Have people always hated modern country music so badly?

[PorkPieGuy]

Disclaimer: If this turns into a new "country" bashing thread (or a "That's not REAL country music thread"), I'll have the mods erase this thread like it never existed because there is plenty of bashing on the internet already, and I don't want to contribute to it.

Here goes:
So many people hate this modern version of "country" music (everyone is entitled to his/her opinion, so it's fine if you do. I'm not here to defend anything).

Here's my question: Has there always been a hatred of anything new that's labeled country music? Like for example, did a lot people hate bands like Alabama, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Randy Travis, etc. simply because they weren't Patsy Cline, the Statler Brothers, and Waylon, in much the same way people hate on bro-country-type bands/groups today? I seem to remember a lot of folks detesting Hank Williams, Jr., but besides him, I don't remember a lot of people really hating on then-new country music back in the early 1980s (I really could have done without "Elvira," but I digress).

What I want to know is that when some of the then-new country bands of the 1980s came out, did they meet as much animosity? I'm too young to know, but I do remember hearing a lot of Alabama on the radio as a kid! Those of you who may be older than I, what do you think?

At this point, here are a set of assumptions I have that could be correct or incorrect:

1. Country music fans, historically, have just been a different breed with a "go along to get along" attitude...until now.
2. This "hate" of this music has only been perpetuated by the internet.
3. It was just a different time where anything new was fairly widely accepted and seen more as progress than regression of quality.
4. Maybe people don't hate it any more than other things.

[Muddslide]

Well it certainly seems to be an immensely popular genre of music for something you assert is "hated so badly." But I know what you mean...the "purists" with the "that's not REAL country!" attitude.

I have to admit...I'm one of those. So I'll keep my lips sealed about it. For the most part.

In more generic terms, I think modern country suffers from the same kinds of things that other popular music genres have suffered from since the 1980s--homogeneous and overproduced sound.

To me--I was born in 1968--"modern country" consists of most things recorded after the mid-1970s, though up to the mid-80s most popular country still sounded identifiable as "country" to my ears; it just didn't grab me much...my range for the country music I personally dig runs from the 1920s to the "outlaw" era of the 70s.

I don't think this is just a byproduct of age. I still like a lot of modern pop/rock (The Shins, Broken Bells, several "new folk" acts like Lord Huron, The Hand & The Heart...) and a good bit of experimental/electronic stuff that is current.

I can't help it, though...when I hear modern country, it just sounds like a glitzy "Nashville-by-way-of-Vegas" version of the real thing. I will say, Nashville studio musicians continue to be amazing at their craft, and I admire their skill and technical prowess.

Some of it may be due to modern production techniques as much as anything, but modern country seems to fit into two categories: the fast one and the slow one. I can hardly tell one song from another, and I do think I;m a discerning listener.

A great deal of it to me, sounds like a rehash of 70s radio rock with some twang thrown in via fiddles or pedal steels, and lyrical content about pickups, tight jeans, etc.

I'm not a huge fan of Bo Burnham, but I think he sums up my feelings here nicely and concisely and with some good humor...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxomblR4c0g

[Nyghthawk]

Modern Country sounds very much like what we used to call Southern Rock. Think Lynyrd Skynyrd, etc.

To me country is either Nashville (George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Buck Owens) or Outlaw (Willie, Waylon, Jerry Jeff).

Modern stuff is too polished and has too many electric guitar leads for it to be country to me. Just my .02.

[Cypress Knee]

I think hard core traditional country music fans are simply slower to the evolutionary process of their music. Certainly, much of what passes for country today would have been "outlaw rock" or "Southern rock" many years ago.

Remember Charlie Rich burning John Denver's award on live TV?


CK

[Joseph Hanna]

I remember my father and my uncles having spirited discussions about the horrible state of current country music. That was 1966. I dunno what contemporary psychology is at play here but it appears that the phenomenon has been around for a quite some time.

[mr. beaumont]

I think any time there's a generational "sea change" in an established form of music, there's resistance. I mean, ever hear what the swing guys said about bebop? Classic rock fans about punk?

That said, my private version of hell probably involves a room with no earplugs and a Florida Georgia Line album on repeat.

[RP]

I guess I'm just out of the loop because I thought modern country music is more popular than it's ever been...

