Is Country Music Dead?

My experience is that the industry commodified what a hit song is, thus limiting songwriting to a template. I remember attending an event where Ralph Murphy spoke to writers. He talked about how long the intros needed to be for fast and slow songs down to the second. He talked about what the tempos needed to be for fast and slow song-there were two. He talked about how long the verse needed to be until the chorus and how long the chorus needed to be. It was cookie cutter songwriting. Once that is established and you have gatekeepers ensuring that they remain, you are not going to get much change.  I never attended an event where they told writers what subjects were necessary, but apparently there is one, even if it is unspoken.

I don't think any of this would have happened if the music industry had not been bought out by conglomerates like every other industry in America. But it was- and the result with rare exceptions- is cookie cutter songs. Add in the conglomeration of radio, and you have very little chance for change imo. If you want to find good country music, in the traditional sense, with rare exceptions you are not going to find it coming out of the Nashvile-Clear Channel nexus.

FWIW: I think Lucinda Williams' "Car Wheels On A Gravel Road" was the best country album produced in the past 15 years.