The Soapbox: Country Music is Dead? We Didn't Know It Was Sick!

 

Alan Jackson recently fanned the flames for those convinced that "real country music" is dead while promoting new album Where Have You Gone.

"It's like the 1980s again," Jackson said. "I'm 62 years old; I'm not some 30-year-old stud. It's not the same, but somebody has to bring it back, because it's not just people in their 50s, it's people in their 20s, too. All the kids and young people around my house? The older they've got, the more hardcore and traditional what they've leaned into has become. It's not old-school, it's the real school. And I'm kinda pissed off ... about what's happened to the format, or whatever they wanna call it."

He wasn't the first country singer in recent years to give the genre a poor bill of health. Loretta Lynn's comments about the state of country music on the Vocal Point With Martina McBride podcast grabbed headlines in 2020.

"They've already let it [die]," Lynn told McBride (as reported by People). "I think it's dead. I think it's a shame. I think it's a shame to let a type of music die. I don't care what any kind of music it is. Rock, country, whatever. I think it's a shame to let it die, and I'm here to start feeding it."

Even Kelly Clarkson wrote a eulogy, ironically getting the type that loses sleep over pop-country excited about someone with a No. 1 duet with Jason Aldean.

"You know why? Because country music doesn't sound country anymore...Country music is gone. Like, I don't know who's making it, but there might be like four people. Now it's like weird word rap," Clarkson said. "I love that when I started doing country they were like 'Oh, you're pop. You can't do country.' I was like 'I'm sorry, let me show you this list of the Top 20,' which by the way did not include one female."

McBride, Reba McEntire and others' laments specifically target the lack of sonic and social diversity on country radio--a more valid argument that's at the heart of what makes sweeping claims about country music's demise objectionable.

To be fair, Jackson and Lynn certainly have deep insight into what's changed in the genre, and speaking their minds is part of both Country Music Hall of Fame members' appeal. Shoot, everyone's entitled to their opinion about something as subjective as whether or not what's coming out of Texas, Tennessee and other musical hotbeds now measures up to old favorites.

Those opinions become ahistorical and downright annoying when they dismiss current country artists on the basis of so-called "authenticity," oftentimes because today's music continues a longstanding tradition of outside influences shaping a modern country sound.

"Authenticity" gets the condescending quotation mark treatment here because it's always been a marketing ploy. An artist considered by many to be country music's first star, Fiddlin' John Carson was promoted nearly 100 years ago as a bumpkin despite having lived for years around Atlanta's modern conveniences. The machine behind him wanted to impress both rural folks and Carson's fellow city slickers that'd moved from the farm to a mill village.

There's parallels between how and why Carson got presented as the embodiment of rural values and the likes of Thomas Rhett, Luke Bryan and Florida Georgia Line doubling down in song that they are indeed country. (Gosh, it's as if those slayers of all things right and pure about Nashville might've taken a cue from a subjectively better song titled "You're Lookin' at Country!")

Claims that some unidentified force let country music die at some unspecified point in the 21st century often have a lot to do with what Clarkson calls "weird word rap." Sure, it makes sense that people who only subscribe to half of the old "I listen to all music except country and rap" cliche would avoid today's stars aside from Miranda Lambert, Chris Stapleton, Eric Church and a handful of others. But why is it that the "real" ones got to incorporate jazz (Willie Nelson), blue-eyed soul (Charlie Rich), R&B (Ronnie Milsap), gospel (The Oak Ridge Boys), classic rock (most of your '90s faves) and the pop music of their time (a long list highlighted by Glen Campbell and Barbara Mandrell), yet more modern influences somehow killed an entire genre?

There's one thing we can all agree on when talking about country music: much of its audience value the roots of their raising. But what if I told you that Rhett, Bryan and the Georgian in FGL make music that lines up with my rural experience? During my high school days in Northwest Georgia, you'd be as likely to hear the latest joint by Master P or future country festival regular Nelly blaring from a jacked-up pickup truck as the familiar chorus of a Garth Brooks or George Strait song. We're all close enough in age that I assume that guys like Sam Hunt, Cole Swindell and others from small towns in Georgia knew the same kinds of rednecks, and that influenced their visions of where country music should go next. (This surely happened well beyond the Georgia state line circa 2001. I'm just tying this observation to personal experience.)

Really, it's no different than Travis Tritt and other fellow Georgians coming of age with not just Merle Haggard and George Jones but also The Eagles, Lynyrd Skynyrd and other rock acts with a tinge of twang and incorporating both sets of influences into their own sound. (For whatever it's worth, I prefer Tritt and his musical diet over most of the current artists I'm defending, but that doesn't mean I get my nose out of joint about what gets labeled nowadays as country. Focus on what you like, not what others desperately need to know is beneath you.)

Read More: Premiere: Shannon McNally Puts a New Spin on Waylon Jennings' 'Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line'

And while we're talking about older music, the idea that some country acts are "hardcore" (focused on more traditional instrumentation and lyrical topics) while others are "soft-shell" (pop-influenced) dates back to the early days of the genre. As country music scholar Amanda Martinez wrote on Twitter last summer, Roy Acuff replaced a pop-country trio by the standards of the time, The Vagabonds, as the Grand Ole Opry's top insurance pitcher.

There is no more tired claim than ?real country? is dying, and it?s one that?s existed as long as country music itself. For instance, back in the 1930s Roy Acuff replaced the ?pop? country group the Vagabonds as the most popular act on the Opry. pic.twitter.com/aKBQAEEcBd

— Amanda Marie Martinez (@Amammartinez) July 15, 2020

Lastly, the current reckoning with the country music industry's horrible track record with racial and gender identity equality makes longing for the good old days tone-deaf. I don't know what's in Jackson or the Coal Miner's Daughter's hearts, but it's doubtful that either have a mean bone in their bodies when it comes to underrepresented voices in the genre. If anything, they have rooting interests: Jackson for collaborator Caylee Hammack and Lynn for Tara Thompson and other kinfolks. That said, it's regressive on many levels to deem the country music business dead at a time when many journalists and academics' best work--plus the undeniable talents of Chapel Hart, Brooke Eden and others that don't look or love like most classic artists--might someday help clear a path for the genre to represent a much broader and more accurate range of country people.

Experts Blame Pop Influences for Country Radio’s Low Ratings

 

Country radio is in a ratings slump. An no, it’s not due to the rise of streaming and other listening options, though this isn’t helping. This particular ratings slump shows up as a percentage of the overall radio market that is consuming music through the radio medium, country or otherwise. In the country radio PPM ratings for June 2019, the format came in at the lowest June ratings in a decade, and June is usually the period when country radio listeners swell due to summer listening. What is the cause?

In the current issue of Country Aircheck, numerous industry professionals spoke both on and off the record about the issue, and the primary culprits they cite are the pop nature of so many country songs making country radio unable to distinguish itself from other radio formats, the proliferation of #1 radio stars that most of the public can’t recognize, and the cozy nature between the radio industry and major labels.

“Privately, programmers will say that too many singles from top artists aren’t testing well,” Country Aircheck says in the article. “The format’s hits are spread out amongst a wide array of mostly unfamiliar artists. We’re not developing a new generation of superstars. The music sounds too pop, lacks distinctiveness and isn’t generating interest or conversation in the broader culture.”

Albright & O’Malley & Brenner is a premier country radio consulting company based out of Seattle, Washington. Becky Brenner of the company was one of the few who was willing to speak on record about the issue.

“The theory is we’re allowing country to become too song driven without developing new superstars,” Brenner says. “Country has always been about listener passion for artists. When it becomes harder to distinguish who’s who and there’s an increase of pop sounds in the music, this tends to be the result … We need balance. That’s the key, and hard to do if so much of the music has that pop sound. This format survives by being mass appeal with a mass audience. Right now, there are so many artists, and you can’t get mass appeal agreement. That waters down the impact of any one artist.”

These sentiments are exactly what Saving Country Music and many concerned country fans have been saying about country radio for many years. If country music can’t distinguish itself from other radio formats, it will fail. And when you have artists like Brett Young and Cole Swindell with four #1 singles on country radio, yet 95% of Americans couldn’t pick either of them out of a lineup, you’re not doing the format any favors. The system that allows most any male country artist on a major label to receive a #1 on radio might spread the attention around equally, but it results in a lack of resonance with listeners since the ascent up the charts isn’t organic. Instead it’s driven my labels looking to launch the careers of artists with lackluster appeal and little distinctiveness.

