Was This Really Thought Out?

Jimmy Carter in his homebase Nashville.

Think about this ... Record companies historically sell great volumes of music to people with disposable income. Teens and 20-somethings in 2014 are not unlike their parents; they love music, they now download it instead of buying the 45 single at Woolworths.

Obviously the same record companies promote their latest Elvis/Beatles to the kids. Country music labels, shaken and awaken by Taylor Swift's Platinum pen, wanted to attract that new audience to their section of the iTunes store. The youth movement of Bro Country was underway.

With that history lesson in the books, why did radio follow those labels down the rose-colored path? Are you really going to sell cars and boats to teenagers with zero or no real buying power? I never understood that logic. Top 40 stations, yes, but taking that huge female adult audience and going with male-oriented teen music consumed by teenaged girls ... it's complicated, isn't it?

Is the music of 2014 going to mature and evolve into something like the Urban Cowboy music did? Hope so.

I still look at the fantastic history and legacy of Country and you hope this is just a phase. When you go to a show that opens with an AC/DC song, you wonder, does anyone in the audience know anything about anyone in the Country Music Hall of Fame? You wonder.

You hear the songs and look into the excited often very intoxicated fans. They sure love what they are seeing. Luke, Jason, FGL, Eric ... As the LA Times calls it, the Bad Boys of Country movement.

We have sure seen bad boys before, from Paycheck to Jones. Nothing new there ... Then why does this movement seem so different?

Taylor was and is so unique and a truly historic figure. She changed things like Garth, Elvis and The Beatles changed the business. The world survived then. Will this class of Country history change the world again?

It would so nice if the hotshots of Music Row would be like Blake, Miranda, and a few others who are on the radio today -- introduce this great new audience with no Country background to some great songs of the past ... not so much the AC/DC. Try retooling some Paycheck, Jones, Cash. Add some edge. Just a thought.

Summer movie season arrived and the concert season about here, too. April was an awful month in weather. Let's hope May begins a few months of weather-friendly festivals and great nights under the stars listening to the music.

You walk through the Country Music Hall of Fame in its new expanded splendor and you want to make sure this wonderful style of music goes on forever.

Great to see so many artists working so hard against the system. Trying for a return to the top. Artists with hits 10 and 15 years ago making videos and person appearances, still making new music. JoDee Messina, Clay Walker, The Oaks, Craig Morgan, Neal McCoy ... good luck and great travels.