The genre Tom Petty thought should die: “I think it’s just dreadful”
True artists can generally sniff out inauthenticity in no time. It’s one thing to perform a song just because you like listening to it, but the minute that artists get into the business solely to make money, it’s about time that they pack it in lest they face the ridicule of every one of their peers. While Tom Petty never put out anything that he wasn’t delighted with, he admitted that he was sad to see country music being reduced to the most milquetoast music he had ever heard.
Since the Heartbreakers were never that far away from country, they had grown up in the same stomping grounds that brought southern-fried rock like The Allman Brothers Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd to the world, and even when they moved to California, it wasn’t uncommon to see them rubbing elbows with artists like the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac.
Whereas most country music around that time went back to people like George Jones and Johnny Cash, something strange started to happen in the 1990s. Despite moving into more contemporary production with artists like The Chicks and Shania Twain, country music went through one of its biggest reinventions ever.
Suddenly, it was fine for country radio to embrace modern trends, which led to artists like Tim McGraw and Rascal Flatts bringing a pop-flavoured version of the genre to the masses. Somewhere along the line, some wires got crossed, and Petty could see that something was very wrong.
When talking about how country music has evolved, Petty thought that the entire genre was taking a giant step backwards, telling BAM, “I think they probably did that to aim it at a young audience—the people who can’t go for Marilyn Manson, but they’re somewhere in the middle. So, they feed them this crap. I think it’s just dreadful—like all them hats and everything. It’s just silly to me. They all look like the same guy. There’s probably somebody still good out there, but, as a whole, I think we can dismiss the genre.”
While the sounds of Shania Twain were probably going to be approved by moms and dads a lot easier than Nine Inch Nails would, Petty may have been a musical Nostradamus, considering where the genre went next. Instead of capitalising on artists that had something to say, the 2010s may have been its lowest point, with every song being a carbon copy of odes to drinking beer and driving trucks, all while having little to no women in the mix for some reason.
It’s not like Petty didn’t know what he was talking about, either. He had studied some of the best, like Hank Williams, and no one gets a better seal of approval from the country community than working with acts like Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. Then again, maybe some people are actually starting to listen to Petty now that he’s gone.
Outside of the tribute album that came out recently, artists like Chris Stapleton are taking the crux of that older country music and putting a bit more muscle behind it. Most of us will have to see what it grows into, but if the next generation can appreciate a song like ‘Tennesse Whiskey’, maybe Petty’s favourite country music is due for a resurrection.
