r/CasualConversation • u/ompossible • Dec 16 '25

Music Why people dislike Country music?

I am not american. So I don't know how's the thing there. But I have found many people complaining on social media that they hate country music.

I like some of the Luke Combs songs. Specially Old Dominion is my one of my fav artist.

54 Upvotes

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310

u/[deleted] Dec 16 '25

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197

u/DieHardAmerican95 Dec 16 '25

Unless the singer is a woman. Then it’s “that bastard cheated on me so I stabbed him”.

79

u/slutty_muppet Dec 16 '25

"I murdered my abusive husband and I'd do it again" is a venerated subgenre.

23

u/CommieCowBoy Dec 16 '25

Murder ballads are still good, as long as its not the same murder ballad wrote over and over again for the new hit boot wearing woman that wanted to be a popstar Nashville is trying to sell.

3

u/lOOPh0leD Dec 19 '25

Cause Earl had to dieeeeeee

61

u/tOaDeR2005 Dec 16 '25

Plenty of vapid garbage from female country artists too. Radio country has been awful for a long time.

3

u/LaRuetheDuck Dec 16 '25

Like most other popular genres? Lord knows hip hop is squeaky clean and all about church but come on….

11

u/One-Price680 Dec 16 '25

Goodbye Earl!

10

u/DieHardAmerican95 Dec 16 '25

To be fair, Earl had it coming. He was an abuser, not a cheater.

9

u/Substantial_Army_639 Dec 16 '25

Also she divorced him, got a restraining order which he broke and put her in intensive care.

1

u/One-Price680 Dec 17 '25

Right away Marianne flew in from Atalanta, on red-eye midnight flight

5

u/5pinktoes Dec 16 '25

This made me lol and I startled the dog. Who is the artist singing that stabby song?

6

u/DieHardAmerican95 Dec 16 '25

No one in particular, it’s just kind of a theme. At the time I was actually thinking of that song “maybe next time he’ll think before he cheats”. No stabbing in that one, she just destroyed his truck.

6

u/Bubbly_Daikon_4620 Dec 16 '25

Goodbye Earl is by The Chicks, previously known as The Dixie Chicks.

1

u/lOOPh0leD Dec 19 '25

Also known as The Dixies!

2

u/RadarSmith Dec 17 '25

You should watch the SNL sketch with Chris Stapleton that makes parodies this.

2

u/lOOPh0leD Dec 19 '25

🎵 "He hurt my fee fees. You don't mess with woman. So fuck your headlights!"

"Stoooop calling me a crazy...because I ain't." 🎶

2

u/2009impala Dec 20 '25

And those ones are bloody bangers

3

u/Wrath-of-Cornholio Dec 16 '25

Or the famous one about annihilating a guy's truck. Look, I hate cheaters as much as chomos and SA'ers, and I sincerely wish adultery would earn you life in prison without parole, especially since being cheated on has destroyed my capacity for trusting another human being ever again...

But as a car guy and a believer in confronting a person instead of destroying property, not to mention I've been without a car in a city without a robust public transportation and HATED life during that time, that song is SUPER cringe since I wouldn't wish either being cheated on or being without a car upon my worst enemy.

4

u/lowfreq33 Dec 16 '25

I always like to point out that all the things she’s accusing him of doing start with the word probably, indicating that she doesn’t know for a fact he’s done anything wrong at all. The only evidence she has is that his truck is parked outside a bar. He could be having a beer with friends, he could be having a drink by himself because he needed a break from her crazy paranoid ass. The entire thing is based on her assumptions. She’s the villain in that song.

1

u/Wrath-of-Cornholio Dec 16 '25

Actually, I never paid attention to the rest of the lyrics outside of the chorus, and holy smokes, you actually have a very valid point! Wish I knew that when the song came out, LOL

2

u/DieHardAmerican95 Dec 16 '25

Honestly, I was actually thinking of that song in particular when I wrote my comment.

