What Luke can say: I don't sing about doing drugs and lying in the gutter!!! I'm not an OUTLAW I just like to chill with my bros ok?? OK is that ok with you YOU HEARTLESS COKE-SNIFFING BASTARDS??? *sob*
Uhhh... who asked you to, buddy? Little out of left field, dontcha think? COUNTRY MUSIC = DRUGS. I mean, I don't recall ever listening to Garth or Clint Black songs and thinking, "Needs more cocaine references. This ain't country!" Or hell, even Luke's own music pre-"Country Girl Shake it for the Woodchucks." There's a reason you didn't have to be defensive back then and make flailing statements about drugs, Luke. Your music was solid. Now it sucks.
I don't know why the bros are getting so belligerent about their terrible music that they keep doubling down on stupid, but I have an idea.
Deep down Luke knows how bad his songs are, but he can't say that. He sounds like a cornered animal. The best he can hope for is a distraction, no matter how ridiculous it is. Anything to keep the focus off the real issue of how much his music sucks. So let's talk about country singers who had some drug problems back in the 70s or something! Cause sure, that's relevant!
I'm gonna take it as a positive whenever someone who makes awful music says something defensive. Yeah, maybe this dumb shit will get his army of dumb fans to rally around him like a wounded puppy, but I'm just happy he feels defensive at all. Cause that means something is rattling his cage. Maybe the feeling that his days are numbered? It's mid-decade now, and I bet even the lazier fans are starting to tire of the same three chords and the same three words (truck... girl... beer) over and over. It's funny, how unreceptive I think these fellas will be to any "evolution" that doesn't play into their bank accounts. "Evolution? Whoa man, I never said I wanted that!"
And for anyone dumb enough to actually go along with this argument ("Yeah, I don't like doing drugs and lying in the gutter either! I just like chillin with my bros! Right on, man!" *chugs a Miller lite or whatever shit beer these clowns drink*) and not understand the opposition - imagine you live in a neighborhood of beautifully restored homes, with blooming gardens and sprawling green lawns. Each home is different and has its own character.
Who wouldn't want to live there?? But then a bunch of corporate creeps who care NOTHING about aesthetics or integrity or anything at all but lining their wallets, decide to tear down every one of these homes and build boring, generic condos, effectively erasing the history and beauty that came before.
THIS is today's "country music." A glass and steel monstrosity. That's not ok with me. And it has nothing to do with wanting new music to sound like "the past." The only way I want it to sound like the past is to put some damn heart and personality and originality and character into it! CONDO MUSIC SUCKS.
See, when people say they want music to be "like it used to be," most of us don't mean the same sound, necessarily. What we want is the same quality. I feel like this is misunderstood, perhaps on purpose. It's not, "Oh the good old days! Woe! Change!" It's more like, "stop being lazy dumbasses and make music that feels like something again."
EDITED TO ADD: If you like generic-country and want to keep building those condos, that's fine. Just find a vacant lot or an abandoned warehouse, like hick-hop did. You don't have to tear down my house to build yours.
