In Defense of Country Music: Everyone Secretly Likes Country

Stereotypes

Two years ago, I wrote an essay for my nonfiction class that looked at the stereotypes that surrounds some of the music I listen to including country music. I started off each section with popular definitions of the music from urban dictionary. The one I used for the paper defined country music as, “an unbearably irritating form of music that uses the same twangy gee-tar and awful wavering voice to sing about a very short list of topics such as: cheating spouse, alcoholics drinking to excess, pickup trucks, bein' a good-ol-boy, not havin' any a them-thar teeth and screwin' horses.”(1)

I’m going to be honest; I like country music. “But what do I mean by country music?” you ask. Last week I talked about how I was introduced to country music by my dad, but this week I’ll explain why everyone actually likes country music.

Except…

A lot of people will claim they don’t like country music, except… There’s always an ‘except.’

My old roommate said, “I don’t like country music, except for Alan Jackson.” That’s pretty country. “Well my grandpa likes it and it makes me thing of him.”

My sister doesn’t really like country music…except for songs like the Band Perry’s “Better Dig Two”.

A coworker of mine at the dining commons said, “I don’t really like listening country music, except for Johnny Cash.”

Finally, my boyfriend can’t stand any country music whatsoever….

Except for “Thank God I’m a Country Boy”, but according to him that’s not country. (It’s literally in the name of the song, but whatever J)  

My Theory

My theory is that actually everyone loves country music. (They just won’t always admit it *cough* my boyfriend *cough*) Saying you don’t like country music is absurd as saying you don’t like music. There’s so many different types that there’s bound to be one you do like. Want acoustic music with fiddles, mandolins, and Hawaiian style slide guitar? Classic Country and Hillbilly is probably the subgenre for you with songs like “Hallelujah I’m a Bum” by Harry McClintlock. Hank Williams and Johnny Cash are part of Honky Tonk and Hardcore Country. Western Swing, not to be confused with Cowboy & Western, has swing rhythms, jazz solos and amplified guitars.

If those don’t work for you there’s plenty more to be had: Bluegrass, Bakersfield, Nashville, Country Pop & Country Rock, Progressive Country & Outlaw Country, Urban Country, Neotraditionalists, and Alternative Country. You can check out what those sound like and get a playlist of some of the most notable artists from that genre at Music Map (2). It’s a very cool wesbsite and helped me write these past two paragraphs. The point is everyone actually likes country music.

The Ice Cream Shop

Case in point: in high school I worked at an ice cream shop that also served food. Some of you may know this because I mentioned it before here and here. It seems as though if the origins for me liking things doesn’t go back to my family it comes back here.

Growing up, besides my dad’s country music and contemporary Christian music and the songs my cousins downloaded onto my iPod nano, I didn’t have much exposure to different types of music. After attending a summer string instrument music camp, I was introduced to a pop station and it quickly took over as the top genre I listened to. However, by that point most of the people my age had already started hating pop music, whereas I having just been introduced to it really enjoyed it. I was hanging out with my cousin and he put on some of his music, which included artists like Florida Georgia Line. So when the cooks at the ice cream shop I worked at asked if I liked country music I said yeah, but that I had just started listening to it. One cook really liked reggae, one preferred rap, I was more into pop, and the one from Mexico listened to music in Spanish, and so on and so forth. Everyone liked different music, but the one thing we could all listen to and enjoy, while closing the store was country music.

Therefore, when people say they don’t like country music, I wait for the ‘except’ and even if doesn’t come I don’t believe them, because there’s too many different types of country music. So next time you turn on music for everyone to listen to consider country music; secretly, everyone likes it. At least, that’s what I’ll tell myself the next time I force my boyfriend to listen to “What ifs” by Kane Brown, while I’m driving him to work.

Notes:

Sources:

(1) kc512, UrbanDictionary.com user. February 20, 2010.

(2) https://musicmap.info/# And FYI I’m not paid I just think they’re cool.