You love it."

Country music is dying due to internal politics and neglect, it’s as simple as that. The structure of the CMA has become so overly bloated and riddled with conflict of interest, it’s finally reached the point where it’s outlived it’s usefulness, and has long lost sight of it’s original ‘vision.’ The CMA claims a membership of 6000 members. It has 7 departments. Why on earth would an organization of that modest a size need 61 people sitting on their board of directors?! Name me a company that employs 6000 people that has a board of directors that size! It’s no wonder that nothing of any importance gets accomplished- it would take a year just for a memo to get around to all of them. Then, look at who sits on the board of directors. Clear Channel is represented. So is Viacom and Gaylord, as are the major labels who have to take orders from and answer to bean counters these days. Seems to me these are the very same people that are the biggest part, if not the direct cause, of the problem today. They’re the ones with the phobias about any kind of ‘country’ stereotype, not the fans/listeners/consumers. With the makeup of the board of directors, it’s obvious that they’re out to promote their own agendas and their own vision of what they want country music to be, as opposed to what the genre’s reality is. People who’s roots are in rural America are moving to the big cities, and small towns are growing into big towns, and the music will always appeal to that sector of people, but country music will never be an ‘urban’ music, no matter how hard they try to make it so. This simple fact seems to be completely incomprehensible to them.

We haven’t heard word one from the CMA on any of the things I’ve so far previously mentioned. Not a word on the lack of real country content on CMT. Not a statement in regard to the demise of a well respected country music magazine. Not a peep uttered in regard to radio owners and the banning issue. Not a sound as Gaylord systematically began dismantling the heritage of Music City piece by piece. Deafening silence at the massive roster cuts and the lack of promoting creativity at the record labels or the utter lack of diversity, ridiculously limited play lists- not to mention the ‘under the table’ payola demands- on the part of radio stations. They blame downloading. They blame the fans, who translate into consumers, on sales and attendance declines. The truth of the matter is they have no one but themselves to blame. They’ve offered the fan/consumer nothing for quite a while now. Indistinguishable, bland generic songs from indistinguishable and questionably talented generic performers, neither of which, far too often these days, even have any kind of remote connection to the genre. Outrageous ticket prices for concerts and other events. Overpriced CDs full of overproduced, shoddy product. And with all the money they spend on their ‘marketing research,’ which they think has us all figured out, the reality is that they don’t even begin to know or understand their consumer. We’re not afraid of ‘country,’ ‘rural,’ ‘agriculture,’ ‘twang’ ‘steel,’ fiddle,’ ‘ lyin’, drinkin’, cheatin’, trains ’ or even the word ‘fair.’ We are however, loyal to the genre and respect (and expect) ‘tradition.’ And now the CMA itself as an organization, is about to dump yet another tradition in pursuit of a profit, instead of fixing the underlying problems which are not going to go away by re-packaging and glossing over it.

