Everything But Country

One thing I have trouble understanding is why country music is the most hated genre on the planet. Ask any group of people under 25 and I can almost guarantee a 90% rate of country-haters. I'm making up these statistics, but, basically, there's a lot of people who don't like it. “It's annoying,” they complain, “It's for hicks,” they remind me, joking about the down-on-my-luck lyrics and outdated cowboy fashion. Maybe country's just not your taste. Fine, whatever. But I maintain that anybody with a serious interest in music or in American culture needs to give it another chance.

Country & Western is America's most singular contribution to the music world. There was not and never will be a "British Invasion" of country music (well, there's Keith Urban, but let's forget about that for a minute). This is not one of those genres we stole from Jamaica or Sweden.

Symbolically, America has always been an escape for people around the world, a place where an "Average Joe" from anyplace can work hard, think creatively, and earn themselves a happy life. A society made for the hardworking, regular people, and not for the privileged royalty.

Consider the early days of country music: everyday citizens of southern Appalachia teaching themselves an instrument and belting out their church hymns in their distinctive drawl. Virtuoso musicians born not from formal lessons, but from pure homegrown devotion to their hobbies and culture. America is a melting pot, supposedly, the only nation on the planet whose identity is actually determined by its very lack of common ethnicity, culture, or tradition. In theory, America is at its greatest when the mix of ideas come together for the betterment of tolerance, education, and innovation. So it is with country music, combining an extremely diverse set of influences into something uniquely...American!

Country borrows steel guitars from Hawaiian music and yodeling from Switzerland It incorporates influences from, among other things, Broadway musicals, Polka/Waltz, Jazz & Swing, Minstrel Shows, and harmony vocal groups. And don't forget about the obvious ones like gospel music and appalachian folk. Even in more recent years, diverse influences persist. The Barry Gibb-penned Islands in the Stream was made a hit by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, and years later reached a more modern audience courtesy of the Bulworth Soundtrack . Speaking of soundtracks, Parton's own mid-70s composition would 20 years later fuel the highest-selling of all time. All of this means that some people might have liked part of a country song without knowing it. Woopsie daisies!

To those who would call it superficial: an analysis of the music itself shows Country to be frequently quite sophisticated. Early on, Country musicians showed an understanding of the expressive visual power of music. Even in the Bristol Sessions of 1927, the "Big Bang of Country Music," you can find Henry Whitter performing the strange old folk tune "Fox Hunt," evoking a chase through the woods with harmonica and vocal squeals. Years later we have a good example from Pee Wee King, using a steel guitar to create the musical equivalent of a spine-tingling sensation.

Pee Wee King - "Keep Them Cold Icy Fingers Off Of Me"

Henry Whitter - "Henry Whitter's Fox Hunt"

The instrumentation tends to be unique and varied - a counterpoint to the guitar-bass-drums-organ(maybe) template of rock music. Country artists regularly include those instruments in addition to flares of banjo, mandolin, harmonica, or fiddle, not to mention the occasional pedal steel, accordian, or autoharp

Bonus Video! :


(I guess this is technically appalachian folk but it was too cool to pass up)

The point is Country is all around us, even hiding in places you really wish you hadn't found it. So catch up to the rest of us and give it a try. It's cooler than you think it is. And heck. It's American, baby!