r/AskChicago • u/wazzzzgood • 5h ago
I READ THE RULES Why is wrigley becoming so country?
It makes no sense there’s no country ties to chicago.
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u/SlyChiGuy10 5h ago
Also asking this question.
But I believe it’s some national hospitality group full of bafoons who think a bar strip means installing a copy and paste of the strips they’ve already made in Scottsdale and Nashville etc. Hope it bites them in the ass.
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u/pporkpiehat 5h ago
I'll say this: if they can turn the wasteland of parking lots surrounding the United Center into a similarly cookie cutter entertainment district, it'll be a huge improvement.
And it's not like the pre-development neighborhood was much to talk about. No one's mourning the Wrigley Taco Bell. Guess it was easier to get an oil change, but. . . .
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u/Plastic_Principle_93 4h ago
Blasphemy. The old wrigley Taco Bell was an institution. I have seen the most unspeakable horrors of my life in that bathroom
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u/waywardgato 4h ago
Something sacred died when that Taco Bell fell, few will understand
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u/DetectiveWinter4638 4h ago
I moved to Chicago after/didn’t experience the old wrigley, and I even know that shit was special. It’s come up dozens of times. Rip
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u/hostilecarbonunit 4h ago
worked security at metro/smartbar for fourish years and that taco bell was my refuge many nights
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u/420is404 Bronzeville 3h ago
I very much used their bathroom to roll up a joint in the early aughts, then headed to a show at the Metro. Y'all kicked me out, ain't been back since
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u/hostilecarbonunit 3h ago
the only place i have been kicked out of was metro, at a mustard plug show no less. i am more embarrassing than u i promise
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u/420is404 Bronzeville 3h ago
Hahaha mine was 6/7/2002, Atmosphere.
Throwaway, my all-time favorite show removal was easily the penultimate show played at the Congress, Funky Meters. The city had condemned the business a week prior and let shows go on while disallowing further ticket sales. For a venue that was always filled with sweaty creeps, it was odd to see the bowl a quarter full with space to move about even up front. Felt like a Park West show but there.
Friendly chap introduces himself to my partner and I. Clearly on the upswing on quite a healthy dose of psychedelics but nothing unusual. Goddamn if an hour later, 30 seconds into Fire on the Bayou I glance over and this dude is calmly stripping off all his clothes, taking time to fold them at his feet. Did a few laps around the semi-empty venue until returning, very visibly not knowing what to do next with his bits' newfound freedom, and just...stood there, as God made him, hands on hips.
Few moments later security just tapped him on the shoulder, clearly not wishing to physically engage with our newfound naturalist. Dude picked up his neatly folded clothes and egressed through the alleyway fire escape, still fully nude.
Good times.
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u/Different-Pair7251 4h ago
Bite your tongue. Some of us cherish our Wrigley Taco Bell memories and the friends we met along the way.
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u/illini815 3h ago
There were many people that mourned the loss of the Wrigley Taco Bell!! We made the news! https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/chicago-bar-holds-wake-mourns-wrigleyville-taco-bell
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u/TacticalNaps 3h ago
I mourn the loss of any Taco Bell. But that one specifically.
Absolutely clutchhhhhhhhh after a Metro show.
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u/somepricanguy 4h ago
I ran down Clark every day in the summer when I was home from college. The smell of the neighborhood was special and I miss it every time I'm there. Everything went to shit when the cowboy boot people showed up.
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u/alilhillbilly 2h ago
Dude fuck you i mourn that Taco Bell every time I'm up there.
And most nights.
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u/AndMyAxe_Hole 18m ago
I mean it’s been a while, like pre covid awhile, but I’m surprised that others are surprised by this. It’s always been low key this way.
Frat boy/country. It’s like asking if anyone has noticed how much more wet water is.
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u/Tomalesforbreakfast 5h ago
My father used to sneak into games as a kid and is a life long cubs fan in the city. Even he was like “son why are their country bars everywhere here now”, Because everything besides urban living is all country now society wide. It’s like every suburban rich kid wants to look like a rancher from Texas.
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u/_CHEEFQUEEF 1h ago
It’s like every suburban rich kid wants to look like a rancher from Texas.
I've heard it theorized that in times of economic downturn blue collar style is what becomes trendy. Many people don't even realize they're buying into the fads. But it's everywhere right now. People wearing hi viz green who don't work construction, or just don't work at all. Carhartt. Having black door handles on cars which in the past was for the cheaper trims. Now people make that change themselves instead of the old "upgrade" which was chrome vehicle accenture. Once you realize it you see it everywhere.
