Something has happened to country music, and it’s not anything good. In the past, country music was lauded for its storytelling, its characters and narratives. Now, the same tired drivel is coming out faster than fans can consume it—songs about drinking beer on a tailgate, working the land, falling in love across a crowded bar, and loving God or your wife or your mother. All these songs are made of the same three chords, the same twangy melodies, written and co-written by all the same Nashville songwriters.
There's no doubt that country music is having a moment right now. Everyone wants to dip their toes in the genre, while the mainstay artists are taking advantage of the hype and putting out song after song. However, it’s the type of transparent, surface-level country music that TikTok can easily exploit to create 15-second clips for teenagers to dance to. Nothing ever comes out of a major key and the images are easily accessible for those who don’t want to listen too hard, and yet there’s such loyalty surrounding this genre even as it churns out the same old slop day after day. When does it end?
This past May, I moved to Nashville to get closer to "where it all happens" and further my career as a music journalist. Since then, I’ve heard some great music (The Mountain Goats, Shannon and the Clams, Ethel Cain), but I’ve also heard some terrible music as well (basically everything at CMA Fest). I’ve had to cover Post Malone’s foray into country music extensively (granted he looks like he's having a great time). I have to listen to HARDY act like he’s God’s gift to songwriting. I have to write about Jelly Roll. I’ve heard enough of country girlies putting out basically the same album for the last 10 years. I’m at my wits end with country music already, but this all came to a head when I heard Canadian singer Alli Walker’s new single, “Nashville.”
Country singers can come from anywhere, sure. We’ve got Keith Urban the Australian, after all. But what strikes me as odd is when these country singers put on affected Southern accents in an attempt to prove their authenticity. Successfully, it does the complete opposite. Alli Walker, who is from Prince Edward Island, does this to an extreme. In her new song “Nashville”—which comes with a stereotypical tour through Lower Broadway in the form of its music video—she sings about shaking her ass at Tootsie’s with a put-upon accent that’s clearly what a Canadian thinks people from Tennessee sound like.
The song itself is the kind of tune the dreaded bachelorette parties that swarm Lower Broadway will go crazy for. Especially the line “I’m BacheLoretta Lynn,” which, honestly, I feel is disrespectful to Loretta Lynn’s legacy. The song makes a lot of sense, though, when you find out who co-wrote it—none other than Mr. “Fancy Like” himself, Walker Hayes.
Hayes gets a lot of shit for his song “Fancy Like,” but that’s not to say it isn’t well deserved. It’s a terrible song, and while he claims he wrote it just to pay the bills, that doesn’t excuse what it’s done to the genre. From anyone else, it could have been the musical equivalent of firing gunshots to keep the rent low, but that wasn’t the case—it became inexcusably popular, which is what Hayes was looking for. He got the big paycheck, and country music got more people jumping on the bandwagon, exploiting the easy fame that comes with simplicity.
I’ve broken commercial country music down to nine main themes—
“When I’m done working for The Man I’m taking my girl dancing”
“Falling in love across the bar”
“At the bar drinking to forget what we had”
“I’m a free woman and I’m gonna do what I want”
“I’m gonna kill my shitty husband”
“Cowboys, just cowboys”
“I’m gonna drink a beer on this tailgate and think about God”
“My grandparents had the perfect marriage and I’m gonna tell you about it”
“Met an old guy at the bar and he gave me a life lesson”
Listen to any popular country song and I guarantee you can slot it right into one of these themes. Here, I’ll do the other half of the work for you—
“Quittin’ Time” by Zach Bryan
“At the End of a Bar” by Chris Young and Mitchell Tenpenny
“Bartender” by Lady A
“Miss Me More” by Kelsea Ballerini
“Wait in the Truck” by Hardy and Lainey Wilson
“Cowboys and Plowboys” by Jon Pardi and Luke Bryan
“Where I Find God” by Larry Fleet
“Closest to Heaven” by Ella Langley
“People Are Crazy” by Billy Currington
To break this whole thing down further, country music is also unnecessarily gendered; there are masculine and feminine themes as well. For the dudes like Luke Bryan, Thomas Rhett, Blake Shelton, and Morgan Wallen we’ve got trucks, farming, drinking beer, loving your wife, loving God for giving you your wife, breaking up with your girlfriend, meeting a girl for one amazing night and feeling sad about it after, having a good ole hunting dog, etc. For the ladies like Kelsea Ballerini, Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood, and Lainey Wilson there’s partying with your girlfriends, falling in love with a sexy man across the bar, falling in love with a hard-working cowboy, comparing men to whiskey, break ups, killing and/or divorcing your husband, your momma’s sage advice that you should have listened to, etc.
