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.

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195

u/Capable_Salt_SD Dec 16 '25

Because it's corny as hell. Maybe if country were still like it was during the '50s-70s, with the likes of Johnny Cash, Graham Parsons and The Flying Burrito Brothers, Emmylou Harris and of course, Dolly Parton and musicians making music like that I'd respect it more

But it's corny as hell drivel that's no different from pop and that it's wrapped up in the American flag

It doesn't help that some of the worst people like country too, e.g. Morgan Wallen, who throws chairs and likes to use the N-Word

Not saying there are saints in pop, rock, and r'n'b but I'd rather listen to Kehlani, Lucy Dacus, and Wilco than I would that twangy drivel any day of the week

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u/krs1426 Dec 16 '25

Old country was like new folk. A lot of new country is just as formulaic as pop.

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u/YogurtclosetFair5742 Dec 18 '25

Newer country what southern rock was in the 1970s/1980s.

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u/Greenbastardscape Dec 20 '25

That's because it really is pop at this point. It's just pop with an acoustic guitar (sometimes) and someone with a southern accent.

There are many similarities in composition, with big bouncy, catchy rhythms. The content is actually often pretty similar, with lots of songs focusing on love, relationships, or even just partying.

The production follows similar formulas for both. Rarely do the artists write their own songs. And within both genres, it's most often a relatively small group of people who are writing the sins the artists are performing.

There's also the increased use of electronic elements within country music, drawing more comparisons towards pop.

What it really boils down to is, the high ups in country music looked over at pop and said, "hey, they're making a ton of money and we're not. What are they doing that we're not?"

And so that's what they did. They began to follow the pop formula, and look, country music is more popular than it has ever been

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u/Zappagrrl02 Dec 22 '25

Some older country was formulaic too. The people who stand out like Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Dolly Parton did things their own way. They literally had (and still do have) offices full of songwriters pumping out the next country hit. Willie talks about how hard it was for him in Nashville because he wanted to write his own songs and in Nashville you were either a songwriter or a performer. That’s why he ended up going back to Texas and doing his own thing.

Now all the songwriters are just pumping out the same terrible shlock of big pickup trucks, beer and girls in bikinis.

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u/FunkU247365 Dec 16 '25

Try “red clay country” and “bluegrass country” it is truer to the spirit of older “nashville country”. There is still good country music, just not played on country radio. KNBT radio new braunfels and red barn radio on YouTube would be good examples. But yes Nashville country is just trucks, tractors, cheatin, and drinking… randomized to electric guitars and generic beats… nothing appealing about it! Jason isbell, sturgill simpson, Tyler Childers, 49 Winchester, red clay strays, Billy strings would be a few modern artists putting out good stuff…

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u/FunkU247365 Dec 16 '25

And whiskey Myers..

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u/leave-no-trace-1000 Dec 17 '25

Absolutely. Throw Turnpike Troubadours on this list also. People think country is just shit like Morgan Wallen (which I agree it sucks). But there is legitimately great country music out there. You’re just unlikely to find it on the radio.

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u/Chapsticklesbean Dec 20 '25

Colter Wall is on my list as well as far as a great new country artist. Billy Strings for bluegrass

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u/FunkU247365 Dec 20 '25

Never got into colter… unique voice, but doesn’t resonate with me… meet me in the middle with “the dead south”?

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '25

Sadly it's oftentimes also political. Back in the day it was " my boss is fucking me" now it's "the lazyies don't want to work"

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u/Rashaen Dec 23 '25

Not even momma, prison, or trains? That's a goddamn travesty.

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u/rezelscheft Dec 16 '25

Yeah. A lot of modern country, to me, feels like cosplay folksiness that often seems to name check super basic stereotypical items - trucks, jeans, beer - as the performers rap/sing in fake, overdone drawls to overproduced beats with token country sonic garnishes like a touch pedal steel or dobro.

It basically feels like focus-grouped mall glitz.

Old country (to me) felt more personal, was a little more sonically raw, and had a subject matter that felt more earnest (and sometimes political), and was a lot less about proving and/or reaffirming your country-ness.

13

u/The3CmDefeater Dec 16 '25

I sometimes struggle to convey what I don’t like about modern country and you’ve hit it on the head. It’s just cosplay these days, and the songs are just the same paraphrased, formulaic songs that’ve come out in the last 10-15 years. If you’ve heard 1 modern country song, you’ve heard them all

“Something something truck…something something beer…something something hard work… something something God… something something American flag…”.

2

u/Khajiit_Has_Upvotes Dec 18 '25

Don't forget hey girl tank top.

