“I listen to country music.” Growing up, I was embarrassed to say this. None of my friends listened to it. I felt like I needed to listen to Katy Perry and Justin Beiber like my elementary school friends, or 1D, Harry Styles, and Louis Tomlinson like my middle school friends. Don’t get me wrong, they’re good artists. They have some awesome songs that I will scream in the car with my friends, but they don’t give me the same satisfaction and peace that country music does.
Country music is more than it is stereotyped to be. It spreads messages of hope and love to its listeners. It’s been around for hundreds of years, and is a genre about community and the experience of living in this world.
I got my love for country music from my Dad. He would play it in the car, doing projects, working, cooking, mowing the lawn, and just on a sunny summer day by the pond. A lot of the most fun and happiest memories from my childhood are to the soundtrack of Kenney Chessney, Zach Bryan, Tyler Childers, and so many more.
So yes, I am biased, but I’m not alone with my love for country music. According to a 2018 CBS survey of US citizens, country music and rock music are the two most popular genres in the US. For music to be so popular, people have to enjoy listening to it. After all, no one is forced to listen to a certain kind of music.
A lot of people think of country music and immediately jump to the image of a redneck cowboy singing about beer, his truck, and women who broke his heart with a thick twang. That image is heavily stereotyped. While those topics do appear in country music, they are not exclusive to this genre.
First, country artists aren’t exclusively men. Dolly Parton, Taylor Swift, and Carrie Underwood are all famous country singers.
As for the content of the songs, Justin Bieber has written several songs about women who broke his heart. Rhianna, Snoop Dog, and Kendrick Lamar all have songs that talk about drinking and alcohol. Artists from Prince to Icona Pop have songs that talk about cars and trucks.
Of course, those artists write about more than those topics, and so do country artists.
Country covers family, summer, childhood, hard work, love, acceptance, anger, grief, and more. It describes the common human experience. It’s not fair to put a genre as diverse as country into one box. The argument of “country music is only about beer and trucks and women” is not only false, but also hypocritical.
Country is the music of deep roots and family. It comes from the south and Appalachia. It’s a kind of folk music, and is usually played with a guitar, banjo, or other string instrument. The genre incorporates themes of hope, family, community, and hard work. The values communicated in a lot of country songs carry over into living a good and simple life.
Now, you won’t find the best songs by looking at the Top 100 list. A lot of those songs are considered more ‘country pop’ and don’t have the feeling I look for and love in country music.
My favorite country songs have a lot of emotion and nostalgia in them. They make you think about what you love and how you’d like to live your life.
Burn, Burn, Burn by Zach Bryan is a great example of this. He sings about how life has started to feel overwhelming again and he feels alone. He feels there is so much more to life than what he’s seeing right now.
He sings about what he longs to do, such as laying in a field with someone he loves, seeing his grandpa again, climbing trees, and being a kid again. He wants his life to be simple, peaceful, and good.
Burn, Burn, Burn gives the listener a feeling of nostalgia and makes you think about what you value in life. What makes it worth living to you?
Country music has the power to evoke that kind of deep thought and emotion about life. It also has the power to remind you of the people you love and how deep that love goes.
All Your’n by Tyler Childers talks about a strong love he has for the person he loves. He sings about the journey it took to get to her, and then sings “I’ll love you ‘til my lungs give out” in a voice so smooth and emotional it makes your heart warm and happy.
This song is the perfect song to show what the best country voice sounds like. It’s smooth and melodic, straight from the heart. You can tell he’s putting all of his emotion and effort into singing the song, which makes it that much more powerful.
To be clear, I’m not telling you that country music is better than every genre of music in the world. I’m showing you that this music is more than it is stereotyped to be and is just as good as the genres at the top of the charts.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, and not everyone is going to like country music. But some of you will. Give it a chance. Ignore the people who tell you that they hate it and just try it out for yourself. See what you think, not what everyone else does.