I.
Hate.
Country.
Music.
Or at least thatās something Iādāve said, say, maybe 5 or 6 years ago. And it was true! I hadnāt heard a single song I could identify as ācountryā that I could stand, let alone ālikeā.
But it all started with Lilā Nas X and āOld Town Roadā. I think the first time I heard it, I dismissed it without really āgettingā it. But when I started hearing and liking other things by Lilā Nas X, and when one of my favorite YouTube content creators said good things about āOld Town Roadā on a stream, I listened again. More out of curiosity than anything. But with more context, I understood āOld Town Roadā better. And, dare I say, liked it.
āItās ironic country musicā, I told myself. āItās ok for me to like that. Itās got the affectations of country music, but itās not country music in its bones. Itās actually pop if you really think about it.ā
I.
Hate.
Country.
Music.
(Except āOld Town Roadā because itās only āironicallyā country.)
See? Itās so simple. The world still made sense. And I could listen to it and like it, and admit to myself that I liked it.
And then came Jelly Roll.
It was New Yearās Eve (I donāt remember what year it was), and I was watching New Yearās Rockinā Eve as I do every year (and plan to this year). And on comes a country artist. I groaned and reached for the mute button. But my friend wanted to hear it. Soā¦
He sang āNeed A Favor.ā And, it wasā¦ good. I liked it.
Try as I might, I couldnāt think of an excuse why I was allowed to like it. And I didnāt listen to anything else by him for a good while, gut when I did, I liked it too.
I.
Hate.
Country.
Music.
(Except that one song by Nas X. And I guess I like that one song by Jelly Roll. But thatās it.)
And I did listen to a little more Jelly Roll and it was surprisingly enjoyable as well. And I still hadnāt resolved the cognitive dissonance whenā¦
Bam! The most recent episode of SNL came on. And the musical guest was Shaboozey.
And since then I have not been able to stop listening to āA Bar Song (Tipsy)ā practically on repeat.
And it was a few days before I let the intrusive thoughtsYouTube algorithm win and play me another Shaboozey song. It was āHighway.ā And holy shit, it wasā¦ if anything better than āTipsyā.
And Iāve listened to a bunch of Shaboozey since, and his stuff ranges from āactually really goodā to āI canāt stop playing it.ā
Iā¦
guess Iā¦
kindaā¦ maybeā¦
likeā¦
country musicā¦
actually?
Itās really surreal. But itās clearly impossible to continue to believe that āI donāt like country musicā.
The juryās still out on Post Maloneās āI Had Some Helpā featuring Morgan Wallen. But honestly, Iām listening to it as I write this to try to form a more solid opinion on it and I can feel it growing on me a bit.
Iām not sure whether Iām changing or country music is. This is all still very new to me.
Maybe Iāve just been racist against country music until I started seeing some less ātraditionalā country musicians. A part of me is worried the country music Iāve been enjoying lately is going to end up being a gateway drug to the harder stuff like Kenny Chesneyās āShe Thinks My Tractorās Sexyā and Toby Keithās āAs Good As I Once Wasā. But doing research for this Lemmy post, I just listened to a (small) part of each of those two, and I can report Iām at no risk of developing a habit of either of those.
ā¦for now.
People shit on country, but thereās good stuff there. A lot of good stuff, and if you avoid the usual country radio side of things, it gets even better.
Jelly Roll is for sure a damn fine gateway into it. Heās hip-hop informed country, with some soul and r&b in there. Which, thereās a lot of interaction between those genres that isnāt obvious, but thatās tangential. But, yeah, Jelly is the current forefront of a new take on country that leans more towards āoutlawā country than Nashville formula.
Willie, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, thatās what I think of as the holy trinity of outlaw country. Yeah, Waylon is there, but he isnāt quite as accessible to non country fans.
Orville Peck. Heās doing fairly traditional country style, but with a modern outlook. Right now, heās as good a gateway to country as Jelly is, imo. And youāve got direct hip-hop-county fusion out there called hick-hop, as well as stuff like gangstagrass that leans more hip-hop than country.
But even within the standard Nashville cookie cutter stuff, thereās gold to find, once you know what you really like.
You can also edge out into bluegrass and folk-country and find some incredible music that defies genres in terms of the songwriting.
You said you arenāt sure if itās country changing, or you. Itās both. Country has opened up huge the last decade, with a lot of non traditional stuff being successful (check out The Dead South as a great example). When someone realizes that a genre contains things they do like, when their previous exposure was not enjoyable, it opens up the mind to explore more, so theyāll find the stuff that isnāt on the radio and discover that the genre (any genre) is more than what is easy to find.
And we all change over time. Twenty years ago, I wasnāt in the same place as I am now, so songs I didnāt like then hit different now.
Fwiw, the last two songs you mentioned are dead perfect examples of Nashville cookie cutter radio trash. Ngl though, as good as I once was hits a lot better for me as I age, and it is catchy as hell. Toby Keith low key sucks though.
But donāt worry about it. Maybe youāll hear more that you like, maybe you donāt. But itās always a fun ride to explore something you didnāt like before. I recently found some jazz that works for me, and I had spent decades actively disliking most of what I heard. Turns out I just donāt like horns in my jazz. So, now Iām exploring stuff that isnāt horn heavy, or lacks it entirely, and it turns out I like jazz.
I am also a hater of country music but I cant hate on the Highwaymen. Also I like Lucas Nelson, Jesse Welles, and Chris Night but thats about as country as Iāll get