Just as I always suspected …
Music - - Posted on January, 21 at 3:59 pm by Ken L
… suicide rates are higher amongst fans of country music. Nice to have it officially confirmed.
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37 Responses to “Just as I always suspected …”
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January 21st, 2008 at 4:45 pm
I’d better warn the kids to keep me away from anything sharp …
January 21st, 2008 at 7:26 pm
Down by the barbed wire,where the kookaburra sometimes lands on an old wooden post,this man of the country I think I am,cannot always feel impressed by the beer bottles lying on the ground near the burn out stump on the farmers side of the rusty fence,where a natural speed hump is a unnatural but modern lament.I cried to the ants who have made that their new house,I cried to the Echidna ,I cried out to the hot sun,I cried to all the lost sons.War and an American bush couldnt let me see, the forests from the trees,I saw the coffins though,I felt the pressure on my knees.P-L-E-A-S-E.I heard old songs playing on the radio,and yet there wasnt one around,I saw myself wondering what had happened to this land,where the enemy hasnt even seen a rabbit hole exploded in the ground.I saw myself,as lonely as I have always been trying to not be, cry please and put pressure on my knees,even if age and all that, passes under a choice of old or new hat.I felt like an impostor when an Australian Aboriginal family had another funeral.Hell,I am Australian,why go the way of these suicidal days,but if I run now across the burnt broken bottles,I will cut my feet in my spirit,while my boots in the day get me through.Is this all me, I cried, and heard my echo,is there some of me in you! The me and you combined in echo as yowie as my hairy arm wiped a tear and perspiration away..it was another day in Australia and I wasnt lost,but shit,did I know the way!? Mouth organ accompanying and a larger phone on a long stick with a skull and ghostly apparel.
January 21st, 2008 at 7:43 pm
Death by Homicide is higher amongst wankers who deride country music without knowing a pedal steel from a dobro.
January 22nd, 2008 at 7:40 am
I’m dying to get to Tamworth tomorrow.
January 22nd, 2008 at 9:00 am
In addition to this research being highly questionable, it is ancient. I posted about it in 2004.
An article about the flaws in the Stack/Gundlach research. [PDF]
January 22nd, 2008 at 9:15 am
Hmmm. A weekend at Tamworth listening to country music or suicide. Decisions, decisions.
January 22nd, 2008 at 9:24 am
You can take music too seriously if you have to defend by mentioning homicide or ancient being a sum total 3 multiplied by say 365 days plus a few days.There is a joy in not hearing The ballad of Tom Dooley everyday as one of very few songs being played.And sometimes even the Pub with no beer..needs a real dingo call.This site is neither dingo or wild dog…it is a sad attack,seeing ,country music in Oz is dominated by a seemingly American agenda,and over promoted stuff that doesnt resonate with all country people,like we couldnt write a song about the River Boy and how sad his success to me is in some way.Even appealing to Korris as a result of honesty and not pretence.Anyone with the required Australian accent,and Australian born,as a pain sometimes in itself,plus friend with the basic tools are then given a non-legal right to this song of mine..if it passes the boss here, as worthy.Give some money to an appropriate charity as thanks!
January 22nd, 2008 at 9:25 am
Death by Homicide is higher amongst wankers who deride country music without knowing a pedal steel from a dobro.
Why would I want (or need) to know anything about farm machinery?
January 22nd, 2008 at 9:33 am
Only good thing to come out of country music is the Dixie Chicks
The shameless aping of American values and music at tamworth is cringe making. I heard one eager participant telling the world the other day how Australian it all was especially the line dancing which she loved. Line dancing for Christ’s sake. Had anyone heard of line dancing before Billy Ray Cyrus, he of the massive mullet, inflicted achey breaky heart on us?. Country music is an invention of America. Only good thing about Tamworth is that it keeps the flannellette shirt makers in business and for a week at least it keeps the bogans off the street.
