It sucks because people are tired of the typical "1-5-4-1" chord progressions that are more suitable for children's sing-a-longs.

People don't want to listen to lyrics like "All I want to do is put a drink in my hand" and "Tan legs and some Dixie Land delight, ridin’ round, windows down on a summer night."

I'll respond accordingly though to your post:

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Because it is popular? Standard musical hipster backlash.

The peasants have always outnumbered the intellectual elite.

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Because it is "derivative"? By now all works in popular culture are so I don't understand this particular one. After all even the guys like Garth Brooks and even earlier artists like Alabama sang about the same things. Trucks, Booze, Women, rural stuff.

But they sang about it poetically and/or in a manner that was relatable on a deeper level. And if they didn't sing about it poetically, they incorporated a musical style that fit the lyrics. Luke Bryan singing about life on the dirt road isn't believable. Eric Church singing about drinking sounds more like someone making fun of music as opposed to being a respectable country artist.

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Because it is not "country music"? Country music has always struggled with accepting new mediums. It seems every generation there is a new style that is not country music. I personally think the South culturally benefits from the genre bending. I know the traditionalists may not like it, but its simply making a melting pot of Southern musical heritage. While commercial country is definitely focused on some inclusion of hip hop (Nelly definitely wants to be a "country artist", while Jason Aldean wants to be a rapper) it is a good thing. In the more independent music scene, country, southern rock, hip hop, indy rock, blues, and RB seem to be collasceing into a single "Southern" genre as seen by the music of Tom Waits, Ben Nichols, and Jamie M Commons. Blending of music styles is something that has always been American. So is it just musical conservatism?

Sure. I'll give you this one. But it doesn't mean the evolution of country music is any good.

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Or is it something deeper? A lot of people mock it because its "rural white males in their 20s singing about rural stuff while picking a guitar". How does that make it bad? You know what you call males in their mid 20s singing about urban situations? The entire hip hop industry. In fact its funny to see how country/rap mirror each other in the rural/urban divide. They sing about basically the same things.

How would that be deeper? It's not a race or ethnocentric issue. It's an objective analysis of a musical genre that fits a formula in order to make record labels money. You can even hear the similarities in the songs' structure.

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I am more of a musical libertarian, in that I don't stick with genres just if I listen to it I like. I really do like some of the Florida Georgia line and Luke Bryan stuff. Again I am a rural person.

Appeal to authority. You have none. Sorry.

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Is it simply cultural bias? An inevitable fact that more of the country every year becomes more urban/suburban style? So a kid listen to FGL in the burbs is seen as a poser because they are neither urban or rural.

It's that honky-tonk! Badonkadonk! That's not culture. That's idiocy. That's also not urban. Suburban, sure. Maybe. I guess it's the music for soccer moms who think they're redneck and country.

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Which brings back the Glee issue. Like it or not, it has had big effects on the current music industry of the past few years. They've done basically everything (no matter how obscure or stupid) but only a token (1 maybe 2 songs a season) presence for country (and always crossovers usually the female driven stuff). Heck they did a "tribute episode" themed on Twerking but not Country (or its related genres Blues, RB, Southern Rock etc).

LOL Glee.

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Some kind of token feminism? Because Bro country seems to be the only counter-balance to the generic female led country pop in today's commercial country. And what is sad no one dismisses that genre especially since is so not country music, Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood are simply pop artists that record in Nashville.

A bit confusing here on your part, but if you're saying that Swift and Underwood are acceptable because they're female, I think you're wrong. I think they're accepted by the same people who accept bro country. They're also vanilla wafers who pack as much depth as a teaspoon.