Simple Triple Standard

In the early 1970s within the music and radio culture something began to happen that would be written about for decades in various industry periodicals like Billboard Magazine. A tide was changing, and the wave destined to be felt with the story told around the world. By 1972, FM radio was beginning a deadly assault on the old standard AM band. Along with that assault, came a siege on historic double-standards for music. "The Top-40/Rock-n-Roll scene" and the "Country/Western genre" started to blend together.

No place was more influential in that generational up-welling than Austin, Texas where the music scene was to say the least, "more than a tune on the radio or a place in the heart." In that pivotal time in Austin, music was a way of life. Music represented the passion that brought individual idealists together in a way that frankly, in other cities might have pitched folks into bar-room brawls.

Austin locals called themselves rednecks and hippies (ropers and rockers)… and although they gathered on opposite sides of the room, they all ate and drank at the same watering holes… Danced on the same hardwood floors… And they all lived the same weathered, rugged lives every Texan had before them. Both sides of the equation loved life and lived for their popular brand of music and song.

Like with most things, when you put two opposites together something new comes from it. Austin radio called the merger "Progressive Country." And so with the idea of commonality and a strong appetite for "the good times," a new standard was born out of the same soil that also cultivated Willie Nelson Picnics, Jerry Jeff Walker anthems, and Michael Martin Murphey cross-over platinum hits. The age of "sex, drugs, and rock & roll" had given away to an era of "live and let-live." It made sense. -A "Simple Triple Standard."

If you've ever lived in a small town or close-knit community, you certainly know about double standards. Clearly we need standards; but double standards often come with the stigma of being something corrupt or evil. Frankly double standards often are wicked, but for the most part, double standards are not always rooted in bad policy. Love/hate, black/white, heart/mind, body/soul… Without context, double standards appear to be just opposite ends of a spectrum like north and south; just opposites with no malicious intent.

The old adage, "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction" tells us that because we have standards, double standards are inevitable. Take art for example; one single standard for art just won't do. One person's concept of art is another person's notion of bad taste.

Just try to imagine only one single standard for making barbecue… or beer. To a pit-master or brewer the concept of one recipe for all of the craftsmanship in their work is completely absurd. It would be insanely ridiculous to expect barbecued ribs in St. Louis to taste exactly the same as hickory smoked rib-lets from North Carolina, or mesquite pit baby-back ribs from Texas. The same goes for beer… If ale tasted the same as lager, the saying, "variety is the spice of life" would lose all relative meaning in culture. After all the keys to culture are the distinctions between how things are done and celebrated. So double standards exist; and for good reason.

How much more complicated can a triple standard be, right? - A simple triple standard. Given that one times two is two and two times three is s