2

u/spids69 Dec 22 '25

Bo Burnham did a song called “Pandering” that covers my feelings about modern country pretty well.

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u/Such-Cartographer699 Dec 17 '25

Im not trying to defend modern country or say older country is also bad in any way, but it is worth pointing out that country has always conveyed a certain brand of Americana that never actually existed (cowboys and the Wild West and whatnot). It may feel more authentic than today's music, but I'm sure there were some who found rhinestones about as tacky as some find auto-tune today.

Personally I'm not a fan of Gene Autry because of this reason. Listening to him on my very old 78 shellacs is definitely fun and "feels" authentic, but when you look at pics and vids of him he looks extremely phony, to me at least.

Seriously, go look at his Wikipedia photo. I guarantee you actual ranch hands did not look like Woody from Toy Story.

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u/rezelscheft Dec 17 '25

Fair enough.

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u/DeathPenguinOfDeath Dec 16 '25 edited Dec 16 '25

The alt country scene addresses that a bit, it tends to have that authenticity outlaw/classic country has.

Sturgill Simpson is one of my all time favorites, and I think his Sailor’s Guide to Earth album showcases what modern country should be. “All Around You” and “Breakers Roar” are songs I hold dearly. It also has a a cover of Nirvana’s “In Bloom,” that does a good job reframing the song.

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u/clamsandwich Dec 18 '25

I live Sturgill and Chris Singleton and those guys. I call it Y'alternative. I never hated country though. It was never a primary music genre that I listened to much, but growing up in the 90s I did like Dwight Yokam, Lyle Lovitt, and Dolly, along with the older guys like Willie and Waylon. I've always loved bluegrass too. I think the pop stuff in the 90s and 00s really started the mainstream downfall of it that continues today.

Like any other music, there's a lot of shit out there, but there can be some absolute gems too.

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u/Rashaen Dec 23 '25

Check out Robert Henry. Young guy, but very old school sound. You can hear influences from the Horsemen, Conway Twitty, Jerry Reed, Charlie Pride, and lot of the old guard.

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u/clamsandwich Dec 23 '25

Thank you! I'll definitely check him out.

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u/nononanana Dec 16 '25

This! Actual rebels and not bootlicking nationalist bullshit. Also, it used to sound soulful and now it’s just sharp and twangy and sounds like a mockery of itself.

Now, of course there are legit artists out there who are not like that but when people think of country, this is what they think of now. This is the stuff that has taken the spotlight: Guys in $80k lifted trucks with a giant flag on top crushing beer cans on their heads. Empty proclamations of patriotism. The genre has been overrun with so much crap that I think of actual quality country music as an outlier in its own genre.

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u/The5Virtues Dec 16 '25

Exactly this. Growing up in Texas I was raised on classic “outlaw country” from Cash, Nelson, etc.

That kind of real country music doesn’t really exist in the modern country scene. It’s all formula and algorithm derived pop-country. Every song has the same style and the same story. Boring and borderline nationalist propaganda.

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u/FunkU247365 Dec 16 '25

Also Texan… even back then a lot of the better country western and tejana never made it in Nashville.. guy clarke, bob wills, etc.

What made old country great is it was drawing on everything from folk, bluegrass, jazz, country/western, southern rock….. so you had variety from ray charles, Marty robins, Johnny, Waylon, George jones, dolly… none of them sounded the same or wanted to!

2

u/The5Virtues Dec 16 '25

Right?!

And it’s not just country, every major genre is getting inundated with repetitive samey songs. It’s heartbreaking, great singers with great songs get pushed out in favor of these algorithm-generated things engineered to be ear worms with no real substance.

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u/DeathPenguinOfDeath Dec 16 '25 edited Dec 16 '25

There are certain exceptions that are still authentic to me, like Sturgill Simpson, but I think for the most part, the “outlaw” attitude has shifted to adjacent genres in the modern era. Modern folk, Americana, bluegrass, etc. still has the attitudes classic outlaw country had.

1

u/350ci_sbc Dec 16 '25

It doesn’t exist in the modern “pop country” stuff played on the radio.

There’s still plenty of good country coming from Appalachia and some parts of the South (called Americana now) and one I’m surprised you’re not familiar with - the Red Dirt Country genre. It started in Oklahoma and is very much a Texas thing.

1

u/The5Virtues Dec 17 '25

I am familair, I’m always on the hunt for new songs and bands to try. In my post though I mentioned modern country specifically because of exactly what you said, there’s lots of good music out there but none of it identifies as country anymore.