[Rodger Knox]

Anybody remember Western music?

[Photojeep]

Originally Posted by Joseph Hanna

I remember my father and my uncles having spirited discussions about the horrible state of current country music. That was 1966. I dunno what contemporary psychology is at play here but it appears that the phenomenon has been around for a quite some time.

Probably far longer than anyone knows...

Best,
PJ

[Silly Moustache]

I have been known to speak negatively about what some call "industrial" country,and I'll admit that the modern stuff doesn't call to me.

However, I'm an old guy, and I think it is generally accepted that we tend to stop enjoying popular music at a certain age.

Country music was possibly "commercialised" earlier than other "folk" genres.

It was certainly a "thing" as they reject songs by American country songwriters in British folk clubs even though tey were good songs - I had a lot of trouble getting gigs on the folk club circuit when I re-entered the acoustic sector again in the '90s, because I was singing songs by people like Prine, TVZ and Guy Clark - whom I didn't even consider country,but folkie Brits saw American music as either blues or country "and western" (a generalising phrase that I detest, because, as asked earlier, I DO remember "western" music with great affection).

I'm thinking that as there is very little guitar music in the top twenty nowadays perhaps we should welcome the newer stuff , even though I don't care for it.

[Dru Edwards]

I like the modern country but then again I don't like country music prior to the mid 90s. Too twangy. Some exceptions of course like some Johnny Cash but I love the new stuff.

[J Patrick]

...in the sixties when I was learning to play I despised country music and so did everyone I knew and played with...I couldn’ stand Buck Owens or Merle Haggard...fast forward a few decades and I developed an appreciation for what Merle and Buck were laying down...and then I followed the path back in time. to Hank Williams and back even further to Jimmie Rogers...I love classic country music now but modern country is really hit and miss for me...the playing is stellar across the board but the songs rarely do much for me...these days I try to like as much music as I can and I do in fact listen to a lot of different stuff...can’t say I hate any music but there’s a lot of stuff that I choose not to listen to....

[JCave]

Originally Posted by Rodger Knox

Anybody remember Western music?

Yes. Michael Martin Murphy.

[Mr. Jelly]

First off it's evident that country music made money and survived. Coming from the early sixties into the seventies my peer group started turning away from rock bands. Bands started dressing up in spandex and putting on make up and rock music became generic. We started turning to Willie and Jerry Jeff Walker and some singer song writers that didn't go the whole production route. We didn't like the over produced country music with the horns and strings. And sad trucker and cheating wife songs didn't have anything to do with us. I'm still into that vain where I like well written songs that connect to the basic overview of life. Fast forward to today and pop country music feels contrived and staged while the bigger productions are more like musical plays or theater. Often the recordings don't even use the real instruments. The organ can be play via a guitar and a fiddle is played via key board. If you got a good song it should be able to cut it by just playing guitar or piano. Any production should just sweeten it. IMO

[Mandobart]

I grew up in the flyover country of northern NM in the 70's. I was surrounded by what was popular in the area (among us Anglos at least) on the radio - George Jones, Charlie Pride, Tom T. Hall, Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, etc. At the time I couldn't stand it. I liked rock n' roll and bluegrass!

Now 40 years later I love that old Country music, and am less enamored with the "classic rock" I grew with. My parents were in "the greatest generation" - they grew up during the depression, served in WWII and tried to have a normal life afterward raising us baby boomers. The greatest generation simply didn't cry and piss and moan as much as we do. So no, I don't think there was as much "hate" toward the changes that came about in C&W in the 60's and 70's as our generation now heaps on virtually any music that came out after 1990.

When Urban Cowboy came out (late 70's/early 80's) it kicked off a country music and line dancing craze across the US. Country music got a whole wave of new listeners and fans. I'm sure there were some hipster CW fans who despised the new kids in their sandbox because they had been in when country wasn't cool (just like Barbara Mandrell).

Garth Brooks and others came along in the '90's with a rock and roll approach to CW that was hugely popular and successful. This is actually when the "hate" toward new CW began. Our current pop country is "hated on" more than previous incarnations of the genre because it appears to be so completely contrived by the last surviving record label marketing people. You'll note some of the other new CW artists (Sturgill Simpson, Tyler Childers, Chris Stapleton, etc.) aren't recipients of the "hate" because they are seen as more authentic.