Finally, a genre I've never seen mentioned here, and has never been defended by anybody ever...

Ah shit I thought you were going to mention Harcore Spunk Lounge. Got my hopes up there.

Look up Big Tom & The Mainliners, Daniel O'Donnell, Philomena Begley, & Declan Nerney on Napster or Amazon, and buy/download random tracks/records.

Once you've heard them you will never want to hear Country 'n' Irish again.

I can tape a Declan Nerney album for anyone that wants to hear it. There's a great song about a small child begging a judge not to let his parents divorce.

that's because country'n'irish is COMPLETELY INDEFENSIBLE, tarden!

just listen to any record by Brendan Shine or Margo and you'll know what you're up against. the relentless chugging waltz-time beat, the tinkly piano, the smug-sounding slide guitar, and those inexcusably cringey lyrics delivered in an off-key cod-american wail or (for 'funny' songs) a chirpy regionalled-up oirish accent. and let's not forget the Talking Bit In The Middle.

and yet it's still the most popular music in ireland by a long way, even now that there are *alternatives*. i just don't understand it.

I believe DJ O'Martian mentioned Country'n'Irishcore in his first post to ILM.

In what sense is it the most popular music in Ireland? Do you think that it's a matter of it being easy to make a career in, and so the last remnant of the big band scene, or do you think there's a genetic defect that makes us really like it? And if so, what remedies might be put in place?

"Its still the most popular music in Ireland by a long way". Hmm, dont know about that although there are quite a lot of radio stations devoted to it but it all sounds the bloody same. Hear a couple of notes of a song and hey presto you can start singing along. My dad quitelikes it I think he's got a T.R. Dallas album somewhere.

Many years ago, my friend EH took a posse o'southron pals to the Grand Ole Opry in Glasgow (at that time she herself had a yen to make it as a country-ish popstar). A sequence of sad rubbish local "C&W" acts took the stage. We ate our chicken-in-a-basket (= not true, but timeslippishly approrpate) and watched, trying not to catch EH's eye.

In between each act, locals, duded up in ten-gallon hats and chaps, staged Western-type gunfights with CAP-GUNS, with the crowd cheering them on.

With the single exception of a Starlight Express all-singing-all;-dancing revue-type thing I once saw attempted in Shrewsbury Music Hall in the late 70s, this was the most pathetic evening's entertainment I've ever had to endure. I think because it made me sad.

arguably the one good thing about C'n'I is Daniel O'Donnell. Obviously the music is rubbish, but he himself is so strange as to be endlessly fascinating.

He also invites all his geriatric fans over for tea every year. He was on Top Of The Pops as well.

I've never heard "Country 'n' Irish" before, but all this accumulative hatred really makes me want to seek it out. If it's truly the most hated music on the planet, it must be interesting in some way--give me some!

This is a curious, and somewhat disturbing new trend on this board... the idea that "if this many people *hate* X, then wow, there really must be something to it, I bet I'd like it!!!"

Isn't this the same marketing "logic" that gave us Bovril and Marmite, after all?

Frankly if there's one thing that'll kill the trend, Kate, it's people giving country'n'irish a try.

Marmite is gorgeous.

Bovril + unsalted butter + (bought) gingerbread = fit for a king

Marmite? BLEEEEUUUUUUURRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!

I is like the bloke in the advert who would stop kissing the lust object of his dreams and go running to gargle to avoid the taste of said stuff... (Hmm, now there's an image. I have mental pictures of Paul coating Dan and Ollie C6 with thin layers of marmite to stop my lustful tendencies...)

But so says the girl who went through a massive phase of having to eat PICKLED EGGS at every occasion. But at least I had a *reason* for my pickled egg cravings...

pickled eggs? Where did you obtain this fascinating foodstuff?

At a guess, either at the local chipshop or at the supermarket. They are that popular over here.

At a Safeway near our recording studio in Stamford Hill. I said I'd never had one. Our producer dared me to try one. I became instantly obsessed. They're actually quite good, especially with salad. No, really.

"In what sense is it the most popular music in Ireland?"

in the sense that an overwhelmingly large percentage of radio stations in ireland are devoted to country'n'irish ... and in the sense that if you're in a band (in fairness, this applies more outside dublin) the only way you can get regular gigs is to play country'n'irish because it's what the punters invariably want. my brother in sligo played country'n'irish for years, to finance his playing of music he actually liked. of course, now he's in trad supergroup Dervish he can laugh at it all ...

"Do you think that it's a matter of it being easy to make a career in, and so the last remnant of the big band scene, or do you think there's a genetic defect that makes us really like it?"

by big bands, do you mean showbands? i think the purpose of showbands was to fill out big dancehall venues with youngsters, put on a bit of a show, and send them home sweatin' ... whereas i can't imagine country'n'irish doing any of these things. it is easy to make a career out of it, certainly. but i don't know *why*.

here's a thing - is joe dolan classifiable as country'n'irish?

Nah, Joe Dolan is cabaret, Tom Jones kinda thing.

Don't know where to buy pickled eggs? What the fuck? Good pubs and chip shops serve pickled eggs. You're not cool unless you know someone who's made their own pickled eggs to keep in a jar in the cupboard. They're better the longer you leave them. Bit of salt. Nice.

But what about BONGO METAL? And isn't Pickled Egg a record label?

I am IRISH and proud of it, I am a C/W musician, and proud of it, so don't slag our culture or our people, coz that's what your doing, and pickled eggs WHAT has that to do with IRISH music or the "price of Turnips" SLAG your own culture, and if your Irish or descent of Irish SHAME ON YOU.

i'm irish and i fucking hate irish music. they only people who listen to it are creepy old decrepit english teachers and white pride skinheads who are trying to get into their 'european heritage'.

I'd never heard of this genre until reading this thread a couple days ago. (Here in the states we're still arguing the merits of Laura Branigan vs. Pat Benatar.) Are you sure that country'n'Irish is the most popular genre in Ireland? I ran this question by my friend Sarah, and this is what she said: "Um, this is all news to me. A lot of people in Ireland like country music, and possibly this is country music that's being played by Irish people, so I wouldn't exactly have made it a new category, but I think that calling it the most popular genre in Ireland is inaccurate. In my year as a student in Belfast, I never heard of any of these people. People listen to bands like Stiff Little Fingers, Mogwai, Bad Bird, Texas, U2, Westlife, that sort of thing. Garth Brooks played in Belfast for a week (in a hall that sat only 5K) and was completely sold out. But young people in Ireland are like young people here, they go to clubs, drop ecstasy and listen to club music. I have no idea what older people in Ireland listen to, but truly this is all news to me." Maybe Sarah and I are just speaking from the insularity of youth (in which case I'm achieving something significant at age 47 in being thus insularly youthful).

haha, philomena begley, that brings back some baaaaad memories of youth.

lol @ ethan's post

this genre needs a "Yacht Rock" style parody/homage