What is the appeal of Southern Rock?

I was around when Southern Rock first emerged, and, as was pointed out, it was a refreshing change from the disco that was all over the airwaves. Some of it, like Sweet Home Alabama, made me uncomfortable, but a lot of it moved rock music back toward the roots of the music. After a while, as is the case with any style of music, people began jumping on the bandwagon, copying the style without the substance and it became almost a parody of itself. Still, there was a lot of good music that came out of that trend.
 
dmn23 said:
I'm not saying the artists are intolerant assholes. But the music clearly connects with those people. I've spent most of my life living in Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and northwest Florida. I've seen it. It emboldens them. They identify with something about it. So why is that?
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I bet it has more to do with hearing music on the radio where the singer has an accent like they do that isn't country music. They feel like they can relate to a Ronnie Van Zandt but they could never sit down with Robert Plant and hang out.
 
Chad said:
I bet it has more to do with hearing music on the radio where the singer has an accent like they do that isn't country music. They feel like they can relate to a Ronnie Van Zandt but they could never sit down with Robert Plant and hang out.
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That's probably true. In every shit dive I've ever been in, the guys in the parking lot that you need to worry about aren't blasting Music for Airports from their trucks.
 
It's threads like this that are making it harder and harder for me to participate here. I mean, are we really going to be ok with making the connection with having a southern accent or liking a certain type of music with being intolerant assholes? And I certainly appreciate those steering the conversation away from it but man. It seems like there are some who will take any opportunity to try to group people together and call them racists. We've got to do better than this.


Anyway, as for the original question, for me it was guitars. The multiple, hard driving guitars. It's basically what made me eventually buy a one. That and the fact that some of them included actual pianos which I think creates a very cool sound.
 
Every fan base has its lunatic fringe. Nothing wrong with pointing that out. Particularly if you talk through it and acknowledge that you were painting with a broad brush.

Let's not get ourselves all wrapped up in victimology...
 
Johnny N. said:
It's threads like this that are making it harder and harder for me to participate here. I mean, are we really going to be ok with making the connection with having a southern accent or liking a certain type of music with being intolerant assholes? And I certainly appreciate those steering the conversation away from it but man. It seems like there are some who will take any opportunity to try to group people together and call them racists. We've got to do better than this.


Anyway, as for the original question, for me it was guitars. The multiple, hard driving guitars. It's basically what made me eventually buy a one. That and the fact that some of them included actual pianos which I think creates a very cool sound.
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I hope you didn't take my comment on southern accents as a dig or that it in anyway meant a person with a southern accent is an intolerant asshole. If you did I apologize. I was merely pointing out that it is much easier to identify with folks in your area than across an ocean. Hell, half of my family has southern accents and I've been told by people in Michigan that I have one.
 
Chad said:
I've never listened to the Tragically Hip until about 20 minutes ago so I haven't spent enough time with their work decide if I like them or not, but if it turns out I don't like them, that doesn't mean they or their style of music blows. It means, I don't like them, nothing more nothing less. Music is not a sport, there isn't a World Series for the best music, you either like it or you don't.
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While I respect your opinion, that band and style of music sounds like noise to me. His vocals in that live concert clip posted is absolutely horrible. That’s not what I personally consider music. It’s IMO typical of the 90’s counter culture of music. The 80’s overindulged with shredding and production and the 90’s were the opposite. Anyone that could string a few chords together and could cat call vocals over it called themselves a musician.
As always there are exceptions and the 90’s also had some fantastic bands and music too. Just not the Tragically Hip types, IMO. It’s just too far the other way for me.
 
gtrjunior said:
While I respect your opinion, that band and style of music sounds like noise to me. His vocals in that live concert clip posted is absolutely horrible. That’s not what I personally consider music. It’s IMO typical of the 90’s counter culture of music. The 80’s overindulged with shredding and production and the 90’s were the opposite. Anyone that could string a few chords together and could cat call vocals over it called themselves a musician.
As always there are exceptions and the 90’s also had some fantastic bands and music too. Just not the Tragically Hip types, IMO. It’s just too far the other way for me.
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Totally fine that you don't like it, saying "the band sucks and the style of music blows" is wrong. They are one of the most successful Canadian bands of all time and had a career spanning 30+ years and if not for the death of their singer from brain cancer, would continue on. They Canadian post office issued a series of stamps with Rush, The Tragically Hip and The Guess Who.
 
