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Houston Livestock Show And Rodeo


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Maybe the lineup just has to do with timing. It seems the non country acts in the past were already on tour when they came to Houston, or had a new album to promote. Maybe this year there just weren't as many artists out the there the Rodeo could get, not an effort by the Rodeo to go backwards.

Yes. RodeoHouston does not have the entire entertainment industry under it's thumb. It has to scramble to put together a line-up and some years better talent is available than others. Of course, 'better talent' is very subjective and not everyone agrees on what that means.

There have been years when the Rodeo was scrambling right up to the last minute and delayed an announcement of the lineup for a couple of weeks while they tried to find someone and one year, only a couple of years ago, they had already announced the line-up and then made a change when they convinced ZZ Top to appear. Keith Urban was one of the artists bumped that had already been announced -- perhaps why he was there last year.

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The point is that this year's lineup does not have as many big names as usual. Regardless of genre.

The bigger the names the more people that come out and the more money for scholarships. I doubt HLSR breaks ANY attendence records with this lineup.

You have noted a trend that probably will continue. Up until 10 or 12 years ago, HLSR was the biggest venue a country artist could expect to play. It was very prestigious for the top acts and even more so if you were an up and coming act to be invited. That's not true anymore, and not thru any fault of HLSR or the big bad meanies in the media elsewhere who don't say enough nice things about Houston.

Following on the enormous success of Garth Brooks in the early and mid-90s, the biggest country stars began to realize they could stage the big stadium tours that pop and rock acts had been doing for years. George Strait was one of the first if not the first to do it, right here in Houston at Rice Stadium. He bypassed the Rodeo one year, to much caterwauling of fans, but came to town with his 'George Strait Music Festival' around the 4th of July. It started in the afternoon and went on until late at night, with local acts, regional acts, up and coming national acts, etc. Tim McGraw played right before George, before Tim himself was a superstar.

There are only a handful of country artists who can do this but the plusses for them are enormous: 'total artistic control,' whatever that means; the ability to get up on stage and play for 2 and a half hours if they want, not 45 minutes; the ability to present their act to 100s of thousands of fans all over the country in a one day festival atmosphere, impacting CD sales, merchandising and name awareness, and then go back home after 3 or 4 months and take the rest of the year off, instead of touring nonstop 200 nites a year at honky-tonks and smaller arenas. In addition, some artists have financial interests in up and coming acts; they invite them on the tour and make money that way, too. The top touring country acts now rival the top pop and rock acts in terms of ticket sales and gross, etc. It's a win, win, win, win situation for the artist and hard for HLSR to compete with with a brief one-night gig that doesn't fit the artist's schedule.

It's very prestigious to be a big enough superstar to stage one of these tours or to be one of the artists invited to the tour.

In addition I understand HLSR was creating a problem for itself by insisting on a rather long non-compete window before and after an artist's appearance. Some country acts, and other artists too, didn't mind the constraints of a rodeo appearance but wanted to be able to come back to town later in the summer to appear at the Woodlands or whatever. A new talent coordinator was installed last year and was supposed to address this issue, so I understand.

Some country artists are very much into tradition and will continue to play HLSR; for others, its a just a question of what's best for business. I think you'll see fewer big name country acts as the years go on; not necessarily fewer than this year, but fewer than in the past.

Possibily part of what is happening is that in order to get a couple of the biggest names, they have to spend so much they don't have a lot less left over to spend on other acts -- that's just a guess on my part.

As to your second point: Martina McBride was Female Vocalist of the Year for both Country Music associations for several years (don't know what happened this year -- Gretchen Wilson may have copped one or both of the awards). But I don't think she ever sold out a show at the Rodeo, even at the Dome. The rodeo people are not dumb; I'm sure they have no illusions about selling out Tricia Yearwood, Sheryl Crow or Lee Ann Womack or some of the other non-country acts.

Sorry for the long post.

Edited by brucesw
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I think the original point of the thread is still being missed. At least the way I see it. The point is that this year's lineup does not have as many big names as usual. Regardless of genre.

The bigger the names the more people that come out and the more money for scholarships. I doubt HLSR breaks ANY attendence records with this lineup. A Beyonce, Mariah, Usher, Los Lonely Boys, Thalia, Shakira would've been nice for Black Heritage and Tejano Day.

Well, reluctantly (and you'll know why in a moment) I have to disagree with you. The unfortunate Hilary Duff, scheduled to sing again this year, broke every attendance record in the book in 2005 with 72,843.

What people forget is that not everyone that we'd like to be there can drop everything and show up. Some artists are doing other projects. It would be nice if every star could sing at the rodeo, but even they have lives, and they may not have the time or the inclination to sing during the month of March...no matter how much they get paid.

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I love country music, and I think the line up is boring. Seen it all before.

Maroon 5 may not be country but they were one of, if not the, most popular shows last year. They may not be country but they sold out first last year. With George there this year, I'm sure he'll sell out first.