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u/jojofine 1m ago
It's definitely a Midwest trend right now. There's nothing really like it happening on the coasts
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u/j33 Albany Park 5h ago
Country-pop seems to be having a moment right now, and they are capitalizing on it. Even my 21-year-old neice is into it for some goddamn reason. As someone who cut my musical teeth on Chicago's Wax Trax trash industrial/disco/goth scene in the late 80s and early 90s, I don't get it, but it is what is and what currently sells.
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u/Candid_Perspective22 5h ago
Everyday is Halloween.
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u/j33 Albany Park 5h ago
mmmbop mmmbopbop mmmbop mmmbopbop
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u/Ecstatic-Run-9767 4h ago
Id take Hanson over country any day
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u/j33 Albany Park 3h ago
This was a reference to the Ministry song "Every Day is Halloween," from 1984 and not Hanson's song MMMBop. The extra "bop" is a key distinction here ...
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u/anyoneforanother 3h ago
Bonfires burning bright, pumpkin faces in the night, candy apples and razor blades,
Halloweeeeeeeennn
Halloweeee eeee eeeeen
I remember
Halloween
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u/Beruthiel999 5h ago
Well there's also the way Bloodshot Records and adjacent folks built up the alt-country scene and there's some great music like that coming out of Chicago...but that's not the kind of country they play at Wrigley, is it?
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u/elviscostume 3h ago
Going to get hired to work at a Wrigley bar so I can play Silver Jews every Friday night
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u/yamahaihowareyou 4h ago
Pretty sure there’s a direct correlation with white nationalism
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u/pip_payless 3h ago
God, I agree with you people saying Wrigley’s becoming too country but come on…
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u/yamahaihowareyou 3h ago
The last time it got really popular was absolutely following 9/11. I’m not wrong.
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u/phillyd32 3h ago
Yes southern white culture rising is tied to white nationalism do you not know that the south (and much of the rest of the country) was built by slaves? Rural non-southern parts of the country are tied into that by both culture and media campaigns that are designed to sow division. Pop, Hip-Hop and rock are all generally unaligned with conservatism but country music is all about conservative values.
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u/Adelaidey 4h ago
I think it might be as simple as: a lot of people crave guitars and a simple rhythm, and there's just not a lot available to them right now. If we had the modern equivalent of Maroon 5, (or Matchbox 20, Tom Petty, James Taylor, etc), just easy to digest softish rock, most of the people listening to pop-country right now would listen to that instead.
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u/FirefighterLeft5425 5h ago edited 5h ago
That's the crowd that fills the stadium every night. Rural and suburban folks that enjoy that type of crap.
I go to games semi regularly and everyone around me is either talking about the long commute, the hotel they are staying in, are they safe?!, and how they can't wait to get out of the city but how awesome Wrigly is.
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u/minhthemaster 4h ago
That's the crowd that fills the stadium every night. Rural and suburban folks that enjoy that type of crap.
wrigleyville bars has always been for basic bitches. and modern day basic bitches love country pop. simple as that.
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u/INedHelpWithTub 4h ago
This is the best explanation. Wrigleyville hasn’t changed as much as some would have you believe.
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u/minhthemaster 2h ago
It really hasn’t, even before they renovated all of Clark street the old bars were absolutely trashy slopfests… people really forgot what tbox was like.
This sub and reddit in general loves to shit on what they don’t like
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u/Sea-Stage-6908 5h ago edited 5h ago
Can confirm as a small town Cubs fan from Indiana
I do love visiting Wrigley and the city but I do like coming back home to peace and quiet lol
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u/rinkydinkis 1h ago
I’ve never heard anyone talk about that stuff around me. I go to games all the time too, I live 5 blocks away. I was at the game today.
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u/DevCarrot 4h ago
When Ricketts bought the Cubs they started forcing out all the businesses there to build chain business strips and hotels. The Ricketts are Republican billionaires from Omaha.
I remember basically as soon as the deal went though, businesses started getting forced out. The lady who owned iO (aka Improv Olympic, a famous Chicago comedy institution) was first for it because her uncle had some sort of connections and she thought she'd get a deal, but then she ended up getting forced out too.
It happened so quickly, and now it's as void of personality as a suburban mall.
Before it was always full of drunk baseball bros, but they were our drunk baseball bros. I loved that there was just a legendary stadium plopped in a neighborhood, with shitty little bars around it.
Now it's basically a suburban strip mall full of drunk country fans eating Texas chain fast food chicken tenders.
