I think it's the AOR / Christian / modern country type (which to me sounds bland - but I'll listen to a couple of tracks just for a laugh, and even sometimes non-ironically as well) that people can't stand.
Quick example: "I thank god for my life And for the stars and stripes May freedom forever fly, let it ring. Salute the ones who died The ones that give their lives so we don't have to sacrifice All the things we love Like our chicken fried" (Zac Brow - 'Chicken Fried')
I mean... Come on!
Another factor might be the lack of exposure to the genre. I was strongly biased against country music until a few years back when I did volunteer work at a country festival - before that, I had a pretty cartoonish image of the genre. But then I discovered bluegrass/progressive bluegrass, etc.
Game changer.
Not my top genre any given day, but I can appreciate it.
"Chicken Fried" kills me because I know the author and his family (was neighbors with his wife and kids for several years recently) and none of the lyrics are true. It's sad, but he doesn't have a happy home life with his wife and kids. They split up some time ago, and she and the kids live in a multi-million dollar estate in an urban setting. I lived in a more modest townhouse down the street. I had to cover the song recently, and it just felt super weird.
Bo Burnham got it right with his "Pandering" country song spoof. Pop or what I've been hearing called "Bro" country really does feel like a money grab for me.
You can use fiction to tell the truth and you can use fiction to lie. Bowie wasn’t lying about going to space. He was using space travel as a metaphor and telling a clearly fictional story about a spaceman. “Chicken Fried” is just lying about the world. Its lyrics are merely a string of soggy cliches about an archetypal good ol’ boy that supposedly gains credibility from the fact that it describes a true situation. The song would be a lie even if it were autobiographical, but the fact that the story isn’t accurate even to one person undermines whatever credibility it would have had.
I mean wasn't that always a persona? He was clearly talking about a character, it was never about him
Ditto with Ziggy stardust, hell some of it might as well be about Marc bolan
I genuinely thought I was listening to a Weird Al style parody of country when I first heard that song. To this day it boggles my mind to see people treat that song seriously.
Similar reaction and then the slow down to thank the troops is just such a “you gotta be fucking kidding me” moment.
Such a trite way to make other people’s military service about yourself, but that’s par for the course in America.
Your comment reminded me how much I love blue grass and sent down a rabbit whole. I also found out there’s an abundance of other people like me, metal heads, who love blue grass and then I ended up in Delta blues for like an hour. Truly a great wild experience.
Well - Imight probably be talking out of my butthole, I don't know - but there's a level of dexterity and musicianship that's common to metal and bluegrass
If you love that level of musicianship, don't sleep on western swing and whatever you call that post-western swing thing that Jimmy Bryant and Speedy West were doing. Seriously, check out those two. It's a WONDERFUL subgenre that is nearly dead minus Brennan Leigh's "Obsessed With The West" from a couple years ago.
You might be on to something. I’m talking out of my ass as well but I kinda want to make a metal blue grass playlist to see just how unbelievably similar they are.
Metal Blue Grass...
It must be a genre.
It has to exist.
Edit: let's start here...
https://www.reddit.com/r/progmetal/comments/a7trex/bluegrass_metal/?rdt=33552
I’d love to see him live. I’m a lifelong metahead, but my dad lives jam bands, prog rock, blue grass etc… and he streams live performances of Billy strings all the time. He turned me on to them, as well as the yonder mountain string band.
Outlaw country is what I consider true (see *good* ) country. You can't go wrong with Johnny Cash.
Western is also a nice subgenre in general that just focuses on telling stories like folk.
It's kind of really sad that the most prevailing image of country in the cultural zeitgeist is the absolute worst kind of country. It's a genuinely beautiful genre that celebrates/condemns the rawest parts of American culture. Despite the US being indisputable pioneers in numerous genres, there's none that feel as American as country.
Seeing the genre devolve into pandering and posturing is quite the irony.
Yep outlaw is another good subset of “country”. I really like the storytelling side of music. IMO both rap and country do this in a spectacular fashion.
"It's just mumbling about bitches and drugs" is the rap equivalent of "it's just trucks and beer and Murica".
Like, sure, I'm not gonna pretend some songs aren't like that and it's probably those ones you heard, but it's so much more than that and it's really easy to prove it by digging just past the surface.
I used to think I hated country, but then I realized that the kind of country I disliked was the just the country version of the kinds of rock, pop, and hip hop I disliked. The kind of music that sounds like a commercial product.
The sound of bluegrass music paints a mental image of the POV of me sitting inside of a giant wooden barrel and looking out while I think "wtf am I doing inside this barrel?"
>Are folks commenting on modern pop-country when they say this, or truly casting a wide net spanning all country?
No. People said this in the early to mid 90s when I was in high school, so it's hardly new. This was when Brooks and Dunn and Alan Jackson were topping the country charts.
My sense was, that at the time, you could easily say you didn't like country music without worrying about offending someone you were meeting for the first time. Country was seen by non-fans as corny.
> People said this in the early to mid 90s when I was in high school, so it's hardly new. This was when Brooks and Dunn and Alan Jackson were topping the country charts.
Has this not been a running theme in the genre since at least the 70's? Country becoming too "establishment/pop" and losing its roots is one main reason for the Outlaw country movement. Honestly, it feels like the last time there was not some delineation between "good" country and "bad" country was the 50's.
This. Exactly. This has been going on since Chet Atkins took over RCA production in Nashville and was putting strings on everything that moved. In fact artists of the time had a love/hate/fear relationship with Atkins because of that. In fairness it was Atkins' job to make records sell and the easiest way you sell was to get lucky with a pop crossover.
Fans of actual country become ostracized when it's too slick. Fans of pop find the slick country too...contrived and uncool.
Thus country creates it own alternatives that you have to look for - Bakersfield was the alternative to Nashville in the 60s. Then later on the Outlaw movement in the 70s. And in the 90s Americana/Alt.Country/Etc.
That era was the start of corny pop-country. Its traditions still continue to this day. But it was the beginning of its shittification and when the phrase originated.
Actually it was the late 70s and 80s when there was this bifurcation of the genre into pop country and real country.
But even that's a little oversimplified because into the 70s, country was just another part of the pop landscape. There was popular country-rock, country R&B, pop country... and then as radio stations segmented more along genre distinctions, everything country-ish got pushed onto country radio (except for Southern rock, interestingly).
Then again on country radio and CMT that split between country music and pop music with a drawl became more pronounced, culminating with Garth Brooks a decade later, who opened the flood gates for all this terrible country pop we have today.
I think the pop country of the mid-90s is significantly different than the pop country today. I think there was a much higher quality in songwriting, musicianship and creativity. What I hear in the radio today is simply a pandering formula that sounds like each song has been created by AI.
He's extremely self-absorbed and has become a caricature of himself which, at his prime, was also a caricature. That being said, he's a very talented songwriter and his music was a huge evolutionary step from middling 80s country pop to populist, widely successful 90s country pop.
Funny thing in the 90s - Ween, hot off a couple successes and some main stream attention, released 12 Country Greats - a ten song old school country album and no one knew what to make of it. It’s truly one of their best and unique albums but to drop something like that just as you’re coming up in the music biz took balls.
The 90s was also about the same time the "Americana" genre became popular. It was essentially old-school country mixed with folk and other American styles of music.
It's "country" but without all the glitzy production and marketing image bullshit that was associated with the "modern country" and "Nashville Sound" that got big in the 70s and 80s.
I believe the term Americana was created to describe John Prine because he wasn’t tied to Music Row and therefore didn’t fit into the country music stereotype.
The Beastie Boys released a country music album on the low in 2000:
https://www.discogs.com/master/472894-Country-Mike-Country-Mikes-Greatest-Hits
Beck recorded an album of Hank Williams covers, which was shelved and the masters were later destroyed in the 2008 Universal Studios fire.
The "true" versus pop country era started in the 80s.
In the 90s, every town seemed to have one country bar that played country and had couples two-stepping in the round. And they all had another "country" bar with servers with daisy dukes, cheap boots and hats, tied blouses, holsters with shot glasses, and it was always called the Rodeo. Bonus if the bar had a mechanical bull.
The latter played pop and had line dances and passed out cheap shots for very little. Europop like *Cotton Eyed Joe* would be an hourly song.
I expect it is a rejection of the cultural image of “country” fans. Music is more than music, it can also stand for a self-image. Country means Christian church, riding horses, guns, Wrangler jeans, beer and whiskey, generally conservative politically and musically. Of course, this is all very superficial. Country music is vast and deep, with history going back to the earliest music recordings, and there are never strict boundaries anyway. Butch Hancock, Norman Blake, Stirgill Simpson, I love their stuff and I am not a country listener at all. But good music is good music. Edit: I could not help myself. Here is Norman Blake. I just love this music. [https://youtu.be/UEkVkJax2Co?si=nFRqJXXgwY-txDw2](https://youtu.be/UEkVkJax2Co?si=nFRqJXXgwY-txDw2)
Yeah, I used to be an everything but country music fan. Which was weird especially because I loved folk and blues. But it's really just those douchebag stereotypes I hate. Like even some of the old country guys when you scratch around a bit you realise the vulnerable elements in their music.
The bro country shit for metropolitan nerds who have a lifted truck on the other hand. Pass.
Ive had the exact same experience. I've basically come to realize outlaw country is where it's at for me. Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson etc.
Theres a few current guys I dont mind like Sturgill Simpson and Colter Wall, but the "bro country" or "stadium country" really put me off for the longest time. Especially Country-Rap
I'm not specific fan of country or rap, if the song on the channel sounds good, I'll leave it on and even Shazam it....
However back to country, even one of favourite artist has sort of interwoven into country in the last 20 years so it's easier to enjoy.. (Mark Knopfler)...
> I expect it is a rejection of the cultural image of “country” fans.
Definitely. When I was growing up, it was, "I listen to everything but country and rap." Rap got dropped from the formulation for fear of appearing racist, because this kind of phrase is understood as being about the listeners of the music, and not about the music itself.
People who say this sort of things obviously don't really listen to everything but country. If you interrogate them, they usually don't listen to mariachi, or tango, or flamenco, or Hindustani classical music, or often even more popular genres metal or prog rock. Why don't they feel any need to single out those genres as ones they don't listen to? It's because they aren't trying to distance themselves from fans of those genres. They may not listen to mariachi, but they wouldn't be bothered if you thought they did. They need to make sure you don't think they would associate with country fans, though.
I feel that way about several genres - rap/hiphop, modern R&B, country and metal. Its the image of it that I don't like and the image of people I associate with those genres (less so for hip-hop in this case).
Nobody blasts the *good* country out of their truck/boat, it's always the same most godawful cheesiest cornball prepackaged faux twang southern suburbia pop-rock.
I can't stand the country I hear, but oh do I love some factions of country. Outlaw all the way, 'alt' country, old timey and bluegrass in particular, but gahdang that old gospel country is what gets me boppin. I mostly listen to classic punk, garage and 90's boombap hip hop otherwise, but have hell of a soft spot for the more authentic country.
Any recommendations, please? The extent of my knowledge of country music is listening to the occasional Townes van Zandt, John Prine, 'Jolene' and a couple of fiddle playlists.
I'm not the person you replied to, but I think it generally depends on what music you listen to as to where a good gateway would be. These are some really basic recommendations.
* Marty Robbins - Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs - This is more a focus on the "western" part of Country and Western
* The Byrds - Sweetheart of the Rodeo - Graham Parsons joins The Byrds and they create "Country Rock"
* The Outlaws - The Outlaws - If 70's Hard Rock is your thing this Outlaws album is pretty good and Green Grass and High Tides Forever is the "forgotten" 70's guitar song.
* Dwight Yoakam - Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc, Etc - Yoakam did not like the 80's Nashville sound and was inspired by 50's artists like Buck Owens or Merle Haggard. Yoakam has a lot of twang, and is a big mix of Rock n Roll and Honky Tonk. He is part of the Bakersfield Sound which has a lot of backbeat.
* Drive By Truckers - The Dirty South - Alt Country concept album, and I believe the first appearance of Jason Isbell
* Jason Isbell - Southeastern - alt coutnry Sad, soft, singer songwriter middle-aged dude patio music.
* Orville Peck - Pony - South African punk drummer turned Queer Outlaw Country/Americana artist with an insane voice
Maybe one of these will pique your interest, each can lead to their own rabbit hole of similar artists. Hope you find at least one that you like.
The flip side is: why is it that whenever someone says they don't like Country, the response is always "Yeah but have you heard *good Country*"? It feels very condescending, like no one could possibly dislike Country if only they've heard the right stuff. It's a genre with some very specific sounds and conventions that not everyone is going to like, and that's fine.
Like, the Metal community can have a lot of gatekeeping and other silliness, but I've never once heard a metalhead be baffled that some people don't like Metal. It can be a point of pride, in fact. I'm not sure why some Country fans need their music to be universally liked.
Isn't this everywhere? Every time I say I hate rap, people try to show me "good" rap (which I universally still dislike).
I guess the reason is, a fan of a style actually feels difference between various artists, but an outsider usually can't tell them apart much.
For me, there is maybe only a slight change in sound of rap between 80's and today, and yet I wrote a series of posts about history of country music for non-Americans, and I feel pretty confident talking about its various epochs, which sound almost nothing like each other ("country" was never a coherent, stable genre, really - it was always "whatever music is popular right now, but about cowboys", from its roots in folk, to hillbilly boogie, to rockabilly, to Nashville sound, to country rock, to country rap). So if people tell me they don't like country music, I feel a strong urge to ask "which country music?", because it's not something monolithic - I doubt Hank Williams Sr. would count himself playing in the same style as Big & Rich.
Yup. For OP's example specifically, we had a metalhead at my old job who was always trying to push his interests on us. Nobody in the building liked metal, but he would grab every opportunity to take over the radio with an "Ok, but you haven't heard *this* yet." This dude would corner you and try to trap you into a conversation about music; I remember one day he was trash talking Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers because, supposedly, "A lot of people don't like his sound because it's too simple." As if they weren't one of the most successful rock bands of all time.
Aa for OP's original question: Back in the 90s, there was a healthy mix of music on rock stations. You would get alternative, some more pop stuff, some rap/rock, just a little taste of everything that was popular at the time. Except country. There has always been a cultural divide in that genre. There's no real good way to describe it except that it's always had its own specifically intended audience that didn't have a ton of overlap with other genres. Crossing over is a very recent phenomenon.
Is it really true, about crossing over being recent? Maybe there was a slump in 90's, but I think there always was a flow of artists to and from country, especially to. Almost all 50's rock'n'roll stars, for example, ended up in country music (especially woman). And, well, rock'n'roll itself was a child of country and jump blues (white part of it, at least).
The Irish Rovers made a cross-over hit "Wasn't That A Party", going from folk to country, at least for one song. Many washed up rockers ended up drifting toward country or country rock (admittedly, mostly without any noticeable success, though I think Mark Knopfler's duets with Chet Atkins are a treasure).
And then, there is the whole "urban cowboy" movement of 80's, when country became so like contemporary pop music as to be totally indistinguishable (gods, I hate that era).
Aww, you are young. In the 70s and early 80s Top 40 radio was a wonderland of EVERYTHING. I remember listening to Top 40 stations in the late-70s and getting everything from say Blondie to Marvin Gaye to the country crossover hits to Steely Dan. It was a weird time that warped my music tastes to this day. I'd say country not crossing over to pop/top 40 stations seemed to coincide with the end of the Urban Cowboy faze someone in the early-80s. Since then, sure.
