Andrew's Country Credentials

Link that explains the post below, in case you don't want to read the whole thing or if you already know my credentials to review country music: You really should watch this.

Credentials: I normally don't do this, but I feel the need to explain something here. See, the self-appointed defenders of country music usually dismiss criticism of their preferred genre by saying that the critic "doesn't get it" or isn't the sort of person who country music is "for." To that end, lemme explain why I'm "allowed" to criticize country, so that accusation cannot be leveled at the country posts. There are a few reasons:

1.) I have Internet access and functioning ears. That really should be enough, but since it isn't...

2.) I had a country phase. It lasted through most of high school and into my sophomore year of college. I own all of Brooks & Dunn's albums except Cowboy Town, because Cowboy Town was 2 things: a) their last album and b) terrible. I listened to country radio with glee and dug into country's roots. Thanks to Dad's knowledge of country's history, I was able to dig into the Outlaw Movement, listening to the likes of Cash, Nelson, Coe, and Jennings (No links to those names provided, but if you only recognize them from Jason Aldean songs, you're doing country wrong.). I've listened to Red Headed Stranger cover to cover multiple times. I've lived in the South all my life and the rural South most of my life. I know how to drive a stick shift and a tractor. I know how to properly hunt, fish, and farm. I am a heterosexual Christian white male North Carolinian in his mid/late 20s. Modern country music is supposed to hit my demographic as squarely as it possibly can.

3. Sorta revisiting point 2 here, but knowledge of country's past is the reason my country phase ended. I came to realize that everything I was listening to sounded the same. Now, country music has always had some go-to song topics: drinking, cheating, etc. But somewhere, somehow, the concept of saying things tactfully went out the window, and country songs all began to sound the same. I know that the sound of a genre fluctuates, and 2014 country shouldn't sound exactly like 1974 country. That said, country songs should sound more like this and less like this.

But, hey, maybe you're still into country and you're OK with the way it sounds. That's cool, music is almost entirely subjective. Take this post as the ignorant hate speech that it is--it might make you laugh at least.

So now that you've read this, you should check out the review of Luke Bryan's craptastic "Play it Again." Because...goodness it's awful.