The Battle Continues...

Is so-called 'pop country' even 'real' country?

 

By Emily Wheeler/March 5, 2016

 

Whether you are aware or not, an all-out civil war has been raging for some time now in Nashville, Tenn. The two sides: modern country artists versus ‘old-school’ country artists. The conflict: is today’s ‘pop country’ really country music?

            Now, before we start this discussion, it’s important that I say a few things regarding my personal feelings about country music. First, I love every kind, style and time period of country music. You can go through the music on my phone and find everything from Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline to Luke Bryan and Florida Georgia Line. So in this case, I am not biased toward either type of country. As fairly unknown country artist Shannon Brown said, “I love ‘em all.”

            Second, for this discussion, I think it’s important to define ‘real’ country music. Dictionary.com defines it as “a form of popular music originating in the rural southern US. It is traditionally a mixture of ballads and dance tunes played characteristically on fiddle, guitar, steel guitar, drums, and keyboard.” I personally like this definition and think it fits pretty well. So we’re going to base our discussion of what is and isn’t country music using this definition.

            The last thing to mention is what we’re going to call modern country. I’ve heard it called everything from hick hop to bro-country (coined by New York Magazine’s Jay Rosen), but for our purposes, we’re going to refer to it as pop country.

The battle more or less began when artists like Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton began topping the charts with songs like “That’s My Kind of Night” and “Boys ‘Round Here”. It caused irritation within the fans and artists of more traditional country music. However, according to an article in Entertainment Weekly, everything really started around January 23, 2013 when Blake Shelton publically spoke out in a GAC special saying, “Nobody wants to listen to their grandpa’s music. And I don’t care how many of these old farts around Nashville going, ‘My God, that ain’t country!’ Well that’s because you don’t buy records anymore, jackass. The kids do, and they don’t want to buy the music you were buying.”

Shelton’s comment caused country legends Ray Price and Willie Nelson to retaliate, however they did it in very different ways. Price slammed Shelton on his Facebook, while Willie took a more humorous route, renaming is tour “Old Fart and Jackasses Tour.”

One of the most recent outbreaks in this battle happened when singer Zac Brown called Bryan’s “My Kind of Night” the “worst song I’ve ever heard.” His remark caused Jason Aldean, fellow pop country artist and Luke Bryan’s best friend, to retaliate on Instagram, telling Brown, “trust me when I tell u that nobody gives a shit what u think.” But later in an interview with The Province, he explaining his outburst saying, “there’s certain artists I really like what they do and certain artists I’m not that big of a fan. But I’m not publicly going to go out and trash ‘em. I know Zac, I don’t have anything against the guy, he’s always been cool to me, but I didn’t like that. And of course Luke’s one of my best friends and it rubbed me wrong. You don’t have to go out and say those things. I don’t agree with any artist bashing another artist.”

            In my opinion, it’s all country music. It doesn’t matter how many genres you split it into, what kind of instruments they use, what they sing about or who likes the songs. No, it doesn’t sound the same as country music from the 90s, the 80s and definitely not the 60s. But that’s just the point. Country music continues to evolve as it’s fan evolves.

            Country music has taken many different forms ever since it’s beginning. According to country weekly, there have been seven specific types of country. In the 1950s it was Honky-tonk. The 60s gave us Countrypolitan and artists like Patsy Cline and Glen Campbell, who are now considered two of the most important people in country music history but were at the time hated by then country music traditionalists. However, it’s the 1970s that gave us some of the most iconic legends of country history. This outlaw country gave us Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Merle Haggard.

            These, and the other types of music, were all hated at one point or another for their differences compared to the ones that came before. For those that understand that, this feud between old school and pop country isn’t that difficult to understand. It’s just another wrinkle in our long-lasting history.  

This civil war unfortunately isn’t just between the artists, it’s also between the fans. As a lover of all kinds of country, it’s difficult being in this world. I know plenty of people who absolutely hate pop country and bash me all the time for jamming out to Florida Georgia Line. But on the other hand, I have friends who, the second I turn on some Merle Haggard, they cringe and turn up their noses, questioning how I can, “listen to that old hillbilly crap.” But as writer David Eldridge said, “Country music fans are the most loyal in the music business. In the meantime, they’ll shake up country music – and the genre will survive.”

Country music will forever continue to evolve. If you spend all of your time comparing each style of country music, you’ll never get the chance to enjoy it. And let’s face it. The question shouldn’t be whether it’s ‘real’ or not, but whether YOU like it personally and if you don’t, change the station. It’s pretty easy. There’s no need for bashing or hating, everyone is entitled to their own taste in music, even the artists themselves.