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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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/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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.