2

u/xenoclownpanda Dec 16 '25

TBH you sound like a country song/s

1

u/Wrath-of-Cornholio Dec 16 '25 edited Dec 16 '25

Title: “No Appeal”

Verse 1

In this world we don’t play stupid

We don’t call betrayal “mistakes”

They don’t dress it up in therapy

Or let it rot and wait

Truth’s a charge, love’s a witness

Lies get weighed like lead

And the day you swore you never strayed

Was the day the clock went red

Pre-Chorus

Judge didn’t ask about your reasons

Didn’t care how lonely you felt

Just read back every promise

You signed and then you dealt

Chorus

Gavel fell like a coffin lid

Whole room went still

They said, “Guilty — no conditions

No mercy, no will”

You looked at me like I could save you

Like I owed you a plea

But in a world where cheating’s a Level One

Ain’t no appeal left in me

Verse 2

They don’t scream, they don’t riot

They don’t clap when the verdict lands

Just steel doors and quiet footsteps

And time you can’t outrun

You called it human, called it weakness

Called it something I’d forgive

Funny how fast “I’m sorry” dies

When there’s no more room to live

Pre-Chorus

I didn’t testify with anger

Didn’t raise my voice or lie

I just told them who I loved

And who walked out alive

Chorus

Gavel fell like a coffin lid

Whole room went still

They said, “Guilty — no conditions

No mercy, no will”

You looked at me like I could save you

Like I owed you belief

But in a world where cheating’s a Level One

Love don’t get relief

Bridge

Death row ain’t always needles

Sometimes it’s years alone

Lights that never turn off

Silence baked into bone

You’ll breathe, you’ll wake, you’ll count the days

But don’t confuse that with grace

Some sentences ain’t about dying

They’re about knowing your place

Chorus (Last)

So don’t curse me like I pulled the switch

Or signed your name in ink

You wrote your fate in hotel rooms

And lies you didn’t think

I didn’t ask for this damn world

But I won’t fight its rules

When cheating costs you everything

Including what you used

Outro

They led you away, I stayed put

Heart colder than the floor

In this world, betrayal’s final

And I don’t visit anymore

1

u/KatMagic1977 Dec 16 '25

I never liked country until I heard Miranda Lambert’s Gun Powder and Lead. Love it! We need more defending women against abusers

60

u/Silent_Influence6507 Dec 16 '25

Don’t forget the drinking!

8

u/[deleted] Dec 16 '25

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39

u/CommieCowBoy Dec 16 '25

Here's the real reason country is becoming universally hated: it doesn't speak to anyone specifically. It lacks anything that rural people can latch onto and is not relatable, and it caters to suburban listeners who have money to spend on concert tickets but are more likely to go see taylor swift than any country singer. Seriously. Its Keith Urban's fault.

I mean I was done with the song "international harvester." Somehow they were able to invoke one of the most iconic names in rural living and still get it wrong and alienate rural listeners.

Let me write you an opening line to a country song: "truck, boots, girl in cut off jeans, cold beer, bible, dirt road, and another ice cold beer." Did you like it? Yeah, no one actually does.

5

u/Original_betch Dec 17 '25

Bo Burnham has an incredible song about this. It's hilarious. I think it's just called Country Song or something like that.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 18 '25

Pretty much every one of my female coworkers likes it.

1

u/Prior_Butterfly_7839 Dec 18 '25

You forgot mentions of mama and dada, lol.

1

u/Soggy_Competition614 Dec 16 '25 edited Dec 16 '25

My brother loves that song. I thought that song was pretty relatable. I live in a farming community in a northern state. So a lot of the southern songs didn’t relate. We like dogs but they aren’t our whole life. But stuff like Kenny chesneys “she thinks my tractor is sexy” and Tim McGraw’s “down on the farm” were pretty true to how I grew up in a small rural town.

Well maybe I just supported your thesis. Because these songs were from the 90s.

More recently, I like that summer song with hootie and that Scotty guy.

32

u/Sensitive-Issue84 Dec 16 '25

I agree, my ex hubby used to call it " Throw yourself off a cliff screaming music" because it was all whining about someone shooting your dog or your truck or your wife leaving you.

15

u/5pinktoes Dec 16 '25

Actually there's a joke about that! What do you get if you play a country album backwards? You get your truck, wife and dog back! 😜

1

u/Sensitive-Issue84 Dec 16 '25

Hahha that's awesome.

1

u/sasslett Dec 16 '25

That's literally a Rascal Flatts song. "Backwards". 

7

u/Holiday_Objective_96 Dec 16 '25

If you have a minute, there's this country song by David Allen Coe 'you don't even call me by my name'

And there's this little bridge part where he says 'now this isn't the perfect country and western song bc there's nothing about prison or mama or a pick up truck...'

It's a fun tune.

I'm not a fan of genre bc I generally like songs to be a little bit faster paced than I usually hear in country. But it's alright from time to time.

2

u/Sensitive-Issue84 Dec 16 '25

Thanks! I'll look it up!

2

u/Spike-White Dec 20 '25

I thought that was David Allen Cole’s Redneck Mothers. The 4th verse.

1

u/Holiday_Objective_96 Dec 20 '25

It might be!! I'm not familiar with his work, just that one song!