There is some overlap between the gendered themes, such as loving God, aspiring to have a marriage like your grandparents, and break ups. Essentially, what I’m getting at is that modern country music can be broken down into any one accessible, consumable theme. There’s no thinking involved, no emotion, no consideration to be found. It’s one manageable chunk that listeners can shove in one ear hole and out the other and never retain anything that passed through their brain-space.
Modern, commercialized country music is forgettable. It’s all the same, and it blends together into a great beige mass that rolls through Lower Broadway, picking up debris and trash like a lump of old Play-Doh.
I read a review of Alli Walker’s “Nashville” that made me curious enough to listen to the entire song and watch the entire video. That was a mistake. Now, I wouldn’t call this a reliable source for reviews and news (it’s from Saving Country Music and written by a guy who goes by the name Trigger, after all), but it was an interesting opinion that I’m inclined to agree with on some key points. Namely, that this song is trash.
It hits a lot of the hot topics that popular country music has become lately—partying in Nashville, shaking your ass at a honky tonk, seducing a cowboy who doesn’t know any better. It’s a bachelorette party’s dream song, and it highlights all the things that kinda suck about Nashville.
In a similar vein, Ella Langley’s debut album Hungover highlights all the things that kinda suck about popular country music. It’s not the worst country album I’ve ever listened to (that hasn’t been awarded yet I don’t think), and it’s really not that bad. It’s just predictable. It's possible she worked with all the same Nashville songwriters that everyone else does, because the themes of her songs are generic and country radio-ready. In my opinion (and remember, this is an opinion) she needs to get better co-writers or just write all her stuff solo. Additionally, I think all songwriters could benefit from taking a poetry workshop. Not a songwriting session, but strictly a poetry class. If you want to craft really meaningful themes, metaphors, and images, you need poetry as the backbone of your songwriting. Even just reading some really good poetry would help.
Some artists and songwriters don’t care. They want to put out whatever will get them on the charts, on the radio, and playing stadiums. Some of them write the bullshit just to pay the bills. But there are others who do care, who just need a push in the right direction and more specialized practice. I believe Ella Langley is one of those writers. Her work has good bones, not even mentioning that she’s a great singer. However, it’s too cookie-cutter country. It’s the same album all these country girlies have been putting out for the last decade—faux-tough cowgirl attitude and all.
Maybe I’m a snob, but why shouldn’t I be? We all have a limited time on this Earth, why should we spend it listening to shit music? Forgive me if I want to fill my life with joy and creativity and poetry. Forgive me if I think people should work a little harder at their craft if they really want to produce something with meaning and passion. That’s your only job, what you’re dedicating your life to, and you’re going to write shit songs to appease the music industry? To, what, get a record label to take pity on you and hopefully throw you a bone? To please the mindless plague that is the TikTok algorithm?
In his Substack essay “It is good to be a snob,” writer and philosopher Jared Henderson posited that it’s okay to be a snob, but you have to be a good snob.
“I contend that being a snob is a good thing,” he writes. “Snobs have discernment. They can tell the good from the bad. Snobs take art seriously enough to judge it; they ask difficult and probing questions about their reactions to books, music, cinema, and the like. But if you’re a bad snob, as I was in high school, then what you have done is merely pretend to have discernment. You don’t ask interesting questions—you might not ask any questions at all. You don’t have good tastes; you just imitate those who do.”
Henderson states that “being a good snob takes time and effort; you have to be exposed to a wide variety of art, and you have to think through your own reactions to it.” On the other hand, “being a bad snob is easy; it is a knee-jerk art criticism for those who like to put others down.”
If you see me being a snob, just let me be a snob, and know in your heart that I have good taste even if you don’t agree.
So, what is there to be done about modern, popular country music? If you want to blame someone, I suppose Florida Georgia Line is a good start. Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean are good too, if you feel like taking a pot-shot. Thomas Rhett stands out as well, but his music is less maliciously bad and more just incompetent. The overindulgence of painfully white heterosexual country music has run its course is what I’m saying; give me Orville Peck, give me Tanner Adell. Find me the Chappell Roan of modern country music and then we can talk.
Really, though, the country music industry has allowed things to get out of hand, and country music artists have allowed themselves to be dictated by the country music industry. Once you align yourself with the industry, you better saddle up for a wild ride—one that’s going to steer you in exactly the direction it wants. You can lead a music industry to water, but you can’t make it produce good music, as they say.
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