“While not a new issue, the close alignment between record labels and reporting stations—often a format strength—may be stifling audience familiarity with songs and artists,” Country Aircheck concludes. One top programmer told the periodical anonymously, “The pressure labels put on programmers does not service the needs of the listener. It is focused on the marketing plan and timetable of the record company.”

In other words, country radio does not have the autonomy to decide what to play, and to let listener appeal and data drive who gets played, and what songs go #1. And when songs do hit #1 on country radio, they rarely stay there for more than a week, meaning the format is not developing any new back list classics for the future, or superstars to sing them.

The conclusion of the current Country Aircheck article also dovetails with another article published in the periodical in May that highlighted how radio station 92.5 WBEE out of Rochester, New York saw a ratings increase when they went in the opposite direction of most of country radio.

“We policed the excessive number of ‘snap tracks’ and drinking songs, and we were increasingly more selective over which new songs got added and exposed,” said program director Bob Barnett. “In addition, we re-introduced a number of older gold titles back into the mix to try and achieve a better ‘mainstream’ country music mix. Through late summer and fall, I felt like much of the new music coming in was all beginning to sound the same—and we were missing variety and depth—so, we adjusted the gold mix.”

The conclusions of this new Country Aircheck article also have implications on the concern of the lack of women being represented at country radio. Though the common complaint about radio centers on program directors at radio stations and massive station owners such as Cumulus and iHeartMedia purposely excluding women exclusively due to their sex, as it’s laid out in the new article, it is often the record labels that are responsible for big determinations on who country radio plays, and how often.

Many of the singles released by women in country grade better with listeners than they perform on radio, partly because they don’t receive the same support from the labels that singles from men do, either via print ads in periodicals such as Country Aircheck, or in personal interactions between people within the industry. Meanwhile up-and-coming male artists are almost guaranteed #1’s on radio, and with the glut of male artists all needing to get their chance at #1, it’s diluting the talent pool.

But the other reality the low ratings expose is that radio is losing its importance as the primary driver behind an artist’s career, at least at the mainstream level. Though radio still draws a massive audience and can be important to a mainstream artist’s success, alternatives are opening up, and artists—women and men—are proving you can find success without radio support. Kacey Musgraves winning the superfecta of Album of the Year awards in the last awards show cycle (ACM, CMA, Grammy, and Grammy all-genre Album of the Year) proves women don’t need radio to succeed … though radio may need more women to survive, at least ones that sound country.

For years the complaints of country music’s more traditional fans have been scoffed off as the outdated pleadings of listeners unwilling to evolve with the times, while the philosophy of many pundits in the media, as well as at radio and labels, was more pop was needed to appeal to a wider audience. But pop radio already has the pop segment of the market cornered, and can do it better than country ever could. Offering music and artists that are unique in the marketplace is how country can distinguish itself from the rest of radio, and succeed.

And though the current ratings paint a dour picture for country radio, there has been some success stories, specifically Luke Combs. The 29-year-old has been setting records at radio, in streaming, and in sales and concert attendance. He also happens to be more traditionally-leaning than most of mainstream country’s current stars. The appeal of Midland, Jon Pardi, and other more traditionally-oriented stars also speaks to the resonance of twang with country listeners when given a chance.

Pop will always be part of the country radio format, and always has been. But as country radio consultant Becky Brenner said in her comments to Country Aircheck, “We need balance.“ The lack of any true country voices on the radio directly parallel’s country radio’s ratings slump, and putting them back on the airwaves to achieve that “balance” may be the way for country radio to survive in an increasingly market for listening alternatives.

How The Sound Of Country Music Changed

 Evolution follows a familiar pattern in plenty of popular music genres. Fearless newcomers or agile established stars with credibility to burn veer from the dominant aesthetic, adopting approaches to music-making that come off as savvy correctives to what everyone's used to hearing. And if what they're doing really begins to catch on, bits and pieces are absorbed into the mainstream, subtly or significantly shifting the genre's center, before something completely different comes along to catch the public's ear. Just think of how many hip-hop trends, from the street-hardened fatalism and stark beats of trap music to the punchy, triplet flow spawned by Migos' experimentalism, have bubbled up from the underground, and eventually even altered the feel of mainstream pop.

These cycles propel country music forward too, but they're unfolding at a more deliberate pace in a genre where innovation tugs against preservation and the path to success often passes through conservative terrestrial radio. That's why it's taken years for the stylistic shifts anticipated by Kacey Musgraves, Sam Hunt and Maren Morris to actually arrive. Musgraves' emergence, five years ago, generated discussion about the potential for changes in country's outlook, attitude and style, but it's only now, with the release of Golden Hour, her third proper, major label album, that she sounds truly freed from having to claim her place in the country landscape.

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Pop, hip-hop and R&B have far higher turnover rates for hits, thanks to massive streaming numbers and radio programming that favors the hot and new over the familiar. But besides making the most of the digital outlets favored by young listeners, most mainstream country artists are still expected to pledge their fealty to the format and court radio's long-term support, which can be a deeply demoralizing endeavor due to programmers' tendency to stick to one thing that's working at a time and pay attention to little else.


Since participating in the country world has always been as much a matter of cultural identification as musical identification, and as much about being claimed by the audience as branded for the marketplace, artists also face a tension between engaging with popular trends and conveying a sense of connection to country's lineage and core values. Some of modern country's most frequently invoked archetypes, Garth Brooks and Shania Twain, were initially viewed as interlopers, their modernizing of studio and show production, self-presentation and songwriting disrupting the genre's status quo and grabbing ears beyond it. Over time, they both made convincing cases that redefining what country superstardom looked, sounded and behaved like didn't undermine their country affinities — that their broader ambitions needn't threaten their places in the format. And eventually, plenty of other artists followed their lead in making flashier music videos, beefing up their backbeats and staging shows with the energy and theatricality of arena rock.

"Every time someone starts to make a real noise or pisses people off, later they get revered for it," observes Shane McAnally, now one of Nashville's most influential writer-producers and developers of new talent. "This [rising] class of artists right now, most of them would say their number one favorite artist is Shania or Garth. And at the time those people came along, it was like, 'Y'all are ruining country music.' I mean, it seems like every time I hear those words, we just get a whole lot more people listening to country music."

Earlier this decade, there was a prolonged moment when contemporary country sounds and sensibilities seemed to consolidate around the so-called "bro country" template. Male acts at every tier of the industry were incorporating sometimes dated hip-hop flourishes into feel-good hybrids and cocksure, youthful displays of masculinity. The tailgating soundtrack was having its day, while hard times, relational strife and emoting in general receded from country radio playlists. But in the midst of that beat-driven bluster, noteworthy new arrivals on the margins of the mainstream forecasted shifts in momentum.

First came Kacey Musgraves, a singer-songwriter salvaged from the roster of Mercury Nashville's shuttered roots imprint. She blended deliciously arch and detailed songcraft with western kitsch and indie irreverence with a low-key insistence on tolerance, an approach to making social statements that helped map the coming changes in country discourse (see the accompanying timeline). But the coolness of her delivery was so antithetical to the muscled-up performances dominating playlists in 2013 that, at least in the short term, she enjoyed more visibility than commercial clout. It couldn't have helped her standing with country radio that she didn't really labor to hide her disdain for the direction pop-country was taking at the time, though she was plenty pop-savvy (and would eventually even go on tour with Katy Perry).

Taylor Swift had proven the potential of a personalized singer-songwriter approach half a decade earlier. Stepping into the spotlight as a teenage striver, she invested equal energy in winning over young, female fans and powerful, middle-aged gatekeepers, and achieved success on such an astounding scale that she established a new paradigm for mainstream country aspirations. Musgraves's arrival couldn't have felt more different; she seemed far more comfortable in an individualistic role that didn't require asserting her place at the center.



Sam Hunt and Maren Morris arrived on the scene in the years that followed, each of them possessing fluency in the postures and cadences of millennial pop that turned heads and blurred boundaries. "[M]odern country singers love to flaunt phrases and attitudes borrowed from hip-hop, but Hunt's borrowings are softer and sneakier," observed Kelefa Sanneh. Jon Caramanica had a similar take on what Morris was up to: "Think of all the ways dissenters have tried to upend country in recent years: by sneaking in rhythmic vocal tics learned from rappers, by thinning out the genre's musical baggage, by pledging inclusive values. Ms. Morris, an astute synthesizer, has studied and perfected them all."

