Country Music
As a son of the south, I've been surrounded by country music all my life. Growing up, there were many, many targeted advertisements selling 8-track collections for a variety of artists, although Conway Twitty stands out in my memory for the volume of commercials dedicated to peddling his greatest hits albums. I turned my nose up at some music I now regard as classic, like Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton and Merle Haggard. Thankfully, I always liked Johnny Cash, so I don't have to make amends to the music gods for disrespecting him.
As one of the first members of Generation X, I was a dedicated rock and roll fan by the time I hit high school, a fan of Bruce Springsteen, Boston, Journey and the Allman Brothers. I also liked the classic bands of the 60s British Invasion. I never turned the radio to country stations and if I were trapped by my grandfather or my uncle in a car, I'd engage them in a conversation about anything rather than be subjected to whatever was coming out of Nashville at the time.
I still don't like much of what comes out of Nashville, although my appreciation for Outlaw Country and Alt-Country has grown by leaps and bounds. What I don't like are the songs written with fake nostalgic lyrics about a time when everything was perfect because that's Republican brainwashing 101, not art. I don't want to hear Lee Greenwood, a man whose whole life is defined by one song, God Bless the USA, because the type of people who tend to get weepy about that tune belong to the Christian Nationalist brach of the church. I don't want to hear Toby Kieth sing about kicking anyone's ass, because the last time I checked, he's never enlisted in anything more complicated than a frat party, unlike the poor kids I served with in the actual military.
Nothing that is ruthlessly dominated by white people intent on maintaining white dominance is appealing. The music executives who made Little Nas X put Billy Ray Cyrus on Old Town Road can go to hell. So can the Country Music Award committee that decided not to give Beyonce a nomination for Cowboy Carter. They are part of the same crowd who blacklisted The Dixie Chicks (now known as The Chicks) after they spoke out against George Bush's unpopular wars. Mainstream, commercial country music is a derivative mish mash of sound alike formulaic fake music.
Thank goodness for Uncle Tupelo and the sound they created 30 years ago that made room for bands like The Drive By Truckers, The Bottle Rockets and artists like Lucinda Williams, Brandi Carlile and Gillian Welch. Thanks to Loretta Lynn for making a record with Jack White from The White Stripes and to Willie Nelson for remaining an outlaw all his life.
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