So far only one CMA member, country artist Holly Dunn, has stood up and voiced her outrage in a letter to the Tennessean, at the CMA’s plan to dump Fan Fair, and has stated she will not remain a member of an organization who’s actions contradict it’s purpose. She also outlined what some of the reasons for the decline in attendance have been, as did many other writers and industry people. So have the country music fans. Though the scattered move to downtown Nashville did change things, the real truth of the matter is, that over the past few years, even before the move, there wasn’t much there to entice people to shell out that kind of money to travel there from all over, not only the country, but from around the world. The industry (mainstream-wise) hasn’t produced any new artists or music that have sparked any excitement with the fans in quite a long while now. The ‘Nashville community’ has long since stopped supporting it’s legends and long established performers. Which leaves the current crop of ‘superstars.’ Looking at the list of performers that fall into this category, those that even bother showing up at Fan Fair has dwindled over the past few years to an occasional drip. Seems for this new crop of stars, this sort of thing is simply beneath them. They want y’all to buy their music and pay those exorbitant prices for tickets to their concerts where you’re encouraged to buy plenty of their overpriced ‘mementos,’ yet they can’t seem to find the time to sign a few autographs and shake a few hands after their shows, or find a couple of days out of the year to come on down to say not only ‘hi,’ but ‘thanks’ to their fans that have supported them...and their lifestyles. The few who do show up? Well you won’t find them sitting in any booth signing autographs and posing for a picture these days. They’ll make an appearance at ‘fan club parties,’ where only card carrying, dues paying fans are permitted. PAYING to be a fan?! We pay for CDs, DVDs, concert tickets and assorted other fan related merchandise- and then we have to PAY for the ‘privilege’ of being a fan? With more and more of these performers, you can’t even access their Websites (or all areas of it) unless you pay ‘fan club dues.’ Ah, but they say ‘paying’ fan club members get special ‘perks,’ like advance ticket sales or preferred seating. Ok, how about these artists that never seem to come within a 500 mile radius of where I live? In order for this ‘perk’ to be of any use to me, I’d have to buy the ticket, which you figure is going to run somewhere between $50 & $100. Then I’d have to pay travel expenses, pay for a place to stay, meals, etc. These performers expect their fans to do this for them, yet hmmm...they can’t manage to find a mere couple of days out of their year to do anything in return for their fans. We’re not talking about the artists who are struggling to make it, are on the road 350 days a year, selling homemade CDs out of their trunks. We’re talking major label backed multi-millionaires who tour when they feel like it, and take time off when they feel like it. The ones with big fancy houses (many times, more than one), lots of acreage, a half dozen cars, a boat or two, maybe some horses, nannies to take care of the kids that get sent off to private schools...all paid for by the fans who have supported them and have given them the lifestyles they’re leading. Giving up a couple of days out of the year to give something back to the fans as a gesture of ‘thanks’ is that tough an ordeal? This is the very thing that set country music apart from any other genre- the loyalty, the close relationship between artist and fan- the feeling that the ‘stars’ were ‘plain folk,’ just like their fans, only luckier.

It’s these detached, pampered, spoiled, no-show ‘stars’ who have directly impacted the direction that Fan Fair has taken- it’s downhill slide. So why has the CMA not taken steps to correct this situation? Changing the name to the CMA Music Festival isn’t going to make them show up, so therefore no ‘stars,’ no reason for people to spend money to attend. Bringing in artists of other genres and celebrities from other fields of entertainment isn’t going to draw people to Nashville. Nashville is synonymous with ‘country music,’ a reputation that took decades to build and it’s not about to change anytime in the near (or probably even distant) future, despite the questionable ‘music’ coming out of it these days. Nashville cannot compare itself to, or try to be, Austin. Austin built it’s own reputation by being a progressive, open-minded melting pot of many different musical styles. The Austin City Limits Festival is something unto itself- styled after a long running and highly regarded TV show that has spotlighted many different musical styles over the decades. It’s a brand name that ACL has expanded upon, and why it has succeeded. Fan Fair is as much a Nashville brand name as the Grand Ole Opry, and the CMA should be looking to capitalize and expand on that, and should not be trying to copy something entirely different that works on a completely different level. Capitalizing and expanding on Fan Fair means getting the ‘names’ participating again, and not exclusively at ‘fan club’ functions- but back in the booths to meet the fans who’ve given them all they’ve been blessed with. Without their fans they’d be nowhere. It’s the responsibility of the CMA to make that happen as it’s their job to preserve and promote country music- which includes it’s heritage and it’s traditions.

As for the no-shows...take a good hard look at real artists like George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Merle Haggard, Ralph Stanley, Willie Nelson or the Opry vets, who are all well into their golden years and are still out there meeting and playing to their fans anywhere they feel they need to go- from (eeek!) fairs to small venues- not because they need to, but because they feel they owe it to the fans who have supported them all these years. They even still show up at Fan Fair after all these years. Look at artists like Waylon Jennings who kept performing as long as he was able- even if it meant taking the stage in a wheelchair. Severe pain and illness didn’t keep Tammy Wynette from performing because she never wanted to disappoint a single fan. The difference between those in it for the love of the music and the current crop of pampered cream puffs is glaringly apparent. The latter are obviously in it for nothing else but the fat bankbooks, and where the former group are the true country artists, the latter are nothing but empty acts.

Maybe one day, just one of those 61 directors that sits on the board of the CMA will finally comprehend that the country music industry just simply isn’t delivering what the fans, the listeners, the consumers of the music, really want. They’re not even in the ballpark.

AnnMarie Harrington Take Country Back

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