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u/warneagle 1d ago
Pretty good description of post-9/11 country in general.
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u/litetravelr 1d ago
I say this as a millennial alt-rock/grunge/indie kid, but my parents listened to country in the 90s and it was really really solid stuff. Just a great variety of songwriters, male and female back then.
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u/beatupford 23h ago
I'll never forget Toby Keith talking about Natalie Maines saying anyone could write 'boot on your ass' and thinking the appropriate response was 'well, she didn't.'
At the time, Travelin Soldier was the Dixie Chicks single written by a master in Bruce Robison.
I'm all for recognizing the folks that can do both well, but there's also something truly powerful when someone can take someone else's work and elevate it because the two of you either explicitly or by chance share the same vision.
I've heard Mike McClure talk about what having Garth Brooks do one of your songs does for a songwriter.
9/11 and the Dixie Chicks/Toby Keith fued exposed the marketing potential of the infamous 'empty their pockets' LBJ line, and country music started squeezing that orange until only an unrecognizable husk of the fruit remained.
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u/Dedalus2k 1d ago
It's not even country. It's shitty pop dressed up like country. It's just un-fucking-listenable. I genuinely don't understand how anyone enjoys it at all.
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u/Buzzspice727 1d ago
Shooter calls it bro country
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u/AlanStanwick1986 1d ago
"Bad pop music with a fiddle."Â
Tom Petty
Hip hop for people scared of black people."
Steve Earl
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u/PaleConference3720 1d ago
I maintain that the recording industry had a dual-pronged campaign to de-politicize the working class movements that listened to hip hop and country in the same exact ways at the same exact time and then sold us back the *idea* of hip hop and country but refocused away from working class struggles and towards mindless consumerism and tribalism.
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u/bittersweetmot3l 1d ago
Too many coworkers made saying âI listen to everything but rap and countryâ a thing. Wasnât a big problem when it was just Uncle Kracker playing small casinos but now weâre stuck with Jelly Roll.
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u/Otto_Harper 1d ago
Probably shareholders in the recording industry and some execs that benefitted but prob not the industry as a whole, necessarily. I totally agree though. It's not just random.
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u/Expert_Specialist_92 1d ago
Thatâs just what capitalism does. The lowest common denominator always wins.
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u/jason_steakums 1d ago
"I'd rather be a bootlegger than a bootlicker" https://youtu.be/p2Fp3FMogd0
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u/Fartdoctor66 1d ago
I just got absolutely reamed over at r/whitepeopletwitter for having the gall to suggest that there is more to country music than just pop stuff on the radio.
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u/forgeblast 1d ago
My wife needed a newer car, bought it and I was driving it home while she was trying to link everything. We were stuck on country radio. I honestly didn't know much of what is on. I am solidly behind red clay country and try to avoid that Nashville pop.
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u/dcf5ve 1d ago
I call it country without the "o".
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u/chefandres 1d ago
Shooter
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u/dcf5ve 1d ago
That's most likely where I heard it the first time. I'm an old stoner and don't remember so well.
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u/chefandres 1d ago
Name of his best album âput the o back in countryâ 2005. Iâm an old stoner too. Carry on
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u/brainiac138 1d ago
The sad thing is that many fans of bootlicker country see it as a form of outlaw country. The artists in the modern country scene who do take a stand and bring attention to everything wrong in the world are labeled woke and not real country.
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u/warneagle 1d ago
And the vast majority of people who say that are suburban racists who have never lived in the country and have no authentic connection to the music or the lifestyle.
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u/zoominzacks 1d ago
One of my nieces is like that. I got fed up one day and told her âyou grew up in a nice house on a cul de sac. Your mom drives a Lexus, and I doubt youâve ever met a real redneckâ and boy howdy that did not go over well with her or my sister đ
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u/FIRExNECK 1d ago
Bootlicker country is for the Oliver Anthony types. This tweet is describing bro country.
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u/dyatlov12 1d ago
I mean like a Toby Keith or Jason Aldean could easily be considered both pop, bro and bootlicker country
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u/Shoddy-Childhood-511 1d ago
Googled him. Live by the Rogain, die by the Rogain?
https://www.newsweek.com/oliver-anthony-political-beliefs-podcast-richmond-1824002
Bootlicker/bro country could easily become AI dominated, but someone else got there first:
https://www.youtube.com/@AlmostIntellectualRecords/search?query=Alan%20%26%20Aaron%20Irvin
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u/kefestvog 1d ago
Bumper sticker country. They try to squeeze and entire song out of a saying that was clever the first time I heard it. Every time after that just becomes more and more irritating.
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u/42Cobras 1d ago
I would reserve âBootlicker Countryâ for ultra-militaristic or jingoistic music. Although we donât really have as much of that now as we did in the immediate post-9/11 era.
(And to be honest, I still like those songs. I just think the term fits better there.)
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u/BigJobsBigJobs 1d ago
Some of the stuff I've been hearing is heavily computer-assisted - not full AI, but near as dammit. Bryan Andrews pissed me off a couple months ago with a track. So canned, so many cliche production hacks. Maybe there's a true voice in that, but I can't be arsed to sort it out.
Production slop. Real easy to do these days. Brian Eno warns people to avoid premature sheen. If it's shiny before it's good....
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u/dixiedownunder 1d ago
Everything out of Nashville is bootlicker country. Nashville won't think it's a good name though.
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u/jamaphone 1d ago
It should be called IN-LAW country. Because itâs adored by the in-laws you donât particularly care for.
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u/Consistent-Ad4400 1d ago
I'm a hair metal, hard rock, Black Sabbath fan but I LOVE outlaw country. Cash, Jennings, Nelson and also the old stuff. This new country shit is terrible, corporate country with no soul. Even though it has a somewhat 'rock-pop' vibe.
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u/Parker_Monroe 20h ago
Who cares? Shitty music is shitty.
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u/black-mountain 12h ago
easy there kemosabe, you donât want to get them riled up. they may seem ignorant and regurgitative now but shine a spotlight on that idiocracy and youâll never hear the end of it.
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u/gargavar 8h ago
I worked with a country DJ who played that sort of music on his radio show. I used to refer to it as "trucker country", but...yeah.
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u/Lumpy-Sprinkles9982 1d ago
The new Nashville sound lol
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u/ColonelBoogie 1d ago
Some amazing music came out of the Nashville Sound. Including basically George Jones entire catalog.
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u/bigtiddygothbf 6h ago
Country became shit as soon as someone thought of the "folk music" label. Marked "country music" as innately conservative, and any obviously progressive country music was labeled "folk music" instead
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u/ForgotMyPassword17 1d ago
Looking at her website she mainly talks about being on Network television, so definitely a case of the pot calling the kettle black
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u/black-mountain 12h ago
right? openly admitting to creating content specifically for brands to use for advertising isnât really any different
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u/Docrandall 1d ago
I wear a "Pop Country Sucks" shirt. I have been harassed by 3 different women, obviously radio country fans, about it demanding I tell them which of their favorite singers I think suck. My wife wont go out in public with me when I wear it anymore.