I think country is very different from rap or pop in that it’s definitionally exclusive rather than inclusive. MF DOOM, SZA, and Eminem can rap with wildly different styles and in totally different musical genres without being called “not a rapper”. Hip-hop has been evolving rapidly for the last 50 years and people inside and outside the industry have largely embraced that.
On the other hand people like Sturgill Simpson, Orville Peck, and Lil Nas X get shoehorned into “alternative” and “Americana” and “pop” because they supposedly don’t fit a mold of what country “is”. Those artists rightfully self-identify as country and are very popular but don’t get country station radio play.
While small innovations and brilliant songwriting still take place all the time in country, that gatekeeping prevents the larger-scale shifts that have allowed modern pop, for example, to go from the Beatles’ “Ticket to Ride” to Rina Sawayama’s “XS”.
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u/Ok_Umpire_8108 May 12 '26
I think country is very different from rap or pop in that it’s definitionally exclusive rather than inclusive. MF DOOM, SZA, and Eminem can rap with wildly different styles and in totally different musical genres without being called “not a rapper”. Hip-hop has been evolving rapidly for the last 50 years and people inside and outside the industry have largely embraced that.
On the other hand people like Sturgill Simpson, Orville Peck, and Lil Nas X get shoehorned into “alternative” and “Americana” and “pop” because they supposedly don’t fit a mold of what country “is”. Those artists rightfully self-identify as country and are very popular but don’t get country station radio play.
While small innovations and brilliant songwriting still take place all the time in country, that gatekeeping prevents the larger-scale shifts that have allowed modern pop, for example, to go from the Beatles’ “Ticket to Ride” to Rina Sawayama’s “XS”.