CountryMusic

Quora Answer : Why does country music look and sound like hip-hop now?

Feb 12, 2020

"Country" music is really just the result of the "new" ideas in popular music finally, after a long time, percolating through to the more rural "conservative" parts of America.

It sounds like hip-hop because hip-hop has now been around for 30 years.

Back when rock music had been around for 30 years, country music sounded like rock.

Quora Answer : Why do some people say they listen to every kind of music, except country?

Nov 2, 2012

Because we do. :-) Though "every kind of music" is an exageration given the millions of types of music out there.

But I will say that any day of the week I will listen to dubstep, klezmer, electro-swing, frevo, ethiopian jazz, tango, IDM, juke, samba, reggaeton, Bollywood film music, English folk, Russian ballet, gypsy swing, 2-step garage, dark-wave, MPB, cumbia, old-skool jungle, impressionist piano music, backpacker hip-hop, ska, chanson, or dozens of rock, pop and hip-hop artists (though not anything in those genres) in preference to anything in the country genre. (Proof)

Mainly I don't listen to country because

a) I find it pretty tuneless. I'm not musically sophisticated enough to explain why. But I suspect when they handed out the chord sequences, country got landed with a fairly limited selection, and not the good ones.

b) nothing about the use of the instruments engages me. I love accordions. When they come from Argentina. How can music from the US make them sound so trite and lacking in drama? (And here I'm talking about the best of "country" music : Cajun)

c) I can't dance to it. (There's some awful hip-hop out there. Dire in almost every way. But at least the beat sets the pulse racing.)

d) My God! Those whiny voices!

e) Country is conservative with a small c as well as a big one. My father listened to it and I used to joke with him that lyrically it was all about adultery and homesickness. It's about a bit more, but it's still all about small pleasures, retreat into the home and community. I don't think I ever heard a country song about being excited by something. Or about an aspiration (either personal or political). Or about being intellectually stimulated.

f) Whenever people say country is breaking out of its straightjacket, it always seems to mean it's just becoming more like the worst of mainstream pop or rock - both of which are similarly dull.