Last night on Nashville Star, cantankerous judge John Rich dug into contestant Coffey by saying that he doesn't think the singer is country at all. He wondered snarkily if perhaps Coffey had gone to the wrong auditions and instead had meant to go to that other reality singing competition, American Idol.

John Rich's obsessive compulsive need to bash American Idol aside, it's not an invalid criticism. This is supposed to be Nashville Star not Pop Star, after all. However, this same show a week ago invited pure pop act Danity Kane to perform on their stage, and one of the judges is a former pop singer who herself only recently acquired a faux country accent. The modern country sound is more pop than ever before, but how much pop is too much when it comes to country music?

I should begin by saying that I myself long ago dropped country like a hot potato and embraced the world of pop music, partly because I was rebelling against my country loving parents, and partly because, well, I just thought it sounded better. Only recently have I started getting back into listening to new country music, which often has less twang and more zing. The country twang is a distinctive feature of country music, but now a days it also seems incredibly dated.

So it's no surprise that for the past fifteen years or so more and more country acts have toned down the twang and kicked up the drums to appeal to a different audience than the classic country acts of old. Artists like Shania Twain and LeAnn Rimes really ramped up the change in the ‘90s with crossover top 40 hits, while recently pop acts like Michelle Branch of The Wreckers, Jessica Simpson and, yes, Jewel herself forsook the world of MTV to try to make a name on CMT.

Then there are the clashing of sounds, some to better effect than others. Rapper Nelly and country singer Tim McGraw had a hit with the redundant and annoying song “Over and Over,” and recently Reba McIntyre teamed up with pop stars like Justin Timberlake and Kelly Clarkson for her duets album. Heck, even the ornery John Rich could hardly call all of his songs pure country, with his penchant for collaborating with rappers like Wyclef and Lil John.

The voice of country music has chanced from the days of Patsy Cline. There's no one true country sound, just a feeling when hearing a song that, despite its pop influences, it belongs to the world of country. Yet here we have several contestants on Nashville Star being slammed for not sounding country enough. They feel that they're country, they want to sing country, and yet . . . their voices apparently can't be used for country? This from a judging panel that includes the same Jewel who once had an electronica pop-tinged single called “Intuition” that went on to be the theme song for razor commercials?

It can be confusing watching this show sometimes. Contestants like Laura and Sophie can be criticized for sounding too old fashioned, while contestants like Tommy Stanley are told they aren't country at all. It feels to me like the differences between the contestants isn't necessarily their voices or their inflections so much as the whole arrangement of their songs. With so many other modern artists crossing back and forth between album charts with only a change to their background music, it feels shortsighted to dismiss someone because of a vocal sound that won't ever be the sum total of their package.

Of course, not everyone likes modern, pop-influenced country music. And not everyone would even agree that the two deemed too pop last night are even good singers. Just, for a show that wants to find the next big modern country star, ignoring the popularity of less classic sounding country might be a bit hypocritical – especially when John Rich and Jewel both know full well that mixing pop into country can often be a recipe for success.


- , BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Photo courtesy of NBC)