9 Reasons Why People Hate Country Music So Much

Country music is one of the most controversial genres in music history. Plenty of people around the world express a disliking for country music and can’t even tolerate listening to a single country song.

Everybody has different reasons for not liking this cowboy-originated music. Today I am going to explain 9 of them in detail for you to understand the perspective better and decide if any of them are valid.

Of course – I’m playing devil’s advocate a bit in this article. Regardless of if you don’t like some country artists, you shouldn’t hate on an entire genre. In fact, particular country sub-genres, such as Country Pop, are the ones that often get the most amount of disliking due to their characteristically cringe style.

1. Cringey Repetitive Themes

Even if the term country music is nowadays used to describe many styles and subgenres, it keeps repeating itself when it comes to themes like cowboy lifestyle, countryside, women, beer, bars, trucks, and other iconic objects and themes of the southern lifestyle.

Cowboy hats, cowboy boots, and generic themes are the typical subjects of country music, for example, love, heartbreaks, friendship, family, and loss, which do not shine exceptionally for their originality.

2. Country Pop

For those that don’t like country and don’t like pop, then, in this case, two negatives don’t make a positive! The mix between country and pop is one of the biggest culprits that gets a lot of dislikes! I think this fusion gets a lot of hate simply because country stars are opting to reach more mainstream audiences and that doesn’t sit right with true country fans or just pop fans.

3. Often Exaggerated Southern Accent

Many singers in specific genres have to generally portray a region in particular and a character, which is why artists of country and R&B often tend to adopt an accent.

On the other hand, singers of country sing with what they call a Twang, a cat-like vocal technique that isn’t necessarily pleasurably to all ears but which not only makes the voice brighter with a less breathy tone but also can make your voice louder.

4. Country Music is Old Fashioned

Country Music is a genre of popular music whose origins trace back to blues, and church music such as Southern Gospel and American Folk genres. However, the public interest in blues evolved as the genre did, while the public interest in country music became stagnant due to the conservatism of this particular genre.

Only around 30% of country music listeners belong to the age bracket between 18 to 34 years old. Values related to old and mostly conservative people are also associated with country music, for example, interests related to spending most of their time with their families or even having dinner with them every night, which is considered an important ritual.

5. Taste

According to a 2016 country music demographic study published in brandongaille.com, only 49% of people recognized having a positive opinion of country music. 

With new generations leading the way in mainstream music taste and being heavily influenced by technology and social media, the ideal audience for country music is becoming smaller day by day. 

When it comes to technology, most of the listeners of country music, around 56%, recognized needing help and instruction to use and understand their technological devices and networks properly. This indicates that most country music fans aren’t probably young people who usually have an instinctive usage of technology and whose taste is directly influenced by whatever happens on social media.

6. Supremacy of Modern Music

In fact, the internet continues influencing pretty much everything we do nowadays, including, of course, the music industry and the way people adapt their tastes and consume merchandise related to their favorite artists. Social media is the new way artists develop and connect to their fanbases.

Social media platforms provide, indeed, a way to create and distribute content as well as the possibility of reaching wider audiences than ever before, which means that all the genres that aren’t as present in such platforms tend, inevitably, to fall behind.

At present, the most popular genres listened to around the world are pop, hip-hop, rap, rock, electronic music, Latin music, indie, alternative rock, classical music as well as k-pop which is not only popular in Korea but all around the globe, and falling in the last places we finally find country music.

7. Not Interesting Enough

Highly influenced by cowboy Western music styles and popularized mainly in the southern and southwestern United States of the early 1920s, country music hasn’t changed much in its style and complexity in a century.

Country music consists mainly of ballads and simple forms of dance tunes, folk lyrics, and harmonies regularly accompanied by string instruments such as banjos, acoustic and electric guitars, steel guitars, fiddle, and harmonicas. The country-style use of these instruments does not produce a particularly innovative, exciting, or new sound compared to the vast offer of new genres and intriguing new artists in the music scene.

Country music history is composed of more than six generations, which trace back to the present. However, if you ask someone who isn’t a massive fan of the genre, it is very unlikely that that person will be able to tell you the differences and leading artists that represent every one of those waves.

8. Patriotism and Focus on Religion

Plenty of religious and patriotic people still don’t like country music because country artists can often go over the top with these themes in their songs.

A common subject in country music is without any doubt patriotism. On the other hand, the tie between religion and country music is probably due to the fact of its origins are related to the South of the United States, an area where there is a relatively higher percentage of religious people.

9. Lifestyle

Let’s be honest, how many of us can relate to the good ol’ known cowboy honky-tonk lifestyle of the southern states of America? The answer is clear, nowadays not many of us are.

Unfortunately for country music, there isn’t a huge amount of the population that can still relate to a life of horses, dancing over tables, drinking until there’s nothing left, and wearing a pair of cowboy boots and a hat.

Conclusion

So, these are some of the reasons why people hate country music so much and find it hard to tolerate it. You may agree with some and find others ridiculous, but the world of music goes on, and everybody’s free to like or dislike whatever genre they like. Of course, it should also be remembered that there are always exceptions, and some country songs are different from the rest.