I love all music genres, there is a place in my heart for rock, pop, R&B, jazz and, yes, even country. Most people who write off country music, haven’t really listened to much of it. Perhaps they vaguely know the top three songs playing on the radio, or in most cases, not even that. It’s a shame to see so many people carrying a certain bias toward a genre without ever truly being open to it or allowing themselves to explore it.
Nowadays, country music carries with it a stigma and a lot of people automatically reject the genre for its structural simplicity or simple lyrics. However, country music often manages to convey deep emotions through straightforward language, as Dolly Parton so famously did with “Jolene.”
It is not all the same “rehashed lyrics about God, momma, beer and trucks” of stadium country music.
But those against the genre tend to forget the roots of country music and the fact that these songs are just a piece of the broad music genre.
Although it is true that a lot of modern-pop country deals with many of the same repetitive themes, on any pop or r&b radio station, one hears the same themes of love and heartbreak repeated over and over again. Certain themes are just more relatable, making them more popular.
However, unlike most music genres today that focus solely on love songs, country music actually has a wide variety of songs that cover other important themes as well, you just need to keep an open mind and know what to listen to.
For example, people like Kacey Musgraves (who lets her hilarious personality come through in her music and is single-handedly turning people into country fans) often sings about the importance of staying true to yourself (Follow Your Arrow). Others, like Tim McGraw, speak about the journey of life and remaining a morally good person (Humble and Kind).
Some, like Lauren Alaina and Charles Kelley, choose to sing about the difficulty of launching a music career, (Leaving Nashville, Three) And finally, patriotism has always been a major theme of country music, as shown by Jason Aldean (Fly Over States).
Of course, it is possible to dislike many aspects of country music, but there are so many subgenres, such as, the blues, folk, and singer-songwriter, that cannot be overlooked, making it nearly impossible to write off the entire genre without coming across as narrow-minded. When you want to find real music with a variety of instruments, lyrics that have been slaved over, and true emotions transcribed into song, an abundance can be found in country music as long as you are open to searching for it.
In writing this article, it is not my goal to turn everyone into an avid country fan. Rather, I hope to highlight the importance of understanding the genre and keeping an open mind before making the somewhat ignorant comment of “All country music sucks!”