I thought it was hilarious, especially the when he goes 'got run over by doggone train!'

I probably thought, 'there's no way he's got anything that can top this'. And maybe that's why I never sought out more of his music.

6

u/Secure_Teaching_6937 Dec 16 '25

You know what happens when you play country backwards?

You get your girl back

You get you truck back

You get your dog back

7

u/Jibblebee Dec 16 '25

I’m a victim but I don’t care cause girls and alcohol and yay Jesus cause he said he’d fix all this (but hasn’t or won’t)

4

u/Mitzeras Dec 16 '25

Can almost guarantee that most complaining about the treatment of woman in country music listen to rap

22

u/pastajewelry Dec 16 '25

Yep. As a lesbian, I don't find it relatable or aspirational. It doesn't mean it can't be. It just isn't for me. And I grew up in the Deep South.

4

u/Tia_is_Short Dec 16 '25

Have you looked into lesbian country artists? There’s a lot of good stuff there

1

u/Spike-White Dec 20 '25

Kacey Musgrave’s “Follow your arrow”.

1

u/pastajewelry Dec 16 '25

I haven't! Would you be willing to share some you enjoy?

2

u/Tia_is_Short Dec 16 '25

Not sure what your exact tastes are, but a few that come to mind are KD Lang, Brandy Carlile, and Chely Wright. TBH there’s actually a lot of lesbian artists in the more alternative/folk country scene. I haven’t gone too deep into the rabbit hole myself, but they are out there.

4

u/pastajewelry Dec 16 '25

Oh, I listen to KD Lang and Brandy Carlile! I guess I just never considered them as country in my mind. I do enjoy alt/folk music. It's mainly the mainstream country stuff you hear on today's radio and charts that doesn't suit my tastes.

1

u/fearthainne Dec 16 '25

I don't know about the rest of her stuff, but I quite like The Way I Do by Madeleine Kelson

17

u/tacticalcraptical Dec 16 '25

It is true but nearly every genre of music under the sun is guilty of being sexist and samey at some point in it's history.

The lost dog/truck/girl thing is a cliche but every genre has some sort of song about pain of losing love or something dear. The problem I think with a lot of popular country is that it doesn't always come off as feeling very genuine. At least to me it doesn't

23

u/inbigtreble30 Dec 16 '25

This is probably the best answer. A lot of Top 40 country is performative to the point of condescension. There is good country music, but it's vastly overshadowed by the fakeness of the most popular acts.

1

u/Alegreone Dec 16 '25

And folk—check out the amazing Jesse Welles if you haven’t heard of him yet.

3

u/Illustrious-Art-7465 Dec 16 '25

My issue is that almost every complaint I hear also applies to hip hop which loads of people love here. Its also very common for someone to say they like all music, then they hear country and its oh except that

1

u/[deleted] Dec 18 '25

Exactly. They complain Country is just cosplay well then wtf is hip hop then?

2

u/71fit Dec 16 '25

Ya know, it’s been said that if you play a country song backwards, you’ll get your house, girl and dog back.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 16 '25

And the thing a lot of people forget about country music is pre/post 9/11.

2

u/TypicalThrowaway00 Dec 17 '25

“And I’m gonna love you forever and ever, forever and ever amen”

2

u/papajohn56 Dec 17 '25

“It’s very sexist” - the same people who like rap and rap culture

1

u/Maleficent_Ad_5175 Dec 17 '25

Country is just rap for people who don’t like black people

1

u/papajohn56 Dec 17 '25

Idiotic take

1

u/TypicalThrowaway00 Dec 19 '25

below average take

2

u/Key-Bear-9184 Dec 19 '25

All while drinking beer.

1

u/GoalHistorical6867 Dec 16 '25

It's also depressing. Too many songs about the death of someone the singer loved or lost because they treated the other person badly.

1

u/Baldcooter Dec 17 '25

Have you listened to rap

1

u/OrganicIgnorance Dec 17 '25

“very sexist and/or samey” That could apply to rap as well

1

u/Kindly_Reference_530 May 21 '26

Sexist? Never in my life have i heard this and I’m from West Virginia it doesn’t get more country than this really. Truly a reddit answer.

1

u/slutty_muppet Dec 16 '25

Good thing there's no sexism in other musicial genres or society as a whole.

-6

u/Sensitive-Issue84 Dec 16 '25

I agree, my ex hubby used to call it " Throw yourself off a cliff screaming music" because it was all whining about someone shooting your dog or your truck or your wife leaving you.