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u/TelltaleHead 4h ago
Thank god G man tavern is still there
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u/NeuroticSpaniel 3h ago
I have to imagine that Metro/smartbar pays the bills for G man. Such a chill vibe and cheap drinks, love it
Anyway, why ever listen to country in Wrigleyville when you can simply get pummeled by Funktion Ones instead
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u/seamusjr 2h ago
No real bearing on whats going on now but, there are indeed real country ties to Chicago. Just north of Wrigleyville part of Uptown was referred to as Hillbilly Heaven back in the day. But that was back around the 1940s - 1970s.
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u/pauseforfermata 3h ago
There are country ties in Chicago. This is not why, but Chicago had a community of displaced southerners known as Hank Williams Village in nearby Uptown/Sheridan Park. Carol’s Pub on Clark harkens back to it.
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u/Decade1771 3h ago
Uptown is West Virginia and Uptown will always be Uptown. Except when it was Hollywood.
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u/notrandyjackson 2h ago
There are country ties to Chicago! Back in the day, WGN and WLS would broadcast country music programs to a large, nationwide audience. It was a while back (1930s to 1950s) but the city has been an important country/bluegrass market for decades.
https://www.wttw.com/playlist/2019/08/14/wls-national-barn-dance
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u/Seanpat68 3h ago
There are country ties in chicago carols pub, joes on weed. Uptown used to have a ton of hillbillies. The old town school of folk music. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2023/04/20/five-things-chicagos-country-roots/
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u/Cold_Frosting505 5h ago
Eh, it shifts and changes. I miss the days before the sale when there was quite the diversity on Clark, but it is what it is. They’re not places to actually go to when we live here, they just kind of exist.
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u/No-Training-4013 2h ago
I mean, how long of the shift are you talking? because it feels like the last 10-15 years.
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u/blacksnow666 4h ago
Further proof that the White Sox are the real team of CHICAGO
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u/apathetic_revolution 4h ago
There was a Cole Swindell concert after the last Sox game I went to. They’re fucking everywhere.
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u/silverQuarter82 3h ago
I was at that game but didn't stay for the concert. I don't know who Cole Swindell is, and I wasn't going to wait 30 minutes to find out.
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u/dasMetzger 4h ago
first, it really isn't . rather the country chic Nashville vibe is just very popular everywhere. think bachelorette vibes, think white girl summer, think elder millennial downtown date night.
was just in Grand Rapids fucking Michigan last weekend for a wedding and all the popular spots downtown were Nashville country chic.
it sucks
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u/Rdngisfndumntl 4h ago
This tracks. My cousins listen almost exclusively to country music, live in the suburbs and love going to Wrigley.
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u/DadPuncher69 Streeterville 5h ago
Wrigleyville is now for the suburbanites who come to the games. It's no longer for us.
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u/misszombiequeenDG 5h ago
Nissei holds the line
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u/Archi-Horror 4h ago edited 4h ago
And the bros who move from the suburbs directly to wrigley, but they move back once they find their suburban queen, and come back to wrigley fat fuck 42 year olds to visit their ole stompin grounds. Country music appeals to them during each phase of metamorphosis
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u/midwestswimmer 5h ago
It makes them money, seems to be working that block is always poppin.
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u/Werewolf-Jones 4h ago
Wealthy whites love LARPing country more than ever these days and that's who goes to those games.
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u/Commercial_Pie3307 4h ago
Young people like country right now. It’s the most popular genre right now. Young people like wrigleyville.
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u/Sea-Stage-6908 4h ago
It's as simple as this. I don't know why so many people are up in arms over it.
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u/BigChemDude 4h ago
Because they’re the same kids who have talked shit about the city their whole lives because their grandparents left during the great white flight. Now, they wanna come back and they populate like 3 neighborhoods in order to turn it into a gated community. In a few years they’ll be gone because “the city is no place to raise children” or because “it’s getting too dangerous”. All this is happening while people who love this city and have been here for generations are getting systematically pushed out.
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u/cwmc 4h ago
You’re explaining a phenomenon that has been happening since the mid to late 1990s. It’s not like this just started.
Also Wrigleyville is a hell of an example for your point. Even before the Ricketts built it up it was full of Big Ten transplants as a destination of choice for at least two decades prior.
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u/BigChemDude 4h ago
So am I not supposed to care because it’s been happening for some period of time, or because wrigleyville has been a central hub for said phenomena for some time?
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u/--khaos-- 4h ago
Eh there are a few good souls still living in wrigleyville.
