Do people really hate Country Music?

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I absolutely abhor what passes nowadays as country and western music. Nashville really did a number on what was once hillbilly music, aka bluegrass, which is reminiscent of the Scots-Irish bagpipes and fiddle tunes of their homelands. That typy of music I can stomach, in small quantities.

The older country and western music didn't sound so bad. It was actually kind of beautiful.

But to me the modern music sounds like it's trying to reinforce redneck oppression. Especially when you hear the singers sing about annoying things like everybody having to go to church, supporting the good ol' USA without questioning anything about the government, how much they hate city people, and how "country boys" think every woman should want to sleep with them (it's like they degrade women almost as much as gangster rappers do).

I like old country music even though I rarely if ever listen to it now unless it's Johnny Cash. There are so many good old country music artists out there. The list is huge. Plus I like pedal steel guitar.

New country? I can't do it. I just can't. It's one of the very few types of music I can't listen to.

I only like CLASSIC country music, like in the 90's and early 200X, and my favorite singers at the time were:

-Garth Brooks
-John Michael Montgomery
-Shania Twain
-Faith Hill
-Alan Jackson
-Brooks & Dunn
-Alabama
-Sara Evans
-And some others.

Personally, I don't like today's Country Music that much, because they're just all about drinking, partying, drinking, scuffling over stupid reasons, and more drinking. To me, that's not 'country' music, it's more like 'southern/western-styled party' music.

Last edited by UncannyDanny on 28 Nov 2018, 8:57 am, edited 2 times in total.

Yeah they do sing a lot about drinking and smoking too.

They also sing about the joys of living like a white trash yahoo cracker.

I like country but I like a lot of different music. I actually tend to prefer the newer country to the old thou the old is still pretty good.

I grew up on it (yes, in England, maybe because my granddad worked a lot in America when he was young or maybe just cos it's cool and my granddad loves cowboys) it was like our family's music passed from granddad onto his daughters onto his granddaughters. So the real classic 60s and 70s stuff I grew up with, then got into the 90s and 2000s stuff.
I think NTs don't like it because (no offence) a lot of NT northerners in America don't like southerners in America and it's working class too. So you get snobs hating it and leftie northerners hating it, even though there's left wing politics in some of it (the classic stuff, not in Toby Keith obviously). A lot of good messages too and a lot of interesting stories. I'm a big fan of lyrics in songs and country music is good for that, telling a story etc.
If you're a feminist and think 'I don't want to listen to Stand by Your Man' - fine, don't. Listen to something like 'The Pill', 'D.I.V.O.R.C.E' or 'Harper Valley PTA' and think of how controversial they were at the time and the strong women singing that stuff. If you're a socialist, this is music of the people. There's a modern one called 'Follow Your Arrow' which endorses gay rights in passing. You don't have to be right wing to like this genre.
But NTs don't think that deep. They just think 'rednecks like this music, rednecks are Republicans, I'm not a Republican and I'm a northerner so I hate it'. That's why you rarely hear such condemnation outside of America. A lot of stuff is ruined for NTs because they need to stick with their tribe. We need that less with aspies so can take stuff at face value and enjoy it because they enjoy it themselves rather than a whole bunch of similar aspies having to like it.
I'm actually rambling way too much on this post about politics and there's a lot more to country music than that, I liked it before I knew what politics was. Indeed, I liked it before I could even say the 'sic' at the end of 'music' so I just mooed like a cow when I wanted to listen to Johnny Cash lol (I was 2/3). Country music was my starting point, outside of lullabies and nursery rhymes and I'll always listen to the classics from the 60s and 70s and more modern stuff from the 80s-2000s.

I was born and raised in Georgia and grew up in a small rural town and even I hate rednecks. They're not very nice people and many are very racist, homophobic, and ignorant. But at the same time just because somebody lives in the south and is from the country that doesn't make them a true redneck.

Most certainly.

I have to admit that this here is probably the ONLY country song I do like.

yes

I am vehemently a fan of classic rock, but I like album cuts in addition to the 300 songs that classic rock radio repeats.

I like some outlaw country. I bought the Chris Stapleton-Traveler album. Fortunately, it doesn't sound like mainstream country at all. I also enjoy Son Volt and Holly Williams (Hank Sr.'s grandaughter) is also quite talented.

Last edited by zcientist on 15 Dec 2018, 11:42 am, edited 1 time in total.

Different genres of music emphasize and value different things, which is why I think it can be so hard for fans of some genres to get into others.

Country certainly isn't my favorite genre. I would take punk, jazz, singer/songwriters, house, and ambient over it. But there are some country artists I love. Given that you/the OP don't like Johnny Cash, I get the feeling we won't see eye-to-eye. The things I love in genres like punk, bebop jazz, and singer/songwriters is the emotion and stripped down authenticity in the music. Traditional country and alt-country have that in spades. Pop country, on the other hand, feels the opposite - completely manufactured, predictable, bland pop. It seems like conventionality and high quality production are the values of pop country.

Anyway, my favorite country artists are probably Wovenhand, Valerie June, Whiskeytown, Willie Nelson, and Grant Lee Buffalo. Johnny Cash is a god. The Carter Family is classic. The Red Dirt scene is decent.

I appreciate country music more than I used too. I like Johnny Cash and obscure bands such as those poor bastards.

There is a lot of controversy nowadays about what is considered real country. When Taylor Swift came out there was a huge debate as to weather she was country or pop. She ended up transitioning into pop more. Some people say artists like Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood, & Faith Hill are not real country & should be considered pop. There's also debates as to if some of the older country is really classic rock or not. Lots of people who claim they don't like country like the country artists who could be considered to be in other generas.

I guess I mostly like pop and rock then.