Random ramblings about music...

I've used this space to mention my preference for country music on a number of different occasions. I like country for a number of reasons, but, as I think I've mentioned before, the biggest draw for me comes because as a writer, I'm drawn to quality songwriting. You can say what you want about country music, but I will make and stand behind the assertion that Nashville is home to the greatest collective songwriting talent that there is in any popular genre of music. Certainly there are immensely talented songwriters at work across all genres, but I don't think any genre can compete with country music for the sheer volume of quality lyrics that are penned and make it to the radio on a consistent basis.

I think the reason for this is obvious: the song is much more of the focus in country than in many other genres. You can have all the glitz, glamour, and image in the world, but if you don't find your way to quality songs, you probably aren't even going to qualify as a flash in the pan in the country universe. So, if you're a talented songwriter who wants to recognized for your work on a consistent basis, country is going to have a pull for you.

Songs can hit on a number of different levels. They can be simply very raw and real, like the song I posted several days ago, "Picture to Burn". They can be particularly clever and make me chuckle, like Brad Paisley's current single, "I'm Still a Guy". Or a song can be very profound and inspirational, like George Strait's current hit, "I Saw God Today". It's exceedingly rare that a song is a major country hit without falling into one of those categories. That fact is, in my perspective, why you tend to find country hits to be of a more enduring quality, rather than songs that everyone loves and hears over and over for a period of weeks, and then gets sick of. That's not to say that such a thing always happens in other genres, or never happens in country.

Anyhow, there's not a major point to this particular rambling. I was just reflecting on how much I was really enjoying the current group of songs that are at the top of the country charts, and so I got to thinking about what was really behind that.