# I have officially lost all tolerance for country music. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 24, 2011, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-officially-lost-all-tolerance-for-country-music/572495 "2011-02-24T20:36:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-officially-lost-all-tolerance-for-country-music/572495/41 "2011-02-25T01:39:10Z")
> [@Cyningablod](#): > > That’s because it’s not country. It’s BLUEGRASS! Technically it was “old-timey”. Old-timey doesn’t have instrumental solos like bluegrass, which came along later. As far as the OP, “popular” country music is the way it is because it’s for people who are made to feel small, all day long, in real life. They like to hear someone sticking up for them, even if it’s just a voice on the radio. The manager of a Wal-Mart in Mississippi probably doesn’t listen to country music, but you can bet the guy who sweeps the floor does. Isn’t there a strain of “I’m like you and we’re both OK” in many other forms of music? I prefer to hate “popular” country music because it sucks, not for some fancy psychological reason. ---
**Author:** ![Ostrya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/35a633/32.png) [@Ostrya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ostrya)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-officially-lost-all-tolerance-for-country-music/572495/42 "2011-02-25T01:47:07Z")
Did anyone hear about the new music some radio stations are playing? It’s a cross between country and rap. They call it _crap_. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-officially-lost-all-tolerance-for-country-music/572495/43 "2011-02-25T01:47:49Z")
> [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](#): > > jrbor76: > > 1.) I think this shit began in the ‘70’s with the song “I Was Country Before Country was Cool.” Before that country had always concerned itself with love songs, hymns, honky-tonkin’, trucks and adultery, but at that point it began the bullshit of “We’re so cool because we listen to country and only in a free country can we listen to this shit and if you don’t like it, go screw yourself.” I think the country stations and artists that sing jive like that have helped spawn the Republican radicals. > > 2.) Most of the stuff they call country today is nothing but rock ‘n’ roll and bad rock ‘n’ at that. Fifty years ago, most of today’s “country” acts would have been hooted off the stage of the Grand Ol’ Opry. As my late father, who was a country fan, used to say: "I would rather hear a hog scratch its ass with a bristle > > Give me bluegrass, Patsy Cline, Hank Sr., Johnnie Cash, Jimmy Dean, Marty Robbins, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson. I’m going to second this. It’s pretty damn bad when you listen to modern country radio and wish you were watching _Hee Haw_ instead. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-officially-lost-all-tolerance-for-country-music/572495/44 "2011-02-25T02:25:14Z")
Why do Country/Western singers sing in an Appalachian accent? Even singers from foreign countries sing in Appalachian. Are they making fun of how my family actually speaks? Why do they do that? ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-officially-lost-all-tolerance-for-country-music/572495/45 "2011-02-25T02:32:38Z")
> [@jrbor76](#): > > Spoiler alert: If you are a fan of country music, you’ll probably get really p\*\*\*ed off at me. I’m a North-east liberal elitist, and I love country music, and will as long as someone keeps writing lyrics like ‘An American Child’, ‘Just Another American Saturday Night’, and “Earl Had to Die”. However, rule #1 is driver picks the station. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-officially-lost-all-tolerance-for-country-music/572495/46 "2011-02-25T02:33:53Z")
And ‘The Race Is On.’ ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-officially-lost-all-tolerance-for-country-music/572495/47 "2011-02-25T02:38:24Z")
‘Runaway Train’ ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-officially-lost-all-tolerance-for-country-music/572495/48 "2011-02-25T02:43:40Z")
> [@j66](#): > > However, rule #1 is driver picks the station. Absolutely right! It’s rules like this that allow society to function. What’s next, letting the passengers steer? ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-officially-lost-all-tolerance-for-country-music/572495/49 "2011-02-25T02:55:31Z")
I don’t know what is being alluded to in the cancer verse. A little help? It makes no sense to me. ---
