Culture11

via Rod Dreher: a new 'conservative' website, Culture11.com (It is edited by James Poulos.)

Appleism is a New Religion by David Kuo
Afghanistan's Most Dangerous Corner by Scott Cunningham
The Global War Against Baby Girls by Joe Carter

Shake, Rattle, and Twang by Cheryl Miller

For most rock bands, trying out a little country twang isn't that huge a departure. Since the early 90s, country has been sounding a lot rockier, thanks to the influence of Garth Brooks and other "New Country" pioneers. Rock's long-standing bread-and-butter — story-driven songs with huge, soaring choruses — is now almost purely the domain of country. Bon Jovi's new Nashville-inspired album, Lost Highway, for example, pays tribute to Hank Williams with its title and New Country with its tunes, but it sounds more like an old-fashioned Bon Jovi album than anything else. It's just that old-fashioned Bon Jovi is now just a chord or two away from country music. As Bon Jovi explained to USA Today about his country move, "That style of music is, to me, what we already have done for 25 years." Don't believe him? Go ahead and dig up your cassette tapes. "Livin' on a Prayer," Bon Jovi's tribute to the working-class love of a waitress and a dockworker, doesn't sound that far off from a Rascal Flatts song — all it's missing is a banjo and a fiddle.

The relation of country to rock today is a little chicken-and-the-egg. Bon Jovi and other rock interlopers are borrowing from bands like Rascal Flatts and Big & Rich for their country debuts, but those bands were already borrowing from them. (And to really confuse matters, the original heartland rockers — Springsteen, Mellencamp, Tom Petty — borrowed from country legends like Hank Williams and Merle Haggard.) All the back-and-forth makes sense from a marketing view; country's predominant demographic — late-30s soccer moms — grew up with posters of hunky rockers in blue jeans on their bedroom walls, and retain a nostalgic fondness for arena rock's finest. So Carrie Underwood does a note-for-note cover of Guns n' Roses hit "Sweet Child of Mine" at her concerts while Sugarland belts out Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar on Me" to ecstatic crowds. One of Rascal Flatts's biggest hits is a cover of Tom Cochrane's irresistible 1991 rock ditty, "Life Is a Highway." (Alan Jackson has almost made an entire career out of mocking country's rock pretensions; his 1994 hit, "Gone Country," might be the most famous, but I prefer his 2000 "Three Minute Positive Not Too Country Up-Tempo Love Song.")

But country and rock share more than just some catchy guitar riffs. Country has assumed rock's mantle as music by and for the working class. Mainstream rock used to excel at crafting working-class anthems, songs about the down-and-out: truck drivers, waitresses, factory-workers, and other nine-to-fivers. Bon Jovi had "Livin' on a Prayer," and "It's My Life" (which namechecks "Prayer's" Tommy and Gina). John Cougar Mellencamp ("Check It Out," "Jack and Diane") and Tom Petty penned more than a couple ("I Won't Back Down," "American Girl"). (Both have since released country singles.) But the king of heartland rock is surely Bruce Springsteen, the poet laureate of the working class.

The readers of Chronicles would have much to say about the decline of country music... I wouldn't mind reading more of those comments.

It has potential, but I'd rather read more from GodSpy (will the website ever be updated) or Chronicles... inconsequential commentary can be found on any blog, like this one--after all, everyone has an opinion. But I would expect something more substantial from a 'conservative' website.