Hunt was a southern college quarterback-turned-country brooder, staking out a position between sensitivity and swagger. After a youth spent performing on the local circuit in her native Texas, Morris was on track to write for other artists on Music Row until it became clear that she was the one best equipped to convey the real-talking perspectives in her songs. In 2013, Hunt tested the waters with an initially free acoustic mixtape — his version of rap's preferred buzz-building tool — before releasing a 2014 album that applied a conversational flow reminiscent of Drake to small-town settings and downtempo country-pop production. Morris self-released an EP in the summer of 2015 whose surprise success on Spotify landed her on a major label that fall and led to a full-length debut the following year that was sleekly rhythmic, casually irreverent and slyly sensual. She proved she could belt at the top of her range, like many a country-pop diva before her, but spent more time luxuriating in her lower register, sauntering into hooks with her sultry attack and deftly delivering eye-rolling inflections.

Hunt's music had pensiveness and finesse and felt a little ahead of the country curve. His vocal style shared little with the boxier rapping other country artists had tried, so much so that Brad Paisley made Hunt's delivery a punchline during a CMA Awards monologue. (That was also the year that Chris Stapleton — a grizzled, southern soul belter who'd labored beneath the radar for years and earned Nashville's goodwill in the process — gave a breakthrough performance alongside his wife Morgane and buddy Justin Timberlake.) Seemingly every discussion of Hunt's music took up the question of whether it could legitimately be called country. Even so, what he was doing felt like a descendant of the hick-hop already populating radio playlists, and his songs quickly spread from streaming sites to airplay.


The format was slower to acknowledge Morris' cultural and stylistic impact . Radio's decision-makers claimed that their market research proved playing women was a liability to the format, a commercial justification that nonetheless had substantial social impact, marginalizing female voices and viewpoints. Morris wasn't terribly interested in adopting an attitude that radio would consider sufficiently agreeable for a woman; she was slightly brash and sexually frank, and her initial breakthrough brought little airplay.

Last year, the country scene didn't generate any galvanizing new trend-setters. (Affable everyman Luke Combs easily stood out, but his strength was harmonizing country's red-blooded recent past with its beat-propelled present.) Instead, 2017 was the year that the pop-conversant mindsets informing Hunt and Morris' music finally moved the center of gravity in the country mainstream, and other artists made their own use of the space they helped clear. "The perception has changed," notes McAnally, who's worked closely with Musgraves and Hunt and co-written with Morris. "People in the immediate industry aren't seeming as offended by people blatantly using the sounds that are considered pop." Even though Stapleton was something of a one-man bulwark against glossy, beat-driven production — his sinewy, classic sound selling millions of albums to adult fans — his rule-breaking success was also frequently invoked as a sign that things were changing.


Hunt mostly laid low in 2017 aside from releasing a pair of songs. "Body Like a Back Road," a breezy, braggy number with slinky organ and guitar licks over a bass-and-handclaps groove, was the one that received all the promotion. It became not just the song of summer, but spring and fall too with its record-setting, 34-week stay atop Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart, fueled to a great degree by streams and downloads. Morris made a long, slow, 10-month climb to her first solo No. 1 with "I Could Use a Love Song," reaching the pinnacle a couple of weeks into 2018. She was also called upon to lend her voice to a cross-genre collaboration with the DJ Zedd and a euphoric, dance-pop-influenced hit that signaled the stylistic repositioning of one of country's ascendant superstars, Thomas Rhett.

An agile centrist eager to please fans and industry gatekeepers alike, Rhett displayed an excellent instinct for the pace of evolution in the format. He'd begun applying lessons learned from the suave showmanship of Bruno Mars and Justin Timberlake on his 2015 album, finding his greatest success as a crooning romantic, but now felt even freer to try out any pop flavor that captured his attention. He covered an impressive amount of territory in 14 tracks, from a hard-twanging, line dance-friendly number featuring his country songwriter dad to dejected, conversational balladry, surging, EDM-style synths, quiet storm seduction and mellowed-out dancehall grooves, some of his production choices aligning closely with the aesthetics taking center stage in the pop world.

Rhett made clear that his unfettered stylistic sampling didn't undermine his core identity as a country artist, which was his way of acknowledging country-pop's competing priorities. "I think my voice is the glue," he told Jon Freeman, "and I think just being so involved in the production process and just having my identity all over this record is what makes it cohesive."

Kelsea Ballerini was another congenially striving young star with a handful of hits under her belt who made use of country's coziness with current pop last year. The arena-headlining duo Florida Georgia Line did the same, teaming up with a newbie country hit-maker, guesting on EDM pop and trop-house singles and pulling off a reverse crossover move with pop singer Bebe Rexha. Some artists seized the opening to roll out more dramatic reinventions. Distancing herself from her previous rep as an earnest teenage belter, Danielle Bradbery insisted on shaping last year's album around sensibilities that she could claim as her own, resulting in wintry, programming-reliant production and a sulkier style of singing .

RaeLynn had spent her first several years in Nashville searching for middle ground between her inclinations and the whims of country radio. On some of her early releases, it felt almost as though she was trying to hold the rhythmic friskiness of her delivery in check. But in Hunt and Morris's wakes, she found herself between record labels and newly emboldened. Working with a vocal coach, RaeLynn shed the notion that she needed to distinguish between the "country side of [her] voice," with its deliberate exaggeration of her peppery Texas twang, and her more relaxed pop mode. She hunkered down with her collaborators to make her debut album, an appealing portrait of young womanhood's vacillation between audacity and insecurity that was framed with precise picking, brittle beats and whooshing synths.

Says RaeLynn, "I felt with my other records, 'This has to sound like this.' And instead of stressing about where it should fit in, we just made the record we loved and what we thought sounded incredible and what I wanted to hear over and over again."

McAnally was put in charge of a major label imprint last year (along with Musgraves' manager Jason Owen), and one of his first moves was to sign Walker Hayes, who'd gotten zero traction earlier in the decade with an amiable, Barenaked Ladies-ish, pop-rock angle on country. Cribbing a move from the Sam Hunt playbook, McAnally had helped lay the groundwork for Hayes's rebranding as a breezily wisecracking, beatboxing, sung-spoken storyteller by releasing a pair of minimalistic mixtapes, cheekily dubbed 8-tracks, through his publishing company in 2016. For the proper album that followed, they made only minor tweaks to the formula: a live rhythm section here, a whimsical piano countermelody there. It would've been hard to imagine Hayes's DIY-style quirkiness and mischievous, Macklemore-ish delivery adding up to a top 10 country album several years back.

"Now that I know what's possible, if I meet an artist that somebody else thinks just does not fit, that makes me really drawn to 'em," McAnally explains. "That was the Walker Hayes story. The more I heard people say, 'This will never work on country,' that made me want to work with him more. And [I] wanted to push him more and say, 'What would you do if you had no limitations?'"

During a recent event at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum honoring the accomplishments of Cindy Mabe, the president of UMG Nashville, the label exec spoke of how much more sustainable and satisfying it is working with artists who have distinct musical identities, personas and vantage points, who have potential to be what she called "disrupters" of the format's status quo, rather than soundalikes. That wasn't just business speak. There's an element of self-awareness to country's current evolution, which is not to imply that there's any sort of coordinated, industry-wide effort to counterbalance the excesses of the bro country years. Individuals involved in making or promoting the music have ideas about where they'd like to see the genre go, what elements they want to add to the mix, what the multi-generational audience will identify with. That's a big reason why a mover-and-shaker like McAnally takes on such a wide array of projects (including those on the traditional side, like Midland's meticulously crafted Urban Cowboy update). It's a way of trying to make room.
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When Hayes took up familiar country themes, like a marriage ruined by drinking, he did so from a fresh, acutely diaristic angle, describing in detail what it's like to stew in self-loathing, unable to toss out the last beer haunting him in the fridge. Likewise, the title track of Rhett's album Life Changes was a droll summation of his journey from aimless college kid to country headliner whose fans follow his wife on Instagram. Both songs were in step with "Drinkin' Too Much," the sleeper that Hunt quietly released ahead of "Body Like a Back Road." "Drinkin'" was meant to feel like it was ripped straight from the pages of his life. Over fingerpicked acoustic guitar, Hunt bared his guilt-ridden soul to an ex — whom he identified by name — pleading, "I know you want your privacy, and you've got nothing to say to me/But I wish you'd let me pay off your student loans with these songs you gave to me." People compared it to "Marvin's Room," a likeness Hunt surely recognized himself, having frequently including the Drake song in his live sets. "Drinkin'" may not have been a smash, but it may be an indication of where country-pop is headed from here.