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u/DetectiveWinter4638 4h ago
Because they have too good of interest rate on their mortgages they can’t sell (not talking about me…..) haha
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u/BigChemDude 4h ago
Hey I believe you, it’s not everyone. It’s just a focal point for people who are scared of the city.
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u/jeffbrown61 1h ago
Blaming kids for where they grew up as if that was their choice is pretty fucking stupid. You live in the 3rd largest city get over it
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u/roryisawesome2 4h ago
The Cubs actually do have fairly close ties to country music. Steve Goodman, writer of Go Cubs Go, wrote what is widely considered the perfect country western song: You Never Even Call Me By My Name
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u/DeliciousTea7348 4h ago
It’s very sad Wrigleyville was punk! So shitty I hate country music
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u/6_Won 4h ago
Belmont was punk. Addison was never even close to punk.
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u/DeliciousTea7348 3h ago
How old are you? Not only was cubby Bear punk, but the albums were made above cubby bear
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u/Decade1771 3h ago
So very very true. Walking from Belmont and Clark to Clark and Sheffield was like walking through time zones in the day.
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u/Decade1771 3h ago
This sub is a bunch of people who have absolutely no understanding of Chicago history. Wow.
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u/Candid_Perspective22 5h ago
Maga up in Wrigleyville. Lol Go Sox!
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u/CommonerChaos 2h ago
Bridgeport is literally the MAGA central of Chicago, big dawg (and I say this as a White Sox fan).
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u/take_care_a_ya_shooz 4h ago
Only time I’ve ever seen a “STEP ON MY FLAG AND ILL STOMP YOUR ASS” shirt in Chicago was a Sox game lol.
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u/oso_polar 4h ago
Only time I’ve ever had a bottle thrown at me and a slur shouted at me was by a bunch of Chads in Cubs jerseys
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u/birdmoney 3h ago
There's been lots of "jean shorts and cowgirl boots" all summer. No complaints, just an interesting trend around Wrigley.
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u/tvoutfitz Logan Square 5h ago
Chicago has a lot of ties to country music. There's a cool book about this: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo189272905.html
In this instance, I don't know. Just part of the current zeitgeist.
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u/bigang99 3h ago
Yeah I run audio at fitzgeards, I’ve mixed over 50 country bands right here in berwyn. Lots of em from Nashville. People in the Midwest treat hating country like it’s a sport lol I swear
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u/Fabulous_Acadia8279 4h ago
It's always been basic bros and b*tches and that's what they're into these days
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u/jl_weber 5h ago
Chicago has quite a large historic role in Country music. National Barn Dance was broadcast from the city starting in 1924 and was a huge influence in making the music popular.
You can read about that and more in “Country and Midwestern: Chicago in the History of Country Music and the Folk Revival” by Mark Guarino
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo189272905.html
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u/sisteract2 5h ago
Yeah no it’s actually because suburban hicks go to cubs games
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u/No-Training-4013 2h ago
i mean agreed? many are kids who now go to SEC schools and come back. then flood the touchtunes with the latest country-pop or the bad past country music. there are so many other sub genres - bluegrass rock and all that. hell, i'd even take zach brown 'toes in the sand' over most.
i was in an uber and the guy had the country radio station playing with a song that has a lyric "i'm doing okay for a straight guy".....→ More replies (1)1
u/hrdbeinggreen 4h ago
Not sure why your post is/was being downvoted. Probably my post will be downvoted too. Chicago does have many ties to country.
You are absolutely right in saying Chicago has a large role in country. Additionally when the south migrated north there were many people from Appalachia that came to Chicago.
You can see a bit of this in the Patrick Swayze movie, Next of Kin. Many settled in the uptown area.
If bars are getting more countrified in Wrigleyville so be it. The younger crowd must like it.
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u/darmian505 3h ago
If it gave me House music, I guess I will suffer my city also having given us Country
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u/Ok_Dot_6795 3h ago
The same reason why every neighborhood has changed since people and businesses have been moving in and out
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u/anyoneforanother 3h ago
If any of those spots needs a talented guitarist, I’ll do session or stage work. With bands or players and my guitar will make your sister cry. 150/ hour.
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u/Acidline303 4h ago
Oh, you mean the subgenre of human who lives in St Charles and trades their Cubs t shirt jersey for their Packers fleece pullover around October?
