Country Music Proves Recession Proof
Posted on December 2, 2008 with
Anytime you watch the news in the past few months all you will see is the doom and gloom of our failing economy. You will also see numerous businesses shutting down or laying off a massive amount of workers. Music has seen its fair share of layoffs in various genres and sales have gone down by a large percent in every genre other than country music.
The recession proof country theory was proven with the release of Taylor Swift’s sophomore album entitled Fearless. In its first week Fearless sold more than 800,000 copies with the majority of those albums being sold at Wal-Mart. As the trend also continues, Wal-Mart continues to be the highest seller of music and the more it trends this way the more country music seems to gain a stronghold on being a major genre. A lot of the larger volumes of CD’s being sold can be attributed to the mark-down of music at major retailers from $11.99 and $13.99 per CD to now all CD’s being below $9.99. During this holiday season you will have your fair share of choices to choose from if Taylor Swift is not your thing. It seems everyone has a new CD out with Darius Rucker, Trace Adkins, Kenny Chesney, Blake Shelton, and more plus holiday albums from Carrie Underwood and Faith Hill.
Taylor Swift seems unstoppable whether we are in a recession or not. I guess one thing we can learn from all of this is when times start getting rough there is nothing better than three cords and the truth.
--- --- ---Related articles:
- Taylor Swift’s Lockdown on Country Music
- Swift’s Chart Dominance Continues With Fearless
- Country Sales Fall In 2008
Tags: Blake Shelton, carrie underwood, Darius Rucker, Faith Hill, Kenny Chesney, taylor swift, Trace Adkins, Wal-Mart
Category: News
Comments (8)
Grace
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:36 pm
i surprisingly liked taylors album from what i have heard. I bought a copy for my daughter the weekend it came out in murfreesboro and the place was packed. A lot of the songs arnt what us old timers would consider country but i think it helps open young fans up to the other country stars.
DaGambler
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Nice article, were havin some rough times out here in places and country music has to be the best cure when you start gettin down. Like you said you cant beat three cords and the truth
BRightous
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:57 pm
whoa taylor looks beatiful in that picture. I listen to other kinds of music but any time i want to be in a somber mood or relax i listen to country. It is not as good for getting your pumped up but it is pretty much good for just about any other mood.
Ben
December 3rd, 2008 at 1:17 pm
It is wrong to claim that any genre of music is recession-proof. CD sales are declining across the board due to unavoidable changes in digital distribution technology. Also, since when does Taylor Swift make country music? She’s crossover, not country… If you think her songs fit the “three chords and the truth” formula, you must not be much of a math person.
Editor
December 3rd, 2008 at 4:56 pm
To be honest I agree with you about Taylor Swift not being standard country music. She does write many songs that are about love, life, etc but I wasn’t really referring to Swift in my three cords and the truth comment as country sales have seen the smallest hit out of all of the major genres so I was referring to all country singers and how that type of music is relating to people more and more as of late. Whether you like Taylor Swift or not she also has brought many new fans to country music. The only bad part of this is that it changes it so that many artists like swift can come into country music and be considered country.
Ben
December 4th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Yeah, I’m just messin’ with you anyhow. For some reason, I figure Taylor Swift shares a lot more fans with Jesse McCartney than she does with Jamey Johnson…
Editor
December 4th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Yeah I totally agree with you on that one. I think she is swaying more and more towards pop. She will always try to hold a somewhat country fanbase due to the longevity of the country fanbase where they will support artists for 5 years over 1 hit song, where as pop they come and go within 6 months to a year for the majority.
nessa
May 23rd, 2009 at 5:25 am
you know, i liked taylor on her first album (excepting some songs). i mean, even if you don’t like the songs it could be called country, which, on fearless, is………………………. well, to say the least, hard to find out how we could call it country. i’d rather call it pop with touches of country here and there. so id say she’s influenced by country, but unfortunately, that doesn’t show in fearless. shame, i was really waiting for her album, but you can’t call it country. hmmmmm……. but she has a huge fan base. you can’t deny that. so hopefully, she’ll release a more country-ish album next time. i’ll wait for that day since i liked her first album.
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