Often in my life, when I have asked someone what kind of music they like, they usually say all music, except country music.
I have always wondered why this was the case. It’s likely because people my age who grew up during the 2010s, which was the dreaded “bro country” era. Whenever you ask people what’s wrong with country music, you get the response, “Because country music is all the same, it’s all about drinking beer, driving trucks and picking up women.”
That is the textbook definition of “bro country,” but, as someone who grew up with country music, I can tell you that this definition could be no further from the truth.
Country music started off when English, Scottish and Celtic immigrants immigrated to the Appalachian Mountain region, and blended with African American blues and gospel music. Over time, country music has evolved into hundreds of subgenres, such as outlaw, progressive and bluegrass. The most recent subgenre popping up is “pop country,” with artists such as Morgan Wallen, Post Malone and Kelsea Ballerini.
Country music is much more than just beer, trucks and women; it’s a genre that a lot of Americans can relate to, with songs about depression, alcoholism and struggling to make ends meet.
Dive into my favorite era of country music, the 1970s, and you can see that. You’ll see the legends of the time, such as Willie Nelson writing songs about faded love, or Kris Kristofferson writing songs about drug addiction and depression.
On the other hand, you have the more upbeat artists, such as Dolly Parton, writing songs about her “coat of many colors” or Loretta Lynn singing about growing up in Kentucky as a “coal miner’s daughter.”
I have always said that people don’t hate country music; you just haven’t been put on to the right kind of country music. Even when you look at modern country music, past the mainstream artists, you have the people who fly under the radar, such as Tyler Childers.
Childers, who hails from Kentucky, blends bluegrass and folk music with a modern twist. Childers released an album in 2020 called “Long Violent History,” which is a protest album centralized around the title track against racism during the Black Lives Matter movement during 2020.
I can very well understand why many people do not like the genre, as most people my age had grown up with their knowledge of country music of that era in the 2010s. With the artists of Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Blake Shelton and Florida Georgia Line.
Even if you look at the popular artists of today like Zach Bryan and Luke Combs you will see a significant difference between the popular songs of the 2010s to the popular songs of the 2020s, with Bryan writing songs about love and childhood and Combs writing songs about becoming a father.
If you want to dive even deeper into great writers of today, you can find artists like Sturgill Simpson who has become an artist who has created a sound that is all his own. Combining the sound of 70s country with the jam rock sound of bands like The Grateful Dead, creating the subgenre of progressive country.
In this day in age, country music has become incredibly trendy. Many artists from different genres coming over to the genre, like Post Malone, Beyonce and Jellyroll. With country music being as popular as it is, and as accessible as it has ever been, I hope people give country music a chance, because I can promise you, if you don’t like it, it’s just because you haven’t given it a chance.