January 22nd, 2008 at 9:56 am
A brief sample of musical genres not invented in Australia:
jazz
rock
opera
classical
rocksteady
pop
blue-eyed soul
nu metal
qawwali
blues
afropop
folk
bubblegum
gospel
novelty songs
christmas carols
nursery rhymes
doof doof
January 22nd, 2008 at 10:18 am
#8 :).
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:25 am
my guess is that people might actually find it comforting rather than depressing to listen to music that dwells on other people’s ordinary troubles. maybe the sense of misery shared and of ‘not being alone in feeling like this’ would have a positive psychological effect, and would contribute to a sense of belonging rather than a sense of alienation which would probably have more negative psych effects.
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:32 am
A brief sample of musical genres not invented in Australia and not claimed as being somehow intrinsically Australian, or as representing ‘real’ Australia:
jazz
rock
opera
classical
rocksteady
pop
blue-eyed soul
nu metal
qawwali
blues
afropop
folk
bubblegum
gospel
novelty songs
christmas carols
nursery rhymes
doof doof
The whole Tamworth ‘thang’ is no more ‘authentically’ Australia than any other musical genre.
I wouldn’t mind Country so much if Country fans wasn’t continually bleating on about how ‘authentic’ it was.
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:44 am
If Australians do it, it is authentically Australian and the real Australia and intrinsically Australian. No need for the scare quotes.
And if you don’t think Australian identity and the identity of Australians has been mediated through some of those other genres, you’re dreamin’.
I wouldn’t mind country’s detractors so much if it wasn’t so obvious their disdain was pure class bigotry.
January 22nd, 2008 at 12:36 pm
floopmeister: When and where do country music fans bleat on about how authentic it is?
Blues fans perhaps, Springsteen fans possibly, punk fans yes.
You must have spent too much time listening to Macca and Australiaallfeckinover.
January 22nd, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Fair point about Australian identity being mediated through other genres, Amanda.
And also about the use of scare quotes.
But:
I wouldn’t mind country’s detractors so much if it wasn’t so obvious their disdain was pure class bigotry.
strikes me as beyond the point. There’s as much class bigotry towards any other forms of music on the part of many of the country music fans I know (and I’m talking my truck driving brother in law and my relatives from Elmore, Warracknabeal and Stawell) as there is from myself towards country music.
Country music does not speak to me emotionally, spiritually or culturally - and that’s the damn point. It is not designed to - much as hip hop is not really concerned with speaking of the experiences of rural life (not that I much like hip hop either, but that’s beyond the point).
All well and good. But I don’t find the same defensive patriotism and reflexive insularity about minority cultural values (and let’s be honest - this genre is expressing the cultural values of a minority of this country) in other forms of Australian music or popular culture.
Does that make me a class bigot? Or simply a majority populist?
January 22nd, 2008 at 12:55 pm
The class comment was not directed at you in particular. However, so many people cannot simply say, as you do, it does not “speak to them”, they have to wrap it up in a whole package of attitudes.
Why the references to bogans and rednecks, ubiquitous in such discussions? Those slurs are absolutely class based, and no mention of country music (whatever that is, your characterisation of it is woefully narrow, but whatever) can go by without them.
What do mullets have to do with music other than to dog whistle on the topic of class? Class attitudes, even (especiaclly) in people who pride themselves on being politically progressive, are absolutely at the heart of these conversations.
And this obsession with whether or not country music is or can be “authentically Australian” is the most thoughtlessly insular attitude of them all.
January 22nd, 2008 at 2:22 pm
floopmeister if country music doesn’t speak to you then thats fine but that doesn’t mean that all country music is crap.
There is a lot of crap in the country genre as there is in folk, irish music, cock rock, prog rock, pop, doof, raggae, grunge and so on. Hell we might even agree on what is a crap country song or a country song performed crappily.
Achy Breaky Heart is just a fun pop song with a country touch and it’s good to line dance to. Line dancing can be fun as can waltzing and pogoing
January 22nd, 2008 at 3:25 pm
I remember Tim told me when I first started blogging here that it was impossible to predict which posts would trigger the liveliest comment threads :-).
January 22nd, 2008 at 4:46 pm
All music is crap/wonderous.
