So I just finished watching the movie about the band “Anvil” and it made me start to wonder where some artists who had their day in the sun are now?  Some of the first people I thought of were R&B types, like Ginuwine, Shai, Blackstreet! just to name a few.  And there are always Craig Mack to wonder about.  Country seems to be creating this more now than anywhere else, maybe it’s because I don’t pay attention to Rap and R&B as much as when I was younger, but it seems country has a new artist every day.  Guys like Justin Moore, Chris Young, and pretty much anyone who competes on a CMT show.  Makes me wonder where the acts who used to have those radio spots went, and how long will we still hear those names on the radio?  Country keeps the studs around as long as they want to, acts like Brad Paisley, Tim McGraw, George Strait and the likes.

But in the end there’s only so much time on the radio for songs and the more new ones they add and the more they play Taylor Swift and Rascal Flatts, the less time there is for those classic artists we’ve heard for years.  We’re in a weird era right now where the new artists are the ones making good solid records, Justin Moore’s album is 5 times as good as Toby Keith’s latest, Zac Brown’s album has more creativity than a million Rascal Flatts.  In the past it’s always been the “Top Artists” who got all the best songs from the songwriters, but it really seems lately people are digging artists who write their own songs more than ever.  This is a great trend for me as I’ve long preferred an artist who is writing his own songs and pouring some of themselves  into the songs.  I’m a fan of Tim McGraw but it’s very evident on his most recent album which songs he recorded but he likes them or helped write them and which songs the label said need to be on the album for singles.  That being said minus the first single, “Southern Voice” might be his best album to date.

In the end I wonder if artists like Zac Brown and Jamey Johnson are able to keep the same creativity that got them to the top of the charts, or if the labels will dumb them down like they do everyone else?