Kevin,
The Golden Era of Country Music was from 1946, right after the Second World War, until 1956 when Elvis showed up and the music began to change. After a while you get tired of listening to the same old stuff and quit listening or buying it so it fades or changes.

I was fortuntate to be able to listen to all the good Country Music from about 1950 to 1955. Most young people haven't had the experence of hearing music from the Golden Era so they have nothing to compare to when they become Artists today and can only go on what they are familiar with. That goes for all the people in the Music Business. They haven't heard much of the country music from the past so go with what seems to be the popular theme at the moment.

Back in the 50's an Artist didn't have extensive recording equipment. It was done on one track and if they didn't get it the first take they did it again until they got something that was acceptable if they got it at all.

Today it shows when a Record Label takes shortcuts when producing a record. You can't take shortcuts when you write a song and you can't take shortcuts when you record it. Some people are putting out a good product but many are not but it may make it on to the radio just the same.

One thing we have talked about is you can't force a song. If it sounds forced, and a lot of Artists have to write their own stuff because the Labels don't want to pay the full mechanical rate for outside songs that may be better for the project. Hence you hear a lot of "Crap" on the radio.

Of course there was some less than stellar music on the radio in the past also. Most of it came along with Elvis as that was the fad at the moment.

I think the ratio of good to bad music in the 50's compared to today it is no contest. You rarely heard a bad song on the Radio
in the 50's Country or otherwise. Today it is commonplace even tho some are producing superior music.

Last edited by Ray E. Strode; 02/15/09 02:46 PM.
Ray E. Strode