Just because an artist makes good music doesn't make them a good live show. It's a pretty eye opening revelation. You spend so much time with an artist's music personally, it doesn't even register that they might be great at a concert. If their music is good, why wouldn't you want to hear it in person? But Waylon Jennings saw enough country artists come and go where he can tell who's the real deal. Even if they make sound good on a CD, they aren't true performers. Apparently, there were enough artists thriving in Nashville but couldn't draw a crowd to save their lives.
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Recently, YouTube account Video Stock Archives shared an old interview with Jennings where he thrashes the Nashville system. Particularly, he notes that even though record companies put all their stocks in an artist, that doesn't mean they truly have an audience. "Record companies and executives, they have a little thing now that doesn't carry over to drawing people. They have people who sell a lot of records, but that's all," Waylon says. "They go out to do a show and nobody shows up. You think that they are really big, and they draw two or three thousand people, and then give the tickets away to make the big coliseums full... and I didn't know that."
Waylon Jennings Trashes The Nashville System
Then, Jennings notes at the time how this leads to a beef between radio and the execs. Meanwhile, the artist can draw for a show and it tanks their career. That's why he stresses that a hit won't make or break a career. "The record companies don't care. The radio don't care. They say that's not their problem. They sell two or three million records, and draw 300 people," Waylon explains. "We've kept our drawing power up, and radio... it doesn't matter. If they never play me again, I'm still going to draw five or six thousands people no matter where I'm at."
My favorite criticism from this interview is how homogenized an industry will want you to become. If you aren't an immediate star with a distinct vision, they'll try and chuck you in a specific mold. "They didn't want you to have ideas. They wanted you to come in and do it in a thing called the 'Nashville sound,'" Waylon shrugs. "Me and the Nashville sound was like oil and water: it just didn't mix. There was no edge to that music. It was one thing, and everybody recorded it, and it all sounded the same."