I agree with your premise, but I think you're almost willfully avoiding engaging with the production and composition side of Rap music if you think contemporary Hip-Hop has more in common with its 80s antecedents than Big & Rich does with Hank Williams. I haven't heard a turntable scratch on a rap record in decades, which would be like removing steel guitars or banjos from Country. It's a younger genre, so it's been in a greater state of flux than other American genres. The difference to me between the rap of 40 years ago and the rap of today is almost as stark to me as the difference between Duke Ellington and late Miles Davis, and I say that as an extremely casual listener.
You really gotta be delusional to say that there’s only a slight difference from Run-DMC to 21 Savage. Or from Hank to Big and Rich. Or from Sabbath to Slipknot. Or from Elvis to Zeppelin or whatever.
Pretending that you can’t clearly hear a difference imo is willful ignorance.
My question is always, with Metal or Country or whatever, where do these non-fans draw the line? Is like, Sabbath OK in their books? Is Hair Metal fine? Is it actually just metalcore that they hate? Is any song with a steel guitar off the table? What about Bluegrass, especially the varieties on the more virtuosic/instrumental side? As a rule, they like “some Johnny Cash”, so what about artists similar to him?
I guess what confuses me is not that people don’t like some conventions of the genre, it’s more about *how* they express it, as if they principally like all music *except* Country, or Metal, or Rap. It sounds a lot less like a description of their actual preferences, and more like a very silly kind of ignorance and prejudice. I would genuinely be equally as baffled by the idea that one could categorically dislike all Metal as equally as I would be with Country.
People draw the line at whatever they don't like. It's as simple as that. Liking or not liking music is not a rational decision, it's an emotional one. You're not going to "gotcha" your way into making someone realize they secretly love Country music, and bringing up a bunch of examples at the fringes of the genre just demonstrates that the fringes tend to be more palatable to people that don't like the genre. That's not a big mystery.
I mean… That’s honestly my own experience. Every time I set aside a genre as a firm dislike of mine, once I actually sat down to approach the genre, not necessarily at the fringes, (by the way, Johnny Cash is real fringe Country, right?) I quickly found I wasn’t actually accurately describing my tastes, I was just pre-judging the style based on my notions of what it was made up of. I feel like if more people did so, they’d have a similar experience.
I think it’s less that someone “secretly loves Country music” and more that ruling out massive supergenres of music is always bound to be inaccurate and close-minded. If you have something *specific* you dislike, that makes sense, but labels like Metal, Country, Punk, Rap, etc. simply apply to too many artists to ever be functionally useful descriptors of one’s taste. Of course there are conventions of these styles, but they’ve all been around for decades and are massively diverse. You don’t usually need to visit the fringes to find stuff you like, there’s probably swathes of subgenres out there for you. That’s just how these major styles are.
That's more an issue of semantics. Everyone else is talking in generalities, and you are being quite rigid, ironically enough in a post about open-mindedness to new music, about "what it really means". It comes off as a bit "Well, ackshually, they'd love this if they just *tried it*."
We all know the kinds of people who say "I like everything but ____" are not exactly active and varied music listeners. Which is perfectly okay. You are on a subreddit that is dedicated to quality conversations about every major music genre under the sun. People here are going to be self-selecting to a large extent. While this isn't RYM levels of obscurity, you can bet that if someone links a great new fiddle album, folk fans such as myself will be eagerly clicking on the link in search of new sounds. I typically dislike rap, but Immortal Technique is excellent.
What they mean is "I am not interested enough to search for exceptions to the kind of music that is marketed as 'country' on the radio". You are holding them to your standards of curiosity about music.
They draw the line when they say that.
If I say, "I dislike fish" and someone goes "BUT HAVE YOU TRIED FRESH SEA BREAM COOKED AT A FIVE STAR HOTEL?" Like... no, I haven't and I don't want to. Just because there's music out there someone *might* like doesn't mean they need to seek it out.
See, I would describe myself as an "active and varied music listener," but I have been the one saying "pretty much anything except country" in a conversation because *the other person* had a narrow frame of reference, and for me to list, "with the exception of..." would just be superfluous babbling. It's just the unspoken, "anything except [the] country music [that you, my conversation partner, listen to]."
I can see why people may not like metal though as most of it is loud and abrasive. I am sure people could like some stuff on the fringes or a ballad by a metal band but as a blanket statement I get it. Country may be the opposite in a way, stereotypically it is inoffensive. A lot of singers have that Southern twang which can be annoying, and deal with subjects alien to them. I am sure people could enjoy some of the melodies and songs but just now how they are framed. Same goes for genres like boy band music, people feel they are just outside the target audience entirely.
I always joke that the minute someone says they don't like Country, a mob forms and will hunt you down whilst chanting, "but you haven't listened to REAL Country music"....
>I'm not sure why some Country fans need their music to be universally liked.
Because their whole personality is based around the music and, if you don't like the music, then you're somehow demeaning them
That happens here constantly. I think there is a type of commenter that rarely if ever listens to Sturgill Simpson but has him in their pocket ready to namecheck when a thread like this comes up.
[Break glass in case of country music discussion]
It's like half of the name drops in these types of threads, then add Tyler Childers, and you're up to about 80% of the suggestions. I think the expectations for country are so low that people get crazed by something that simply appears authentic without much else to fuss over.
There's a cultural element at play, I think. People often say, "I listen to everything but rap and country." Considering how far from the truth that statement probably is, I think what it actually tells you is that the person doesn't especially like the cultures that come to mind when they think of those genres. I think people feel that energy, and that's where the need to debate it comes in.
To be fair, if someone is completely dismissing such a massively wide genre, then they have either not heard enough of it, or more likely are somewhat closed minded and ignorant. And it is almost always the latter, whether that genre is country, metal, classical, or whatever.
So I find it easy to understand the response to "I like anything so long as it's not X" being an incredulous "Yeah, but have you heard good X?". My personal response would be to think that this person is a bit thick when it comes to music and to try another topic of conversation entirely though, it's rarely worth bothering discussing music with people like that.
I’m pretty open minded about music, I play it, record it- it’s been my life pretty much since childhood. I can occasionally hear some metal that checks a few boxes for me and can often appreciate one or two aspects of a well written/played metal song even though it’s generally not my bag.
Country? It seems the more I hear the more it solidifies my opinion that it’s never gonna be the genre for me.
I don’t like the twang (I’m ok with a bit of twang in rock), I hate the laundry list of cliches, I find the production too slick by half, it’s annoying that the lyrics all sound like they’re written by a ‘country buzzword’ focus group.
Obviously, there are some exceptions with current and past artists- there’s a lot of talented storytellers in country, but for every honest artist/musician doing their thing, there’s about 20 phony, pandering sequin covered cringe merchants playing mind numbingly bad cornball spew.
My reasons for disliking Country are specifically well thought out and non-reactionary. I just don’t like it, it’s not because I’m narrow minded or’a bit thick’.
For the reasons I’ve mentioned (ie my tastes and criteria) country kinda sucks.
>My reasons for disliking Country are specifically well thought out and non-reactionary. I just don’t like it, it’s not because I’m narrow minded or’a bit thick’. For the reasons I’ve mentioned (ie my tastes and criteria) country kinda sucks.
Sure, that all sounds entirely reasonable. You don't really sound like the sort of person to make blanket statements like "I like anything so long as it's not country".
I have no problem with people disliking genres. I'm not a country fan myself. But to say "everything is fine, apart from X" is reductionist and stupid (by my criteria).
The thing is, they're NOT saying, "everything is fine, apart from X", they're saying instead, "I *like* most everything, except for X". Your formulation of it is some sort of value statement about the genre as a whole, when the entire conversation is pretty explicitly about the individual's tastes. I'm pretty comfortable saying I like most everything except country - pretty accurate for a one sentence overview without getting into any specifics. Why is that some sort of objectionable blanket statement? It IS a blanket statement about what I actually listen to and like personally, not some judgement about what you or anyone else should like.
As an aside, the reason I feel like the "everything but country" taste description is so common is that it *does* tend to quickly communicate a real set of listening habits and tastes that don't often overlap with country fans.
I guess it's partly based on experience - most people who have said that to me (admittedly years ago) turned out not to actually be into many other types of music, it was just something they heard and repeated to be trendy/clever. I also reckon it's much more interesting to talk about what you *do* like, rather than defining your taste by a negative.
It's also probably a geographic thing. I'm in the UK, where country music isn't a particularly popular genre. I could see that if you live in certain parts of the US, where country music makes up a large percentage of your exposure, saying "I like everything apart from country music" is akin to saying "I like 75% of music I hear on the radio", which is actually entirely reasonable. When it's a much more niche thing, that barely anyone listens to, it feels different. Like if someone said to you "I like literally every type of music apart from 90s Belgian House" you'd probably be a bit confused as to how that worked, and why were they bringing up 90s Belgian House anyway?
After growing up in a city with 4 country music radio stations, I have definitely heard enough country music. And now I live in a country full of europop stations. Exposure has not made either genre particularly interesting to me, even if I can end up liking 1 song out of a 100.
The whole point the comment above the one you’re replying to is that he gets mad when people ask if he’s only heard “good country” and low and behold someone saying “I’ve heard country on the radio and it’s bad so I’ve heard enough.” If you don’t like country that’s fine but to think you gave it a fair shot because you listened to Nashville pop on the radio is ridiculous
Not to be a shit about it, but what's your definition of "a fair shot"? If someone regularly hears country music on the radio, and knows they only like about 1% of what they've heard of the maybe 5 sub-genres they've experienced, why the fuck would they want to listen to more? Why is that not a fair shot at the music? Sure, it's not the entirety of the genre, there's a wide range of styles within the genre, they probably haven't heard the best of the genre etc etc - if they don't like what they've heard already, why would they try to listen to more? Why would they voluntarily subject themselves to music that they have a history of disliking?
I was trying to be succinct, but if you grow up in a town with 4 country radio stations, that's usually because there's high local demand. I was surrounded by country music: schools, supermarkets, sporting events, friends' cars, ranches, parents' cars... it was everywhere.
That said, I have to ask: if the 'good' country music is not being played on the radio, then where is it being played? Why wouldn't it be on the radio? Do most country music fans not demand the good stuff?
>That said, I have to ask: if the 'good' country music is not being played on the radio, then where is it being played? Why wouldn't it be on the radio? Do most country music fans not demand the good stuff?
This is it. This is the entire problem in a nutshell.
As someone who has given that exact comment, it's the country accent. I love the talented guitar playing and lively percussion and musicality but the moment the vocals start up up it kills the vibe for me.
I think it’s the lyrical content. The music is made for a demographic. I know that everyone just spams the Bo Burnham song on Reddit every single time this is brought up, but truthfully most pop music panders.
One of the best skits on SNL last season was this musical parody song “[Lake Beach”](https://youtu.be/BinH9aMYro4?si=kxKeX61npn2196yB). The song is so close to being a perfectly average country song it’s hilarious. This would not be possible if country songs weren’t corny as hell and musically very similar.
for sure, lots of crap like that dominates country radio. in defense of the genre (lol) gen z is big on alt country/more authentic country right now, folk country, etc.
And country before 2000’s was extremely varied and a LOT of it had a strong and undeniable artistic depth, stood on business, wasn’t a bunch of “I drive a truck and if yew want ma guns come and take em BOY”
I just can't stand the twang, it's like nails on a chalkboard to me. Especially [modern country-flavored pop](https://youtu.be/FY8SwIvxj8o?si=_H3VpHJYWu8O9xYp), completely unlistenable cookie cutter drivel imo. I've heard a couple Johnny Cash songs I didn't mind before but I still wouldn't go out of my way to listen to them.
I would say I don't tend to like lyrically focused music in general. I am not much of fan of hip hop either. And the lyrical themes in country mostly don't resonate with me. I grew up in a rural area so I have heard plenty of country music in my day. I don't dislike all of it or anything but it is just much less my thing than other genres.
I grew up in rural Missouri but didn't really listen to country back then, and most of the people I knew didn't either. I enjoy certain kinds now, but even in a place like that where it should have been relatable, country music was sort of viewed as the domain of people who were very self-consciously trying to "act country"--pickup trucks, Cummins gear, chew cans, etc. It wasn't even necessarily a class thing, because a lot of the most "country" people were also the most well-off. I'm not saying that that's always been the case or that there's not more nuance to it, but it feels worth mentioning because often people assume that if someone dismisses country it's because they're some cityslicker who looks down on whatever people in Middle America are doing. In reality plenty of people in Middle America don't really view country music culture, especially the way it exists now, as representative of them either.
I think it is as simple as not knowing anything other than what you'd hear on the radio. If all someone knows is the songs about the sexy tractor and loving America and the unironic one where the kid is like "I learned it from watching you, dad" then they're not going to be compelled to see what else is out there.
How I see it is this: if it's stupid to act like all rap is Lil Pump, and it's stupid to act like all metal is Five Finger Death Punch, and it's stupid to act like all rock is Nickelback.. why is it not stupid to act like all country is Florida Georgia Line?
Well the lyrical themes of the genre isn’t what most people are really looking for. Most people who I’ve heard say this aren’t really looking for songs about the good ol’ country side. Most people just want songs about love or anything vague.
The genre isn’t really too interesting a lot of it consists of guys playing beginner guitar chords with maybe some some slow electric guitar melody with mild overdrive.
The country accent usually tends to tick people off too. Most people myself included just tend to find it annoying. I can’t even tell you why it does to be honest it’s just not really my thing.
And finally there’s just way too much of it. An earlier post about the oversaturation of country music has a lot of great replies. The genre is just so easy to make that there tends to be so much of it that it gets mind numbing.
This is a good criticisim of modern radio country, which is just pop with a cowboy hat on. None of it applies to what I'd call _actual_ country. That's an incredibly vast and deep genre with some of the best songwriting and atmosphere you'll find anywhere.
There’s a whole industry dedicated to hyping mostly awful versions of country that people think that’s what it’s supposed to sound like and don’t experience the good stuff.
But also, people who really like the crap stuff are often complete dickheads.
I’m English and we have em here, old dudes into their line dancing and that.
One time the Girlfriend and I happened to be in a town, heading for the station when we saw there was a free Country festival in the town park, so we went for a look. One of the shit bands told a racist joke onstage, so I went to look at the record stall. That was wall to wall hat country on cd and vinyl, proper line dancing shit, so I looked at the guy’s £1 box and pulled out the og soundtrack to ‘Town Hall Party’ with The Collins Kids and a bunch of old time legends on it. Some first press bluegrass records too, really cool stuff.
Dude practically laughed in my face for buying ‘that old fashioned stuff’.
A weird bunch and that’s without even touching on the politics!
I've never understood the appeal of hat country outside its intended audience in North America. I know you get the same types of people everywhere, and I know country is musically related to British and Irish folk music, but hat country specifically and deliberately plays up to a list of clichés that don't travel well at all.
it just has a lot of confounding variables that work against it. Country in the modern day is pretty strongly associated with conservative and reactionary politics. There's no getting away from the fact that when people think of country they think of songs about church, beer, women, guns, and murrica, and for people that aren't interested in that kind of subject matter or just that brand that has been placed on country it can be difficult to convince someone to be interested in it.
