۞ Born With Fangs, but the World Gave You Venom

dragondingus: ‪27 of 365: Scauldron ‬

Tue, 26 Jun 2018 17:30:05 -0400

dragondingus:

‪27 of 365: Scauldron ‬

dragonasisarts:<3 my favorite dragon

Tue, 26 Jun 2018 15:15:08 -0400

dragonasisarts:

<3 my favorite dragon

clockbirds: luminous. half body commission~ > my art tag

Tue, 26 Jun 2018 03:25:06 -0400

clockbirds:

luminous. half body commission~

> my art tag

queensryche: thunderboltsortofapenny: lilacbreastedroller: BIG...

Tue, 26 Jun 2018 03:12:36 -0400

queensryche:

thunderboltsortofapenny:

lilacbreastedroller:

BIG DISCLAIMER: i was 9 when 9/11 happened, so this might be more about my own crystalizing tastes than anything else. i think it’s a pretty darn good theory tho and other people have validated it.

BIGGER DISCLAIMER: i am not saying that country music prior to 9/11 was free from nationalist, racist, misogynist undertones - i just think that these themes became more the norm!

MY HOT TAKE:

with very few exceptions, including goodbye earl, before he cheats, and daddy Iessons (side note - all women!) 9/11 ruined country music. around 2014 onward we’ve got margo price, sturgill simpson, jason isbell etc., who are making country music great again (wink), but those folks are mostly considered “alternative” country. the mainstream country music for well over a decade now is a glut of trash performative patriotic / working-class-but-not-really lab-crafted budweiser-sponsored nonsense that has managed to sound rebellious (or has convinced its fans that it sounds rebellious) without ever actually questioning any power structure. so much so that artists who ACTUALLY criticized the government were literally blacklisted for nearly a decade (the dixie chicks)

pre-9/11 country music, though not perfect or ideologically pure by any stretch, did not have the raging american flag painted truck boner that comes to mind for a lot of people who say “i like everything except rap and country”

SPECIFICALLY, toby keith’s “courtesy of the red, white, and blue (the angry american)” (2002) literally destroyed country music. it was a direct answer to the 9/11 attacks and war song in support of the invasion of afghanistan. the lyrics read like a disjointed feverish email chain letter forwarded from your great uncle sprinkled with glittering american flag gifs and heavily saturated pictures of bald eagles. the entire song is lifted from an estimated 248 peeling bumper stickers collected from rusted trucks on cinder blocks in overgrown yards, cut up and arranged to fit a catchy, formulaic tune that is almost certainly the background music playing in george w. bush’s head at all times.

“we’ll put a boot in your ass, it’s the american way
and uncle sam put your name at the top of his list
and the statue of liberty started shakin’ her fist
and the eagle will fly, and it’s gonna be hell, when you hear mother freedom start a'ringin’ her bell”

country music and the new country musicians that toby keith paved the way for became so pro establishment and so unquestioningly nationalistic that, again, the dixie chicks who went against this grain were blacklisted by the industry and received death threats from country music fans. hell, there are folks who STILL froth at the mouth at the mere mention of the dixie chicks.

9/11 killed outlaw country - how can you sing the praises of law breakers when your main circuit consists of singing to troops? there are some great classic country songs critiquing the police state - especially from johnny cash and merle haggard - now country music artists hold fundraisers for FOPs. new country music is basically in-law country music.

you don’t have to write a pro-bush patriotic anthem to be part of this post-9/11 ruination. playing meaningless songs about living in the heart of (read: white) america, eschewing the city (read: not white), and cracking open a cold one with the boys for “authentic” country music is also important to the war effort.

there’s a progression of themes here:

post 9/11 top tier: war anthem, vocally patriotic, directly used as pro war propaganda;
which paved the way for: “things used to be so much better” thinly veiled racist laments, good for campaign ads;
which paved the way for meaningless party anthems - attempts to make things “like they used to be” and craft a reality that neither the artist nor listener likely ever experience.

that brings us to what most people think of today when they say they hate country music: the country party anthem - “tiny hot gal in tight jean shorts who can drink beer like the guys, she doesn’t like beyoncé Like Other Girls, oh she’s so into me and my truck, i’m gonna take her fishing after i finish sowing my corn - sung by a guy who’s never touched a tractor” - has overtaken the tragic, done me wrong, despairing country ballads of tammy wynette, george jones, and even up into pre-9/11 contemporaries like reba mcentire and george strait. you didn’t necessarily have to be country to relate to their pain. now you have to perform suburban redneckness to enjoy luke bryan.

when was the last time you heard a sad country song?

after 9/11, cowboys (whether or not they had ever been near a cow) weren’t allowed to be sad anymore (no more done me wrong country), and they certainly weren’t allowed to question authority (no more outlaw country). partying hardy became the most important American Thing and if you don’t sing about that, our Enemies Will Win.

so - understanding that country music has always had bad stuff, and that like any genre it suffers from commercialization, 9/11 DESTROYED COUNTRY MUSIC. and toby keith gleefully helped destroy it.

for some further evidence of the decline of country music, please listen to the dixie chicks’ “long time gone” which is an indictment of the industry (i believe it was written before 9/11 but my point still stands - the genre was on the decline and 9/11 was the major cultural event that hastened the decline).

maybe i am a curmudgeon - almost every generation of country music has had its own “country music is not what it used to be” anthem, but i really think something distinct happened with 9/11.

Can confirm. Alan Jackson and Toby Keith, the blacklisting of Dixie Chicks, literally the only singer I can think of that ever spoke out against anything from 2001-2010 was Johnny Cash. I’d also say that the uber-patriotic stance lead to the shiny, vapid County Boy® nonsense that lead to so many of the solo artists all sounding and looking the same.

