What is country music today?

Natalie Barletta – Opinions Editor 

On Wednesday, Nov. 5, country stars from Reba McEntire to Carrie Underwood went onto the red carpet to celebrate country’s biggest night in music. Stars won awards for their year of hard work, and many performed to screaming crowds. This was one of country’s key nights to rock. And that they did.

Country music has been around for almost 100 years. When it first started, it was sad and slow ballads, sort of like easy listening tunes. Nowadays, it’s evolved to sounding like it’s a mixture of rock and pop. It’s often called hick music, and until recently wasn’t a popular genre.

In the early days of country music, stars like Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson relied on the simplicity of an acoustic guitar, a hard life to provide written material for songs and unfiltered sound. The songs often talk about his time fighting in the war like ‘Folson Prison Blues,’ his heartache about the love of his life June such as the song ‘Walk the Line,’ or his addiction to drugs. In the movie ‘Walk the Line’ you see him refuse to go electric, even at the urging of his label.

After Cash, there were stars such as Reba McEntire, Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton who focus on slower sounding music that you would normally hear in country taverns or bars. During this time, country pop began to emerge, because some of the songs, such as Parton’s hit ‘9 to 5’ sounded more like a pop tune than a bluegrass one. This generation of country music was the predecessor to what was to come for country.

Nowadays, the sounds of Johnny’s country is now dead. Stars like Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton have taken over. Their country is more rock based, with themes of partying, summer sunshine and a pretty girl that either they are hopelessly in love with or has broken their heart.

Their choruses are more catchy than the grandfather’s of country music, often blaring at the start of summer. Then there’s stars like Taylor Swift–the early Taylor Swift–whose early work is clearly more catchy pop than country. Country music surely has changed since the beginning days.

In the summer, country concerts are now events that you have to be at. Venues are crowded, and tickets would be sold in a matter of minutes. Country fever has spread, and dressing up in cowgirl boots and booty shorts is all the rage. In recent years, country music has become the genre of music. Stars like Hunter Hayes have become not just country stars, but one of America’s bachelors, becoming many female fans’ Man Crush Monday. Country music has taken over.

I however question sometimes if today’s country music is actually country music. Yes, iTunes tells me that it’s country whenever I buy a Luke Bryan or Miranda Lambert song. However, when I listen to it, it’s completely different. Some songs sound like lighter rock music with more catchy songs, and country undertones in the background, in my opinion.

Although I am a semi-country music fan, I do wonder if today’s country music is actually country music. Many people who say that they hate country music often are fans of today’s country frontrunners such as Luke Bryan, and Taylor Swift which do not sound like country music in my opinion.

Country music is something that isn’t going to go away quickly. It’s something that will continue to be more and more popular as time goes on. However, we begin to wonder what is country music, and is it something that forever will be evolving? That is a question that many of us, myself included, still remain to be puzzled about.

Photo Credit: Tortuga Music Festival, Larry Darling, Larry Darling