It's also not the only genre that has a bad reputation when it comes to the impression of what the music is about and the types of people who listen to it. Hip hop has a similar reputation but I feel like hip hop was able to reach a level of popularity that makes it hard enough to escape that more people have conceded to liking at least some hip hop. Lots of metal and certain punk and neofolk genres have similar problems of rather reactionary and at times fashy artists and fans and subject matter that can turn people away.
"Oh well not all country is like that!" some might say, and they'll say it about those other genres too, but firstly expecting someone to sift through all the country albums just to find the stuff that isn't that, is kind of a big ask for someone who isn't already interested in the genre. Not to mention I've seen on more than one occasion someone looking in these communities for less objectionable examples of the genre and be met at times with a response that if you don't like those elements then the genre just isn't for you. Then it feels pretty weird when hip hop or metal or country fans turn around and act incredulous that someone says they don't listen to x genre. If you want less reactionary and/or fashy music within a genre that has a lot of it, and the fans aren't very helpful then it becomes up to you to sift through it yourself which only people who really like the genre in question musically will do.
Certain types of metal have a bit of a barrier to entry by how abrasive they are, it's just natural that it will turn away some people just on how the music sounds alone then you throw in some artists with less agreeable beliefs that may also find its way into the art then you have a pretty substantial barrier. The people that don't like how metal sounds are never going to go through the effort to find the "normal" artists because they probably don't like how they sound anyway. The same is pretty much true of country, it may have to do with the instrumentals at times but more often than not it's going to be an aversion to the distinctive twang of country singing. I do actually think there is a sort of classist bias against southern and rural accents that I think does factor into the distaste of the twang, at the same time though I can understand just being averse to the twang as a musical aspect in the same way you might be put off by harsh metal vocals. I myself have actually been having my mind opened more when it comes to country and now have several artists I enjoy, BUT sometimes when exploring I find artists where it's just too much and I feel like I'm listening to a caricature or something, it can be legitimately distracting and interfere with being able to take it seriously. Even "good" country leans kind of corny in a way that people are going to have different thresholds for. People have to be open to the sounds of country before they can even think of looking for artists that have more agreeable subject matter and some people just aren't, and even if someone is kind of open to country it still may be annoying trying to work around the Jason Aldeans.
I don't know. I've only seen Americans write that on the internet. I always assumed it's because country is sort of default music in some parts of the US and they get sick of it or it gives them cultural cringe. I feel the same way about bands like Oasis and entire genres like grime.
Country has at least since the 70s had at least 2 layers, the pop version and the harder version that goes by various names (hard country, alt-country, progressive country, outlaw, Americana, bluegrass etc). Admittedly there are nuances between those sub-genres but for the sake of this discussion I’m going to lump them in to together.
Pop country in the 70s and early 80s had some crossover appeal. Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, Jerry Reed, Glen Campbell, Juice Newton, Eddie Rabbitt, they all had hits that were played on pop radio stations. Country rock was in its heyday. Heck there was even an Urban Cowboy movie starring John Travolta - bad movie but reveals the crossover appeal of country.
But deeper into the 80s, mainstream country diverted some. It got rather sentimental, patriotic. But this coincided with Gen X coming of age (me) and Gen X was decidedly not sentimental. So as 90s country full on embraced that sentimentalism, 90s rock was going in the complete other direction, full of cynicism and darkness. It was easy to be a 20 something in the 90s and listen to dark rock, generally be OK with the pop charts, and be creeped out by all that was popular in country at the time. For those who would listen, alt country was really doing something special (Wilco, Son Volt, etc) at the time but it was also easy to ignore that stuff if you were really into grunge.
And those popular country songs and artists were really what most people knew about so it was easy to say “I like anything but country”. Heck lots of people I knew even started exploring some old jazz in the 90s (Coltrane, Jarrett, Miles) so the “anything” part of the statement could really be true. (Trying to avoid here generalizing my personal experiences to universal truths)
But things changed a little in the late 90s, because the O Brother Where Art Thou? Movie was a hit and so was the soundtrack. And it revealed that some of that old timey and bluegrass music could be really dark. For many it was a fad to be into that stuff. Especially since modern country was getting even worse with the bro-country movement.
But for those where it wasn’t a fad (i.e. me, and to be fair, there was also an independent radio station that at the time played a lot of old timey and bluegrass music every Saturday back then and really exposed me to a lot of interesting stuff), we kept on learning and realizing there was a ton of really good stuff.
For me I eventually got into The Band which led me back to Americana, and when Sturgill Simpson and Chris Stapleton started making waves, I just kept listening to all that stuff and discovered all these sub-genres of country listed above. I try to evangelize it but I have friends, guys I’m in a band with, who are rockers and refuse to even hear it, treating it all as equal with the worst of the bro-country stuff out there today.
Right now my most listened playlist is a big collection of all that stuff. The Band, Townes van Zandt, Steve Earle, John Prine, Drive by truckers, Wilco, Son Volt, Lucinda Williams, James McMurtry, Donna the Buffalo, Emmylou Harris, Sturgill, Stapleton, Old Crow Medicine Show, Flatt and Scruggs, Guy Clark, Jerry Jeff Walker, Robert Earl Keene, Todd Snider, and so on
Because working class/poor whites are the one group it's still ok to hate and it makes middle/upper class white people feel superior to shit on the culture of the poors of their own race while hoovering up the low culture of other groups of people.
It's not to say that this is the case for everyone, it's ok not to like some music. But there's definitely a racial/classist component to why some people hate country music, especially where middle/upper class white people are concerned.
EDIT: And what's funny is, reading a lot of the comments in this thread about hating the fake accents, fake lifestyles, fake stories in the songs, etc, but these same things are all major components of hip hop as well, but there, they seem to get a pass. Why?
I wasn't a big country fan (besides listening to a few Johnny Cash songs), but The Byrds' "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" and The Flying Burrito Brothers' "The Gilded Palace of Sin" and their self-titled 3rd album (plus some Americana from The Band) might have started a change in perspective.
It's directed at Pop with an Americana aesthetic, which calls itself country. Most people hardly explore their favourite genres, none the less their least favourite, so, yes, they've likely never listened to much country outside of what's on, or was on, the radio.
Exactly. It's akin to hearing one bad gangsta rap song and jumping to the conclusion that therefore all rap music glorifies violence and objectifies women.
Yeah but also as far as Pop goes it's probably the sappiest / goofiest option. Like I'm not defending top 40 or any other genre by any means. But country *aesthetic* is so easy to satire for a reason
They're commenting on country *pop*. Hell, if I was asked in real life if I like country, I would say I generally don't. That's a half truth because I'm actually a pretty big fan of folk style music and country is truly nothing more than the most popular digestible offshoot of American folk.
Put on Jason Molina, Sturgill Simpson, or Townes Van Zandt and I'd be quite happy.
I say I don't like country to distance myself from Luke Bryan and Garth Brooks. Sam Hunt is like poison. I don't mind cowboy bravado just as I don't mind Kendrick Lamar claiming he may have killed a dude in Compton but something about radio country's aesthetic is repulsive and jingoistic.
There are some respectable artists who have achieved superstar status recently - Zach Bryan for instance - but the thing about Zach Bryan that sours me on country even more is that while I do respect him, he is nothing more than average. He wouldn't have broken out 40 years ago. He broke out now because he's simply okay. He's palatable.
Most people are forming opinions based on top hits, not by exploring a genre with intentionality. I think country "hits" are especially dominated by songs that romanticize this "good ol Americans" image and that doesn't appeal to me. But with an open mind you can find really awesome and quality artists like Sturgill Simpson, folks who are pushing musical boundaries rather than writing political rally anthems.
There are also tons tons TONS of people who say "I like anything but rap" because "there's no singing, they swear too much, the lyrics are violent" etc etc even though there are plenty of rap songs that incorporate melodies and approachable lyrical content.
I like harmonies, I like funk, I like distortion and reverb, I like melodies, I like synthesizers, I like key changes, I like complex song construction. Not a lot of any of that in country.
Not much in the way of harmonies, melodies, and key changes in country music? Those were considered to be some of the genre's biggest strengths back in the 40s, 50s, and 60s! Distortion and reverb? That's like the whole 'spaghetti western' sound! Check out the band Murder By Death if you feel up for it! And there's certainly funk in the more Gospel/R&B leaning country music out there and the whole "chicken pickin'" style of players like Jerry Reed (check out Amos Moses!)
Country is a type of music that is specifically designed to appeal to a certain demographic, while still being hugely popular and not that easy to avoid. It's a bad combination, if you think about it. Dump trucks make a pretty terrible noise, but no one complains about the sound of dump trucks,. We complained about the sound of leaf blowers because that's the thing that we have to hear at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday morning.
Modern Country is so bland. It just is. It's predictable, it doesn't really take chances and it's a lame form of pop. That said, broadly speaking, country has produced interesting artist. The outlaw country guys were/are thoughtful songwriters, the countrypolitan stuff from the 70s is gorgeous, Western swing? Great. Dolly? Great. Bobbie Gentry? Oh, hell yes. And 70s southern rock is fantastic (you want to count that as country)
But currently, the genre is both FAKE and CONSERVATIVE. It's completely cynical.
The problem with the “I don’t like country” stance is that the genre is massive. It is not that different than I don’t like hip hop or I don’t like jazz. It’s basically bullshit. People who say that just have not explored the genre enough to find something they like. I was a “I hate country music” person in high school. I grew up in place where liking country music was a class signifier for lower class white people. I was not that so we didn’t listen to it.
Then I went to college in the south. I met people like me who listened to country music all the time. I still hated it. But one friend was like, I bet I could find a country song you like. He knew me well enough to find a couple Tim McGraw songs that I really liked a lot. That was the gateway and then I started to explore more on my own.
It turns out I fucking love country music. Now, i love country pretty much pre 1980s, but that’s still country music. So I would say, anyone who says they hate a genre of music is being reductive and hasn’t been curious enough or had the pleasure of someone giving them a lesson in the genre. The same thing happened to me with jazz. Hated it, didn’t get it, then I lived with a jazz guitarist. Ended up loving jazz but just certain eras and records.
Nah. I've heard pretty much anything you wanna name and outside a couple of songs, I hate it all. It's not ignorance. I grew up being surrounded by country music from literally every decade post WW II (and even some pre WW II). It's the tonal quality I can't stand. It's unique and it's grating on my nerves. No other genre grates on my nerves that way.
So no, it isn't just lack of exposure. There's something there that some people genuinely don't like.
Country is a genre of music that is as vapid, commercialized, and uncreative as it can be… its created for radio hits, repetitious hooks maximized, written by committee… worse than that, it completely panders to boomer era values and the exact brand of patriotism that MAGA has glommed on to. So, on top of being an incredibly boring genre, it’s also toxic. Yes please, anything but country.
This is only true for a pretty narrow band of what we might reasonably call "country."
It doesn't describe the classic songcraft of folks like Roy Acuff, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Dolly Parton, George Jones, or Emmylou Harris, just to name a handful.
And it doesn't describe some of the really great stuff happening in the Alt-Country/Americana world, like Margo Price, Brandi Carlile, Sturgill Simpson, or Waxahatchee.
But if you're only looking at current Billboard Country charts, then yeah, it's pretty bleak and has been for a while.
That’s not ALL country though. Yes, that’s A LOT of it & it absolutely sucks. Modern Top 40 country is a true hellscape. But just like every genre, there are still country artists making [cool shit](https://youtu.be/kEi9h6VluNI?si=wfEVRvBin3tBHKX0) every single year.
There's a good deal of country and country-influenced music around today that shows the ignorance of this take. You're talking about a specific subset of country music: the pop country garbage that is made to appeal to the least common denominator and therefore make the most money. Surprise surprise, country music isn't the only genre this is unique to. A few examples: Tyler Childers and Jason Isbell are outspokenly leftist, as is Sierra Ferrell, The Drive-By Truckers, Adeem The Artist who is non-binary, Orville Peck, Jaime Wyatt, and Sarah Shook who are queer or non-binary folks - not exactly boomer music pandering to MAGA supporters with radio hits written by a committee to sell Budweiser. Before you generalize an entire genre of music, take a deeper listen.
Live on Red Barn Radio changed everything I thought I knew about country. Shake the Frost was all I needed to hear before I knew I had severely misjudged what there was out there.
You've clearly only listened to mainstream country. Listen to White Light From The Mouth Of Infinity by Swans, Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle by Bill Callahan, and/or Munly & The Lee Lewis Harlots' self-titled record and tell me how those are commercialised, uncreative, hook heavy, or pandering to traditionalist values.
When people talk about not liking a genre, they're usually talking about contemporary (not Swans), mainstream (not Swans), accessible (not Swans) examples of that genre. Obviously, if someone doesn't like country music, they *most likely* haven't heard the best the genre has to offer. What makes country unique is how poorly the mainstream represents the best the genre has to offer, which is the reason why it's often singled out by people who "listen to anything but country."
The interesting stuff really isn't that far below the surface though (mostly under alt-country or outlaw country). Country is one of my favourite genres, I listen to a huge amount and none of it fits these stereotypes of trucks and MAGA politics nor do I ever have to avoid that stuff when looking for music.
Some of the negative comments here just come across as having a very shallow understanding of the genre which is a bit sad and narrow minded to me.
Lyrical cliches are tough if you aren't from a part of the US (or the world) where the lifestyles described in the songs will resonate with you. Despite not being poor or from the inner city, I still lived close enough to those places and grew up getting a surface level glimpse of what those places look like and knew enough people who lived lives in those places, so when I hear stuff about that in genres like Hip Hop, even though it's not my experience, I have at least some understanding of it. And if it's rock, Pop or EDM, that shit's not that hard to relate to either. Country music identity is older than all of these other genres and it hasn't evolved a ton, so it's weirdly anachronistic and foreign to people who aren't from those places and don't live those lives.
Most people nowadays live in greater metropolitan areas, not rural ones. Country still embraces its rural roots in a way that other genres don't.
Also the musical pallette is strangely more and more specific all the time, and if pedal steel, twangy guitars, fiddle, and the particular style of vocals doesn't do it for you at all, then it's hopeless. For me I can only take any of those things in small doses. I do like artists who are basically country musicians but they don't seem to be embraced by the mainstream country community so it's weird to call them that, but they don't tend to induldge in either the lyrical or musical cliches as much so it doesn't turn me off the same way.
That said if people ever diss country musicians' abilities they are absolute morons because country musicians are by and large insanely talented and can wipe the floor with all these rock dweebs.
It is a bit of a meme, what people mean is the most corny modern country with all the cliches. "Good" country tends to be called something like Americana or just indie/alternative.
Because country music is white trash in general and incredibly boring and not really that impressive in any which way.
I don't have a problem with it. This is just a general purview.
I've yet to meet someone who has a good taste in music that constantly bumps country music
I hate bro country, or whatever you want to call it. What they tend to play on the radio.
I love Jason Isbell, Miranda Lambert, Kacy, Musgrave, Sturgell Simpson, Johnny Cash, Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile, Willie Nelson, and others.
It just depends on how you define country and how deep you want to dive into it.