Johnny cash wrote an entire album about the destruction of Indigenous lands and of Indigenous people, Kris Kristofferson has been an activist most of his career working closely with the UFM, Woody Guthrie was a social justice advocate and union activist, Dolly Parton has tackled explicitly feminist issues even in the 60s and has been an avid supporter of her lgbt fans, Willie Nelson made Farm Aid to try and help farmers in danger of losing their farms due to mortgages keep them and is also an avid supporter of LGBT rights as well as marijuana legalization, Lorettea Lynn wrote about birth control in the 70s and had her song banned, i could go on!

When in the correct hands, country music is a powerful medium, but post 9/11 it’s been handed off to apathetic white men who have turned it into the most useless genre of music out there.

sgrpkts: balkanizedusa: ITS MINGUS cool dog

Tue, 26 Jun 2018 02:29:22 -0400

sgrpkts:

balkanizedusa:

ITS MINGUS

cool dog

myrtlewilson: spudinacup: lavenderbud: a video compilation of...

Tue, 26 Jun 2018 02:28:22 -0400

myrtlewilson:

spudinacup:

lavenderbud:

a video compilation of me attempting to do anything

I have tears literally everywhere I haven’t laughed this hard in so long. Who thought of this, I want to marry them and shake their hands

my last braincell attempting to fight my mental illness and get shit done

asheoki:IM HYPERVENTILATING JGXFHZXJGJXGJGDJGX

Tue, 26 Jun 2018 02:23:43 -0400

asheoki:

IM HYPERVENTILATING JGXFHZXJGJXGJGDJGX

catsbeaversandducks: You can’t stop me from loving you. By The...

Tue, 26 Jun 2018 01:49:11 -0400

catsbeaversandducks:

You can’t stop me from loving you.

By The Touring Test

Photo

Tue, 26 Jun 2018 01:44:11 -0400

thisisalsoyou: An “Excellent Dragon” for Anonymous. Thank you...

Tue, 26 Jun 2018 01:37:27 -0400

thisisalsoyou:

An “Excellent Dragon” for Anonymous. Thank you for your gift!

Done as part of my $3 Ko-Fi Drawing Drive

cephalotodd:happy pride month to those two trucks. you know the ones

Tue, 26 Jun 2018 01:37:23 -0400

cephalotodd:

happy pride month to those two trucks. you know the ones

costa-cat: OKAY OKAY THIS A GOLD AND PLEASE TELL ME YOU KNOW...

Tue, 26 Jun 2018 00:58:23 -0400

costa-cat:

OKAY OKAY THIS A GOLD AND PLEASE TELL ME YOU KNOW THAT VINE?? IF YOU DON’T THEN HERE: https://youtu.be/iD1NIbEpVBs WATCH IT

THIS BELONGS TO: @noyougofuckyourself GO FOLLOW HER RIGHT NOW I’M WATCHING YOU

languageoclock:tried to teach my 3 year old host sister to say “wake up” in english but she couldn’t...

Tue, 26 Jun 2018 00:42:56 -0400

languageoclock:

tried to teach my 3 year old host sister to say “wake up” in english but she couldn’t quite nail the pronunciation so I woke up this morning to her knocking on the door at 6:42am screaming “LATE FUCK!”

Video

Tue, 26 Jun 2018 00:42:39 -0400

unrelatedtouserboxes:hey guys did you know if you visit loch ness on the third friday of any month...

Tue, 26 Jun 2018 00:41:41 -0400

unrelatedtouserboxes:

hey guys did you know if you visit loch ness on the third friday of any month at specifically 3:42pm nessie will be there and she will give you an AriZona Iced Tea

impassive-aggressive: theletter27: wealdandwold: miqhael: now...

Tue, 26 Jun 2018 00:41:30 -0400

impassive-aggressive:

theletter27:
wealdandwold:
miqhael:
now go! enjoy your blogging free of worry and obligation. i will defend you and keep you safe from harm. *:･ﾟ✧
{♚} saw this post and was inspired to draw this.
I always reblog this cos I know ppl who have anxiety around stuff like that who find this helpful (anxiety’s not always rational, & even ppl superinformed about how magic works etc can get nasty intrusive surges of shit from seeing those posts from time to time!)
@thedragonisaprincess
THAAAAAAAAANK YOOOOOOOOOOU

Photo

Tue, 26 Jun 2018 00:15:37 -0400

stupidente: windows-98: windows-98: a lot of people these days are afraid to show fruit and...

Tue, 26 Jun 2018 00:15:32 -0400

stupidente:

windows-98:

windows-98:

a lot of people these days are afraid to show fruit and vegetables being thrown through a cascade of water and that’s fucked up

there is NOTHING shameful about this

that’s how they flavor la croix

playing-hero: lunette3002: fashionf-u-c-ks: None OKAY so I saw...

Tue, 26 Jun 2018 00:11:47 -0400

playing-hero:

lunette3002:

fashionf-u-c-ks:

None

OKAY so I saw this a few days ago and was like “whatever” but then I smashed my phone in a car door, had to clean up some dead baby bunnies in my yard, and have just generally NOT had a good week. I’m fucking spooked and I’m reblogging this twice to get the universe to stop.

I ignored this too and then i got kicked out of my house. Also reblogging twice.

lizardworm: 7eggs: why are people 5’4 and under always full of unrelenting rage closer to hell

Tue, 26 Jun 2018 00:11:38 -0400

lizardworm:

7eggs:

why are people 5’4 and under always full of unrelenting rage

closer to hell