Photo courtesy of Eric ChurchSome people like to use stereotypes to predict the audience at different concerts.
The indie-rock concert has scores of sulky young people in thick-rimmed Ray Ban wayfarers shuffling to their seats in tattered Converse shoes and stiff skinny jeans.
The reggae concert is dingy. It's musky with the scent of marijuana and stuffy with perspiring body odor.
The rap concert has loud bros in tank tops and button-down flannel shirts, while classical concerts host the upper-crust elite — the mature audience with an elegant ear.
Pop concerts are for teenyboppers who want to hear one of their school dance's beats performed live. Electric concerts host the nocturnal college crowd through a barricade of head-bopping, body-rocking dance beats.
How do blanketed stereotypes set up the scene for a country music concert? Most of the cars in the parking lot outside are pickup trucks. The only shoes that grace the floor inside are cowboy boots, while there are more shirt-tucked-in-jeans combos than there are piercings at a heavy metal concert. There is two-step dancing, and there are fights that break out amongst a rowdy crowd, which can be explained by following the thick scent of alcohol that curls through the air.
As tempting as it is to credit these stereotypes that play on music genres, they, like all stereotypes, are not necessarily true. Country music superstar Eric Church is coming to the Valley this Friday, and his performance at Jobing.com Arena is sure to attract much more than the clichéd truck-driving, two-stepping, bootlegging fans.
Church is making it big — really big. His most recent album “Chief” is currently the fifth most popular country record on iTunes and has garnered a Grammy nomination for Best County Album. His other album, “Carolina,” is in the top 40 on iTunes. Well-known critic Ann Powers wrote a pinpoint praise of the man behind this success:
“Mainstream music is full of macho dudes in faded designer jeans, but it’s rare to find an artist with enough sophistication and self-awareness to make the outlaw persona feel genuine. Enter Eric Church: The North Carolina native honky-tonker who fully embraces country clichés, but sharpens them with wit, chronicling wild nights and epic hangovers with just the right amount of critical distance, and single with the cool world-weariness of someone who’s lost a few lovers and parking-lot fights.”
Granted, this description does seem to embrace the aforementioned stereotypes. However, as Powers points out, Church is able to distance himself from other country stars with a sincere wittiness that garners respect from more than the core country crowd. Church provides the crucial bridge between the niche country genre and other music genres.
Sincerity serves as the bridge across music genres, because all music fans can appreciate an artist that emits honesty. In Church’s case, this bridge can vitalize the country genre by attracting fresh fans. Like lead singer Justin Vernon from Bon Iver, Church spent some time in a remote cabin in the woods in order to write music directly from his inner passion without any external influence. If his first two records — “Sinners Like Me” and “Carolina” — did not reveal Church’s honest music sufficiently, “Chief” certainly does.
Popular songs such as “Springsteen” and “Homeboy” are just as instrumentally impressive as they are vocally secure. “Creepin’” has a bass line that can make even the most stubborn foot yearn to tap the floor with the beat. Church’s music is fun, and his cleverly cliché song “Drink in My Hand” serves as evidence.
Many fans will be able to hear these forefront country tunes live this Friday at 7:30 p.m. in the Jobing.com Arena. Newcomers will discover that country has its special merits — its fans are on to something here. Church has received acclaim for his live concerts, and it won’t be a surprise if the venue is filled with not only the aforementioned country diehards, but also a new slew of music-lovers open to the genre thanks to the bridge that Eric Church himself has begun to build.
Reach the reporter at jconigli@asu.edu
Source for Anne Powers’ critique and background information: http://ericchurch.com/about