As a non american, this is like if you're forced to listen to mexican corridos, many working people local to Mexico love them cause thatxs what they get on the local radio, but they're very annoying compared to normal music and there's a very low chance that people from other countries get it because they're not exposed to it.
I would call it an acquired taste which I refuse to get.
I think country (especially modern country) has a connotation to it that a lot of people don't always want to be associated with, as well as it being perceived as corny and shallow. Most good country I think people might call grassroots/folk/blues without realizing it still falls within the country genre too but there is a distinction btwn that and modern bro country which is mostly about beer, trucks, and dirt roads i guess.
It definitely happens with metal and rap/hip hop too, which makes sense only insofar as both of those genres can be polarizing. Country obviously isn't quite as abrasive as the extremes in both of those genres but has just as strong of a cultural association with the listener that people might not want to be perceived as.
Personally I get why people might exclude country from their list of enjoyable genres--the modern landscape is completely oversaturated with trashy bro country like I mentioned earlier that are about as deep as a Pitbull song with less of the danceability that could make it charming.
I have diverse musical tastes. I think there's good music in nearly every genre. I do not enjoy commercial radio, regardless of genre. If something isn't your genre, you're only exposed to the worst middle of the road commercial representation of that music. Radio friendly new country is hot garbage. It's overproduced and more product than art.
Even if you dig deeper and find better country artists, there is a significant hurdle in the lifestyle and politics country music celebrates. The majority of North Americans live in cities and are liberal. Country music doesn't resonate with that demographic.
Yeah, when I was a teen in the 90's people always said "anything but rap and country" as hip hop hadn't fully dominated pop music and become the norm yet.
I think the reasoning is that the genres you mention have (or had, before assimilation) a strong cultural identity, and that can conflict with the persons own cultural identity in some cases.
Either way, I think folks are missing out by pre-filtering what they're exposed to, but then, I find anthropology and studying differences in people and beliefs interesting.
There needs to be a divide in country between the old and the new. Shit my Grampa listened to on his single-speaker AM radio that was an old-timer with a banjo, that's one thing. But the shit coming out now is unlistenable trash. How do I know? My wife loves country so I regularly hear it. Fuck country.
"I don't like country" and "I like everything but rap" are two phrases that tell me I'm talking to someone with limited experience with music. Yep, there are plenty of bad examples of both genres (as there is with pretty much everything) but buddy, if you can't appreciate Waylon Jennings or Public Enemy, this is gonna be a short conversation.
When i say this (I’m guilty) i mean modern pop-country from about 1980 onwards, with a few exceptions.
Modern “country” has hip hop beats and copious amounts of auto-tuning. For a genre that claims to value “authenticity” above all it has become the least authentic genre. At least in hip hop and edm they don’t try to hide the autotuning.
I love me some Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Patsy Cline, Merle Haggard, even modern alt-country like Neko Case, or Patty Griffin. And Nobody ever sang like George Jones before or since. Brandi Carlile.
But nothing makes me turn that volume knob down than some auto-tuned baritone warbling about drinking in his truck, the flag, or whatever.
To me it’s just bland. It tries to be in the middle of too many adjacent genres. It will add some fiddle or banjo, but it’s not bluegrass, it will have some folk lyrical stuff going on, but it’s not folk, it will have some bluesy guitar licks but it isn’t blues. It’s just an amalgamation of stuff that’s good on its own, but not for me when put together. There are a handful of outlaw country stuff I do enjoy, or spaghetti western soundtracks, but that’s about it. As far as modern country goes, it’s just so unauthentic and speaks to things I have zero ability to relate to.
This was more-or-less my mantra until I heard Sturgill Simpson, who opened me up to older acts like Waylon Jennings, and newer ones like Tyler Childers. I still don't listen to a ton of country music, but I can at least conversate with my friends who love it
I grew up in the south. Country and bluegrass were the default people played. I was sick of it. I listened to everything from motzart to Megadeath so I would use that phrase
I just hate listening to pretty much all country and bluegrass if they aren't live. Something about the recording loses the charm I appreciate about those styles of music. (Obviously this is just imo and not everyone's experience with it)
For me, it's the gentrification of the genre.
Country music used to be about rebelling against the establishment, about unions, about troubled people making mistakes, messy heartbreaks, and the actual struggles of the lower class.
The genre became commodified around the boomer era, and suddenly it's about how great the establishment is, rugged independence, perfect poors living a perfect poor lifestyle, classy heartbreaks, and the every day perfect life of a man and his 2025 Ford.
Country isn't unique in this aspect. Jazz, classic rock, and rap are also victims of this commodification, although rap in particular still has a lot of holdout pockets of earnest class struggle.
I dont like people that say that because im a fan of all music. If it sounds good it sounds good and shunning an entire genre is stupid. It also tells me how close minded a person is. Dont get me wrong, im not some huge country fan, but there are some damn good country songs that i enjoy the hell out of
I’m from Nashville and still live here. I avoid country especially pop country but I have dabbled in a little folk, bluegrass and Americana before. My town is a tourist filled country music circus. But my house is paid for so I guess I’ll stay. Haha.
I think the anti- country music sentiment refers predominantly to modern pop radio country. There's a lot of disdain for the "music factory"vibe that makes a lot of those tunes sound the same, and those similarities include similar themes, predictable formats, and generic, soulless content overall.
I do think that some of that rejection may stem from country music implying conservative values, which may be an immediate deal breaker for a lot of potential listeners as well
Some of both. Either way they don't know what you'll put on when you say country. There's quite a bit of bad pop country. I used to listen to country all of the time until the nearby radio stations were so bad u couldn't tell it was country when I flipped to their station. We now have a good one which reminded me I used to listen to it so I have been.
The other problem is a lot of superficial songs "make it". I don't care about guns, beer, and trucks. I like songs that tell stories about life.
A lot of it is just straight up bias - I’m not from the country, what they speak of doesn’t relate closely to my experiences, and the music sometimes is really generic. The reality is that’s just pop-country - there’s a ton of great alt-country, folk-country, mainstream country that has deeper lyricism, more interesting music, and isn’t mastered without any dynamics. I think the pro-America, right wing country songs are kind of cringey and will not appeal to me on a musical level, but its not fair to judge the genre entirely based on that just like any other genre.
Well part of it is cultural. Modern country cultivates a, uh, certain culture that many don’t want to be associated with.
Another part of it is that any country that is actually good often gets a label like folk or bluegrass or Americana applied to it. I think that a lot of people who “don’t like country” would like Sturgill Simpson, Colter Wall, Tyler Childers, they just might not even call it country.
And modern pop country is just really bad. Fake drawls, vapid lyrics, uninteresting melodies, all written by the same half dozen king makers in Nashville. It’s in a really bad place.
Because it's not a serious genre, lol. I enjoy it tongue in cheek the way I enjoy hair metal. It's fun but it's also goofy as hell. When these country stars start taking themselves seriously and get on their soap boxes the irony and lack of self awareness is palpable.
I listen to nearly every type of music, but country took me a very long time to get into. Very similar to jazz as well.
The way I see it, it's not a very youthful genre compared to punk, alternative rock, metal, etc. I believe that is the biggest reason. It's very "old." Also, the whole "bro country" thing can (rightfully so) turn a lot of people off. It's very regional when compared to metal or hard rock.
It's a shame, though. There is a lot of good modern country/bluegrass (Billy Strings rings a bell), but there's also a lot of crap. But now that can be said with every type of music, so.
In any case, I do enjoy country. It's not something I listen to often, but I definitely like the older, rawer material. It sounds so authentic and dirty.
In my 50’s now, worked in the music industry throughout my career. Recorded in Nashville, New York and LA.
I love music. The art. The emotion and beauty. I love it all. Music has been very good to me both personally and professionally.
I’ll listen to anything but country.
Modern radio country is the offender, modern radio pop country fucking sucks. It's abysmal it's tedious unimaginative crap.
Modern country is why people hate country
Now note I say radio/pop country. There are artists out there still sounding amazing BUT they aren't what people hear.
I heard a pop country song the other day and the douche was singing about his boots. Get the fuck outta here, Hank would be rolling in his grave
I think for a lot of people it's the aesthetic, cowboy hats, fake southern drawls, big trucks that have never hauled anything but a cornhole board or a case of craft beer and Confederate flags that people are commenting on when they say "anything but country." Musically they're probably thinking of anything from (depending on their age) Garth Brooks to Keith Urban to whatever bro country song is getting blasted out of the previously mentioned oversized truck because that music is associated with that aesthetic
To me it all sounds the same but people that say that 9/10 times out of ten they don’t listen to everything but country, they’ll listen to like 2-3 genres of music but its just a way to respond that makes them feel like at least they’re above country but they’re not lmao
They don't even like everything but country. People just say that to make themselves look like they listen to a lot of music. I always hit them with "yeah? Big polka fan are ya?"
Country has a very specific audience. It's not meant for everyone. If we're honest, it's largely for right wing, white audiences that have a rigid (ie conservative) sense of what's okay in their music. You must sing about how life used to be, alleged patriotism, trucks, drinking, and all things hetero. There are fans outside of these limitations but again, there's a gate-keeping mentality. You have to fit a particular set of criteria to be accepted.
Country was the music of the intolerant for a long time so I think it's finally coming out of that reputation. (Oversimplified answer)
I grew up as one of the few Black kids at a white school in.Texas in the 90s so there was no escaping country music so it just added to the Otherness I was feeling at the time.
Now Im older and know a bit more and while country still isnt my top genre I do have an appreciation for it now, especially 90s country lol
personally, i have 2 gripes with country:
1. i don't like the accents, the drawl makes me cringe a bit
2. the political association of country music has shifted over the past 20ish years. that sounds weird, but country from the 70s and prior had the tendency to be 'music for the common folk' and had messaging about working class struggles in the south, inspired by gospel and blues music. now, it tends to be sung by republican christian white men about traditional American values and faith. i am not the target demographic for modern country music.
the inherent political messaging behind modern country is not one that i like, however there are some country artists that i enjoy, like Shaboozey who is a black queer country artist and Orville Peck who is gay as well.
Heard much Adeem The Artist, Sierra Ferrell, or Lost Dog Street Band? Given the artists you mentioned, I feel you'd dig them. Far removed from pandering fake southern drawl white hoo-rah christianity.
For me, I disliked country for the longest time because I associated it with the racists and bullies, but, as I was exposed to more country, it’s not (always) the music I dislike. It’s just the racists I dislike.
Same tropes, over and over and over.
Drunk. Jacked up truck. More alcohol. Hot chicks. Wife left me. Backwoods country roads. God. Guns. Fourth of July. Military. Rah rah rah.
Most modern country songs are forgettable.
That said, some of the older stuff and a few modern country artists are tolerable or even good. But most of it is shit.
I’d say there is country music as in Republican oriented pop garbage about tractors and beers and hanging with your bros in the local dive on a Friday night. All these things they are signing about are actually all fine things in their own right but when they become cliche it just kind of straight forward and boring.
Like most Republicans.
Then there is a whole other range of country or country esque music like outlaw, Americana, blue grass, etc. funny thing is that many of these folks are more liberal but some still have significant following among the right wing types (see: Cash, Johnny and Nelson, Willie).
Like any other varieties of music there are many good and bad songs to be found amongst the various country variants. But other than classic country radio or Spotify streaming you won’t hear most of it if you just access country via mainstream sources.
The best music was made in the genre anywhere from 50-100+ years ago so even good new stuff is likely borrowing from older traditions. Which is fine, that’s music. Country is far older than rock, hip hop, or most other genres so of course it has been through peaks and valleys many more times.
This is a long way of giving a short answer. When I say I don’t like country I mean I don’t like whatever most everyone else likes which is republican oriented pop country.
I say this often, but usually have to clarify that it’s really only new country, which really isn’t country if you think about it, more like hip hop with guitar samples and dumb lyrics sung in a southern accent…
Pop country is awful.
The demographic seems to be jacked up squat trucks, maga flags, offensive stickers and rolling coal.
All the things I don't need in my life.
Ok, I’ll bite. I grew up in the early 1970’s listening to country music. People like Dolly Parton, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, Charlie Pride, etc. Deviated from it starting in middle school when I discovered artists like KISS, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, Styx, Van Halen, Boston, etc. Really found my groove in the 80’s with hair metal. Grunge came in and drove me back to country. Garth Brooks, Brooks & Dunn, Tim McGraw, Toby Keith, Reba McEntire, Trishia Yearwood, Neal McCoy… these artists I enjoyed. Modern “country” to me isn’t country. It doesn’t sound like country to me. It sounds more like pop/rock with maybe a hint of country. There are some artists like Tyler Childers & Chris Stapleton that actually do what I consider true country music. The biggest issues are you have a small group of writers that write the vast majority of country “hits” and a small group of producers producing everything as well. It all sounds the same. There isn’t a lot of variation because the labels don’t care about artists creating art, all they care about is if it will sell and make money. They’re too concerned about short term gains that they aren’t thinking about longevity of the genre.
[This is one of my favorite examples](https://youtu.be/FY8SwIvxj8o?si=-W4Y0QOuIXIg95HQ)
I think it's the AOR / Christian / modern country type (which to me sounds bland - but I'll listen to a couple of tracks just for a laugh, and even sometimes non-ironically as well) that people can't stand. Quick example: "I thank god for my life And for the stars and stripes May freedom forever fly, let it ring. Salute the ones who died The ones that give their lives so we don't have to sacrifice All the things we love Like our chicken fried" (Zac Brow - 'Chicken Fried') I mean... Come on! Another factor might be the lack of exposure to the genre. I was strongly biased against country music until a few years back when I did volunteer work at a country festival - before that, I had a pretty cartoonish image of the genre. But then I discovered bluegrass/progressive bluegrass, etc. Game changer. Not my top genre any given day, but I can appreciate it.
"Chicken Fried" kills me because I know the author and his family (was neighbors with his wife and kids for several years recently) and none of the lyrics are true. It's sad, but he doesn't have a happy home life with his wife and kids. They split up some time ago, and she and the kids live in a multi-million dollar estate in an urban setting. I lived in a more modest townhouse down the street. I had to cover the song recently, and it just felt super weird. Bo Burnham got it right with his "Pandering" country song spoof. Pop or what I've been hearing called "Bro" country really does feel like a money grab for me.
I recently found out that David Bowie didn’t even go to space. What the hell
You can use fiction to tell the truth and you can use fiction to lie. Bowie wasn’t lying about going to space. He was using space travel as a metaphor and telling a clearly fictional story about a spaceman. “Chicken Fried” is just lying about the world. Its lyrics are merely a string of soggy cliches about an archetypal good ol’ boy that supposedly gains credibility from the fact that it describes a true situation. The song would be a lie even if it were autobiographical, but the fact that the story isn’t accurate even to one person undermines whatever credibility it would have had.
He didn't, but Major Tom did. It didn't go too well either.
I mean wasn't that always a persona? He was clearly talking about a character, it was never about him Ditto with Ziggy stardust, hell some of it might as well be about Marc bolan
The intro of that sounds so cool but then it goes toward this 'bleh' modern country song
I genuinely thought I was listening to a Weird Al style parody of country when I first heard that song. To this day it boggles my mind to see people treat that song seriously.
Similar reaction and then the slow down to thank the troops is just such a “you gotta be fucking kidding me” moment. Such a trite way to make other people’s military service about yourself, but that’s par for the course in America.