That settle it?
•••••••••••••••••••••••••
My music collection includes (or has in the past), pretty well every musical genre, from LeAnn Rimes and Kenny Rogers, through ABBA, Supertramp, Pink Floyd, Steely Dan, Ol’ 55 (just for you Frankie), Led Zeppelin, Frank Zappa, Tom Waits, Shaddupayaface, Blind Mango Chutney’s Greatest Near Hits, Beatles, Jamiroquai, absolutely bucketloads of all sorts of guitar music, Norah Jones, Miles Davis, Clifford Brown (Clifford who? I hear many of you say, ignorant peasants…), Cage, Glass, Gamelan orchestra, Gregorian chants, Byrd, Mozart, and Bach (of course). And many, many, many others.
I have yet to find a genre that didn’t have a decent piece or two in it.
Yes, that even includes opera (eg Purcell). There, I said it.
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:05 pm
OK, tried to think about whether I was being unfair to the genre of country music or not, and to try and encapsulate why I actively dislike it more than any other genre of music. (and believe me I’ve got albums from every genre on that list above except blue-eyed soul).
The reason has nothing to do with the music - the beat, the chord arrangements, whatever. Jeez, the first conversation I ever had with my wife was over our shared love of Neil Young.
But country is not really about the music. It’s about the lifestyle that country denotes.
I googled ‘country music tamworth’ and went straight to the website of the Country Music Association of Australia and found this following quote right at the top of the damn page:
Country music, with its rich images of people, places and landscapes, and its stories of love and loss, and shared hardship and humour, captures and expresses the indomitable spirit of Australians living and working in rural and outback regions.
While four out of every five Aussies live in, or near, big cities located on the coastal fringe, the “spirit of the bush” still resonates in the hearts and minds of many regardless of where we live.
No mention of the music there – it’s all about the cultural values. Country music is a socio-political marker for people – it captures and expresses the indomitable spirit of Australians living and working in rural and outback regions.
Now of course every music does this (I was a damn Goth rocker in the early 90’s, ferchrissakes, and I was definitely marking myself through my music) but I simply find the cloyingly patriotic guff served up with a great deal of mainstream Country well, cloying.
Country music appeals to a wide range of Australians who share the pride and the passion that these performing and recording artists feel for our country.
Like a twangy chord or two with your patriotism?
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Person finds press release stupid. ZOMG!! Hold the front page!!!1!!
But country is not really about the music
Speak for yourself, pal.
January 22nd, 2008 at 6:34 pm
floop - aah the Macca Myths of Australia. I personally hold Macca and the ABC responsible for this elevation of the wholesome rural purity above the dirty amoral city. As Dale Watson would say about that Tamworth blurb and Macca:
Hey, that’s country, my ass,
Who do they think we am?
Force-feed us that shit.
Ain’t you real tired of it?
Tell ‘em, stick it up high,
Where the sun don’t shine.