In the past, country artists weren't expected to sing their autobiographies in any literal sense. But in songs like these, and those by a small but growing number of compelling, post-Musgraves arrivals like Kassi Ashton and Jillian Jacqueline, the implication is that they're conveying the specificity of their experiences and asserting their individuality. That's happening on a musical level too, with those importing the outsider postures of pop-punk and emo (see: Kalie Shorr, Muscadine Bloodline, Tucker Beathard) and preparing to put out albums that flaunt their musical eccentricities, be it Dierks Bentley's gestures toward mountain mysticism or the Brothers Osborne's funky, wild-eyed improvisation. Stapleton's impact can certainly be seen in the momentum building behind brawny, band-based music-making.

Pop music has become increasingly withdrawn of late, alienated in its skepticism and chilly textures. A hermetic aesthetic would never fly in country, where there's a premium placed on conveying widely shared sentiments and just generally being accessible. But artists sprinkled across the country landscape, from the fringes to dead center, are exploring the potential of playing up the particular. And Musgraves is once again clearing and claiming space for her music, this time just a few steps beyond where some of the most interesting country-pop action is.

On Golden Hour, she hasn't entirely abandoned the tools with which she built her persona, the understated sarcasm, subtle use of psychedelic western imagery or artfully idiosyncratic references to kitsch. But none of that is the main event. Musgraves' new priorities are pensive reflection, confessional clarity and delicate sentimentality in the key of classic country and pop. And her current fascination? What comes of outgrowing the appeal of blissfully detached, carefully curated images and deciding to explore the emotional landscape beneath them.
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There's an airy lift to the album's melodies and a sparkling sophistication to its textures, all gentle strumming, crystalline steel guitar, precise, plucked banjo and gauzy synths. The overall effect brings to mind everything from Glen Campbell to Laurel Canyon singer-songwriters, Beck's moony introspection on the album Sea Change and the adult folk-pop of Mindy Smith.

That's no accident. Musgraves co-produced the album with a new pair of collaborators, Ian Fitchuk and Daniel Tashian, with whom she also co-wrote just over half of its 13 tracks. Though Tashian and Fitchuk have each assembled quite a list of mainstream country credits in recent years, they first found their footing working with the quietly refined voices that populated the Nashville songwriting scene, like Smith, Sarah Siskind, Griffin House and Tashian's own soft rock band The Silver Seas. Now Musgraves's latest work is uniting contemporary perspectives, intimate expression and awareness of writerly lineage in a way that nobody in her space quite has before.

The Diminishing Returns of the Democrats’ Lies

 

The party’s blatant falsehoods can distract voters from the mess over which it presides for only so long.

Forced into a state of panic by a series of cataclysmic polls, the Democratic Party has entered a new phase in its attempt to turn around its waning fortunes: lying directly — and unashamedly — to your face. To paraphrase Elena Gorokhova, “You know they are lying, they know they are lying, they know you know they are lying, you know they know you know they are lying, but they are still lying.”

About what? About everything, that’s what. They’re lying about inflation — which first wasn’t going to happen at all, which then wasn’t going to happen for very long, and which is now being blamed on a Russian invasion of Ukraine that started a year after prices started to rise. They’re lying about their agenda — which began as a New Deal–sized transformation of America, which was then transmuted into an “infrastructure” package that for a brief moment was sold as a $0-in-cost unicorn, and which has finally and ridiculously been recast as a means of fighting the inflation that, as of this week, the White House is calling “Putin’s price hike.” They’re lying about gas prices, for which Joe Biden is or isn’t responsible depending on the day you ask them, and which have inspired the most incoherent set of policy answers in recent memory. They’re lying about Afghanistan — which was definitely not going to be a catastrophe, until it was a catastrophe, at which point a catastrophe had been the plan all along. They’re lying about Florida’s education policy, and about the nature and scope of science, and about the motivations of the Supreme Court, and about American gun law, and about anything else they can think of that might distract the public from the mess over which they currently preside.

One can comprehend why, in their desperation, the Democrats have started to point fingers at anyone other than themselves. One can comprehend less easily why they believe that this is going to work. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Huey Long-esque demagogue who pretends on television to be an intellectual, has spent the last six months insisting that every bad thing in America — silicon-chip shortages, the rising cost of groceries, high gas prices, expensive meat, you name it — is the fault of “greedy corporations” that are taking advantage of the moment to maximize their gains. This claim, naturally, is not true. But it’s also somewhat weird, in that it must prompt the voters who hear it to wonder, “Why now?” Surely, if our beastly corporations were going to fabricate a series of crises in order to rake in that sweet, sweet, emergency-relief cash, they’d have done so while a Republican was president, rather than while Democrats had unified control of Washington? Joe Biden likes to cast himself as good ol’ folksy Joe, and yet, if Warren and Co. are to be believed, it was his election that provoked this outpouring of corporate greed. Is that supposed to be an argument in his favor?

A similar question obtains with Russia. Asked about gas prices this week, President Biden said, “Nothing I can do about it; it’s Putin’s fault.” Again, one must ask how this is a good political case. The “Putin” to whom Biden was referring is the same Putin who Biden once insisted was scared of him. This being so, one must wonder why Putin has now chosen to invade Ukraine once while Biden was vice president and a second time while Biden was president (a “pattern,” per Jen Psaki). One must wonder, too, why if Biden is so effective, there is “nothing” he can do to mitigate the problem. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with a president claiming he is powerless — unless, of course, he has made the opposite case a feature of his political campaign.

Which is all to say that, while Joe Biden may not be responsible for everything that is wrong with America, he has certainly been responsible for delivering mendacious and self-serving malarkey at the exact moment the public wanted modesty, clarity, and candor, and that he has thereby been responsible for his own ruin. Voters may tolerate a flimflam artist when times are good, but, as the recent election showed, they sour swiftly when trouble rears its head. Per a new poll commissioned by the Wall Street Journal, “46% of voters said they would back a Republican candidate for Congress if the election were today, compared with 41% who favored a Democrat.” In and of itself, this would be remarkable — typically, Democrats lead on the generic ballot, even in the GOP’s good years — but the breakdown is eye-popping. “By 9 percentage points,” the Journal notes, “Hispanic voters in the new poll said they would back a Republican candidate for Congress over a Democrat.” Meanwhile, “support for a Republican candidate rose to 27% among Black voters, up from 12% in November.” If these numbers hold, we’ll see results in this year’s midterms that will reverberate for a decade to come.

And there’ll be no way for the Democrats to lie their way out of that.

Biden White House stands behind Title 42 decision amid party revolt

 

Facing a growing rebellion from within the Democratic Party, the White House is standing behind its decision to end on May 23 a Trump-era deportation policy for migrants encountered at the southern border.

That decision to end the use of the public health order known as Title 42 has placed President Joe Biden in a political bind. The president is attempting to balance his long-standing promise to revoke the policy — which, under the banner of fighting the Covid pandemic, justified the immediate expulsion of migrants without due process — right as Republicans weaponize immigration before the midterms and as a growing number of Democratic senators want restrictions to remain in place for fear that the administration is not prepared for a summer surge of migrants to the border.

“It’s not like we’ve been hiding the ball on this,” a White House official said, speaking freely about the state of play on condition of anonymity. “This is not a policy to applaud or defend or anything. It simply is a public health directive on whether there is a public health risk associated with processing migrants or not. The [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] made a determination that there wasn’t and that we’re OK to move forward with lifting it on May 23.”