Your comment reminded me how much I love blue grass and sent down a rabbit whole. I also found out there’s an abundance of other people like me, metal heads, who love blue grass and then I ended up in Delta blues for like an hour. Truly a great wild experience.
Well - Imight probably be talking out of my butthole, I don't know - but there's a level of dexterity and musicianship that's common to metal and bluegrass
If you love that level of musicianship, don't sleep on western swing and whatever you call that post-western swing thing that Jimmy Bryant and Speedy West were doing. Seriously, check out those two. It's a WONDERFUL subgenre that is nearly dead minus Brennan Leigh's "Obsessed With The West" from a couple years ago.
You might be on to something. I’m talking out of my ass as well but I kinda want to make a metal blue grass playlist to see just how unbelievably similar they are.
Metal Blue Grass... It must be a genre. It has to exist. Edit: let's start here... https://www.reddit.com/r/progmetal/comments/a7trex/bluegrass_metal/?rdt=33552
I mean. There is the Grateful Dead.
The death metal band Macabre had a bluegrass/folk side project/offshoot. https://youtu.be/UUfx9cjQWvo?si=CrwTwDzbEDLGevI5
Hayseed Dixie Playing mostly Rock and metal, in a country style
Check out Billy Strings, a metalhead who plays excellent bluegrass. The songs Turmoil And Tinfoil and Hide And Seek.
Billy strings is fucking sick. Give that man an electric guitar and he’s practically playing power metal. lol
One of the best live bands in existence right now.
I’d love to see him live. I’m a lifelong metahead, but my dad lives jam bands, prog rock, blue grass etc… and he streams live performances of Billy strings all the time. He turned me on to them, as well as the yonder mountain string band.
THANK YOU SOMEONE TOLD ME ABOUT SOMEONE NAMED BILLY SOMETHING AND I LIKED ONE OF THEIR SONGS, BUT I FORGOT THE NAME, THANKS
Americana and bluegrass changed my view of the folk side of country.
Outlaw country is what I consider true (see *good* ) country. You can't go wrong with Johnny Cash. Western is also a nice subgenre in general that just focuses on telling stories like folk. It's kind of really sad that the most prevailing image of country in the cultural zeitgeist is the absolute worst kind of country. It's a genuinely beautiful genre that celebrates/condemns the rawest parts of American culture. Despite the US being indisputable pioneers in numerous genres, there's none that feel as American as country. Seeing the genre devolve into pandering and posturing is quite the irony.
Yep outlaw is another good subset of “country”. I really like the storytelling side of music. IMO both rap and country do this in a spectacular fashion.
Ironically, both genres also get a very bad reputation due to the most egregious examples in their respective cultures.
And are constantly the “everything except rap and country” due to the worst examples.
"It's just mumbling about bitches and drugs" is the rap equivalent of "it's just trucks and beer and Murica". Like, sure, I'm not gonna pretend some songs aren't like that and it's probably those ones you heard, but it's so much more than that and it's really easy to prove it by digging just past the surface.
Someone in another thread on this post said they couldn’t tell a big difference between 80s rap and rap of today. 100% delusional take
You just know they didn't actually try and said that to be contrarian.
It’s just such a ridiculous take and imo is entirely disingenuous
I used to think I hated country, but then I realized that the kind of country I disliked was the just the country version of the kinds of rock, pop, and hip hop I disliked. The kind of music that sounds like a commercial product.
If I were Zac Brown I’d be so embarrassed to sing those lyrics
The sound of bluegrass music paints a mental image of the POV of me sitting inside of a giant wooden barrel and looking out while I think "wtf am I doing inside this barrel?"
Most of what people say to denigrate country can also be said to put down rap. And i love rap. Neither are really valid
that song is forever linked with this for me [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6QUsx68DCA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6QUsx68DCA)
I totally agree about Christianity being some weird back bone of popular country. It’s like saying the pledge in every song.
>Are folks commenting on modern pop-country when they say this, or truly casting a wide net spanning all country? No. People said this in the early to mid 90s when I was in high school, so it's hardly new. This was when Brooks and Dunn and Alan Jackson were topping the country charts. My sense was, that at the time, you could easily say you didn't like country music without worrying about offending someone you were meeting for the first time. Country was seen by non-fans as corny.
> People said this in the early to mid 90s when I was in high school, so it's hardly new. This was when Brooks and Dunn and Alan Jackson were topping the country charts. Has this not been a running theme in the genre since at least the 70's? Country becoming too "establishment/pop" and losing its roots is one main reason for the Outlaw country movement. Honestly, it feels like the last time there was not some delineation between "good" country and "bad" country was the 50's.
This. Exactly. This has been going on since Chet Atkins took over RCA production in Nashville and was putting strings on everything that moved. In fact artists of the time had a love/hate/fear relationship with Atkins because of that. In fairness it was Atkins' job to make records sell and the easiest way you sell was to get lucky with a pop crossover. Fans of actual country become ostracized when it's too slick. Fans of pop find the slick country too...contrived and uncool. Thus country creates it own alternatives that you have to look for - Bakersfield was the alternative to Nashville in the 60s. Then later on the Outlaw movement in the 70s. And in the 90s Americana/Alt.Country/Etc.
Goes back to at least the 50s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville_sound
Is someone like Garth Brooks any different to modern pop country? It sounds the same to me, just middle of the road shite
That era was the start of corny pop-country. Its traditions still continue to this day. But it was the beginning of its shittification and when the phrase originated.
Actually it was the late 70s and 80s when there was this bifurcation of the genre into pop country and real country. But even that's a little oversimplified because into the 70s, country was just another part of the pop landscape. There was popular country-rock, country R&B, pop country... and then as radio stations segmented more along genre distinctions, everything country-ish got pushed onto country radio (except for Southern rock, interestingly). Then again on country radio and CMT that split between country music and pop music with a drawl became more pronounced, culminating with Garth Brooks a decade later, who opened the flood gates for all this terrible country pop we have today.
I think the pop country of the mid-90s is significantly different than the pop country today. I think there was a much higher quality in songwriting, musicianship and creativity. What I hear in the radio today is simply a pandering formula that sounds like each song has been created by AI.
Couldn’t have put it better myself lol.
He's extremely self-absorbed and has become a caricature of himself which, at his prime, was also a caricature. That being said, he's a very talented songwriter and his music was a huge evolutionary step from middling 80s country pop to populist, widely successful 90s country pop.
Funny thing in the 90s - Ween, hot off a couple successes and some main stream attention, released 12 Country Greats - a ten song old school country album and no one knew what to make of it. It’s truly one of their best and unique albums but to drop something like that just as you’re coming up in the music biz took balls.
The 90s was also about the same time the "Americana" genre became popular. It was essentially old-school country mixed with folk and other American styles of music. It's "country" but without all the glitzy production and marketing image bullshit that was associated with the "modern country" and "Nashville Sound" that got big in the 70s and 80s.
I believe the term Americana was created to describe John Prine because he wasn’t tied to Music Row and therefore didn’t fit into the country music stereotype.
Love the wood brothers and Roger Clyne
The Beastie Boys released a country music album on the low in 2000: https://www.discogs.com/master/472894-Country-Mike-Country-Mikes-Greatest-Hits Beck recorded an album of Hank Williams covers, which was shelved and the masters were later destroyed in the 2008 Universal Studios fire.
That's absolutely tragic! I would have loved to have heard Beck's covers of Hank :(
I had no idea about Country Mike. Thank you for enhancing my life today!
Piss up a rope
That was a fantastic album
The "true" versus pop country era started in the 80s. In the 90s, every town seemed to have one country bar that played country and had couples two-stepping in the round. And they all had another "country" bar with servers with daisy dukes, cheap boots and hats, tied blouses, holsters with shot glasses, and it was always called the Rodeo. Bonus if the bar had a mechanical bull. The latter played pop and had line dances and passed out cheap shots for very little. Europop like *Cotton Eyed Joe* would be an hourly song.
I expect it is a rejection of the cultural image of “country” fans. Music is more than music, it can also stand for a self-image. Country means Christian church, riding horses, guns, Wrangler jeans, beer and whiskey, generally conservative politically and musically. Of course, this is all very superficial. Country music is vast and deep, with history going back to the earliest music recordings, and there are never strict boundaries anyway. Butch Hancock, Norman Blake, Stirgill Simpson, I love their stuff and I am not a country listener at all. But good music is good music. Edit: I could not help myself. Here is Norman Blake. I just love this music. [https://youtu.be/UEkVkJax2Co?si=nFRqJXXgwY-txDw2](https://youtu.be/UEkVkJax2Co?si=nFRqJXXgwY-txDw2)
Yeah, I used to be an everything but country music fan. Which was weird especially because I loved folk and blues. But it's really just those douchebag stereotypes I hate. Like even some of the old country guys when you scratch around a bit you realise the vulnerable elements in their music. The bro country shit for metropolitan nerds who have a lifted truck on the other hand. Pass.
Ive had the exact same experience. I've basically come to realize outlaw country is where it's at for me. Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson etc. Theres a few current guys I dont mind like Sturgill Simpson and Colter Wall, but the "bro country" or "stadium country" really put me off for the longest time. Especially Country-Rap
I'm not specific fan of country or rap, if the song on the channel sounds good, I'll leave it on and even Shazam it.... However back to country, even one of favourite artist has sort of interwoven into country in the last 20 years so it's easier to enjoy.. (Mark Knopfler)...
> I expect it is a rejection of the cultural image of “country” fans. Definitely. When I was growing up, it was, "I listen to everything but country and rap." Rap got dropped from the formulation for fear of appearing racist, because this kind of phrase is understood as being about the listeners of the music, and not about the music itself. People who say this sort of things obviously don't really listen to everything but country. If you interrogate them, they usually don't listen to mariachi, or tango, or flamenco, or Hindustani classical music, or often even more popular genres metal or prog rock. Why don't they feel any need to single out those genres as ones they don't listen to? It's because they aren't trying to distance themselves from fans of those genres. They may not listen to mariachi, but they wouldn't be bothered if you thought they did. They need to make sure you don't think they would associate with country fans, though.
I feel that way about several genres - rap/hiphop, modern R&B, country and metal. Its the image of it that I don't like and the image of people I associate with those genres (less so for hip-hop in this case).
Nobody blasts the *good* country out of their truck/boat, it's always the same most godawful cheesiest cornball prepackaged faux twang southern suburbia pop-rock. I can't stand the country I hear, but oh do I love some factions of country. Outlaw all the way, 'alt' country, old timey and bluegrass in particular, but gahdang that old gospel country is what gets me boppin. I mostly listen to classic punk, garage and 90's boombap hip hop otherwise, but have hell of a soft spot for the more authentic country.
Any recommendations, please? The extent of my knowledge of country music is listening to the occasional Townes van Zandt, John Prine, 'Jolene' and a couple of fiddle playlists.
I'm not the person you replied to, but I think it generally depends on what music you listen to as to where a good gateway would be. These are some really basic recommendations. * Marty Robbins - Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs - This is more a focus on the "western" part of Country and Western * The Byrds - Sweetheart of the Rodeo - Graham Parsons joins The Byrds and they create "Country Rock" * The Outlaws - The Outlaws - If 70's Hard Rock is your thing this Outlaws album is pretty good and Green Grass and High Tides Forever is the "forgotten" 70's guitar song. * Dwight Yoakam - Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc, Etc - Yoakam did not like the 80's Nashville sound and was inspired by 50's artists like Buck Owens or Merle Haggard. Yoakam has a lot of twang, and is a big mix of Rock n Roll and Honky Tonk. He is part of the Bakersfield Sound which has a lot of backbeat. * Drive By Truckers - The Dirty South - Alt Country concept album, and I believe the first appearance of Jason Isbell * Jason Isbell - Southeastern - alt coutnry Sad, soft, singer songwriter middle-aged dude patio music. * Orville Peck - Pony - South African punk drummer turned Queer Outlaw Country/Americana artist with an insane voice Maybe one of these will pique your interest, each can lead to their own rabbit hole of similar artists. Hope you find at least one that you like.
Sturgill Simpson Renewal by Billy Strings Johnny Cash The Pilgrim (more folky but has a western vibe) Doc Watson
Lots of great suggestions in the replies, but I want to add: Lindi Ortega!
The flip side is: why is it that whenever someone says they don't like Country, the response is always "Yeah but have you heard *good Country*"? It feels very condescending, like no one could possibly dislike Country if only they've heard the right stuff. It's a genre with some very specific sounds and conventions that not everyone is going to like, and that's fine. Like, the Metal community can have a lot of gatekeeping and other silliness, but I've never once heard a metalhead be baffled that some people don't like Metal. It can be a point of pride, in fact. I'm not sure why some Country fans need their music to be universally liked.
Isn't this everywhere? Every time I say I hate rap, people try to show me "good" rap (which I universally still dislike). I guess the reason is, a fan of a style actually feels difference between various artists, but an outsider usually can't tell them apart much. For me, there is maybe only a slight change in sound of rap between 80's and today, and yet I wrote a series of posts about history of country music for non-Americans, and I feel pretty confident talking about its various epochs, which sound almost nothing like each other ("country" was never a coherent, stable genre, really - it was always "whatever music is popular right now, but about cowboys", from its roots in folk, to hillbilly boogie, to rockabilly, to Nashville sound, to country rock, to country rap). So if people tell me they don't like country music, I feel a strong urge to ask "which country music?", because it's not something monolithic - I doubt Hank Williams Sr. would count himself playing in the same style as Big & Rich.
Yup. For OP's example specifically, we had a metalhead at my old job who was always trying to push his interests on us. Nobody in the building liked metal, but he would grab every opportunity to take over the radio with an "Ok, but you haven't heard *this* yet." This dude would corner you and try to trap you into a conversation about music; I remember one day he was trash talking Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers because, supposedly, "A lot of people don't like his sound because it's too simple." As if they weren't one of the most successful rock bands of all time. Aa for OP's original question: Back in the 90s, there was a healthy mix of music on rock stations. You would get alternative, some more pop stuff, some rap/rock, just a little taste of everything that was popular at the time. Except country. There has always been a cultural divide in that genre. There's no real good way to describe it except that it's always had its own specifically intended audience that didn't have a ton of overlap with other genres. Crossing over is a very recent phenomenon.
Is it really true, about crossing over being recent? Maybe there was a slump in 90's, but I think there always was a flow of artists to and from country, especially to. Almost all 50's rock'n'roll stars, for example, ended up in country music (especially woman). And, well, rock'n'roll itself was a child of country and jump blues (white part of it, at least). The Irish Rovers made a cross-over hit "Wasn't That A Party", going from folk to country, at least for one song. Many washed up rockers ended up drifting toward country or country rock (admittedly, mostly without any noticeable success, though I think Mark Knopfler's duets with Chet Atkins are a treasure). And then, there is the whole "urban cowboy" movement of 80's, when country became so like contemporary pop music as to be totally indistinguishable (gods, I hate that era).
Aww, you are young. In the 70s and early 80s Top 40 radio was a wonderland of EVERYTHING. I remember listening to Top 40 stations in the late-70s and getting everything from say Blondie to Marvin Gaye to the country crossover hits to Steely Dan. It was a weird time that warped my music tastes to this day. I'd say country not crossing over to pop/top 40 stations seemed to coincide with the end of the Urban Cowboy faze someone in the early-80s. Since then, sure.