Get pissed, an’get mad,
’cause that’s country, my ass
January 22nd, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Slim Dusty was a hard working man,I have no problem with that.The man from Grafton up the road from here,may have less education than me,but, in another sense,his brilliance,which my disdain is about is his singing,not his songs,not him,his accent,which I can do and a number of others…because I lived through the sixties feasting my eyes on cowboy shows adventure shows..John Wayne…Thank you Ma.am next stop Vietnam,The Black and White Minstrel Show,and heaps of other U.S.A. accents.And even Lionel Rose,of he will sell you cauliflower ears,if youse accuse him of havin too many beers..not really.So my general disdain for Australian Country is it seems all marketing towards the U.S. accept for a few exceptions that are flogged to death.I wont say anything about Macca. he knows my opinion about him..If Nice was a disease of youth,Macnamara has had one too many.So many intelligent Australians end up on it like flies in his spider web.What a shame.There must be better ways to employ the University educated.Class conscious, yes!?But I will listen to American country singers,if they have something to say,and often they have.Yodeling is a fine art,its creative range could extend into Blues,as much as the scream extending and fading.People with confidence and money may not always get the range in their voice…youve got to be out in the rain on a cold day to know how to reproduce the vocal matter with the feeling.Musical stuff is to extend feelings and imagination,but, cannot replace real life experiences…as being sung to death is known to every native tribe,incl. us whiteys.I await the Grafton man,to sing and be applauded by me as a Australian,rather than a country and western singer of deep Australian origin.A persons own voice not modelled on anyone else,must surely mean a new genre,as the musical support offers the methodological soundings and extensions,within the limitations of pleasant sound with the variation of mood and temperament.Musos will battle with the singers personality a sure sign of emotional expertise,neither will be wrong.If you havent cried about broken glass everywhere,many have.The speed hump is like a put down of the camel,a wild event now in Australia beyond acceptance.Tragedies at the steering wheel disturb so greatly,that many good American singers have gone down that way,and didnt recover from maybe the pain before they left.The country has as many undiscovered miseries as highs lets proceed to be proud of our feelings,even when maybe, others will judge us grimly…you maybe able to agree with their reasoning.A good put-down song sung with a genuineness,may not be where the spare capital goes as a result of sales…
January 22nd, 2008 at 9:37 pm
I whistled in the dog,it didnt believe what it heard,being a lay scientist,I wanted to observe,how my experiment,like some old Russian psychologist by the name of Pavlov would bend what the whistle meant. So I played around with a umpires whistle,a Canadian forest walker s,I waited for the trucks to be beating down and around the curves and chicanes,I had reverberations and Fouriers Transforms on my brain.Thats a mathematical theory a leg up the tree of learning,to tiring for a dog and all that follow and say..we ..of….dog!So I wasnt known as a collector of things electronic and mags too,they dont go on wheels like some doggy do doo do.I found the perfect anti dog thing,to push a little when I blew a whistle,whilst the trucks came thundering down the road.So I learnt a lesson,about attraction and distraction,and how cruelty to the mind should be a well disposed butt of no satisfaction.There are these electronic things you can buy,gauranteed to stop the barking,whist a whistle and a truck a thundering are causes regularly of man and dog and cruelty.So attraction and distraction,I have learnt as of disatisfaction,are like a long line marked in the middle of the road,I whistle to you so friendly,whilst the other ear hears the old tape of our experiences as not so friendly.The scientist in me had learnt a lesson beyond, my immediate wisdom,a toothless whistle with a bite like Draculas to only be repeated,if the bloody dog has cheated,and swallowed a whistle and knows how to press a anti-barking electronic thing whilst its owners are about the last rites and God Bless.
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:03 pm
FXH - I’m afraid it goes back further than Macca and the ABC!
Just look at the original meaning of words like urban/urbane and civilised. They originally meant city dweller/urbanite. as did citizen.
The city has always been synonymous with civilisation. Oh, and suburban essentially means ‘half civilised’…
Anyways, I’m just stirring the pot now…
Apologies for any ruffled feathers Amanda - it’s just a personal opinion built up over many a family christmas…
And anyway, you try being a Hawkwind and Marillion prog rock fan - country fans don’t know how good they have it!
January 23rd, 2008 at 7:48 am
I am utterly unruffled.
Here’s a country song even ken could love:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=si0WTCMrksw&feature=related
January 23rd, 2008 at 9:47 am
Nothing wrong with not liking country music on class grounds. Us latte drinking chardonnay swilling elites have to put up with all this snob crap from country music supporters all the time Bout time they realised we think they are all dumb arsed red necks; white bread bogan full of faux patriotism and sickening flag waving jingoism led by the high prince of it all Macca. You want to hear dog whistling listen to that show.
PS I have every one of John Wlliamson’s CDs
January 23rd, 2008 at 11:07 am
The reality is that the suicide rate per capita is higher in the bush, the home of country music. This is due to various reasons, the very, very least being the mostly encouraging lyrics and tunes of the likes of Kernaghan, Harvey and Casser-Daly. The life in the bush is hard, the land in unforgiving, it is isolated, with the next person being some miles away in most instances. The young have little interaction with their own, and are predominately lonely. There are few resources dedicated to helping depressed farmers, depressed farmers wives and depressed youth. There is a sense of hopliness at times, and an expectation that you keep your shoulder to the wheel no matter what.