In interviews with POLITICO, immigrant advocates, lawmakers and former administration officials urged the White House to stay the course and to better communicate its plan to lawmakers and necessary stakeholders along the border. Several urged Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to go to the border ahead of the May 23 policy change to demonstrate the coordinated response being prepared by government agencies.
The lack of immigration reform, explained

The White House is “definitely not going to reverse their decision on Title 42,” said Kerri Talbot, deputy director of the advocacy group Immigration Hub. “We would really urge them, instead, to more clearly roll out their border plan. There’s really a communications issue here where they have detailed plans, but they just haven’t really concretely laid them out for Congress.”

There had been internal divisions within the White House over whether the Title 42 authority should have been ended. And questions about whether the administration would reverse itself emerged in recent days amid reports from Axios that it was considering a delay of the May 23 deadline and that officials were worried about being overwhelmed by a spike of migrants at the border. The White House has suggested to lawmakers that they pass legislation to change the CDC’s authority on the public health order themselves if they were inclined to. But a court injunction could end up, at least for a time, solving the Catch-22 for Biden. Earlier this month, a number of Republican-led states sued the administration to prevent the termination of Title 42, and a hearing is expected before the end of May.

“The little secret here is they don’t think they’re actually going to have to end Title 42,” said an immigration advocate familiar with the White House’s thinking. “They’re expecting to lose a lawsuit that’s going to force them to keep it in place.”

Prior to the CDC’s announcement that the use of Title 42 was no longer warranted, Republicans sought to label Biden as a proponent of open borders. Vulnerable Senate Democrats were quick to distance themselves from the White House, too, with at least nine publicly calling for an extension of the Title 42 authority, which has been used since early 2020. Democrats have accused the White House of moving forward without a plan to handle expected seasonal increases of people at the border, and Senate Democratic aides say the administration hasn’t provided concrete details.

The White House official pushed back on these accusations, referring to the DHS fact sheet that was released last month, calling it “comprehensive.” The official reiterated that it was up to the CDC to make that determination down the road but that at this point, the CDC was moving forward with lifting TItle 42.

“It all depends on the public health risk, that’s up to them to decide. What is the public health risk associated with X, Y and Z?,” the official told POLITICO. “That authority lives with the CDC. I recognize that there are people in our party that want to extend it. That’s great. If they think that the CDC shouldn’t have that authority, there’s a legislative mechanism to do that.”
White House is preparing for influx of migrants at the border when CDC lifts Title 42

Still, veterans of the administration concede that the pushback has overshadowed the White House’s efforts, exacerbating questions about how the matter might play in the midterms.

“Republicans are winning this messaging war, and they’re making it about open borders,” said a former Biden administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak more freely about the problems the current team is having. “If Democrats would just remind the American public that this is the brainchild of [Trump senior aide and hardline immigration adviser] Stephen Miller, who also separated 5,000 children from their parents, and that the president campaigned on overturning all these cruel policies of the Trump administration, I think the American public would support it.”

1 2 3 4 5

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“There is no alternative that’s being put out there,” the former official added.

The former administration official said the White House has long been planning for future increases in migration. After the surge of migrants to the U.S.-Mexico border near Del Rio, Texas, last fall, the administration developed a better early warning system for migrant movement. It also organized an all-of-government response in which different agencies will provide planes and buses when the number of migrants increases at the border. “It doesn’t mean it’s going to be perfect, but there is a plan,” the former official said.

Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) said he was “disappointed” by his fellow Democrats who’ve called for keeping Title 42 in place but urged the administration to provide more details on how they intend to “expand capacity and process asylum seekers in the United States.” He added that “there’s plenty of time” for the White House to explain its plan in the next month.

“I hope that the administration continues on course to lift this Trump-era policy that was put in place by a xenophobe because, ultimately, history will not look kindly upon those who argued for its continuation,” Castro said Thursday.
White House: Agencies need time to prepare before Title 42 is lifted on May 23

Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), who represents the El Paso border community, said she understands why some of her fellow Democrats are worried about an increase in migrants encountered at the border. But Escobar maintained that Title 42 has not been an effective deterrent.

“Everyone is looking for a quick and easy solution, and it’s that kind of thinking that has, in my view, created a situation where we don’t address the root causes,” Escobar said. “We’ve had Title 42 for over two years in place. Has that deterred migration? Has any of that stopped asylum seekers? Has any of it curbed the numbers? No.”

The absence of a more enthusiastic White House communications strategy on Title 42 has been felt most acutely on the ground along the border, where local leaders have grown accustomed to Republicans using the issue as an election year battering ram.

“States are not in the immigration business. The federal government is. The federal government does need to work with us,” said Texas state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat and an immigration attorney by trade, who this week visited a detention facility where the state is locking up migrants. “At least get down here and be the immigration cop and answer the questions that the community has in a more tangible, efficient way to where people are sure that they’re doing their jobs.”

Gutierrez joined with others in advocating for Mayorkas, specifically, to visit the region, contending it was Republican leaders in Texas, including the governor, who are treating immigrants inhumanely. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott recently bused migrants to Washington, D.C., in a move derided as inhumane.
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto speaks.

“I have no doubt that the federal government can handle the 60,000 or 70,000 migrants that are waiting on the other side and handle them in an expeditious manner. But certainly we need to hear that from the administration rather than not hear anything,” Gutierrez said.

Will Dempster of the National Immigration Law Center, which advocates to advance the rights of low-income immigrants, said the frustration for many activists is that the issues themselves are not political losers — despite battleground Democrats running for cover. In a recently commissioned poll by the organization, Dempster said a majority of likely 2022 voters supported ending the practice of using the pandemic as a reason to deny asylum seekers entrance to the U.S. Some 1.7 million migrants have been expelled under Title 42 since it was first implemented, including asylum seekers.

Colin Strother, a veteran Democratic operative in Texas, agreed the administration’s plan needed to be better communicated by officials in Washington. For now, he argued, Democrats look defensive on a moral issue they should be leaning into.

“Everyone would be more comfortable with the administration saying, ‘Here’s our priority, here’s our goal, here’s our value. We understand some people aren’t going to like it, but by God, this is what we think is best. And that’s what we’re going to do,’” he said. “Instead, they constantly seem to be trying to have it both ways; trying to make everybody happy.”

“This administration is just so risk averse that in moments like this, it’s paralysis by analysis.”

Why Country's Decline in Popularity Is Actually a Really, Really Good Thing

For a few years, it seemed that popular country music was totally unstoppable. By 2014, it was the most popular genre in the land, scooping up thousands of new fans by the day as it appealed to an entirely new, much younger audience than ever before. However you feel about the kind of music that brought country this success, it’s always felt like this bro-driven wave’s expiration date was looming.

And maybe last year was it. As Billboard explained in-depth last week, the genre experienced a very real decline in album sales, both physical and digital copies. “The dip in sales volume was significant for country,” wrote Billboard’s Tom Roland. “The genre moved 24.9 million albums during the 52 weeks ending December 31, 2015, which represented a 12 percent decline from 2014’s 33.3 million sales.” Individual song sales also dropped to 113.9 million downloads, down 16 percent from the year before.

At least some, maybe much, of country music’s decline can be attributed to the genre’s slow-as-ever adoption of online streaming services and digital music. In 2014, Taylor Swift led an “exodus” of country artists from streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, including Jason Aldean, Brantley Gilbert and Justin Moore. Some of those artists, like Aldean, have since returned to streaming services due to fan demand, but others, like the notoriously anti-corporate Garth Brooks, have vowed to stay away forever.

Logistical concerns aside, though, perhaps the consequences we predicted at the end of 2014 have begun to reveal themselves, and the slicked up, party boy country aesthetic has started to peter out. If you don’t count Spotify, it’s pretty clear that country’s slowdown is a direct result of the genre’s current status as the butt of the musical world’s jokes. More than that, it’s stopped attracting pop fans who have grown tired of the schtick that was once (apparently) charming.
 

 

It is true that Luke Bryan and Sam Hunt still reign — their albums sold more than any other country records last year. But Bryan’s 850,000 or so copies of Kill the Lights pale in comparison to the 1.76 million sold by Taylor Swift, last year’s top selling artist if you don’t count the anomalous success of Adele’s 25. In 2014, Bryan’s Crash My Party was the second-best selling album of the year overall, with 2.3 million copies sold by the end of the year. That’s a pretty steep decline, even for a guy who’s planning to play to tens of thousands of fans at stadiums across the country later this year, including AT&T Stadium in October.