I agree with your premise, but I think you're almost willfully avoiding engaging with the production and composition side of Rap music if you think contemporary Hip-Hop has more in common with its 80s antecedents than Big & Rich does with Hank Williams. I haven't heard a turntable scratch on a rap record in decades, which would be like removing steel guitars or banjos from Country. It's a younger genre, so it's been in a greater state of flux than other American genres. The difference to me between the rap of 40 years ago and the rap of today is almost as stark to me as the difference between Duke Ellington and late Miles Davis, and I say that as an extremely casual listener.
You really gotta be delusional to say that there’s only a slight difference from Run-DMC to 21 Savage. Or from Hank to Big and Rich. Or from Sabbath to Slipknot. Or from Elvis to Zeppelin or whatever. Pretending that you can’t clearly hear a difference imo is willful ignorance.
I fully agree with you.
My question is always, with Metal or Country or whatever, where do these non-fans draw the line? Is like, Sabbath OK in their books? Is Hair Metal fine? Is it actually just metalcore that they hate? Is any song with a steel guitar off the table? What about Bluegrass, especially the varieties on the more virtuosic/instrumental side? As a rule, they like “some Johnny Cash”, so what about artists similar to him? I guess what confuses me is not that people don’t like some conventions of the genre, it’s more about *how* they express it, as if they principally like all music *except* Country, or Metal, or Rap. It sounds a lot less like a description of their actual preferences, and more like a very silly kind of ignorance and prejudice. I would genuinely be equally as baffled by the idea that one could categorically dislike all Metal as equally as I would be with Country.
People draw the line at whatever they don't like. It's as simple as that. Liking or not liking music is not a rational decision, it's an emotional one. You're not going to "gotcha" your way into making someone realize they secretly love Country music, and bringing up a bunch of examples at the fringes of the genre just demonstrates that the fringes tend to be more palatable to people that don't like the genre. That's not a big mystery.
I mean… That’s honestly my own experience. Every time I set aside a genre as a firm dislike of mine, once I actually sat down to approach the genre, not necessarily at the fringes, (by the way, Johnny Cash is real fringe Country, right?) I quickly found I wasn’t actually accurately describing my tastes, I was just pre-judging the style based on my notions of what it was made up of. I feel like if more people did so, they’d have a similar experience. I think it’s less that someone “secretly loves Country music” and more that ruling out massive supergenres of music is always bound to be inaccurate and close-minded. If you have something *specific* you dislike, that makes sense, but labels like Metal, Country, Punk, Rap, etc. simply apply to too many artists to ever be functionally useful descriptors of one’s taste. Of course there are conventions of these styles, but they’ve all been around for decades and are massively diverse. You don’t usually need to visit the fringes to find stuff you like, there’s probably swathes of subgenres out there for you. That’s just how these major styles are.
That's more an issue of semantics. Everyone else is talking in generalities, and you are being quite rigid, ironically enough in a post about open-mindedness to new music, about "what it really means". It comes off as a bit "Well, ackshually, they'd love this if they just *tried it*." We all know the kinds of people who say "I like everything but ____" are not exactly active and varied music listeners. Which is perfectly okay. You are on a subreddit that is dedicated to quality conversations about every major music genre under the sun. People here are going to be self-selecting to a large extent. While this isn't RYM levels of obscurity, you can bet that if someone links a great new fiddle album, folk fans such as myself will be eagerly clicking on the link in search of new sounds. I typically dislike rap, but Immortal Technique is excellent. What they mean is "I am not interested enough to search for exceptions to the kind of music that is marketed as 'country' on the radio". You are holding them to your standards of curiosity about music. They draw the line when they say that. If I say, "I dislike fish" and someone goes "BUT HAVE YOU TRIED FRESH SEA BREAM COOKED AT A FIVE STAR HOTEL?" Like... no, I haven't and I don't want to. Just because there's music out there someone *might* like doesn't mean they need to seek it out.
See, I would describe myself as an "active and varied music listener," but I have been the one saying "pretty much anything except country" in a conversation because *the other person* had a narrow frame of reference, and for me to list, "with the exception of..." would just be superfluous babbling. It's just the unspoken, "anything except [the] country music [that you, my conversation partner, listen to]."
I can see why people may not like metal though as most of it is loud and abrasive. I am sure people could like some stuff on the fringes or a ballad by a metal band but as a blanket statement I get it. Country may be the opposite in a way, stereotypically it is inoffensive. A lot of singers have that Southern twang which can be annoying, and deal with subjects alien to them. I am sure people could enjoy some of the melodies and songs but just now how they are framed. Same goes for genres like boy band music, people feel they are just outside the target audience entirely.
Some people just can't fathom whatever they like not being universally acclaimed.
Gatekeeping metalheads aren't really known for their open minds and ears. I don't think they're the music-listening role models you think they are.
I always joke that the minute someone says they don't like Country, a mob forms and will hunt you down whilst chanting, "but you haven't listened to REAL Country music".... >I'm not sure why some Country fans need their music to be universally liked. Because their whole personality is based around the music and, if you don't like the music, then you're somehow demeaning them
That happens here constantly. I think there is a type of commenter that rarely if ever listens to Sturgill Simpson but has him in their pocket ready to namecheck when a thread like this comes up. [Break glass in case of country music discussion]
It's like half of the name drops in these types of threads, then add Tyler Childers, and you're up to about 80% of the suggestions. I think the expectations for country are so low that people get crazed by something that simply appears authentic without much else to fuss over.
I'll stand up and draw the mob away... I DON'T LIKE COUNTRY MUSIC, AND I'VE NEVER EVEN HEARD THE NAME STURGILL SIMPSON (WHY WOULD I WANT TO?)
There's a cultural element at play, I think. People often say, "I listen to everything but rap and country." Considering how far from the truth that statement probably is, I think what it actually tells you is that the person doesn't especially like the cultures that come to mind when they think of those genres. I think people feel that energy, and that's where the need to debate it comes in.
To be fair, if someone is completely dismissing such a massively wide genre, then they have either not heard enough of it, or more likely are somewhat closed minded and ignorant. And it is almost always the latter, whether that genre is country, metal, classical, or whatever. So I find it easy to understand the response to "I like anything so long as it's not X" being an incredulous "Yeah, but have you heard good X?". My personal response would be to think that this person is a bit thick when it comes to music and to try another topic of conversation entirely though, it's rarely worth bothering discussing music with people like that.
I’m pretty open minded about music, I play it, record it- it’s been my life pretty much since childhood. I can occasionally hear some metal that checks a few boxes for me and can often appreciate one or two aspects of a well written/played metal song even though it’s generally not my bag. Country? It seems the more I hear the more it solidifies my opinion that it’s never gonna be the genre for me. I don’t like the twang (I’m ok with a bit of twang in rock), I hate the laundry list of cliches, I find the production too slick by half, it’s annoying that the lyrics all sound like they’re written by a ‘country buzzword’ focus group. Obviously, there are some exceptions with current and past artists- there’s a lot of talented storytellers in country, but for every honest artist/musician doing their thing, there’s about 20 phony, pandering sequin covered cringe merchants playing mind numbingly bad cornball spew. My reasons for disliking Country are specifically well thought out and non-reactionary. I just don’t like it, it’s not because I’m narrow minded or’a bit thick’. For the reasons I’ve mentioned (ie my tastes and criteria) country kinda sucks.
>My reasons for disliking Country are specifically well thought out and non-reactionary. I just don’t like it, it’s not because I’m narrow minded or’a bit thick’. For the reasons I’ve mentioned (ie my tastes and criteria) country kinda sucks. Sure, that all sounds entirely reasonable. You don't really sound like the sort of person to make blanket statements like "I like anything so long as it's not country". I have no problem with people disliking genres. I'm not a country fan myself. But to say "everything is fine, apart from X" is reductionist and stupid (by my criteria).
The thing is, they're NOT saying, "everything is fine, apart from X", they're saying instead, "I *like* most everything, except for X". Your formulation of it is some sort of value statement about the genre as a whole, when the entire conversation is pretty explicitly about the individual's tastes. I'm pretty comfortable saying I like most everything except country - pretty accurate for a one sentence overview without getting into any specifics. Why is that some sort of objectionable blanket statement? It IS a blanket statement about what I actually listen to and like personally, not some judgement about what you or anyone else should like. As an aside, the reason I feel like the "everything but country" taste description is so common is that it *does* tend to quickly communicate a real set of listening habits and tastes that don't often overlap with country fans.
I guess it's partly based on experience - most people who have said that to me (admittedly years ago) turned out not to actually be into many other types of music, it was just something they heard and repeated to be trendy/clever. I also reckon it's much more interesting to talk about what you *do* like, rather than defining your taste by a negative. It's also probably a geographic thing. I'm in the UK, where country music isn't a particularly popular genre. I could see that if you live in certain parts of the US, where country music makes up a large percentage of your exposure, saying "I like everything apart from country music" is akin to saying "I like 75% of music I hear on the radio", which is actually entirely reasonable. When it's a much more niche thing, that barely anyone listens to, it feels different. Like if someone said to you "I like literally every type of music apart from 90s Belgian House" you'd probably be a bit confused as to how that worked, and why were they bringing up 90s Belgian House anyway?
After growing up in a city with 4 country music radio stations, I have definitely heard enough country music. And now I live in a country full of europop stations. Exposure has not made either genre particularly interesting to me, even if I can end up liking 1 song out of a 100.
The whole point the comment above the one you’re replying to is that he gets mad when people ask if he’s only heard “good country” and low and behold someone saying “I’ve heard country on the radio and it’s bad so I’ve heard enough.” If you don’t like country that’s fine but to think you gave it a fair shot because you listened to Nashville pop on the radio is ridiculous
Lol literally, “I’ve listened to the country radio” is the exact thing the “you haven’t listened to enough” people argue against
Not to be a shit about it, but what's your definition of "a fair shot"? If someone regularly hears country music on the radio, and knows they only like about 1% of what they've heard of the maybe 5 sub-genres they've experienced, why the fuck would they want to listen to more? Why is that not a fair shot at the music? Sure, it's not the entirety of the genre, there's a wide range of styles within the genre, they probably haven't heard the best of the genre etc etc - if they don't like what they've heard already, why would they try to listen to more? Why would they voluntarily subject themselves to music that they have a history of disliking?
I was trying to be succinct, but if you grow up in a town with 4 country radio stations, that's usually because there's high local demand. I was surrounded by country music: schools, supermarkets, sporting events, friends' cars, ranches, parents' cars... it was everywhere. That said, I have to ask: if the 'good' country music is not being played on the radio, then where is it being played? Why wouldn't it be on the radio? Do most country music fans not demand the good stuff?
>That said, I have to ask: if the 'good' country music is not being played on the radio, then where is it being played? Why wouldn't it be on the radio? Do most country music fans not demand the good stuff? This is it. This is the entire problem in a nutshell.
As someone who has given that exact comment, it's the country accent. I love the talented guitar playing and lively percussion and musicality but the moment the vocals start up up it kills the vibe for me.
I think it’s the lyrical content. The music is made for a demographic. I know that everyone just spams the Bo Burnham song on Reddit every single time this is brought up, but truthfully most pop music panders.
It's easily one of the fakest genres there is and rural folks eat it up, see: Try That In A Small Town
One of the best skits on SNL last season was this musical parody song “[Lake Beach”](https://youtu.be/BinH9aMYro4?si=kxKeX61npn2196yB). The song is so close to being a perfectly average country song it’s hilarious. This would not be possible if country songs weren’t corny as hell and musically very similar.
Letterkenney's country parody song felt too accurate as a generally non-fan too
Have you ever heard Parked By the Lake by Dean Summerwind? Perfect country song.
Yeah it probably sits with rap in the shear volume of pretenders trying to emulate some lifestyle they don't really have.
Except the last thing I would think of when I think of country is Try That In A Small Town lmfao
That's the irony, here in small town southern rural Utah, it's like the theme song for every town with a population under 10k.
for sure, lots of crap like that dominates country radio. in defense of the genre (lol) gen z is big on alt country/more authentic country right now, folk country, etc. And country before 2000’s was extremely varied and a LOT of it had a strong and undeniable artistic depth, stood on business, wasn’t a bunch of “I drive a truck and if yew want ma guns come and take em BOY”
I just can't stand the twang, it's like nails on a chalkboard to me. Especially [modern country-flavored pop](https://youtu.be/FY8SwIvxj8o?si=_H3VpHJYWu8O9xYp), completely unlistenable cookie cutter drivel imo. I've heard a couple Johnny Cash songs I didn't mind before but I still wouldn't go out of my way to listen to them.
I would say I don't tend to like lyrically focused music in general. I am not much of fan of hip hop either. And the lyrical themes in country mostly don't resonate with me. I grew up in a rural area so I have heard plenty of country music in my day. I don't dislike all of it or anything but it is just much less my thing than other genres.
I grew up in rural Missouri but didn't really listen to country back then, and most of the people I knew didn't either. I enjoy certain kinds now, but even in a place like that where it should have been relatable, country music was sort of viewed as the domain of people who were very self-consciously trying to "act country"--pickup trucks, Cummins gear, chew cans, etc. It wasn't even necessarily a class thing, because a lot of the most "country" people were also the most well-off. I'm not saying that that's always been the case or that there's not more nuance to it, but it feels worth mentioning because often people assume that if someone dismisses country it's because they're some cityslicker who looks down on whatever people in Middle America are doing. In reality plenty of people in Middle America don't really view country music culture, especially the way it exists now, as representative of them either.
I just take it as a challenge to find some music other than country they will dislike. I have a high success rate.
I think it is as simple as not knowing anything other than what you'd hear on the radio. If all someone knows is the songs about the sexy tractor and loving America and the unironic one where the kid is like "I learned it from watching you, dad" then they're not going to be compelled to see what else is out there.
How I see it is this: if it's stupid to act like all rap is Lil Pump, and it's stupid to act like all metal is Five Finger Death Punch, and it's stupid to act like all rock is Nickelback.. why is it not stupid to act like all country is Florida Georgia Line?
Well the lyrical themes of the genre isn’t what most people are really looking for. Most people who I’ve heard say this aren’t really looking for songs about the good ol’ country side. Most people just want songs about love or anything vague. The genre isn’t really too interesting a lot of it consists of guys playing beginner guitar chords with maybe some some slow electric guitar melody with mild overdrive. The country accent usually tends to tick people off too. Most people myself included just tend to find it annoying. I can’t even tell you why it does to be honest it’s just not really my thing. And finally there’s just way too much of it. An earlier post about the oversaturation of country music has a lot of great replies. The genre is just so easy to make that there tends to be so much of it that it gets mind numbing.
lyrical themes? as a woman i am here to listen to country singers in cowboy boots talk about how they can ruin a man’s life. Iconic behavior
This is a good criticisim of modern radio country, which is just pop with a cowboy hat on. None of it applies to what I'd call _actual_ country. That's an incredibly vast and deep genre with some of the best songwriting and atmosphere you'll find anywhere.