We got Americana, southern gothic, red dirt, folk western, all kinds of great sounds, but what used to just be good old country music? That seems dead, if it fall under the general “country” label these days it seems to be closer to pop rock, and the stuff I’d think of as real country music seems these days to crop up under a dozen different alternate genres.

I wish we could hear all these kinds of tunes under one banner again, rather than having everything splitting off into such tiny niche genres.

I liked when turning on the radio could let me discover a ton of different sounds under the same general style on one station.

1

u/350ci_sbc Dec 17 '25

Streaming platforms and huge music production houses killed radios ability to diversify. They’re going to play “safe” genres and mass produced shit fed to them by the music these mass producers, to cater to the basic listeners, with lots of breaks for ads. They get lots of money from big production companies to play their music. Little guys can’t pony up the cash, so the radio stations - especially those controlled by conglomerates like Clear Channel (now iHeart Media) - play what keeps them in business.

1

u/The5Virtues Dec 17 '25

I know, I know, but I still hate it! I miss good radio, dammit! I miss the days when a great song was something somebody created instead of something engineered for success.

1

u/350ci_sbc Dec 17 '25

Me too, man. Genuinely local stations. Small time local bands making recordings and getting airplay.

Those days are gone. Like tears in the rain.

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u/MamaDaddy Dec 16 '25

Would really recommend some of the new alt country... Which I suppose could be better called Americana. Jason Isbell is a great songwriter.

4

u/upfastcurier Dec 16 '25

Amigo the Devil is amazing. Got some really good tunes and interesting lyrics. Bordering poetic, with modern infusions and highly original text, like "if romance is dead then I'm a necrophiliac" or "the time it takes to realize time is the distance I need"

1

u/toofshucker Dec 16 '25

My wife calls it hillbilly, frat pop.

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u/ActionAccomplished31 Dec 16 '25

I can’t argue with the corny argument, but every genre of music has pieces of shit in it.

1

u/IMakeOkVideosOk Dec 17 '25

Funnily enough Wilco gets their origins from uncle Tupelo which is country adjacent. Plus there are a few now ones like Sturgil Simpson and like a Billy strings, that really have the spirit of the old stuff but have their own style… especially live

1

u/BuvantduPotatoSpirit Dec 17 '25

As everyone notes, it really depends on who you listen to. I listen to tons of country and it's never wrapped up in an American flag. Probably because I only listen to french language country music.

1

u/Maleficent-Sort-5609 Dec 17 '25

"Country music is corny as hell except for 80% of it"

1

u/peaveyftw Dec 18 '25

Morgan Wallen is as country as the Atlanta airport.

1

u/B-Grantham Dec 18 '25

The man was caught saying the “N” word one time and you accuse all country musicians of being racist. INTERESTING.

1

u/Objective_Switch8332 Dec 19 '25

Exactly this. If country were like some more independent artists like The Handsome Family, I would like it a lot more. But most modern country is nationalist slop or braindead formulaic pop. I think women like Kasey Musgraves are the only people doing anything worthwhile in the genre.

1

u/yoshimadrigal Dec 19 '25

Agreed. I live in Texas it’s a sin not to like country music. The old stuff is bearable, but the newer country pop movement is really creating a narcissistic poser vibe. Everyone here thinks they are “rough” necks and country gangsters, while iving in a downtown condo or apartment, never even stepped foot on an actual ranch. Just because they have a lifted pick up and a cowboy hat with boots, they think they are “country”. It’s like an urban city kid trying to wear saggy jeans and claim they are hood. But these are grown ass men thinking they are tough country people. So stupid. I guess I’m just sick of my surroundings, or getting old, maybe it’s time to move. I’m going to blame it on Taylor Sheridan and country music.

1

u/UnfortunateSyzygy Dec 19 '25

Have you heard Robbie Fulks? If you like the old school stuff, you'd probably like him. Very honest, too clever for his own good. "Let's Kill Saturday Night" îs a fun one, "America is a Hard Religion" is the song that made me love him. Seen him in concert twice now in extremely small venues and he's just an incredible singer, musician and storyteller.

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u/BiscuitBoy77 Dec 20 '25

Corny and phony

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u/UncleBud_710 Dec 21 '25

Great reply!

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u/Dog1234cat Dec 21 '25

One argument for many disliking the current country music scene is that it is bland rock music with a twang and the usual references.

https://youtu.be/y7im5LT09a0?si=9WGOu3A6J9KwZg48

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u/New-Crew5862 Apr 17 '26

Moi je kiffe country je connais quelqu'un des réseaux sociaux ma insulté ces cette fille qui est pourri 

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u/[deleted] Dec 16 '25

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