The success of Chris Stapleton, who sold more than 650,000 copies of his solo debut Traveller, is even further proof. Stapleton was the top selling new country artist of the year, to pretty much everyone’s surprise. No one suspected that Stapleton would sweep the awards, top the chart for multiple weeks in a row and become country’s new critical darling, and that’s probably because he was playing to 40 people at City Tavern less than a year ago. It’s easy to come out of nowhere when no one is really looking for you, when they’re distracted by the sparkle of Florida-Georgia Line’s glistening abs. 

The same could be said for Aaron Watson, who flew to the top of the Billboard charts with The Underdog, his independently released 2015 album. Watson’s success wasn’t quite as meteoric as Stapleton’s but it made an important statement: There is a real subset of the country audience that is keenly interested in hearing something better than what they’ve been served for the past five or six years. It’s just that now, finally, praise the Lord, someone with the power to make a real difference is actually paying attention. 
In reality, country becoming smaller and less popular is actually a good thing. It means less playing to the middle and more quality. When country music is a niche genre as opposed to this watered-down, mediocre ooze that’s slimed it’s way all over EDM and hip-hop and pop before making its way back to country, it’s just better.

For comparison, consider the folk trend that swept pop music a few years ago. When you couldn’t hear anything but Mumford & Sons and other bearded men with guitars on the radio, everyone wanted to add a little twang into their sound, what TIME called the “banjo-ification” of pop music. Once that trend passed, it was country that rose into folk’s place in pop, thanks in large part to Swift and crossover successes like Kacey Musgraves.

Now that folk is out of vogue, Americana has settled into a nice, quiet little genre that produces incredible music that could’ve once been at home in pop or indie or, hell, even country once upon a time. The best artists get the recognition at the Americana Music Awards, not the most popular. That kind of treatment would be excellent for country. There would still be mainstream pop acts, but it could be much like the late 1980s and early-to-mid 1990s again, the time when artists like Dwight Yoakam and Keith Whitley and Alison Krauss ruled the charts. But maybe that’s being overly optimistic.

Country music still has plenty of lessons to learn, but hitting Nashville in the pocketbook has traditionally been the only way to get execs to pay any attention. More than anything, it means that country fans put their money where it should have been in 2015: in the pockets of Aaron Watson and Jason Isbell and Chris Stapleton. You know, artists who actually deserve it.

Heavy metal is officially the fastest-growing music genre in the world

 

Heavy metal has officially been recognised as the fastest-growing music genre in the world, according to a new report from music distributors TuneCore.

It’s no secret that heavy metal is an incredibly popular music genre. After all, we’ve not only seen scientific studies confirm metalheads are “nice people’, but we’ve seen the likes of Montreal crowned a ‘heavy metal city’, and we’ve also seen David Hasselhoff turn to the genre for his next album.

Needless to say, it’s hardly surprising to learn just how popular the genre is.

However, according to a new report from TuneCore, it seems that not only is heavy metal a popular style, it’s the most popular genre amongst streaming services, turning it into the fastest-growing music genre in the world.

TuneCore, who allow musicians to distribute their music through streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, and much more, recently released their Q1 report, revealing that 2018’s streaming and download numbers saw an 83 percent increase over 2017, bringing their total to 199.3 billion.

“TuneCore is the only global platform that pays artists 100% of what they earn from digital streams and downloads, while also meeting all of their needs across distribution, promotion and publishing administration,” explained TuneCore CEO Scott Ackerman.

“In 2019 we’re seeing great momentum in helping our customers build sustainable careers by finding new income across formats and channels.”

Likewise, breaking the numbers down, TuneCore revealed that Africa had seen the highest growth in streaming, with 146 percent in 2018, while Asia and Oceania followed behind with 52 and 38 percent, respectively.

However, it’s TuneCore’s breakdown of genres that is the most exciting, with the service revealing that it was heavy metal that saw the most growth in 2018, with its 154 percent increase officially making it the fastest-growing genre worldwide.

Close behind though, J-Pop saw a 133 percent increase, while genres like R&B/Soul and K-Pop follow behind at 68 and 58 percent, respectively.

While it’s unclear at this stage if this trend will continue into the future (especially given K-Pop’s apparent global domination), this is hardly a surprise to fans of heavy metal, who undoubtedly have their horns up at this news.

Check out Metallica’s ‘Master Of Puppets’:

Check out TuneCore’s growth numbers for 2018

Fastest-growing music genres:

Heavy metal – 154% increase
J-Pop – 133% increase
R&B/Soul – 68% increase
K-Pop – 58% increase
World music – 57% increase
Instrumental – 42% increase

Worldwide streaming growth:

Africa – 146% growth
Asia – 52% growth
Oceania – 38% growth
Europe – 35% growth
South America – 32% growth
North America – 31% growth

Countries with notable streaming growth:

Morocco – 243% increase
South Africa – 125% increase
Italy – 108% increase
India – 89% increase
Turkey – 81% increase
Czech Republic – 72% increase

Why Heavy Metal Music is Popular

 

Heavy metal music still remains popular around the world, and in this piece, we look at some of the reasons why. It can be a little controversial for some music fans, but for others, they just cannot get enough of it. 

Heavy metal music falls into the rock genre. It has intense, powerful and virtuosic styles and a live performance is quite the experience. Some of the most famous brands include Iron Maiden, Metallica and Judas Priest. To give you an understanding of an immersive experience, check out the bravewords piece “breaking the law” at Bloodstock Open Air 2021.

The genre first came to prominence in the United States and the United Kingdom in the late 1960s. The three founding pioneers were Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and Deep Purple. At the time, the music was very controversial, as it was very aggressive. The 60s was a revolutionary time for music, especially in the UK that saw the Beatles and the Rolling Stones rise to prominence as well as other genres such as heavy metal. 

Many fans of the music like the high energy and the aggression that it entails. It is perfect for a workout in the gym or a long run, motivating you to push further. It is more popular in some places in the world as opposed to others. For example, heavy metal is very popular in Finland whereas, in more conservative places like India, the music is not appreciated. However, recent trends show changes occurring on the Indian subcontinent especially when it comes to popular culture. Western music is gaining traction as well as sports such as football. Another emerging trend is gambling – sports and casinos, and there are even portals to help players find the best resources for online gambling in India. Comparison sites like Asiabet, assist with setting up an account, provide valuable information on welcome bonuses, and advise on the legality of playing, as well as the many offerings of the sites they propose for interested players to see and pick. This major cultural change within Indian society could be emulated with different types of music such as heavy metal. 

Today is the greatest time ever to distribute your music with a plethora of streaming platforms available for people to listen to. On Spotify, heavy metal is very popular with Iron Maiden having over 6 million streams per month. 

Sometimes the genre has been criticised for misogyny and lyrics pertaining to the occult. Nonetheless, the music is meant to test boundaries and is a reflection upon society. On numerous occasions, heavy metal artists have had to defend their lyrics in court. Take the example of Twisted Sister front man Dee Snider. In 1985 he was asked questions about the song “under the blade”. The senate hearing alleged that the song was about sadomasochism and rape, with Snider stating it was just about throat surgery. 

There are many times heavy metal bands have heard the wrath of parents over the lyrics in the songs. Infamously Judas Priest was involved in a lawsuit because of subliminal messages in their song “better by you, better by me”. It was alleged that the band carried some responsibility in the horrific story of a group of young men committing suicide in 1985. They were accused of having hidden messages for the audience to kill themselves. Ultimately, in the end the case was thrown out. 

In the modern world, heavy metal is still alive and well, with many festivals hosted in the West for fans. One of the largest festivals is Wacken, hosted in Germany to some 80,000 fans. Moreover, there are a lot of events for fans, with a convenient list of heavy metal festivals.

The optimised way to play heavy metal music is as loud as possible with large speakers blaring out the powerful instruments and vocals. An experience at a concert can be very intense especially if mosh pitting, it is not for the faint hearted. 

Perhaps heavy metal is past its golden age, just like many genres as electronic music dominates today. It is argued that the 1980s were the best decade for the music genre with huge bands like Black Sabbath, Def Leppard and of course Iron Maiden. Just like with the rock genre, modern bands do not quite hit the heights of their counterparts decades ago. But heavy metal has a unique element that will always be popular for decades to come.

