I grew up in Weld County, CO, a wonderful place where
everything was centrally located. Centrally located around corn that is. I went
to school, played sports, and learned to love science adjacent to a field.
Common sights around our campus were dirty pickups with stars and bars, while
commonly seen in roadside ditches were empty cans of chew and mountain dew.
While I was surrounded this concentrated rural community, I never fully became
a part of it. I made friends enough to get by, but mostly avoided getting too
comfortable with the large families of the town (there were three families that
everyone was related to). My largest reluctance was to the music of the town…
Country music. I had grown up with the old fashioned type and I always enjoyed
it. My dislike was for pop country. The “I chase after women and trucks” songs
that encouraged subpar lyrics and a mundane musical composition were indicative
of my most hated music genre. My assumption
that all country music was wretched made me incredibly close-minded to the
style.
Today I heard an interview with Chris Stapleton that shifted
my perception. He spoke about how he writes his music and claimed that if a
song takes longer than 2-3 hours to write, it probably isn’t worth finishing.
He states that it should be relatively easy and the song should basically write
itself. This took me aback because of my bias and I had to rethink my distaste
for country music because of how passionate this man was for his art. I realized that his music was his way of life and expression, and it would be wrong of me to toss it aside like some cheap hat.
These experiences, coupled with the privilege walk from
class, have made me question some of the ideas I thought I had. I am now
struggling with how to shape my beliefs and how best to make them allowable to
change.
https://www.npr.org/2017/12/01/566792792/chris-stapleton-dives-into-his-archives-for-from-a-room-volume-2
This also really opened my eyes. I kind of thought that the modern pop country for the most part was kind of a sell out. And maybe that's part of it, but as I've gotten older I realize that it's not such a bad thing. At the end of the day, you want to live, and you need money to do that. So I have recently come to terms with this concept, but I didn't really think about the other creative side of the argument. Even if I don't like it, doesn't mean that they aren't expressing themselves. Thank you for bringing up a different way for me to look at issues such as these.
ReplyDeleteI am also astounded on how compelling his music can be during the writing process. I wish it were possible for me to be so inspired that I am able to write easily for a few hours and create a master piece. I suppose there are different methods of creativity that work for different people.
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