In defense of country, the most misunderstood music genre

By Barley Lewis-McCabe

Unlike most genres, country music has a very specific, unsavory reputation. In the modern day it’s associated with right-wing propaganda, Bud Lite, electric guitars, and the worst guy you know playing Toby Keith on TouchTunes jukeboxes. But it wasn’t always like this. Country music got its start with Jimmie Rodgers, a dirt poor brakeman who started playing music at a young age when he was taught blues guitar techniques by black railroad workers.

His biggest musical influences came from the traditionally black music genres gospel and folk. His adoption of them led to his distinct playing style and vocalization — such as the yodel which was adopted and essentially created the genre known as country music. In 1924, at the age of 27 he was diagnosed with tuberculosis as a result of his work on the railroads. It was then that he decided to focus more on his music.

Rodger’s work would directly inspire the likes of Hank Williams, Roy Acuff, and folks like Merle Haggard and Bob Dylan later down the line. Country was the music of poor folks in the south. It wasn’t seen as the monolith it is today, and through the honkey tonk-age up until the era of Elvis, country music was associated with dirt and grime over rhinestones and shine.

The change in country music was visible in the 60s, when the genre was essentially split into two groups: Bakersfield sound — an evolution of honkey-tonk that focused heavily on a central beat with drums and eclectic guitars — and the Nashville sound, favored at the Grand Ole Opry, which used more refined string instruments and would oftentimes carry the beliefs of the Nashville establishment. One fueled by the success of the Opry to above all else make money. 

In the south, country became more visibly right-wing with a series of pro-Vietnam war songs becoming chart toppers, and country music being used as a central fixture in both Richard Nixon and radical segregationist George Wallace’s 1968 presidential campaigns. 

George Wallace was the first major politician to capitalize on country music’s burgeoning popularity, bringing out country performers to play at his rallies in order to attract people, and connecting his campaign intrinsically to the genre. According to an NPR article, Wallace once assured an aide that country music would help him win the election.

“The people who like country music will vote for me,” Wallace said.

Wallace would inevitably lose the election to Nixon, but he attracted a large block of middle class southern white voters, whom Nixon won over in 1972. Nixon adopted country music just as much as the genre adopted him. The 1968 anti-hippie song Okie From Muskogee by Merle Haggard became the unofficial theme song for the Nixon campaign. 

At the same time, a more left-wing folk revival was at its height, in part due to country artists like Johnny Cash’s embrace of the subculture. While the 70s saw right wing prominence in country music, there were also some great non-political songs by artists like Jerry Reed (my personal favorite), John Denver and Kenny Rogers. But country had begun to lose sight of what originally made it so special — its authentic connection to the music. In my opinion, a lot of prominent country musicians today just hopped on the bandwagon in order to make money, not because they care about the genre. This is why country gets such a bad rap, poser cowboys who don’t know what they’re doing. Waylon Jennings talked about this shift in the song Are you sure Hank done it this way, a critique of the rhinestone-heavy culture.

    Country music’s bad association comes prominently from a lack of understanding in what the genre is, and could be. So if you will, open your mind and try something new. 

Here are some country artists I personally recommend: Dick Curless, Hank Williams, The Highwaymen, John Prine, Willie Nelson, Blaze Foley, Glenn Campbell, Ferlin Husky, Don Williams, C.W. McCall, Jimmy Buffett, George Jones, Buck Owens, Linda Rondstadt, Chet Atkins, Marty Robbins, Roger Miller, Billy Strings, Nick Shoulders, Tyler Childers, Dale Hollow, Old Crow Medicine Show, Sturgill Simpson, Sierra Ferrell and Willi Carlisle.

Barley is a freshman journalism major, Photojournalist, and untraditional reporter, they like to cover interesting stories that center on social change, and human impact.