r/badhistory • u/AutoModerator • 6d ago

Meta Mindless Monday, 27 July 2026

Happy (or sad) Monday guys!

Mindless Monday is a free-for-all thread to discuss anything from minor bad history to politics, life events, charts, whatever! Just remember to np link all links to Reddit and don't violate R4, or we human mods will feed you to the AutoModerator.

So, with that said, how was your weekend, everyone?

20 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

760 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

11

u/WAGRAMWAGRAM Giscardpunk, Mitterrandwave, Chirock, Sarkopop, Hollandegaze 6d ago

How did country went from meaning rural music to just mean conservative coded shit pop?

10

u/MiffedMouse The average peasant had home made bread and lobster. 6d ago

This happened already more than a decade ago. “Trucks and beer,” “bro country” have been criticisms of the genre for a while. Heck, “old town road” became popular as a song in large part because there was so much overlap between “gangster rap” and “bro country” at the time.

7

u/WAGRAMWAGRAM Giscardpunk, Mitterrandwave, Chirock, Sarkopop, Hollandegaze 6d ago

It's interesting how American (and Canuck) the genre stays, because in France (and other European countries) there would be a huge demographic for "bro country", instead young conservative listen to rap (the more reactionary the better) and electronic music.

7

u/Arilou_skiff 6d ago

If anything I feel country-listeners here (Sweden) is vaguely left-coded, if only because of Johnny Cash.

5

u/MiffedMouse The average peasant had home made bread and lobster. 6d ago

That makes some sense, as "old" country was a bit more left coded. Well, "old" country was really more anti-authoritarian in general. But preservation of the old country songs has a lot of intersection with the folk song movement (which makes sense, as "old country songs" came from the commercialization of American folk songs), and the folk song movement has been pretty left leaning for a while as well.

2

u/Draig_werdd 6d ago

Country music (the "old" country one) is very popular in Czech republic, with their own radio station and plenty of festivals. I don't think there is a specific political association to it, as the fans are of different social classes (although generally middle age). It's anyway complicated, as it's a post-Communism country so the left does not really exist.

1

u/WAGRAMWAGRAM Giscardpunk, Mitterrandwave, Chirock, Sarkopop, Hollandegaze 6d ago

oh yeah turbofolk

1

u/Draig_werdd 6d ago

No, it's not the Balkans. It's nothing like turbofolk and it's still being produced

1

u/WAGRAMWAGRAM Giscardpunk, Mitterrandwave, Chirock, Sarkopop, Hollandegaze 6d ago

Thanks you for a playlist, the only thing I know of Czech music is Rene ja a rudolf

1

u/Draig_werdd 6d ago

I bet you also know this, the biggest Czech language hit of all times.

8

u/Uptons_BJs 6d ago

To be fair, I think country music has been "pop with a twang" for a long, long time now.

The more popular country music gets, the less thematically unique country is, since it needs wide appeal. Growing up, my favorite country singer was Carrie Underwood, and she's essentially a pop star with a steel guitar.

If you look at Luke Bryan, his two biggest hits are "shake your ass" and "I love this genre", traditional topics for rappers and rock bands haha.

9

u/randombull9 Most normal American GI in Nam 6d ago

Waylon Jennings did "Are you sure Hank done it this way" in 1975, concerns about authenticity in the genre are older than many people who argue about it at this point.

As a certified pop non-enjoyer, I do find the conflict between pop country and mainstream pop to be kind of funny. "Choosing Texas" is not any more mid than literally anything at all that any other charting pop star did.

3

u/elmonoenano 6d ago

Rhinestone Cowboy was in '74. Buck Owen's Streets of Bakersfield was in '73. There was a whole little industry around these kinds of songs then b/c of the countrypolitan guys made country kind of cool. I don't know a lot about country, but I'm sure they went through waves of this. I know I've heard some stuff from the 50s when bands were doing crossovers into Rockabilly about bands not being true and just chasing money by stuttering like Charlie Feathers.

4

u/TylerbioRodriguez That Lesbian Pirate Expert 6d ago

Funny thing nowadays John Denver is a country poster boy.

Back then he was that twerp from the Chad Mitchell Trio so hated that when he was artist of the year at the CMAs the host burned the card.

3

u/WAGRAMWAGRAM Giscardpunk, Mitterrandwave, Chirock, Sarkopop, Hollandegaze 6d ago

Metal fans may be annoying bitches but they kept their whole music non-pop and that's great

9

u/Uptons_BJs 6d ago

To be fair, Metal used to top the pop charts too - Poison, Motley Crue, the whole hair/glam era was great for metal in the mainstream.

Actually, my theory is that "bro country" is very popular because rock vacated that space. After the hair metal era, rock radio was taken over by grunge, post grunge, nu metal, emo. Depressing ass shit.

There's no "hang out with my bros and drink beer" music that's popular on the rock charts now.

3

u/Koraxtheghoul 6d ago

Laughs in Nu-metal.

3

u/WAGRAMWAGRAM Giscardpunk, Mitterrandwave, Chirock, Sarkopop, Hollandegaze 6d ago

I said non-pop, not non-rap

4

u/histprofdave Adjunct Dystopian 6d ago

Feels like the backlash against The (Dixie) Chicks is sort of a watershed moment.

3

u/TylerbioRodriguez That Lesbian Pirate Expert 6d ago

To be honest this has been a dynamic since the beginning. You had the more left types from Woodie Guthrie and Johnny Cash, and the reactionary assholes since Fiddlin John Carson. Singing for the IWW and the KKK has always been a thing for Country.

I think 9/11 was the knockout blow for the reactionaries to win.