When I was a preacher I did a sermon around that episode. It's got a legitimately great message at the end about the perils of trying to make spirituality hip.
That strain of nationalism predates 9/11. Sometimes even out of those same outlaw country artists. Johnny Cash did Man in Black, but also Ragged Old Flag.
Every time I make fun of country I’ll sing some made up lyrics like “got a girl in my truck and my truck in my beer” so I definitely laughed when I heard this parody because it’s basically the same thing.
Toby Keith is the prime example of that. His early stuff was great. Should've Been a Cowboy is one of my all time favorite country songs. And then he got obnoxious and shitty, but man did he make a lot of money off racists.
Can we start a petition to make the good "country" music be called something else and all of the any other genre, but with a fake accent and nationalism just be country? The name is tainted by decades of shit music and shit people that only care about WHITE MERICA.
The settled on term is "alt country", though a lot of country fans prefer to other modern mainstream radio country as "bro country" since alt country implies that alt country is a departure from traditional country despite being more of a return to classical roots than an intended presentation of departure from the norm. I often tell people if Johnny Cash or Dolly Parton were starting their careers today they'd definitively be put in the alt country bucket.
Which also gets me to an important point I wish more people would take into consideration: genre is a constructed element of music, largely stemming less from artistic movements and more from radio formats. The modern day music landscape has much less to do with artistic expression and much more to do with what advertisers thinks will sell tires, cheap beer, and fast food combo meals. Even deconstructed genres like hyperpop stem from the record industries need to assign everything to a specific radio format and artists wanting to put a spotlight on the commercialization of one of humanities oldest endeavors (song / dance).
Even good country had its nationalists. Marty Robbins made some certified bangers but he was also a nationalist who made a song in support of the Vietnam war.
To be fair as a outsider ghost rider in the sky and ring of fire are both pretty fire and today old town road and cot nai Jo are probably the only actual songs that come to my mind as country music today so with that selection one sounds a lot cooler than the other
Downvoted by radio-listeners. Country is great, anyone who says "Live at Folsom Prison" isn't one of the best live albums of all time is, ironically, a toddler. Pop country is trash and has been trash for decades.
Country is a complex and varied genre. For every garbage ass Kenny Chesney out there, there's a Sam Gleeves, Dori Freeman, Shovels and Rope, or Dead South doing something interesting.
Nooo. This is a very narrow perspective on country. The original county artists were all on the margins and most of them fucking hated the jingoistic notions of America being great because being poor or black in America in the late 40s wasn't a good time