Toby Keith has joined the ranks of Zac Brown and Kacey Musgraves in speaking out against the current state of country music...sort of. The "Red Solo Cup" and "Drinks After Work" singer has a few issues with the genre's new hip-hop direction.
Arguably one of modern country music's best singer/songwriters, Toby Keith, has few problems with the current state of country radio. The artist recently told County Weekly about today's shift to a less traditional sound:
“There are a lot of those types of songs . . . but you play that for [the label’s radio promotion staff], and they’re like, ‘Eh, it doesn’t sound like what’s going on the radio today...Well, OK.”
He later called out hip-hop country, without completely blasting the new style:
“You hear the hip-hop thing start kicking in, and you start going, ‘Is that what we gotta do now to have a hit?’ I don’t know how to do that,” he says. “Is that what I need every one of my songs to sound like now? But . . . I’m not going to change much. And when it quits working, I’ve got other stuff to do.”
Keith also discusses fighting with his own label to release his darker, more emotional single "Hope on the Rocks," saying:
“It was a song that I just told the [label] staff, ‘We’re putting this out, so be ready to work it. . . . I gave you the ones that you wanted. You’ve had “Made in America” and “Beers Ago.” Now we’re going to do one that I want. . . .’ And they had hell with it. They really struggled getting it played everywhere. You know what it is? You can sit on the bus and sing it to two or three people who have never heard it, and they’ll just get goose bumps and go, ‘Damn, that’s powerful.’ But you start playing it to a twenty-something audience, and it’s like, ‘Naw, man, there ain’t no mud on that tire. That ain’t about a Budweiser can. That ain’t about a chicken dancing out by the river. That ain’t about smoking a joint by the haystack. That’s about somebody dying and sh-t.’”
© 2024 Classicalite All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