**Author:** ![Harborwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-officially-lost-all-tolerance-for-country-music/572495/50 "2011-02-25T03:01:08Z")
> [@](#): > > Do you wish somebody had the nerve to tell that stupid boss of yours to shove it next time he yells at you? I used to hear that Brad Paisley song every damn day. Now I just shut it off when I hear it start. The lyric I quoted is my least favorite. Aw. Your boss yelled at you? Poor lil guy. Don’t worry. Brad Paisley and country music will stand up for you and stop that mean old boss to stop yelling at you. :rolleyes: That seems so shallow, especially considering how many country songs are about people losing their jobs. In this song, it’s apparently worse to be yelled at. What also bugs me is that, aside from the lyric about tractors, the song is wrong about everything else. Nobody sings about drinking after work? Nobody? Not one other genre of music? Really? And it’s more vague than a list of symptoms to qualify you for a new drug? Do you like beer? Do you live in a small town? Do you have a mother? Do you have an erection lasting more than four hours? If you answered yes to any of these, country music may help. Ask your doctor about [del]pop[/del] country music today. I’m also tired of hearing Kid Rock on the country station. The word “rock” is right in his name, and the song they play features two classic rock songs making up the melody (Werewolves of London and Sweet Home Alabama). Two wrongs don’t make a right, but three rocks make a country song. Country stations willingly embraced her royal GOOPness Gwyneth Paltrow, who is so country that she doesn’t even need to live in this country. They’ve also accepted [del]Darius Rucker[/del] Hootie who has continued to make the same alternative music as he did in the nineties. Only now it’s country. Makes sense to me. Last bit and I’m done. I recently played the Willie Nelson demo recordings for my country fan coworker. Her response? It was “too country.”:dubious::smack: ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-officially-lost-all-tolerance-for-country-music/572495/51 "2011-02-25T03:04:32Z")
> [@villa](#): > > Country radio is like Top 40 radio. Complete shite.\ That’s a great point - it’s like 40 and 50 somethings talking about how there hasn’t been any good music made since the 70’s - yes, there has, tons of it, but you’re not likely to hear it on the radio. > [@Dread\_Pirate\_Jimbo](#): > > Every year, for ten days in July, I’m forced to listen to country music wherever I turn in this city, due to the fucking Calgary Stampede and all its trappings. By the end of that week I’ve pretty much had my fill of country for another year. Anything more twangy than The Eagles quickly starts to grate on my nerves outside of that period. I kind of hate Calgary’s reputation for everyone here being a redneck shit-kicker - not everyone who lives in the west is a cowboy (hell, most of the people dressed up like cowboys aren’t cowboys). Just because we live in a place called Cowtown doesn’t mean we like country. > [@Merneith](#): > > I couldn’t stand the suspense so I googled the lyrics: > [http://www.lyricsreg.com/lyrics/brad+paisley/This+Is+Country+Music/](http://www.lyricsreg.com/lyrics/brad+paisley/This+Is+Country+Music/) > > That is some righteous bullshit, but I’m pretty sure I’ve heard worse. I can’t say for sure because always change the channel. My response to that song is “Fuck me!” Wow, that is some Grade A Shite there. > [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > Why do Country/Western singers sing in an Appalachian accent? Even singers from foreign countries sing in Appalachian. Are they making fun of how my family actually speaks? Why do they do that? Even the Canadian ones sing in that accent, which is actually so stupid it’s just funny. ---
**Author:** ![Anamorphic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anamorphic/32/3057_2.png) [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-officially-lost-all-tolerance-for-country-music/572495/52 "2011-02-25T03:06:24Z")
> [@Dag\_Otto](#): > > Why do you hate America? If hating country music = hating America, then just call me Bin Laden. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-officially-lost-all-tolerance-for-country-music/572495/53 "2011-02-25T03:09:32Z")
> [@Harborwolf](#): > > Last bit and I’m done. I recently played the Willie Nelson demo recordings for my country fan coworker. Her response? It was “too country.”:dubious::smack: Oh man, _there’s_ a :headdesk: moment for ya. Or would that be a :jesustakethewheel: moment? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-officially-lost-all-tolerance-for-country-music/572495/54 "2011-02-25T03:14:37Z")
One of the presets in my car is exactly this kind of mainstream country radio. Most of the songs are awful, but yet are still pretty good at expressing a certain confident & comforting worldview. They remind me of the old time comics page in the newspaper (Beetle Bailey or whatever). I’m always amazed at how many shout-outs to big companies go on those songs - Ford, Chevy, Wal-Mart, John Deere… and once in a while you do get a song that’s actually quite good. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-officially-lost-all-tolerance-for-country-music/572495/55 "2011-02-25T03:18:45Z")