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  • 1 month later...

did you know they turned the entire astrodome into a dance club??? has anyone been? the idea of that seems crazy huge to me! Crowd control, liquor distribution, security...not to mention all those insanly tight jeans and oversized hats in one very large room!! Even this Aggie is disturbed by the though of it

p.s. - the population of the rodeo was vastly different from the population of MY houston! When mentioning Brokeback Mtn, the crowd boo'd and got fairly quiet...but when NASCAR was mentioned...hold on to your seats! WHAT???

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What?

we saw that larry the cable guy guy (work thing, not my choice! but would you turn down a chance to sit in reliant's suite at reliant stadium?) and he was cracking his jokes...and started making jokes about brokeback mountain...the entire stadium started booing, and not laughing...then he moved on to nascar, and the crowd went wild!

It just felt that the audience was not representative of the COH that I live in. It was like I had warped to some other town. I'll grant you, I have a very narrow interpretation of Houston (inner loop). But, this is the Houston LSR, so I would have hoped for a more Houstonian reaction to what few witty comments he did have.

Edited by wendyps
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did you know they turned the entire astrodome into a dance club??? has anyone been? the idea of that seems crazy huge to me! Crowd control, liquor distribution, security...not to mention all those insanly tight jeans and oversized hats in one very large room!! Even this Aggie is disturbed by the though of it

p.s. - the population of the rodeo was vastly different from the population of MY houston! When mentioning Brokeback Mtn, the crowd boo'd and got fairly quiet...but when NASCAR was mentioned...hold on to your seats! WHAT???

Wendy, you crack me up!

You're right, though. That many starched Wranglers in one room would make this Aggie tremble, too. I'm curious. What is cowgirl fashion, these days? Back in my day, it was the dreaded Rocky Mountains.

Note to Coog. I think they were booing Larry the Cable Guy, because they did not appreciate him making fun of such a well-directed and sensitive love story. :lol:

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You're right, though. That many starched Wranglers in one room would make this Aggie tremble, too. I'm curious. What is cowgirl fashion, these days? Back in my day, it was the dreaded Rocky Mountains.

Note to Coog. I think they were booing Larry the Cable Guy, because they did not appreciate him making fun of such a well-directed and sensitive love story. :lol:

I think it is still the Rocky's. How can a fashion that give you a weggie with the added benefit of making your butt look huge ever go out of style?

riiight, Larry was telling the crowd what a touching story it was and how it applied to his life...it actually turned into a bit about sheep farming.... it was like the collective masses were afraid of even acknowleding the movie

This website is bad for my career.

Edited by wendyps
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I actually went into the astrodome (or the "hideout" as they are calling it) one night when i was at the rodeo this year. I thought it was actually pretty fun what they had in there. A second stage, people dancing, a LOT of drinking. I was actually more entertained by the fact i was on the floor of the dome. It may be a dump now, but I realized then how much i miss the place. It actually felt really small, but the rainbow seats, and old football/ baseball banners reminded me of going to Astros and Oilers games all those years ago. When they kicked everyone out to close, it really reminded me of the Oilers games, people yelling up and down the ramps for no apparent reason - oh yeah, they had been drinking, that's why.

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Note to Coog. I think they were booing Larry the Cable Guy, because they did not appreciate him making fun of such a well-directed and sensitive love story. :lol:

Yeah, that's why they were booing I'm sure of it . <_<:lol:

thanks for making my day a little tighter...i mean brighter

rjo8xe.jpg

Can we all join hands and start singing the "Camel Toe" song ?

NASCAR is for hicks.

PRINT IT

You are right, Hicks, with alot of money to blow on a weekend. I can't understand why it is THE largest spectator sport in the world. I tend to believe it is the morbid curiousity that people have of wanting to see cars and body parts flying around at 200mph when they go into the "THE WALL".

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  • 9 months later...
Sunday, March 4 --------------- The Cheetah Girls, Hannah Montana

My bf's kids love Hannah Montana, she is like the new Hilary Duff.

George Strait, every time! I think I have only missed him once or twice since I was 16. :D

Is he still releasing new material, or did he retire?

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Sugar Land, Pat Green, & ZZ Top. Los Lonely Boys would be good. It's not like I will stand in line for tickets. But hopefully I will know someone with tickets who doens't want these. I've seen all these acts in much more pleasing (read small) venues so I don't work too hard to go.

The first time I saw George Strait was in Gilleys in the 80s. I've seen him at the Rodeo and I just find it annoying to watch a spec spin on a stage.

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Sugar Land, Pat Green, & ZZ Top. Los Lonely Boys would be good. It's not like I will stand in line for tickets. But hopefully I will know someone with tickets who doens't want these. I've seen all these acts in much more pleasing (read small) venues so I don't work too hard to go.

The first time I saw George Strait was in Gilleys in the 80s. I've seen him at the Rodeo and I just find it annoying to watch a spec spin on a stage.

Stand in line? Ticketmaster dude, the day they go one sale. Got front row for Lynyrd Skynyrd when they played the HLS&R.

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His last album came out last Summer. It's excellent, and even has some good Texas songs.

Well two things, and not that it affect the true artistic nature of the artist or his credibility for standing the test of time.

I just noticed that he is not in the media spot light anymore as far as magazine and new outlets

Nor, does his "new" music get airtime?

Just curious, I am not living under a rock and don't listen to country stations or CMT that often, but I don't hear much about him.

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