As most of you have seen Jacqueline is the person I'm constantly sparring with on the site. In the real world we have a slightly better relationship as this service, which I run, also hosts her Socks on a Rooster blog. I also developed the graphics for that.
Anyway, I'm not trying to pump myself up without a purpose here. The reason I mention this stuff is that a couple of weeks back she asked me to help her set up another site that would support her blossoming country singer career. (Country or Western? Hell, I don't know. Never could tell the difference anyway.) I happily agreed as long as I had the time.
Now I have a night or two free coming up so I want to get that site on the road and I've been looking around at some sites of other country stars. I came up with these; Brooks and Dunn, Faith Hill, Leann Rimes, Toby Keith, Patty Loveless, Neal McCoy, Trisha Yearwood, Shania Twain and Kenny Chesney. I honestly don't know these folks. I would be interested in what you guys have to say about these sites.
For me I think the Patty Loveless site is the nicest. It's not the sex kitten stuff that Trisha Yearwood's is. Is that a bedroom shot?
From this admittedly brief survey I have come to these conclusions. First, that it's all about the image. And in the case of men that means strong poses, strong lettering, strong colors and maybe logos that connote the country lifestyle. For women the colors are softer, the type is softer and serif as opposed to sans-serif. and the pictures go one of two ways.
Which leads me to my second point. There seem to be two directions here for women; sex kitten or songstress. Where the sex kitten sites are all about the images, the look. The low cut stuff. The bedroom photos. And the songstress stuff has photos that are further away with looks that are more stern. Those images also maintain the detail where the sexy stuff is softer and more airbrushed. Same thing in Rock and Blues, there are your sex-kittens like early Madonna, and your songstress types like Bonnie Raitt. The songstress moves your ears, the sex-kitten moves you... somewhere else. That being said though, Bonnie is still cute.
Anyway, I figure I could use the site setup stuff to evaluate some PHP products and then see which fits best and use the evaluation process as the foundation of an article on PHP blog/wiki/forum systems.
I hope Jacqueline is ok with my posting this. If she is ok with it I might put up the site designs to get some feedback before I do all of the coding behind it. It would be better to get some feedback on a bad direction early while it's still easy to fix.
Posted by jherr at August 27, 2005 05:28 PMI'm absolutely okay with it. :)
Country & Western had mostly "hat acts". Cowboys - Old West - Roy Rogers & Kitty Wells - Out in the old Texas town of El Paso . . . It's a boutique genre now. You might be able to find a station that plays it in west Texas.
Country is a more modern format, sometimes it sounds like Pop music with fiddle & steel guitar thrown in to fit the genre. Sometimes they omit the fiddle & steel all together! Then, there is a more traditional country feel - three chords - honest, down-home, 4/4 time country.
The common thread in all Country music is the writing is straightforward, direct and honest. It is heartfelt and unabashedly looks for a raw emotional response.
Posted by: Jacqueline at August 29, 2005 09:27 AMI assume then that Garth Brooks and Brooks and Dunn and Country? What would Jonny Cash and Dolly Parton be?
Posted by: jherr at August 29, 2005 10:33 AMAmerican Treasures. Legends. :)
They're country too. When I think of Country & Western, I think Jimmy Rogers, Roy Rogers & Dale Evans, Gene Autry - singing cowboys. Old timers - Roots. Not really marketable today - except maybe in Americana or Folk music. Country/Western is just kind of a term that dates to the beginning of our format.
Western Swing is another sound altogether. It's a Texan-bred shuffle and these days, only Texan men (like George Strait) get away with trying to release it to radio. It's very popular in Texas, though.
Country encompasses Hank Williams thru Patsy Cline thru Barbara Mandress thru Randy Travis thru Garth Brooks thru Faith Hill . . .
We went to the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum over the weekend. It was cool. I've been before, but it's always an interesting journey.
Posted by: Jacqueline at August 29, 2005 12:38 PMThanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
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