Brutal: Democrats Quietly Trashing Sen. Feinstein’s Mental Capacity

 

This isn’t a new story. Since 2020, there have been reports of Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) mental decline. It wouldn’t be shocking. She’s been in DC forever. She’s 88 years old. For years, there have been stories sprinkled in there about whether she should step aside. California’s far-left contingent certainly wants her gone. They tried to unseat her. They failed. Now, we’re back to more stories about the California liberal’s mental state, with anonymous Democratic senators saying she’s cooked (via The Blaze):

“It’s bad, and it’s getting worse,” said one Democratic senator, who requested anonymity in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle to complain about their colleague. The senator related how Feinstein has difficulty keeping up with conversations and discussions.

Four U.S. senators, three former Feinstein staffers, and one California Democratic member of Congress spoke to the paper about Feinstein’s reportedly declining memory and questionable mental fitness for office. These individuals say that at 88 years old, Feinstein is entirely dependent on her staff doing most of the work required to represent 40 million Californians in the Senate.

While she has good days, when she appears to be in command of herself and the issues — Democrats pointed to her performance during Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearings — there are bad days, when Feinstein reportedly does not even recognize some of her long-term colleagues.

One of the lawmakers recounted a recent conversation in which they had to reintroduce themselves to Feinstein several times, despite working with her for 15 years. The conversation reportedly prompted this lawmaker to ask colleagues if it were possible to stage an intervention with Feinstein and have her retire before 2024, when her current term expires.

“I have worked with her for a long time and long enough to know what she was like just a few years ago: always in command, always in charge, on top of the details, basically couldn’t resist a conversation where she was driving some bill or some idea. All of that is gone,” the lawmaker said. “She was an intellectual and political force not that long ago, and that’s why my encounter with her was so jarring. Because there was just no trace of that.”

“There’s a joke on the Hill, we’ve got a great junior senator in Alex Padilla and an experienced staff in Feinstein’s office,” said a staffer for a California Democrat.

Oh, that’s brutal—and sad. Look, Feinstein might be liberal but she’s not an insane Democrat. She was fair during the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Justice Amy Coney Barrett which is why she was forced to step down from being the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Frankly, forget mental capacity, she’s 88 years old. Why would anyone want to remain in DC, especially now? She’s cut from the old cloth of ‘unwoke’ Democrat. Enjoy your golden years, lady. It’s not like your seat will go to a Republican. I would bolt, but it sounds like Joe Biden isn’t the only one suffering from a reduced mental capacity. 

In the meantime, Feinstein has pushed back against reports of her mental decline (via CNBC):

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is pushing back against a news report citing multiple anonymous colleagues questioning her ability to continue serving and voicing concerns that she is mentally unfit to serve.

Feinstein, 88, said that the record shows she is an effective representative for her state.

“I remain committed to do what I said I would when I was re-elected in 2018: fight for Californians, especially on the economy and the key issues for California of water and fire,” she said in a statement issued by her office. “While I have focused for much of the past year on my husband’s health and ultimate passing, I have remained committed to achieving results and I’d put my record up against anyone’s.”

Feinstein said that, in the last few months, she has led the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act and secured additional funding to retain federal firefighters to help California prepare for the upcoming wildfire season.

“The real question is whether I’m still an effective representative for 40 million Californians, and the record shows that I am,” she said.

She seems cogent, but then again–is a lot of this smoothed over by great staff work?

USA should send Illegal Migrants to Rwanda

 

On Thursday, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that the British government will begin sending migrants who illegally enter to Rwanda in an effort to stop illegal immigration. 

According to The New York Times, the new policy will apply to anyone who entered the UK illegally since Jan. 1. 

The Times noted that Johnson stated during remarks on Thursday that the move was made possible by Brexit. 

“In a speech on Thursday, Mr. Johnson said his plan could resettle thousands of migrants who cross the English Channel after long journeys from countries like Albania, Iraq and Sudan, and would apply to those who had arrived since January. He said that Britain ‘cannot sustain a parallel illegal system. Our compassion may be infinite, but our capacity to help people is not.’

In Rwanda, those who arrived in so-called emergency transit centers would be given the option of seeking resettlement to countries other than Britain, returning home or to a previous country of asylum, or staying in Rwanda. Britain will pay Rwanda 120 million pounds, about $157 million, to finance opportunities including education, vocational and skills training and language lessons.”

Johnson added in his speech that the policy will likely face legal challenges. The Times mentioned that several human rights groups immediately denounced the policy, claiming that it is inhumane and “violates international agreements” and will encourage other countries to send migrants to other countries.

“We can’t ask the British taxpayer to write a blank cheque to cover the costs of anyone who might want to come and live here. Uncontrolled immigration creates unmanageable demands on our NHS and our welfare state, it overstretches our local schools, our housing and public transport, and creates unsustainable pressure to build on precious green spaces. Nor is it fair on those who are seeking to come here legally, if others can just bypass the system,” Johnson said in his remarks

It’s a striking fact that around 7 out of 10 of those arriving in small boats last year were men under 40, paying people smugglers to queue-jump and taking up our capacity to help genuine women and child refugees,” the prime minister added.

“This is particularly perverse as those attempting crossings are not directly fleeing imminent peril as is the intended purpose of our asylum system,” he said. “They have passed through manifestly safe countries, including many in Europe, where they could – and should – have claimed asylum.”

We’re All Libs of TikTok Now — Get On Groomer Patrol

 

Since Libs of TikTok is under assault by corporate media and a particularly wretched garbage person named Taylor Lorenz (who had the nerve to cry to the media just a week ago about how awful online harassment is), I think it’s time we all stepped up our game. Libs of TikTok cannot carry the burden of Groomer Patrol alone. Finding groomer teachers and exposing them is a job that all of us can do. It’s incredibly easy because the #LGBTQTeachers and #gayteachers of TikTok are incredibly stupid. They post publicly available videos of themselves saying and doing outrageous and inappropriate things. Lorenz and the Washington Post insinuated that Libs of TikTok is a “hate movement” that seeks to keep the outrage machine going on the right. I refuse to link the doxxing article. Lorenz and the Washington Post can suck eggs.

This was Taylor Lorenz a couple of weeks ago.

She was crying victim of “harassment”.

Today she tracked down and harassed family members of the @libsoftiktok account for an article she’s working on.

It turns out Taylor’s the perpetrator, not victim.pic.twitter.com/CifXGvASCV

— Avi Yemini (@OzraeliAvi) April 19, 2022

Re-posting what leftist teachers say online is not a “hate movement” but a perfectly reasonable response to adult teachers publicly posting their attempts at queering kids behind parents’ backs. They are the ones posting these things. If they’re proud of these videos then why do they object to wider viewership? Matt Walsh has the answer.

“Libs of TikTok reposts content from TikTok. This is important work because that’s the site millions of kids use. The Left is mad at her because they don’t want us to know what our kids are being exposed to. We’re not supposed to see that stuff. Only our kids are.”

Libs of TikTok reposts content from TikTok. This is important work because that’s the site millions of kids use. The Left is mad at her because they don’t want us to know what our kids are being exposed to. We’re not supposed to see that stuff. Only our kids are.

— Dr. Matt Walsh, Women’s Studies Scholar (@MattWalshBlog) April 19, 2022

Related: Ready, Set, GROOM! Teachers are Recruiting Our Kids Into the Transgender Life with Books and Games

All you need to help your fellow parent be aware of what the hell the left is up to is a computer, screen recording capabilities, and a social media account. I spent a couple hours on TikTok today and look what I dug up! It’s not even hard. (For the record, all of these people are self-described teachers. Maybe they’re lying. Maybe not.)

.@TaylorLorenz doxxing @libsoftiktok just assured that I’m going to spend part of every day looking for and exposing groomer teachers on TikTok. pic.twitter.com/5jfKBhYfNJ

— Adult Human Female Megan Fox 🦊 (@MeganFoxWriter) April 19, 2022

Most of them are completely obsessed with kids “coming out” to them or with their students’ hot parents. It’s weird.