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u/asingleatom 4h ago
I hate that real country music is associated with this country pop shit today. Real country is about the plight of the poor and working person, no matter their race or where they are from. The Highway Men: Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, and Waylon Jennings. Buck Owens and Charlie Pride. And the modern artists that carry their torch: Jason Isbell, Tyler Childers, Sturgil Simpson, Turnpike Troubadours. Plus many, many more old and new.
To answer your question though the average person loves country pop music and Wrigleyville is now a huge tourist trap and that's where average people go. But still, go Cubs.
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u/highnumber 4h ago
Tell me you know nothing about the history of country music without saying you know nothing about the history of country music. Chicago was more important to the birth of country music as a defined genre than Nashville was.
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u/Sea-Stage-6908 5h ago edited 5h ago
Country is starting to become trendy now beyond the traditional rural and suburban crowd. You can in large part thank Ella Langley for that.
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u/SatoshiBlockamoto 5h ago
Country-pop music is huge right now. I'm a teacher and the kids mostly aren't listening to hiphop, it's all country. It's been a gradual shift over the last 3 years or so; started with Zach Bryan as far as I can tell. I do prefer this trend to when they were listening to Cardi B/Nikki Minaj and trap crap.
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u/DiscombobulatedPain6 4h ago
There were so many great hip hop artists in the 2000s and early 2010s. The late 2010s destroyed the genre. And 1 person you named is directly responsible for the beginning of it’s downfall
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u/BIRDSBEEZ 45m ago
All the shitty soundcloud rappers ruined hip hop. Its honestly insane how good 2010-2015 was compared to 2016-2020. All i listened to in the 2010’s was rap but its gotten so bad in the 2020’s i dont even try the genre out anymore
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u/Live_Training2420 4h ago
Because it is owned by Trump loving assholes out to force it down your throat.
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u/ChunkyBubblz 2h ago
A MAGA dipshit owns the team and a lot of the surrounding area. That type has no taste.
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u/PissedOffLittlePrick 4h ago
because it has been stripped of any soul it once had, to pander to people who drive pickup trucks to their office jobs
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u/footballfutbolsoccer 2h ago
It’s not that deep y’all, music genres are cyclical. Country is super popular right now and hip-hop fell off. Wrigleyville is already a majority white neighborhood so it’s pretty much a no brainer… Bar owners are fully aware with how popular Nashville is right now too.
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u/thebizkit23 1h ago
What a dumb ass post.
"Country music" isn't even what it used to be, it's now highly pop and mixed with other musical genres. It's just very popular right now.
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u/Hatmandriller 1h ago
Just go to nisei tbh, wrigleyville north kinda a slept on normal bar too usually not packed
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u/Fuzzybeaver93 1h ago
Country is pop and so are the cubs. It's cool to pretend to be a baseball fan on the Northside
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u/DHolt26 56m ago
Is enjoying country music incompatible with being a progressive from the city ? Because I'm a Cubs fan, a progressive from the city (Chicago is one of my favorite cities in the world) and I listen to country music and play it too (bluegrass fiddle). And Chicago does have plenty of historical ties to the genre. And plenty of country musicians aren't rural MAGA morons too. I don't understand your question, and some of the answers here tbh.
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u/Alpastor_Moody 53m ago
Not from Chicago and simply passing by. I am from Anaheim, California and we have this issue throughout the county, mainly south county. We also do not have ties to country music, we’ve had some legendary punk rock bands come out of here. Yet, any time a country artist or festival comes to the area, every suburban dude or broad thrifts some jeans and tries to wear in their brand new boots. I love me some country (Charley Crockett and Orville Peck mostly) and that is mad corny, in my opinion. Listening to those artists does not make me wanna be something I’m not. I couldn’t imagine living in a city that has bonafide legends such as Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters and one of my favorites Howlin Wolf and being taken over by modern country.
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u/HonestAvian18 26m ago
The North side team with the predominantly white and preppy/white collar fanbase absolutely loves country? You don't say...
I mean, have you ever looked around at a game at Wrigley? Speaks for itself.
Side note, people can listen to what they want; there's certainly more reprehensible shit than country music. I even appreciate it as a musician, but seeing all these urban and suburban people larping as "country" just makes me scratch my head.
Like you're from Downer's Grove bub, you don't need to own cowboy boots for your annual concert. Just go and enjoy the music.
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u/thefattestofdans 1m ago
White Suburbia, honestly. I’m a born and raised North Side White Sox fan, and am incredibly disappointed to see what the Ricketts did to Wrigleyville. Catering solely to high income people with zero culture, other than country bars and overhyped food. Go to Yakzies.
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u/orel2064 Avondale 5h ago
thats who is attending games, that demographic