I like listening to radio in the car and I am not a fan or Pandora or anything else. However, if I do not want to be hanging on those last important lyrics at this point I feel like I do not have much of a choice.

There's a disturbing new trend in country music: Producers are cutting out instrumental sections to make the songs fit certain broadcast formats.

In a recent article in Billboard, country superstar Brad Paisley explained that “on country radio, there's a tendency to edit out the guitar solos to save time.” Eric Church's musically adventurous “The Outsiders” is but one song affected by this new regimen. Sometimes, country music producers bowdlerize songs preemptively, before they even leave the studio. “Trans Am” by Thompson Square, for instance, fell victim to an in-studio trim.

Guitar solos, from Bill Haley and the Comets to Jack White, are as integral to the American music scene. Certainly they have a key place in country, a genre built on instrumental virtuosity.

Guitar solos in country are going the way of the dodo largely because of commercial pressure. Specifically, pressure to fit in more commercials.

Guitar solos in country are going the way of the dodo largely because of commercial pressure.

Newcap Radio, a Calgary-based corporation, conducted research into listener behavior and found that attention spans are now shorter. People listening to music often fast-forward through a song or only listen to parts of it. Radio stations now shorten the average length of songs it plays to two minutes.

Country radio was supposed to be the last line of defense. Contemporary urban and pop formats are already mostly guitar-free; synthesizers do much of the heavy lifting. Maybe it's time for a “save the solo” campaign.

These changes hit many rank-and-file musicians where they live, namely Nashville. Keep in mind that guitar solos heard on country records are probably not played by the well-known stars, but by workaday musicians.

Most of these pickers are members of the American Federation of Musicians — an important union for recording artists big and small. Session musicians are paid for in-studio work, but, for them, getting airplay is a kind of currency: More people hearing their work increases demand for their services in the studio and on the road.

This new trend to max out listeners with advertisements and station announcements is putting a damper on the age-old tradition of listening to radio in the car or at home.

To bypass all of the commercials and pauses I get from radio I typically will just put on YouTube and play that all day. However, now on top of hearing about them cutting my favorite songs in half I am really going to have to cut this habit down and just stick to YouTube.

If People Are Upset That American Traditions Are Declining Then Why Are They Adapting To Them?

How do you feel about this new trend, is it fair and are they ruining new music?

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This Article & Photo Was Adapted From: LA Times