Country isn't country anymore...or is it?

Please pardon this blog post: I've been sick this past week, and only now starting to feel a little more like myself and able to catch up on the things I've missed in classes. So this blog is...not exactly the best writing ever. haha. But, it's most definitely one of my favorite topics. Instead of delving into the world of comic culture, I think I'm gonna stick with a topic I actually know something...anything about--music.

I am preparing myself for the merciless mocking that will abound when I admit to you, dear readers, that I am a country music fan. Always have been, always will be. I always used to get a lot of grief for loving me some fiddle and some steel guitar, and ignoring whatever hip-hop noise that was coming from KISS 98.5. Like most fans of a particular genre, I have my favorites, but I have found that my favorites seem to span multiple time periods in country. I like my Patsy Cline, my Johnny Cash, my George Strait, my Reba, Garth and Trisha. There's Tim McGraw and Martina McBride and Faith Hill. And then of course you have your Jason (Aldean), Carrie (Underwood), Lady Antebellum, Miranda (Lambert) and Taylor (Swift).

What's funny to me is reading comments from older generation country fans who blast today's country stars for not being country. "Why is she being played on country radio," one commenter on a WYRK Facebook post stated. "She isn't even country!" You could insert any artist's name in that statement, because someone is always complaining about how today's country artists are too "pop" for country radio. But what makes country music country? Is it a certain combination of instruments or a certain lyrical content?

I find this funny because music--in any genre--is always changing and evolving. If you choose any genre, (let's just use R&B, for lack of a better example) and you play the number one song of the year one right after another spanning 10 years (or more, if you feel ambitious) you will hear a definite change in sound, in style, in lyrical content. This happened in the realm of classical composers as they moved through eras from Renaissance, to Baroque, to Classical, then Romantic and into the 20th century. Listen to a piece by Josquin des Prez (Renaissance), and then a piece by Vivaldi (Baroque), and then follow it up with some Bach and Mozart (Classical), Beethoven (Classical/Romantic), Brahms (Romantic) and Schoenberg (20th century). You will hear a definite shift in the sound and the content of each work.

Why? Because of changes in society, changes in Philosophical ideas, and changes in art itself. No matter what art form you look at, be it visual and fine arts, music, literature or what have you, it will evolve and change--not to mention the ways in which art tends to crossover/merge with other "genres" or "eras" of art.

How is this any different that what has happened in pop music--particularly country? Country music started in the early 1900s with a bluegrass sound, and became popular in the 50s and 60s with a honky-tonk sound dubbed "the Nashville sound"--the sound that Patsy Cline and Hank Williams were known for. But there were also artists like Elvis Presley and The Everly Brothers who were performing with a "rockabilly" sound. Both sounds were covered under the umbrella of "country," but (almost predictably) one sound had more "popular" crossover success. In the 60s, there was also a development of folk music, which was a more politically driven branch-genre--there was a lot of country in it, but the lyrical content was different. This developed out of the cultural and political turmoil of the time.

There were also changes, evolutions and branch-offs of country in the 70s and 80s, with "outlaw country" artists like Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Hank Williams Jr. I'm sure that the country artists and fans of the 50s and 60s looked at these new outlaws as rebellious, both to society and to the genre itself. I'd even bet that statements like "they aren't country" were made about these artists. But it was just another evolution of the music--in response to the climate of society and the dying-out of the folk movement. In the 90s, we had our first real "country-pop" crossover successes, with artists like Garth Brooks and Shania Twain.This wasn't a new genre; it was simply an evolution of country music, following the pattern of continuous evolution that came before it. This evolution has continued into the 2000s and to today, with new country artists continuing to top the charts and evolve their sound.

Has country music gotten more "poppy?" Well...yeah, it has. If you listen to a Patsy Cline record, and follow it up with a Taylor Swift track, you'll hear definite differences. But this is true of any genre. So does that make today's country not country anymore? I'd argue no: that country music's sound has changed and evolved, but just because it doesn't sound the same as it did in the 60s--or even the same as it did 10 years ago--doesn't mean it isn't still country. We've seen this same evolution in art, in poetry, in literature--even in comic books. (How's that for a connection, huh?)

I want to end this blog post with a fantastic video I just found that shows an evolution of women in country music from the 1950s to today. I think it depicts this evolution of this one genre really well--and does it by focusing on the female artists. Plus, it has some of my favorite songs/artists in it. Yay!