This podcast by Matt Walsh is brilliant. However he misses what is perhaps the most important factor in the death of American music artistry, particularly of the Country, Rock, and Blue genres: the passing of Agrarianism. I'm speaking of musical artistry born of the existentialist/survivalist era, i.e. the struggle against rural poverty from 1865 to around 1975. These genres were fed by the passions of young men and women who had experienced real poverty and sought a path out of it. Elvis, Loretta Lynn, Dolly, Glen Campbell, Hank Williams, Jimmy Rogers, Mother Maybell Carter, on and on we could go. These were born into an existential struggle, had tasted the pain of working in a hot summer field with their backs bent over a potato or cotton crop. You could feel the genuine emotions in their songs. That is gone, and their appears to be no path back to it. The internet has contributed to the demise, yet we are thankful that the internet preserves those memories. I spent the evening last night listening to Riley Puckett on Youtube, one of the earliest hillbilly recording artists. What a pleasure it was to feel that Old Timeyness in the banjo and guitar, songs about things like "Sauerkraut, only 5 cents one time" and "I'm Ragged but Right". The Osborn brothers captured the changes happening in the 70's with "Georgia Piney Woods", lamenting the passing of the old times with its characteristic "cracked linoleum on the floor" replaced with plush carpeting and getting paid "by the hour". It's a terrible paradox. Prosperity came and fed us well, but destroyed our identity.
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Ep. 1772 - Rock Music is Completely Dead. This is Why.
Podcast Episode · The Matt Walsh Show · May 1 · 45m
