3 ms·

There's a strong country & western strain running through "indie" music, and a ton of influence and presence in what pop music nerds consider the canon of 20th

by asark 8y ago

There's a strong country & western strain running through "indie" music, and a ton of influence and presence in what pop music nerds consider the canon of 20th and 21st century popular music and popular genres. Ask your local Millennial vinyl-head wearing skinny jeans and expensive workboots what they think of country and you might get more nuance and appreciation than you expect. Stereotypical pop-country that's largely novelty tracks, corny relationship songs, and trucks & dogs, and that're the bread & butter of most country radio stations, though, not so much. Most surf-rockers aren't thought of too fondly, either, outside a very narrow scene—they're not all the Beach Boys.

balabaster 8y ago
This makes some assumptions about the country you grew up in. I don't know too many people in the UK where I grew up that could give me any nuanced discussion about country music like they could almost any other genre.
- asark 8y ago
  Ha! Good point. Sorry, when I think of anyone having any opinion on country and the topic coming up in conversation my mind went straight to the US, but of course it's huge all over the place so that was dumb. I do agree that knee-jerk dislike of country may be rooted in ignorance—but as far as social influence, I'd class that as being good at determining which bad music people like (I like plenty, and it's mostly for those reasons) or dislike, and the country on the radio in the US is, for the most part, firmly of the "you'll only like it if it's part of your scene" sort, so people with a blanket "I don't like country" opinion have very likely only been exposed to the equivalent of its Tenacious D or, at best, Styx (to expose some of my own sub-par likes). It's not their fault they assumed the genre was putting its best foot forward. And hey, Elton John made Tumbleweed Connection, so there's that. :-)

by asark 8y ago

balabaster 8y ago

This makes some assumptions about the country you grew up in. I don't know too many people in the UK where I grew up that could give me any nuanced discussion about country music like they could almost any other genre.

asark 8y ago
Ha! Good point. Sorry, when I think of anyone having any opinion on country and the topic coming up in conversation my mind went straight to the US, but of course it's huge all over the place so that was dumb. I do agree that knee-jerk dislike of country may be rooted in ignorance—but as far as social influence, I'd class that as being good at determining which bad music people like (I like plenty, and it's mostly for those reasons) or dislike, and the country on the radio in the US is, for the most part, firmly of the "you'll only like it if it's part of your scene" sort, so people with a blanket "I don't like country" opinion have very likely only been exposed to the equivalent of its Tenacious D or, at best, Styx (to expose some of my own sub-par likes). It's not their fault they assumed the genre was putting its best foot forward. And hey, Elton John made Tumbleweed Connection, so there's that. :-)