Any event by country music artists are well patronised, for the music, the company and the rare times people have time to enjoy life in each others company.
The weight of lonliness, expectation and lack of understanding is predominately the reason for the high suicide rate in the bush, not the wonderful music that one can actually understand and it actually makes sense in the most part.
January 23rd, 2008 at 11:36 am
floop - I’m an ex farmer and semi-trailer owner-driver and I hate macca and his fourth reich with a vengence. Its ages since I took boxing lessons and went a few rounds but I’m often tempted to ring him up and challenge.
Unlike others here I live in a real city, Melbourne, and only venture into the country in airconditioned 4 wheeled music machines these days.
And floop - I hope you will note the respect that amanda and myself showed you even after you mentioned your dirty little shameful gothy secret. No sneers at goths or jesus and mary chain. Admirable restraint on our part. Still thats us country fans for you.
amanda - I’d give up on trying to educatte Ken L on music - two words describe him - Philly Stine.
January 23rd, 2008 at 1:12 pm
I love trains.
January 23rd, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Brain entrainment isnt well known in Oz,as a problem because,those who could be critical of noise and frequencies locking onto the brain are unlikely to see that any form of harmonic reality can obscure another harmony locking into the same brain,and its unlikely description is the brain entrainment scenario.Years may pass in Oz, as if our brains and what they can really understand and explain should be for those in control ,it occurs to me,to be, like planes dropping abortions as bombs on the remaining brains who think they are sane by having no doubt about themselves and what they may say and believe ,like they have conceived by what they believe a faster set of realities than a mag-lev, or the steam particles from the memories I have left.Weirdo,I may be,in having memories below the consciousness of descriptive words,and as absurd it may seem I dont accept the word love can ever be applied to trains,because after all the dimensional realities of life,allow an individual to explain moments of Einsteins thinking by listening to the approaching train from long distances through to it flashing past in front and forward into the distance,and ask oneself blunt,my experience was greater than my eyes,and to my surprise as I look both ways down the parallel lines into a sunset,am I that intelligent….that all this wasnt inside my brain as well.Oh! Hell!I cannot tell, if my accomodation,my station in life,is always next to the rail ribbons and there is nothing forgiving in a train passing by every night in the hours of the growing powers of adult life.Past present and future tense,like old rules of football,make me do call,I cannot love trains,I see them in my personality ,even by passing the mirror to stop like trains do.Give me any word that is in English and I will be setting off without passengers to distantly arrive,where people will alight,and to me a good sleep is better than the words good night.There is a cruelty about trains because even as a word,almost anyone can observe,all the connections in the mind thereof,and my father with sledgehammer in hand,swinging the thing over his shoulder,doesnt make the runaway train in the dreams of my sleep, not stopping for him to insure the detonators of his paranoia through being a safe worker are not passed to me… in the sublime.[preview style please]
January 25th, 2008 at 10:51 am
floopmeister - I couldn’t help thinking of you - http://larvatusprodeo.net/2008/01/24/casuistry-challenge-xi/
I’d rather be forced to listen to Macca 24/7
January 25th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Nah, wrong look mate. I was always more like this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:The_Cult-Electric_%28album_cover%29.jpg
Not a goth, mate.
A goth rocker.
Sheesh, don’t you know anything?
January 25th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
They all look the same to me.
Didn’t that Cult dude go on to be Jim Morrison or something?
January 25th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
They all look the same to me.
Sounds like you’re deriding Gothic rock without knowing a Bauhaus from a banshee…
Yeah, so I heard, although apparently the Cult have reformed, so… beats me.
January 27th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Having just learned (via KenL, EC & Joe2 elsewhere)that Charlie Daniels sang 2 or 3 of my favourite songs, does this mean I’ve just reduced my life expectancy?