It seems that many Palmetto students have a true love for music. One will often proclaim that he or she fosters an appreciation for all types of music. That is, every genre except country.
So what’s different? What is it about country music that makes it less favorable than all other kinds of music? For senior Paul Faillace, the subject matter of certain songs is what makes country music unappealing.
“From what I’ve heard, most of it is depressing,” Faillace said. “I like the way it sounds, I just don’t like what they sing about.”
Unlike Faillace, some students such as junior Gaby Garcia find the delivery of the lyrics in country music to be just as unappealing as what’s sung in the songs.
“I can’t take the southern accents in songs. I think the accent sounds fine in conversation, but I don’t like it in music,” Garcia said. “I also don’t care for the culture – how they sing about farms, like in ‘Green Tractor’ [by Jason Aldean].”
When looking at how country stacks up against other genres of music, the biggest discrepancy lies in the lyrics. Much of the music that is popular today was influenced by the same style, according to junior Harlan Pocquette.
“Country, alternative, pop – all of those styles are derived from the blues, but in different ways. People just interpret country based on the stereotypes and not their own actual tastes,” Pocquette said.
Judging the quality of country as a whole genre requires sweeping generalizations. First of all, claiming to like “everything but country” means one would not mind listening to a wide array of different genres, since they would all technically fall under the “everything but” category. This is probably because most people only take the most mainstream genres of music – rock, rap, pop, country – into consideration when deciding what is preferable.
Secondly, country is usually associated with the stereotypical slow songs from that genre. Senior Gregory Hoffman, who manages a music blog website called therhythmicbeat.com, believes that there are different levels of how deeply southern a song is.
“You have to define ‘country’ – it’s very vague. When people think of country, they think of the deep southern country artists,” Hoffman said. “There’s almost a spectrum of how ‘severe’ country is. If you say you like rap, there’s lots of different types of that, too.”
Assumptions aside, country music shares instrumental roots with other popular genres that arose from the blues. Senior Brittany Batten claims that country is likeable, as long as it is given some time.
“It’s my favorite type of music because I think it has meaning and I can actually understand what they are saying,” Batten said. “I’ve listened to it all my life; it’s definitely an acquired taste.”
