Country music is not a superficial genre about driving tractors down dirt roads, falling in love with farmers’ daughters or disguising nationalism as patriotism, but unfortunately the majority of popular country music today is just that.
Popular country music tends to sound artificial, almost as if the melodies are empty variations of the same song.
While there are many reiterations of country songs, artists including Paul Cauthen, Orville Peck, Yola and Charley Crockett are moving the genre forward by revisiting country’s roots and rejuvenating them for an audience tired of inauthentic country fluff.
Crockett’s song “Jamestown Ferry” calls to mind the instrumental styling of Hank Williams, a country musician from the ’30s to ’40s who sang about themes including lost love and country living to twangy musical melodies.
Crockett’s intro to “Welcome to Hard Times” also features a classic western sound with hints of compositions and piano riffs akin to songs by old time country singer Patsy Cline who was widely popular in the ’60s.
By bringing back the style of older country artists, it feels as if the soul of the genre has been restored.
Peck, a gay Canadian musician, sings of dream-like desert scapes and doomed relationships with unavailable men in a smooth voice reminiscent of Johnny Cash and Glen Campbell.
Peck’s ballads are irrefutably more progressive than what old country artists would’ve sung, but his music harkens back to themes of simple, carnal desire compared to the repetitive country themes today.
Of course, more progressive topics aren’t exactly embraced by country radio stations.
Country group Little Big Town’s song “Girl Crush” was pulled from many radio stations for perpetuating a “gay agenda,” according to a March 2015 HuffPost article.
Another group, The Chicks, was blacklisted by country music fans after making comments about the Iraq war and claimed they were ashamed that former president George W. Bush was from Texas during a 2003 London concert, according to a March 2020 Entertainment Weekly article.
Even so, some country artists of the ’60s and ’70s sang about topics that were controversial at the time.
Tammy Wynette released “D-I-V-O-R-C-E” in 1968 and the lyrics detailed a mother singing about sadness for her son following a divorce from her husband during a time when divorce wasn’t widely accepted.
Even more controversial was Loretta Lynn’s 1975 song “The Pill,” which celebrated the use of birth control for women who didn’t wish to
have children.
Considering the history of country music, it’s confounding to me that the genre’s themes continue to be hollow in 2021.
And while it may come as a surprise, I do enjoy the majority of country music.
What I can only describe as a wave of “yee-haw” washes over me every time I hear Josh Turner’s baritone voice while he sings the line “Baby lock the doors and turn the lights down low” at the beginning of his 2005 hit “Your Man.”
If country music is going to remain culturally prevalent, it will have to keep up with the times while also maintaining the connection to its roots.