What a creep. #LibsofTikTok pic.twitter.com/TZokh6ujh0

— Adult Human Female Megan Fox 🦊 (@MeganFoxWriter) April 19, 2022

Why don’t I believe them that students “come out” to them all the time? Feels forced and fake. Kids come out on TikTok not in English class. pic.twitter.com/fYT86gjX4v

— Adult Human Female Megan Fox 🦊 (@MeganFoxWriter) April 19, 2022

Some of them appear to be working out their own childhood trauma on a captive audience.

Plays favorites with gay students. That seems fair. Also working out his trauma on your kids. pic.twitter.com/lcWk38rdMT

— Adult Human Female Megan Fox 🦊 (@MeganFoxWriter) April 19, 2022

These LGBTQWTF teachers don’t seem to have much going for them other than their “queer identity,” which they want everyone to celebrate at all times for no reason at all.

“My goal is to normalize being gay…” Why don’t these people have any other skills or contributions to society? #LibsofTikTok Reminder: These people post this stuff voluntarily. pic.twitter.com/e765SvBobb

— Adult Human Female Megan Fox 🦊 (@MeganFoxWriter) April 19, 2022

They’re incredibly full of themselves and announce freely that they intend to break the law and the trust of parents.

Announces intention to break the law and indoctrinate kids. Totally normal. #Groomer #libsoftiktok There are so many of these we could all do this all day long and still not get to the bottom of it. pic.twitter.com/h7y2p6TU0A

— Adult Human Female Megan Fox 🦊 (@MeganFoxWriter) April 19, 2022

Some of them, like this guy, are just lame af. I can’t imagine a teacher I had in high school allowing this kind of class disruption.

We are all @libsoftiktok now. Come at me @TaylorLorenz you piece of garbage. This dude has issues. pic.twitter.com/NfA7hp5Nnq

— Adult Human Female Megan Fox 🦊 (@MeganFoxWriter) April 19, 2022

The posts range from silly to dark. These next two are hard to watch. This teacher wants to build a “lesbian army” with 10-year-olds.

This one wants to build a “lesbian army” out of 4th grade girls (10 year olds). Totally normal. #OkGroomer #libsoftiktok pic.twitter.com/bC0xWOgIhp

— Adult Human Female Megan Fox 🦊 (@MeganFoxWriter) April 19, 2022

By far the most disturbing, this “teacher,” as he calls himself, recorded himself showing his drag photos to the children in his care. His account is full of scantily clad videos of himself cross-dressing. The children can be heard reacting to the sexually suggestive photographs he is showing them.

Teacher shows his students photos of him in drag. This is hard to watch. #libsoftiktok #OkGroomer pic.twitter.com/0D6IzbjE3r

— Adult Human Female Megan Fox 🦊 (@MeganFoxWriter) April 19, 2022

America has a groomer problem in our schools. It’s not even debatable. But instead of getting to the bottom of why teachers are being sexually inappropriate with kids, the Washington Post is doing its best to destroy the woman who told you about it. In response, we should all become Libs of TikTok. Get an account and start searching the hashtags they use — like #gayteacher, #lgbtqteacher, and #gaytiktok — and expose them to the world. This isn’t a fight we are going to lose and if Libs of TikTok goes down, a million more of us will take her place.

We are all Libs of TikTok now.

WH: Yes, Inflation Is Both ‘Transitory’ and Putin’s Fault

 

 buck stops…over there, always. The Democrats’ lame “Putin price hike” isn’t sparing President Biden from deep voter anger – in part because the drastic surge in US inflation began long before Russia’s Ukraine invasion, and everyone knows it. They can yell about Putin, and even slander Republicans as Kremlin propagandists, or whatever, until they’re blue in the face. They’re in charge, the country is in pain, and they’re losing. And they know it. Biden is drowning on the inflation issue for a reason. But sometimes it almost feels as if they want to lose. Why else would they have Dr. Anthony Fauci out there blathering about the “prudence” of extended mask mandates when the data doesn’t justify them? And why else would they be clinging to this absolute stinker of a talking point? My goodness: 

“Does the White House still view inflation as ‘transitory’?”

PSAKI: Yes pic.twitter.com/yzC1kwJU7I— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 13, 2022

I mean, all inflation at some point becomes “transitory.” It doesn’t last forever. But it’s now been with us for the entirety of this presidency, and the burning question now is whether this bout ends without triggering a recession. It may also be irrelevant at this point whether it subsides before or after the election, as the ruling party appears poised to endure a beating either way. Still, talking about how temporary inflation is truly feels self-destructive at this point. Indeed, it felt that way months and months ago, when major figures abandoned that framing as counter-productive. This was early December: 

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell surprised market players earlier this week when tweaking his tone about inflation. Now, economists in Europe say the European Central Bank needs to do the same. Powell told U.S. lawmakers that “it’s probably a good time to retire that word (transitory) and try to explain more clearly what we mean” when talking about inflation.

That was the Fed Chair. This was Biden’s own Treasury Secretary, around the same time: 

Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen on Thursday said she believed it was time to stop characterizing inflation as temporary and suggested that the Omicron variant of the coronavirus could prolong the problem of rising prices…Ms. Yellen’s remarks echoed those of Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, who said earlier this week that inflation was more than a short-term issue. “I am ready to retire the word transitory,” Ms. Yellen said. “I can agree that that hasn’t been an apt description of what we are dealing with.”

Yet here’s Circle Back, perhaps counting down the days until her MSNBC contract commences, courageously sticking to a line tossed aside by her own administration’s experts last year. And she’s deploying it in the context of back-to-back days of terrible inflation reports, on both the consumer and producer sides: 

Inflation watch: The March PPI (producer price index) rose 11.2% year/year – above expectations and a new record.

The PPI “core” number also beat expectations, up 9.2% year over year and another new high.

Those costs will be passed to consumers by producers – insane numbers.— The Wokest Numbersmuncher (@NumbersMuncher) April 13, 2022

Suppliers raised prices sharply last month, a sign inflation continues to percolate through the U.S. economy…Producer prices rose 11.2% on a 12-month basis, compared with an upwardly revised 10.3% increase in February. That marked the fourth consecutive month with a double-digit gain and was the highest since records began in 2010…The report comes a day after the government said consumer prices increased by 8.5% in March to a four-decade high, adding pressure on the Federal Reserve to speed up a series of interest-rate increases expected in May and June. These developments complicate the Fed’s tough challenge to cool inflation without causing unemployment to rise. 

Some of the factors at play truly are beyond Biden or the government’s control, and there is an element of truth to the Russia war excuse. But some of the problem is Democratic policies, which were warned against by even some Democratic economists who were very concernedabout the threat of inflation (Larry Summers is now talking about a recession). Biden and the Democrats tried to add trillions more in new spending, beyond the existing trillions in unsustainable emergency “COVID” expenditures (on which the White House is now insultingly crying poverty). But they’re out here blaming absolutely everyone else for everything. Including this: 

NEW: White House press sec. Jen Psaki says Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s “unnecessary and redundant” inspections of trucks at border are “causing significant disruptions” to supply chains. https://t.co/yLTElwctJS pic.twitter.com/vA2DUiysdZ— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) April 13, 2022

You can question the effectiveness of Abbott’s move, but some facts are unavoidable: The border is a total mess, the federal government isn’t doing its job (in fact, Biden is about to make it much worse), and border states are being left to fend for themselves in large measure. Criticizing the way a governor is trying to make up for the federal government’s dereliction is pretty rich. Also, Abbott’s policy on this front is brand new and likely has made no major impact yet. Beyond that, Texas has been one of the red states driving the post-COVID recovery, no thanks to Biden. This White House has dumped on Texas and Florida at every opportunity while trying to steal credit for the gains being made in those states thanks to policies that are the opposite of the Democratic Party line. Regardless, Biden’s endless blame parade isn’t selling: 

New Quinnipiac poll:

Biden approval 33%
Biden disapproval 54%

26% approval with independents

18% approve strongly
43% disapprove stronglyhttps://t.co/7u1wgmMvW5— Josh Kraushaar (@HotlineJosh) April 13, 2022

I’ll leave you with the vice president at least seeming to understand – in her own special way – that breezy talkers like “transitory” aren’t going to cut it: 

KAMALA HARRIS: “I acknowledge one must acknowledge that prices are going up” pic.twitter.com/KR1uZZQ9RP— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 13, 2022

Memo to Psaki: We must acknowledge the acknowledgment, not only of the significance of the passage of time but also of the lasting pain of inflation. And that time is every day.