Americana is Cringe. Stop Trying to Make It Happen.
As a genre, Americana is vulnerable to being ill-defined, vulnerable to those who want to make a quick buck, and – perhaps the most taboo in the entertainment industry – Boomer-coded. Here's how it happened.
Typically, musicians want to come together: that's when the best music happens. Those unexpected interactions ping into inspiration and – boom. You've got a new song. Maybe, eventually, a band. How about even a scene? Yet, Americana is, perhaps, one of the few scenes that artists habitually complain about belonging to.
When Jim Allen surveyed the queer country scene for Bandcamp Daily, this quote grabbed my attention:
Everywhere you encounter it, queer country is one of the most cohesive musical movements around, for a very pragmatic reason: Most of the artists under its banner actually embrace it.
Sure, there's the coy artistic sensibility of not wanting to be boxed in by a marketing label. However, after fifteen years of covering independent artists who consciously play within the spectrum of roots-inspired music, frustrations with mainstream country music and the independent scenes adjacent (or proudly not) are a constant theme.
Take, for example, River Shook's "baby rant" about the state of things ahead of last week's Americanafest – an industry event at which they were an official showcase artist.
Just like every genre, the Americana scene is oversaturated. Corny bands, cringey songwriting, and self-proclaimed artists who care more about optimizing an algorithm than they give a fuck about art. And as long as they're down to buy-in and slap a Wrangler logo on their ass, we give these clowns the same credence as actual titans...
So no, I don't sit around wondering why ticket sales are down across the industry when streaming has violently stripped music of all its inherent value, and mediocrity is platformed and rewarded to the point of total absurdity. music fans are fatigued. They're tired of being force-fed garbage in suspenders by an industry essentially saying 'Trust me, bro."
If there's one complaint older and more than universal than that of genre, it's kvetching that the industry rewards bland musicians who appeal to the greatest common denominator. (I have no idea who Shook was thinking of when they wrote this but I know who's in my crosshairs.)
Thing is, though, that Americana is unique in that it was created from the top-down rather than the bottom up – and that's left it vulnerable to being ill-defined, vulnerable to those who want to make a quick buck, and – perhaps the most taboo in the entertainment industry – Boomer-coded.
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