"Country" radio is horrible

It's been dead. I wish I could kill new country with fire.

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"Country" radio is horrible

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The Wife has been a pop music fan her whole life (Michael Jackson, the Bee Gees, etc.) She has always hated country music (Johnny Cash, Willie, Waylon or REK).

Until the last few years. Now she's a huge country music fan: Tim McGraw, Sugarland, Luke Bryan, Darius Rucker, Lady Antebellum.

So, to simply reiterate the point made on this Board ad nauseum, traditional airwave radio stations calling themselves 'country' are playing pop music i.e. "Nashville Pop."

Country music has grown so large it can now be delineated into at least two genres: Nashville Pop and Texas-Red Dirt- Alternative Country. It would be easy to refer to the latter as "real country," but pop fans find this condescending.

So my world is divided into the shows I attend (Chris Knight recently, BJ Barham coming up, TT, AA, Roger Creager, REK Jr.) and the shows I attend with The Wife: Darius Rucker, looking for tix to Jack Johnson, Luke Bryan,Dianna Ross and Kenny Chesney w/ Zac Brown all coming up). I've learned its in my best interest to enjoy each of these for who they are and what they do.

The question always lurking around the corner: What makes a song or an artist 'country?' Is it the lyrics? Is it the instruments (steel guitar, fiddle?) Is it the clothes they wear? Is it the radio station that decides to play their music?

And can an artist crossover? Be Nashville Pop on some songs, 'real country' on others? I'm going to see Chris Young this evening. And I'll throw Corey Smith in this mix.

And since we have a 'Texas Country', is there now a "Carolina Country" ... sort of Atlanta through South Carolina upto North Carolina?

And why did CottonWasKing leave Jason Aldean off of his list of real country artists?

These are the questions that keep me awake at night.

You mean they don't play old Uncle Tupelo, Steve Earl and Hank III?


What are you going to tell me next, pop radio doesn't play Wilco (got Tweedy in both genres!), Arcade Fire and Death Cab for Cutie?

Or maybe I just created a new genre of "hipster" radio.