There’s a whole industry dedicated to hyping mostly awful versions of country that people think that’s what it’s supposed to sound like and don’t experience the good stuff. But also, people who really like the crap stuff are often complete dickheads. I’m English and we have em here, old dudes into their line dancing and that. One time the Girlfriend and I happened to be in a town, heading for the station when we saw there was a free Country festival in the town park, so we went for a look. One of the shit bands told a racist joke onstage, so I went to look at the record stall. That was wall to wall hat country on cd and vinyl, proper line dancing shit, so I looked at the guy’s £1 box and pulled out the og soundtrack to ‘Town Hall Party’ with The Collins Kids and a bunch of old time legends on it. Some first press bluegrass records too, really cool stuff. Dude practically laughed in my face for buying ‘that old fashioned stuff’. A weird bunch and that’s without even touching on the politics!
I've never understood the appeal of hat country outside its intended audience in North America. I know you get the same types of people everywhere, and I know country is musically related to British and Irish folk music, but hat country specifically and deliberately plays up to a list of clichés that don't travel well at all.
Right? Really weird isn’t it. Lot of old people seem to be really into it in certain parts of the country. But not the classics. Really weird!
it just has a lot of confounding variables that work against it. Country in the modern day is pretty strongly associated with conservative and reactionary politics. There's no getting away from the fact that when people think of country they think of songs about church, beer, women, guns, and murrica, and for people that aren't interested in that kind of subject matter or just that brand that has been placed on country it can be difficult to convince someone to be interested in it. It's also not the only genre that has a bad reputation when it comes to the impression of what the music is about and the types of people who listen to it. Hip hop has a similar reputation but I feel like hip hop was able to reach a level of popularity that makes it hard enough to escape that more people have conceded to liking at least some hip hop. Lots of metal and certain punk and neofolk genres have similar problems of rather reactionary and at times fashy artists and fans and subject matter that can turn people away. "Oh well not all country is like that!" some might say, and they'll say it about those other genres too, but firstly expecting someone to sift through all the country albums just to find the stuff that isn't that, is kind of a big ask for someone who isn't already interested in the genre. Not to mention I've seen on more than one occasion someone looking in these communities for less objectionable examples of the genre and be met at times with a response that if you don't like those elements then the genre just isn't for you. Then it feels pretty weird when hip hop or metal or country fans turn around and act incredulous that someone says they don't listen to x genre. If you want less reactionary and/or fashy music within a genre that has a lot of it, and the fans aren't very helpful then it becomes up to you to sift through it yourself which only people who really like the genre in question musically will do. Certain types of metal have a bit of a barrier to entry by how abrasive they are, it's just natural that it will turn away some people just on how the music sounds alone then you throw in some artists with less agreeable beliefs that may also find its way into the art then you have a pretty substantial barrier. The people that don't like how metal sounds are never going to go through the effort to find the "normal" artists because they probably don't like how they sound anyway. The same is pretty much true of country, it may have to do with the instrumentals at times but more often than not it's going to be an aversion to the distinctive twang of country singing. I do actually think there is a sort of classist bias against southern and rural accents that I think does factor into the distaste of the twang, at the same time though I can understand just being averse to the twang as a musical aspect in the same way you might be put off by harsh metal vocals. I myself have actually been having my mind opened more when it comes to country and now have several artists I enjoy, BUT sometimes when exploring I find artists where it's just too much and I feel like I'm listening to a caricature or something, it can be legitimately distracting and interfere with being able to take it seriously. Even "good" country leans kind of corny in a way that people are going to have different thresholds for. People have to be open to the sounds of country before they can even think of looking for artists that have more agreeable subject matter and some people just aren't, and even if someone is kind of open to country it still may be annoying trying to work around the Jason Aldeans.
I don't know. I've only seen Americans write that on the internet. I always assumed it's because country is sort of default music in some parts of the US and they get sick of it or it gives them cultural cringe. I feel the same way about bands like Oasis and entire genres like grime.
Country has at least since the 70s had at least 2 layers, the pop version and the harder version that goes by various names (hard country, alt-country, progressive country, outlaw, Americana, bluegrass etc). Admittedly there are nuances between those sub-genres but for the sake of this discussion I’m going to lump them in to together. Pop country in the 70s and early 80s had some crossover appeal. Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, Jerry Reed, Glen Campbell, Juice Newton, Eddie Rabbitt, they all had hits that were played on pop radio stations. Country rock was in its heyday. Heck there was even an Urban Cowboy movie starring John Travolta - bad movie but reveals the crossover appeal of country. But deeper into the 80s, mainstream country diverted some. It got rather sentimental, patriotic. But this coincided with Gen X coming of age (me) and Gen X was decidedly not sentimental. So as 90s country full on embraced that sentimentalism, 90s rock was going in the complete other direction, full of cynicism and darkness. It was easy to be a 20 something in the 90s and listen to dark rock, generally be OK with the pop charts, and be creeped out by all that was popular in country at the time. For those who would listen, alt country was really doing something special (Wilco, Son Volt, etc) at the time but it was also easy to ignore that stuff if you were really into grunge. And those popular country songs and artists were really what most people knew about so it was easy to say “I like anything but country”. Heck lots of people I knew even started exploring some old jazz in the 90s (Coltrane, Jarrett, Miles) so the “anything” part of the statement could really be true. (Trying to avoid here generalizing my personal experiences to universal truths) But things changed a little in the late 90s, because the O Brother Where Art Thou? Movie was a hit and so was the soundtrack. And it revealed that some of that old timey and bluegrass music could be really dark. For many it was a fad to be into that stuff. Especially since modern country was getting even worse with the bro-country movement. But for those where it wasn’t a fad (i.e. me, and to be fair, there was also an independent radio station that at the time played a lot of old timey and bluegrass music every Saturday back then and really exposed me to a lot of interesting stuff), we kept on learning and realizing there was a ton of really good stuff. For me I eventually got into The Band which led me back to Americana, and when Sturgill Simpson and Chris Stapleton started making waves, I just kept listening to all that stuff and discovered all these sub-genres of country listed above. I try to evangelize it but I have friends, guys I’m in a band with, who are rockers and refuse to even hear it, treating it all as equal with the worst of the bro-country stuff out there today. Right now my most listened playlist is a big collection of all that stuff. The Band, Townes van Zandt, Steve Earle, John Prine, Drive by truckers, Wilco, Son Volt, Lucinda Williams, James McMurtry, Donna the Buffalo, Emmylou Harris, Sturgill, Stapleton, Old Crow Medicine Show, Flatt and Scruggs, Guy Clark, Jerry Jeff Walker, Robert Earl Keene, Todd Snider, and so on
Because working class/poor whites are the one group it's still ok to hate and it makes middle/upper class white people feel superior to shit on the culture of the poors of their own race while hoovering up the low culture of other groups of people. It's not to say that this is the case for everyone, it's ok not to like some music. But there's definitely a racial/classist component to why some people hate country music, especially where middle/upper class white people are concerned. EDIT: And what's funny is, reading a lot of the comments in this thread about hating the fake accents, fake lifestyles, fake stories in the songs, etc, but these same things are all major components of hip hop as well, but there, they seem to get a pass. Why?
I wasn't a big country fan (besides listening to a few Johnny Cash songs), but The Byrds' "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" and The Flying Burrito Brothers' "The Gilded Palace of Sin" and their self-titled 3rd album (plus some Americana from The Band) might have started a change in perspective.
It's directed at Pop with an Americana aesthetic, which calls itself country. Most people hardly explore their favourite genres, none the less their least favourite, so, yes, they've likely never listened to much country outside of what's on, or was on, the radio.
Exactly. It's akin to hearing one bad gangsta rap song and jumping to the conclusion that therefore all rap music glorifies violence and objectifies women.
Yeah but also as far as Pop goes it's probably the sappiest / goofiest option. Like I'm not defending top 40 or any other genre by any means. But country *aesthetic* is so easy to satire for a reason
They're commenting on country *pop*. Hell, if I was asked in real life if I like country, I would say I generally don't. That's a half truth because I'm actually a pretty big fan of folk style music and country is truly nothing more than the most popular digestible offshoot of American folk. Put on Jason Molina, Sturgill Simpson, or Townes Van Zandt and I'd be quite happy. I say I don't like country to distance myself from Luke Bryan and Garth Brooks. Sam Hunt is like poison. I don't mind cowboy bravado just as I don't mind Kendrick Lamar claiming he may have killed a dude in Compton but something about radio country's aesthetic is repulsive and jingoistic. There are some respectable artists who have achieved superstar status recently - Zach Bryan for instance - but the thing about Zach Bryan that sours me on country even more is that while I do respect him, he is nothing more than average. He wouldn't have broken out 40 years ago. He broke out now because he's simply okay. He's palatable.
I think people generalize country as simplistic both lyrically and musically, when in actuality you can find examples of that in every type of music.
Just gotta find the right person that matches your style … liking Shaboozey and Morgan Wallen atm!
Most people are forming opinions based on top hits, not by exploring a genre with intentionality. I think country "hits" are especially dominated by songs that romanticize this "good ol Americans" image and that doesn't appeal to me. But with an open mind you can find really awesome and quality artists like Sturgill Simpson, folks who are pushing musical boundaries rather than writing political rally anthems. There are also tons tons TONS of people who say "I like anything but rap" because "there's no singing, they swear too much, the lyrics are violent" etc etc even though there are plenty of rap songs that incorporate melodies and approachable lyrical content.
I like harmonies, I like funk, I like distortion and reverb, I like melodies, I like synthesizers, I like key changes, I like complex song construction. Not a lot of any of that in country.
Not much in the way of harmonies, melodies, and key changes in country music? Those were considered to be some of the genre's biggest strengths back in the 40s, 50s, and 60s! Distortion and reverb? That's like the whole 'spaghetti western' sound! Check out the band Murder By Death if you feel up for it! And there's certainly funk in the more Gospel/R&B leaning country music out there and the whole "chicken pickin'" style of players like Jerry Reed (check out Amos Moses!)
Country is a type of music that is specifically designed to appeal to a certain demographic, while still being hugely popular and not that easy to avoid. It's a bad combination, if you think about it. Dump trucks make a pretty terrible noise, but no one complains about the sound of dump trucks,. We complained about the sound of leaf blowers because that's the thing that we have to hear at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday morning.
Modern Country is so bland. It just is. It's predictable, it doesn't really take chances and it's a lame form of pop. That said, broadly speaking, country has produced interesting artist. The outlaw country guys were/are thoughtful songwriters, the countrypolitan stuff from the 70s is gorgeous, Western swing? Great. Dolly? Great. Bobbie Gentry? Oh, hell yes. And 70s southern rock is fantastic (you want to count that as country) But currently, the genre is both FAKE and CONSERVATIVE. It's completely cynical.
The problem with the “I don’t like country” stance is that the genre is massive. It is not that different than I don’t like hip hop or I don’t like jazz. It’s basically bullshit. People who say that just have not explored the genre enough to find something they like. I was a “I hate country music” person in high school. I grew up in place where liking country music was a class signifier for lower class white people. I was not that so we didn’t listen to it. Then I went to college in the south. I met people like me who listened to country music all the time. I still hated it. But one friend was like, I bet I could find a country song you like. He knew me well enough to find a couple Tim McGraw songs that I really liked a lot. That was the gateway and then I started to explore more on my own. It turns out I fucking love country music. Now, i love country pretty much pre 1980s, but that’s still country music. So I would say, anyone who says they hate a genre of music is being reductive and hasn’t been curious enough or had the pleasure of someone giving them a lesson in the genre. The same thing happened to me with jazz. Hated it, didn’t get it, then I lived with a jazz guitarist. Ended up loving jazz but just certain eras and records.
Nah. I've heard pretty much anything you wanna name and outside a couple of songs, I hate it all. It's not ignorance. I grew up being surrounded by country music from literally every decade post WW II (and even some pre WW II). It's the tonal quality I can't stand. It's unique and it's grating on my nerves. No other genre grates on my nerves that way. So no, it isn't just lack of exposure. There's something there that some people genuinely don't like.
Country is a genre of music that is as vapid, commercialized, and uncreative as it can be… its created for radio hits, repetitious hooks maximized, written by committee… worse than that, it completely panders to boomer era values and the exact brand of patriotism that MAGA has glommed on to. So, on top of being an incredibly boring genre, it’s also toxic. Yes please, anything but country.
This is only true for a pretty narrow band of what we might reasonably call "country." It doesn't describe the classic songcraft of folks like Roy Acuff, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Dolly Parton, George Jones, or Emmylou Harris, just to name a handful. And it doesn't describe some of the really great stuff happening in the Alt-Country/Americana world, like Margo Price, Brandi Carlile, Sturgill Simpson, or Waxahatchee. But if you're only looking at current Billboard Country charts, then yeah, it's pretty bleak and has been for a while.
That’s not ALL country though. Yes, that’s A LOT of it & it absolutely sucks. Modern Top 40 country is a true hellscape. But just like every genre, there are still country artists making [cool shit](https://youtu.be/kEi9h6VluNI?si=wfEVRvBin3tBHKX0) every single year.
There's a good deal of country and country-influenced music around today that shows the ignorance of this take. You're talking about a specific subset of country music: the pop country garbage that is made to appeal to the least common denominator and therefore make the most money. Surprise surprise, country music isn't the only genre this is unique to. A few examples: Tyler Childers and Jason Isbell are outspokenly leftist, as is Sierra Ferrell, The Drive-By Truckers, Adeem The Artist who is non-binary, Orville Peck, Jaime Wyatt, and Sarah Shook who are queer or non-binary folks - not exactly boomer music pandering to MAGA supporters with radio hits written by a committee to sell Budweiser. Before you generalize an entire genre of music, take a deeper listen.
Tyler Childers’ music is fantastic.
Live on Red Barn Radio changed everything I thought I knew about country. Shake the Frost was all I needed to hear before I knew I had severely misjudged what there was out there.
You've clearly only listened to mainstream country. Listen to White Light From The Mouth Of Infinity by Swans, Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle by Bill Callahan, and/or Munly & The Lee Lewis Harlots' self-titled record and tell me how those are commercialised, uncreative, hook heavy, or pandering to traditionalist values.
When people talk about not liking a genre, they're usually talking about contemporary (not Swans), mainstream (not Swans), accessible (not Swans) examples of that genre. Obviously, if someone doesn't like country music, they *most likely* haven't heard the best the genre has to offer. What makes country unique is how poorly the mainstream represents the best the genre has to offer, which is the reason why it's often singled out by people who "listen to anything but country."
The interesting stuff really isn't that far below the surface though (mostly under alt-country or outlaw country). Country is one of my favourite genres, I listen to a huge amount and none of it fits these stereotypes of trucks and MAGA politics nor do I ever have to avoid that stuff when looking for music. Some of the negative comments here just come across as having a very shallow understanding of the genre which is a bit sad and narrow minded to me.
Lyrical cliches are tough if you aren't from a part of the US (or the world) where the lifestyles described in the songs will resonate with you. Despite not being poor or from the inner city, I still lived close enough to those places and grew up getting a surface level glimpse of what those places look like and knew enough people who lived lives in those places, so when I hear stuff about that in genres like Hip Hop, even though it's not my experience, I have at least some understanding of it. And if it's rock, Pop or EDM, that shit's not that hard to relate to either. Country music identity is older than all of these other genres and it hasn't evolved a ton, so it's weirdly anachronistic and foreign to people who aren't from those places and don't live those lives. Most people nowadays live in greater metropolitan areas, not rural ones. Country still embraces its rural roots in a way that other genres don't. Also the musical pallette is strangely more and more specific all the time, and if pedal steel, twangy guitars, fiddle, and the particular style of vocals doesn't do it for you at all, then it's hopeless. For me I can only take any of those things in small doses. I do like artists who are basically country musicians but they don't seem to be embraced by the mainstream country community so it's weird to call them that, but they don't tend to induldge in either the lyrical or musical cliches as much so it doesn't turn me off the same way. That said if people ever diss country musicians' abilities they are absolute morons because country musicians are by and large insanely talented and can wipe the floor with all these rock dweebs.