Chad said:
Totally fine that you don't like it, saying "the band sucks and the style of music blows" is wrong. They are one of the most successful Canadian bands of all time and had a career spanning 30+ years and if not for the death of their singer from brain cancer, would continue on. They Canadian post office issued a series of stamps with Rush, The Tragically Hip and The Guess Who.
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Why do I have to guess? Geez, Chad you do this every time!
 
Hey, I am from what most consider the south, and I know many that I do feel are intolerant and less than desirable as friends. I also know many more that are salt of the earth great people. And BOTH those groups like some Southern Rock.

I grew up in the time it was hitting in the seventies. And a lot of it was useless copies of the good stuff that quickly found its way back to the corners of the unnoticed.
But when it was good, it was very good. And intolerant southern a-holes drinking and beating up minorities? Listen a little closer to the lyrics written b the best of those good ol' boys. The opinion of guns by Skynyrd in Saturday Night Special or Van Zant's view of drugs in That Smell. Intelligent, well presented points of view whether you agree with them or not
 
Gary Blanchard said:
I was around when Southern Rock first emerged, and, as was pointed out, it was a refreshing change from the disco that was all over the airwaves. Some of it, like Sweet Home Alabama, made me uncomfortable, but a lot of it moved rock music back toward the roots of the music. After a while, as is the case with any style of music, people began jumping on the bandwagon, copying the style without the substance and it became almost a parody of itself. Still, there was a lot of good music that came out of that trend.
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Gary, you're super smart and I mean that sincerely. This and your previous post were just so spot on.

I also believe that Sweet Home Alabama as a song, while a tongue and cheek swipe at Neil for Southern Man, speaks to part of our nation that so many of us underestimated. It appealed and continues to resonate to a group within the U.S. that embraced/es the hate being spewed either overtly (e.g.: Trump) or subtly(e.g. the likes of Thurmond, McConnell, and others that kept and keep getting re-elected) by conservative politicians and pundits. It helped keep (or possibly rekindled) a regional pride going and the particular region has a horribly dark side to it. And as we now know, many have never let go of the dark hatred (no pun intended) and in fact spread it to their children and grand children.

People don't necessarily realize how embedded things have become within themselves. Tom Petty was feeling that southern pride when he and the band wrote the Southern Accents album. Even the outside or co-write of Don't Come Around Here No More had a different connotation for different folks in this country...basically regionally, and not just the south. Tom talked about it years ago that he regretted dancing with the rebel flag and seeing so many folks coming to his shows with the flag on hats, shirts, jackets, belt buckles, etc. In so many words he admitted that he had a myopic view of these symbols and was not raise to view them as symbols of hate, but said it was clear that were and are.

But as has been mentioned, southern rock and country music seem to speak to a certain amount of people throughout this country in a way that supports their hatred of that which is different from them. White people in particular. But as you state, we can't generalize that to mean that if you like these musics you are this type of person. Exactly as you point out that being a fan, creator, buyer, seller, etc. of rap/hip-hop does not make one a gangbanger and certainly doesn't require you to be black and hateful of white people...even though some folks want to see things.

Back to Sweet Home Alabama. I believe it is harmonically and melodically one of the great rock tunes ever written. Lyrically, however, it speaks to aspects of southern American culture, but more broadly rural American culture, that are part of the worst of our history and sadly our present.

Using the wiki-list (whether the artist belongs there or not): The Allmans, Widespread Panic, Alabama Shakes, the Avett Bros, the Black Crowes, Canned Heat, the Fabulous T-Birds, Little Feat, JJ Cale, Leon Russell, the Subdudes, and a whole lot more have never lyrically or publicly made any allusions towards anything that would lead their fans to associate their music with small-minded bigotry. It's just some great music. But lyrics can just be bad, speak to great universal truths, speak to horrible historical and living truths, and more.

I'm rambling and don't expect anyone to have read this.

Good day sirs.




























I said GOOD DAY!
 
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