re: What's the boards opinion on Bro-Country?

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When did bro country come about? Was it around in the 90’s?

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The seeds were sown with Garth Brooks, but the genesis of bro country was "Cowboy" by Kid Rock which was a big hit on pop music stations. Then, Big & Rich with their whole "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy" routine became mainstream in country music. That helped fuel the country rap scene spearheaded by artists like Colt Ford, who had at least limited radio play, but the movement largely remained underground until Florida/Georgia Line, Luke Bryant, and Sam Hunt all broke into the mainstream country pop radio around 2010. Hick/hop went from fringe to mainstream.

A big factor fueling this music was the death of rock n roll radio. Without radio infrastructure and a ladder to mainstream success for new alt rock bands, a lot of the players opted to try their hand at country music (see Brantley Gilbert). When pop/punk died in 2005, there started to be a void in alternative music for white people songs about having fun. Once the bro-rock genre (bands like 5 Finger Death Punch and Hinder) spun itself out around 2009, they all decided to market themselves as country since many of them were originally from the South to begin with. All those bro country backing bands aren't playing telecasters, those are EVH amps and grunge guitar setups. It's the same players, same message, different twang.

I think we're just about passed peak bro-country and the trend will soon shift to something else. I think we're about to see about 15 Chris Stapleton clones suddenly become the next "big thing".