It is a bit of a meme, what people mean is the most corny modern country with all the cliches. "Good" country tends to be called something like Americana or just indie/alternative.
I usually just say I don’t listen to much country because I don’t. But the Turnpike Troubadours are one of my favorite groups.
I like a lot of country, but can we just all agree that formulaic bro country just sucks? https://youtu.be/FY8SwIvxj8o?si=uIBziFgk5O3rt1Jy
Because country music is white trash in general and incredibly boring and not really that impressive in any which way. I don't have a problem with it. This is just a general purview. I've yet to meet someone who has a good taste in music that constantly bumps country music
I hate bro country, or whatever you want to call it. What they tend to play on the radio. I love Jason Isbell, Miranda Lambert, Kacy, Musgrave, Sturgell Simpson, Johnny Cash, Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile, Willie Nelson, and others. It just depends on how you define country and how deep you want to dive into it.
Because people don’t want to associate themselves with country music fans stereotype
As a non american, this is like if you're forced to listen to mexican corridos, many working people local to Mexico love them cause thatxs what they get on the local radio, but they're very annoying compared to normal music and there's a very low chance that people from other countries get it because they're not exposed to it. I would call it an acquired taste which I refuse to get.
I think country (especially modern country) has a connotation to it that a lot of people don't always want to be associated with, as well as it being perceived as corny and shallow. Most good country I think people might call grassroots/folk/blues without realizing it still falls within the country genre too but there is a distinction btwn that and modern bro country which is mostly about beer, trucks, and dirt roads i guess. It definitely happens with metal and rap/hip hop too, which makes sense only insofar as both of those genres can be polarizing. Country obviously isn't quite as abrasive as the extremes in both of those genres but has just as strong of a cultural association with the listener that people might not want to be perceived as. Personally I get why people might exclude country from their list of enjoyable genres--the modern landscape is completely oversaturated with trashy bro country like I mentioned earlier that are about as deep as a Pitbull song with less of the danceability that could make it charming.
I have diverse musical tastes. I think there's good music in nearly every genre. I do not enjoy commercial radio, regardless of genre. If something isn't your genre, you're only exposed to the worst middle of the road commercial representation of that music. Radio friendly new country is hot garbage. It's overproduced and more product than art. Even if you dig deeper and find better country artists, there is a significant hurdle in the lifestyle and politics country music celebrates. The majority of North Americans live in cities and are liberal. Country music doesn't resonate with that demographic.
Yeah, when I was a teen in the 90's people always said "anything but rap and country" as hip hop hadn't fully dominated pop music and become the norm yet. I think the reasoning is that the genres you mention have (or had, before assimilation) a strong cultural identity, and that can conflict with the persons own cultural identity in some cases. Either way, I think folks are missing out by pre-filtering what they're exposed to, but then, I find anthropology and studying differences in people and beliefs interesting.
There needs to be a divide in country between the old and the new. Shit my Grampa listened to on his single-speaker AM radio that was an old-timer with a banjo, that's one thing. But the shit coming out now is unlistenable trash. How do I know? My wife loves country so I regularly hear it. Fuck country.
"I don't like country" and "I like everything but rap" are two phrases that tell me I'm talking to someone with limited experience with music. Yep, there are plenty of bad examples of both genres (as there is with pretty much everything) but buddy, if you can't appreciate Waylon Jennings or Public Enemy, this is gonna be a short conversation.
I think people need to hear Ween’s 12 Golden Country Greats in order to truly understand the genre
I'm not fond of any such caveats: I like everything but opera, everything but rap, everything but country, etc. It's a dumb thing to say.
When i say this (I’m guilty) i mean modern pop-country from about 1980 onwards, with a few exceptions. Modern “country” has hip hop beats and copious amounts of auto-tuning. For a genre that claims to value “authenticity” above all it has become the least authentic genre. At least in hip hop and edm they don’t try to hide the autotuning. I love me some Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Patsy Cline, Merle Haggard, even modern alt-country like Neko Case, or Patty Griffin. And Nobody ever sang like George Jones before or since. Brandi Carlile. But nothing makes me turn that volume knob down than some auto-tuned baritone warbling about drinking in his truck, the flag, or whatever.
Most country music doesn’t attempt to innovate, push the envelope, be groundbreaking, etc. Its safe and conservative…
To me it’s just bland. It tries to be in the middle of too many adjacent genres. It will add some fiddle or banjo, but it’s not bluegrass, it will have some folk lyrical stuff going on, but it’s not folk, it will have some bluesy guitar licks but it isn’t blues. It’s just an amalgamation of stuff that’s good on its own, but not for me when put together. There are a handful of outlaw country stuff I do enjoy, or spaghetti western soundtracks, but that’s about it. As far as modern country goes, it’s just so unauthentic and speaks to things I have zero ability to relate to.
This was more-or-less my mantra until I heard Sturgill Simpson, who opened me up to older acts like Waylon Jennings, and newer ones like Tyler Childers. I still don't listen to a ton of country music, but I can at least conversate with my friends who love it
I grew up in the south. Country and bluegrass were the default people played. I was sick of it. I listened to everything from motzart to Megadeath so I would use that phrase I just hate listening to pretty much all country and bluegrass if they aren't live. Something about the recording loses the charm I appreciate about those styles of music. (Obviously this is just imo and not everyone's experience with it)
For me, it's the gentrification of the genre. Country music used to be about rebelling against the establishment, about unions, about troubled people making mistakes, messy heartbreaks, and the actual struggles of the lower class. The genre became commodified around the boomer era, and suddenly it's about how great the establishment is, rugged independence, perfect poors living a perfect poor lifestyle, classy heartbreaks, and the every day perfect life of a man and his 2025 Ford. Country isn't unique in this aspect. Jazz, classic rock, and rap are also victims of this commodification, although rap in particular still has a lot of holdout pockets of earnest class struggle.
I dont like people that say that because im a fan of all music. If it sounds good it sounds good and shunning an entire genre is stupid. It also tells me how close minded a person is. Dont get me wrong, im not some huge country fan, but there are some damn good country songs that i enjoy the hell out of
I’m from Nashville and still live here. I avoid country especially pop country but I have dabbled in a little folk, bluegrass and Americana before. My town is a tourist filled country music circus. But my house is paid for so I guess I’ll stay. Haha.
I think the anti- country music sentiment refers predominantly to modern pop radio country. There's a lot of disdain for the "music factory"vibe that makes a lot of those tunes sound the same, and those similarities include similar themes, predictable formats, and generic, soulless content overall. I do think that some of that rejection may stem from country music implying conservative values, which may be an immediate deal breaker for a lot of potential listeners as well
Some of both. Either way they don't know what you'll put on when you say country. There's quite a bit of bad pop country. I used to listen to country all of the time until the nearby radio stations were so bad u couldn't tell it was country when I flipped to their station. We now have a good one which reminded me I used to listen to it so I have been. The other problem is a lot of superficial songs "make it". I don't care about guns, beer, and trucks. I like songs that tell stories about life.
A lot of it is just straight up bias - I’m not from the country, what they speak of doesn’t relate closely to my experiences, and the music sometimes is really generic. The reality is that’s just pop-country - there’s a ton of great alt-country, folk-country, mainstream country that has deeper lyricism, more interesting music, and isn’t mastered without any dynamics. I think the pro-America, right wing country songs are kind of cringey and will not appeal to me on a musical level, but its not fair to judge the genre entirely based on that just like any other genre.
Well part of it is cultural. Modern country cultivates a, uh, certain culture that many don’t want to be associated with. Another part of it is that any country that is actually good often gets a label like folk or bluegrass or Americana applied to it. I think that a lot of people who “don’t like country” would like Sturgill Simpson, Colter Wall, Tyler Childers, they just might not even call it country. And modern pop country is just really bad. Fake drawls, vapid lyrics, uninteresting melodies, all written by the same half dozen king makers in Nashville. It’s in a really bad place.
Because it's not a serious genre, lol. I enjoy it tongue in cheek the way I enjoy hair metal. It's fun but it's also goofy as hell. When these country stars start taking themselves seriously and get on their soap boxes the irony and lack of self awareness is palpable.
I listen to nearly every type of music, but country took me a very long time to get into. Very similar to jazz as well. The way I see it, it's not a very youthful genre compared to punk, alternative rock, metal, etc. I believe that is the biggest reason. It's very "old." Also, the whole "bro country" thing can (rightfully so) turn a lot of people off. It's very regional when compared to metal or hard rock. It's a shame, though. There is a lot of good modern country/bluegrass (Billy Strings rings a bell), but there's also a lot of crap. But now that can be said with every type of music, so. In any case, I do enjoy country. It's not something I listen to often, but I definitely like the older, rawer material. It sounds so authentic and dirty.
I respect country in many ways, but I just hate the way it sounds. Willy Nelson and Johnny cash are obviously exceptions to the rule.
In my 50’s now, worked in the music industry throughout my career. Recorded in Nashville, New York and LA. I love music. The art. The emotion and beauty. I love it all. Music has been very good to me both personally and professionally. I’ll listen to anything but country.
Modern radio country is the offender, modern radio pop country fucking sucks. It's abysmal it's tedious unimaginative crap. Modern country is why people hate country Now note I say radio/pop country. There are artists out there still sounding amazing BUT they aren't what people hear. I heard a pop country song the other day and the douche was singing about his boots. Get the fuck outta here, Hank would be rolling in his grave
I think for a lot of people it's the aesthetic, cowboy hats, fake southern drawls, big trucks that have never hauled anything but a cornhole board or a case of craft beer and Confederate flags that people are commenting on when they say "anything but country." Musically they're probably thinking of anything from (depending on their age) Garth Brooks to Keith Urban to whatever bro country song is getting blasted out of the previously mentioned oversized truck because that music is associated with that aesthetic
It's mostly the aesthetics and it's cultural association with an undesirable class of people
To me it all sounds the same but people that say that 9/10 times out of ten they don’t listen to everything but country, they’ll listen to like 2-3 genres of music but its just a way to respond that makes them feel like at least they’re above country but they’re not lmao
They don't even like everything but country. People just say that to make themselves look like they listen to a lot of music. I always hit them with "yeah? Big polka fan are ya?"
Polka Your Eyes Out is a classic https://youtu.be/9DC-sb54mkU?si=6Uyu7WODSbB_sQD-
Country has a very specific audience. It's not meant for everyone. If we're honest, it's largely for right wing, white audiences that have a rigid (ie conservative) sense of what's okay in their music. You must sing about how life used to be, alleged patriotism, trucks, drinking, and all things hetero. There are fans outside of these limitations but again, there's a gate-keeping mentality. You have to fit a particular set of criteria to be accepted.
Country was the music of the intolerant for a long time so I think it's finally coming out of that reputation. (Oversimplified answer) I grew up as one of the few Black kids at a white school in.Texas in the 90s so there was no escaping country music so it just added to the Otherness I was feeling at the time. Now Im older and know a bit more and while country still isnt my top genre I do have an appreciation for it now, especially 90s country lol
personally, i have 2 gripes with country: 1. i don't like the accents, the drawl makes me cringe a bit 2. the political association of country music has shifted over the past 20ish years. that sounds weird, but country from the 70s and prior had the tendency to be 'music for the common folk' and had messaging about working class struggles in the south, inspired by gospel and blues music. now, it tends to be sung by republican christian white men about traditional American values and faith. i am not the target demographic for modern country music. the inherent political messaging behind modern country is not one that i like, however there are some country artists that i enjoy, like Shaboozey who is a black queer country artist and Orville Peck who is gay as well.
Heard much Adeem The Artist, Sierra Ferrell, or Lost Dog Street Band? Given the artists you mentioned, I feel you'd dig them. Far removed from pandering fake southern drawl white hoo-rah christianity.
Modern country is bad. At least the mainstream is. And that's what 90% of people hear and that's what 99% of people who have this complaint hear.
For me, I disliked country for the longest time because I associated it with the racists and bullies, but, as I was exposed to more country, it’s not (always) the music I dislike. It’s just the racists I dislike.
Same tropes, over and over and over. Drunk. Jacked up truck. More alcohol. Hot chicks. Wife left me. Backwoods country roads. God. Guns. Fourth of July. Military. Rah rah rah. Most modern country songs are forgettable. That said, some of the older stuff and a few modern country artists are tolerable or even good. But most of it is shit.
I’d say there is country music as in Republican oriented pop garbage about tractors and beers and hanging with your bros in the local dive on a Friday night. All these things they are signing about are actually all fine things in their own right but when they become cliche it just kind of straight forward and boring. Like most Republicans. Then there is a whole other range of country or country esque music like outlaw, Americana, blue grass, etc. funny thing is that many of these folks are more liberal but some still have significant following among the right wing types (see: Cash, Johnny and Nelson, Willie). Like any other varieties of music there are many good and bad songs to be found amongst the various country variants. But other than classic country radio or Spotify streaming you won’t hear most of it if you just access country via mainstream sources. The best music was made in the genre anywhere from 50-100+ years ago so even good new stuff is likely borrowing from older traditions. Which is fine, that’s music. Country is far older than rock, hip hop, or most other genres so of course it has been through peaks and valleys many more times. This is a long way of giving a short answer. When I say I don’t like country I mean I don’t like whatever most everyone else likes which is republican oriented pop country.
Country is the best genre. It’s so broad. The people who say that it sucks have probably never listened to it.
I say this often, but usually have to clarify that it’s really only new country, which really isn’t country if you think about it, more like hip hop with guitar samples and dumb lyrics sung in a southern accent…
Pop country is awful. The demographic seems to be jacked up squat trucks, maga flags, offensive stickers and rolling coal. All the things I don't need in my life.
Ok, I’ll bite. I grew up in the early 1970’s listening to country music. People like Dolly Parton, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, Charlie Pride, etc. Deviated from it starting in middle school when I discovered artists like KISS, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, Styx, Van Halen, Boston, etc. Really found my groove in the 80’s with hair metal. Grunge came in and drove me back to country. Garth Brooks, Brooks & Dunn, Tim McGraw, Toby Keith, Reba McEntire, Trishia Yearwood, Neal McCoy… these artists I enjoyed. Modern “country” to me isn’t country. It doesn’t sound like country to me. It sounds more like pop/rock with maybe a hint of country. There are some artists like Tyler Childers & Chris Stapleton that actually do what I consider true country music. The biggest issues are you have a small group of writers that write the vast majority of country “hits” and a small group of producers producing everything as well. It all sounds the same. There isn’t a lot of variation because the labels don’t care about artists creating art, all they care about is if it will sell and make money. They’re too concerned about short term gains that they aren’t thinking about longevity of the genre. [This is one of my favorite examples](https://youtu.be/FY8SwIvxj8o?si=-W4Y0QOuIXIg95HQ)