Most so-called “country” music I hear nowadays is just mediocre pop-rock that happens to feature a “southern” accent and has lyrics about “country” related things. If you took away the singer, leaving just the instrumentals, there would really be nothing distinctively “country” about it. We’ve come to the point where “country” really describes the _packaging_ of the music, and not really the music itself. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-officially-lost-all-tolerance-for-country-music/572495/56 "2011-02-25T03:21:46Z")
I’m a lifelong musician raised in West Virginia, and I really dislike most ‘successful’ country music of the last twenty-some years. My tastes in country run to the Carter Family, Hank Sr., Johnny Cash, early Elvis. One of the interesting things about country music is that ten different people can have ten different definitions of it. But they can all claim to be the “real” country music. Country used to be music about the lives of poor white people. At some point, a lot of it became cluelessly imperialistic, as detailed upthread, about the desire some country music expresses to influence and “conquer” others. A high/low point of this was Hank Jr’s, [“If the South Would Have Won, We’d Have it Made”.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE5Z09nYOK0) I used to sing a parody of this that began: _If the Third Reich had won we’d have it made We’d be exalted rulers of the master race We take them Jews that run the banks and we’d mow them down in tanks If the Third Reich had won we’d have it made_ No audience ever figured out it was a joke. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-officially-lost-all-tolerance-for-country-music/572495/57 "2011-02-25T03:22:54Z")
Which is just fine for them post-modernist ironic hipsters and metrosexuals. Kitty Wells don’t care! ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-officially-lost-all-tolerance-for-country-music/572495/58 "2011-02-25T03:28:16Z")
I like the other kind of music; Western. Western Swing to be precise, popularized by [Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys](http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_2_9?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-music&field-keywords=bob+wills&sprefix=bob+wills) in the 40’s and 50’s, and revived by [Big Ray Benson and Asleep At the Wheel](http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_kk_1?rh=i%3Adigital-music%2Ck%3Aasleep+at+the+wheel&keywords=asleep+at+the+wheel&ie=UTF8&qid=1298603779). My current _Wheel_ favorites are _Dance With Who Brung You_, and _My Baby Thinks She’s a Train_ ---
**Author:** ![Invisible\_Chimp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f05b48/32.png) [@Invisible\_Chimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Invisible_Chimp)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-officially-lost-all-tolerance-for-country-music/572495/59 "2011-02-25T03:37:08Z")
From Robbie Fulk’s ode to Nashville, “Fuck This Town”: “Hey this ain’t country-western! It’s just soft rock feminist crap! And I thought they’d struck bottom back in the days of Ronnie Milsap.” ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-officially-lost-all-tolerance-for-country-music/572495/60 "2011-02-25T03:42:26Z")
> [@you\_with\_the\_face](#): > > I don’t know what is being alluded to in the cancer verse. A little help? It makes no sense to me. I take it to refer to songs like Tim McGraw’s [“Live Like You Were Dying”](http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/mcgraw-tim/live-like-you-were-dying-13619.html) and Kenny Chesney’s [“The Good Stuff.”](http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/chesney-kenny/the-good-stuff-5426.html) > [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > Country used to be music about the lives of poor white people. At some point, a lot of it became cluelessly imperialistic, as detailed upthread, about the desire some country music expresses to influence and “conquer” others. > > A high/low point of this was Hank Jr’s, [“If the South Would Have Won, We’d Have it Made”.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE5Z09nYOK0) But that song _is_ about poor white people, or at least working-class Southerners, feeling pride in their culture but marginalized–it is certainly not about racism or a desire to impose upon anyone else (except “killers” on death row, “pushers” in Miami, and Chinese[?]-made cars). Notice Hank says he’d run for President of the Southern states, not that he wants the South to rule over any other. Remember, Northern and Southern victory weren’t equivalent propositions. Your parody version seems intensely unfair, and prejudiced in itself. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-officially-lost-all-tolerance-for-country-music/572495.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-officially-lost-all-tolerance-for-country-music/572495.md?page=4)