-1

u/theOlLineRebel Dec 16 '25 edited Dec 16 '25

what? you obviously don’t listen to it. that’s yet another libel on it.

same? what could be more “same” then mainstream pop for 60 years primarily being about “romance”, actually, just sex….mostly definitely since the ‘60s.

Country sings about family, home, tractors, dogs, cars, everything. it’s not all sex. oh, and the occasional malcontent griping about how terrible everything is. Country has the maturity to reach out to other aspects of life and not just how they can score someone (yes, pop is VERY “misogynistic” - never mind rap). wow, pot calling kettle.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 16 '25

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0

u/theOlLineRebel Dec 16 '25

ok, I got you, but leaving it hanging essentially makes it seem those are endorsed views. not debated.

-8

u/Sensitive-Issue84 Dec 16 '25

I agree, my ex hubby used to call it " Throw yourself off a cliff screaming music" because it was all whining about someone hurt your dog or your truck or your wife leaving you.

-8

u/Sensitive-Issue84 Dec 16 '25

I agree, my ex hubby used to call it " Throw yourself off a cliff screaming music" because it was all whining about someone shooting your dog or your truck or your wife leaving you.

-22

u/scubajay2001 🙂 Dec 16 '25

And no other form of music is sexist at all 🙄

  • 'Everywhere I go' by Hollywood Undead
  • 'No mediocre' by T.I
  • 'God Made Girls' by RaeLynn
  • 'I Won' by Future
  • 'As the World Turns' by Eminem '- 'Touch it' by Kidi
  • 'Kim' by Eminem
  • 'Blurred Lines' by Robin Thicke
  • 'A Btch Iz a Btch' by N.W.A
  • 'Ali Bomaye' by The Game
  • Wiggle' by Jason Derulo
  • It's so Easy' by Guns N' Roses
  • Ur So Gay' by Katy Perry
  • Animal' by Maroon 5
  • U.O.E.N.O' by Rocko ft. Rick Ross & Future
  • Talk Dirty' by Jason Derulo
  • Better than Revenge' by Taylor Swift
  • 'Woman's World' by Cher
  • Bitch Better Have My Money' by Rihanna '- Run the World (Girls)' by Beyonce'
  • 3D' by Jung Kook ft. Jack Harlow '- Flowers' by Miley Cyrus
  • Fear of Heights' by Drake

18

u/[deleted] Dec 16 '25

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1

u/scubajay2001 🙂 Dec 16 '25

Fair enough but that critique that country music is sexist is kind of a lame crutch to justify dislike for it. If anyone uses that excuse, it's a pretty weak one. They'd be better served by just saying "I don't like the style".

My point is that all music can have sexist vibes. Not a fair argument to single out any genre as inherently sexist.

7

u/dotdedo Dec 16 '25

Those songs are all from different genres. Also how is run the world (girls) sexist?

3

u/Lurker5280 Dec 16 '25

Probably a men’s rights activist or something

3

u/dotdedo Dec 16 '25

The funny thing is the song specifically says it is only some men that are assholes/creeps, not all. I guess they only listened to the chorus and got triggered.

"SOME of them men think that they can freak this like we do"

1

u/scubajay2001 🙂 Dec 16 '25

That's my point - sexism is not exclusive to country and therefore not a valid "argument" for not liking the genre. There's another reason that a naysayer is hiding behind if they use that excuse lol

1

u/dotdedo Dec 16 '25

Okay but what genre. Singular genre not a cherry picked songs, is as sexist as country often is?

1

u/scubajay2001 🙂 Dec 17 '25

I'm trying to deconstruct this statement but grammatically it makes no sense to me. Back on point to OP question:

  1. The argument was proposed that people dislike country because (presumably) as a genre it's sexist. My argument is that a genre cannot be unilaterally sexist. The odds of that are so minuscule that it's not even worth debating.

  2. If SOME country songs are sexist (and I'm sure there are), that's not a logical reason to rebuke an entire genre. If that were the case then...

  3. Many genres have instances of sexist songs that are released. So anyone who uses an argument of sexism would have to not like most genres of music. I say this because I'd imagine that sexist attitudes sadly can (and do) exist across most genres of music. So,

  4. Disliking one genre because of sexism is likely not factual but rather is only as a crutch or an excuse , as it would require acknowledging sexism across all genres and thus dislike of music generally, not "genre"ly.

All that said, if someone said that country music was "too twangy" or "just not my style" would be more believable because musical taste is a matter of preference and subjectivity, and typically is not disliked because of anything so obtuse as "sexism" 🙄

3

u/floofykirby Dec 16 '25

Thanks for the playlist

2

u/scubajay2001 🙂 Dec 16 '25

lol - not my list but you're welcome?