Do you like Country Music?

I don't hate it with a burning passion, but I really don't want to listen to it, at least the poppier stuff that's on TV and radio all the time. It sounds so boring, and when it doesn't sound boring, it sounds really whiny.

But I don't hate it. Rap and hip-hop are the genres that grind on my nerves, with the occasional exception like a handful of Fort Minor songs.

I'm not usually into country music, but I bought this album after hearing a little bit of it on a podcast recently, and it's unbelievably great. If there was anything like this anymore, I would listen to country all the time.

I'm not a huge country music fan but I do like some old and some new stuff. It's when the music is basically pop music with a twang or, at the opposite end, trying way to hard to be stereotypical 'country' music that I really don't like it.

It was worth it coming to this thread just to discover this. It's everything I love about '60s and '70s funk with just enough biting twang.

Love the old stuff: Hank Willians, Faron Young, Kitty Wells, George Jones, Maddox Bros & Rose, Bob Wills, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Charlie Pride, Skeeter Davis, Bill Monroe, Stanley Brothers, Louvin Brothers, Slim Whitman, etc.

I like it, not all of it, but there's some great country stuff out there.

I physically cannot listen to country music. It hurts my brain, also, I hate that "twang" in the singer's voice.

I don't dig country music, but fuck it throw in alittle hip-hop twist..

I can barely stand the Eagles. So no.

I wake up at night to hate that crap!

This is the only large music genre that I have no real appreciation for. I never invested the time to form an opinion beyond "I don't really care for the literal lyrics, the vocal styles, nor the overall complexity." I had a roommate in college who liked talented country artists so I ended up hearing some more variety than I had previously, but I never went out of my way to further explore the genre. For a while it was country and hip-hop as the genres I didn't care about, but now I'm starting to listen to a little more rap and hip-hop here and there. So I guess it's now just country (and contemporary pop).

I grew up in Oklahoma, so I was around it frequently. I do not like it at all, with the exception of Johnny Cash. I mean, really, who doesn't like Johnny Cash?

There are a few country songs I like, and I can tolerate some of the ones I don't. It's when it's about busty blond girls with pigtails and trucks that my ears bleed.

Not a big fan, I grew up around it because my parents used to listen to it constantly during car rides but it never clicked with me.

I like some alt-country and Americana. The big three examples that come to mind would be Wilco, Silver Jews and Okkervil River, though it tends to be more of an interest in folk and alt than actual country. In the more broad sense though, I don't like what I assume most people think of when they think 'country music'. I've got no interest in a Trace Adkins or a Tailor Swift, as the extremely cheesy, love ballad-esque writing over open chords is not something I enjoy.

The brilliant instrumentation of a band like Wilco, or the kind of gritty reality and honesty that someone like Will Sheff or John Darnielle can bring to a similar style of music is what's intriguing. I'm also a fan of some of the more singer-songwriter style music like Bob Dylan and Neil Young have done at points in their massive libraries. Again though, it kind of depends on how broad of a spectrum you're speaking to when you ask about "country music". Pretty much all of the bands and people I've listed don't fit into the typical country music genre, but rather utilize key elements as a jumping-off point of sorts, or use parts of it as another device in a more complex sound; if you count alt and folk, then I do.

I fucking hate country but I'm not going to call someone a hick for liking it

Just Ben Kweller.

Racist barn.

country music is pop or rock music with a southern accent.

All it is!

I like the older stuff.

Most of the new stuff probably wouldn't even be considered country, just pop music with a "southern" twist. Just because a Taylor Swift song has a fiddle in it doesn't mean anything.

I like me some Merle Haggard or Cash and a lot of the older stuff.

The new stuff sounds pretty much like weak top-40 rock, except with a pedal steel beneath it.

And true fact: New country music has more ridiculously gimmicky high-concept song titles/themes than even rap nowadays.

I like some of it, not much. However I really like the female singers. Oi vey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love Neko Case. I like some Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn stuff. That's about it.

Grew up listening to it, so I don't really mind the older stuff. With the exception of Brad Paisley and a few others, I'm not too into the newer ones, as most have said already it's basically southern pop music.

It's fucking terrible.

Toby Keith has some pretty funny songs, but it's also the only country singer I've actually seeked out the content. All other country music I've just heard in passing and it's either garbage or just really boring.

It is literally the worst genre of music. I live in Texas. I physically cannot listen to it without wanting to go on a murder spree. Holy fucking Christ it's so offensively and aggressively bad.

I like country on both ends of the spectrum, but I have no idea how to find country music. The only radio station where I live that plays it plays 40% country and 60% adult contemporary. It doesn't get reviewed/covered by any of the outlets I follow, either. And unlike hip-hop (with XXL and Complex) there's not really an outlet I'm familiar with that covers it with a focus.

I hated country when I was a kid, & used to rip the piss out of my dad one time he played an Emmy Lou Harris track in the car because he was "listening to Dolly Parton music". But I can pinpoint exactly when my opinion of country music changed: GTA San Andreas. That game saw me listening to a lot of stuff that a mostly metal focused young man hadn't really given the time of day to before: cruising through the middle of nowhere with K-Rose on fitted perfectly.

So I went out & bought a "best of Hank Williams" which was fucking brilliant. I mean it's just blues really, with some bluegrass influence, & then guys like Johnny Cash who came later, a lot of their stuff is just between rockabilly & rock'n'roll. It's fucking great. And then I got into a lot of the country/folk rock bands that came out of the hippie scene in the '60s, The Byrds & that sorta thing. But yeah, modern country music really doesn't do it for me. It's got far too much polish. In fact I think the only country artist I like who is under 40 is Hank Williams III. Because when he wants to he sounds an awful lot like his grandaddy, & then other times he sounds like a really angry punk rocker who grew up in a country household, which I guess he is.

I dunno, this is a perfect example of great country. It's a miserable song, but not maudlin, there's real feeling in those words. And I just love that voice.

I like Hank III and of course Cash. And the album where the Supersuckers went country live is really good.

feel the same way about as i do Rap/ Hiphop, i don't actively seek it but appreciate a good one when i hear it, old or new.

I keep a Spotify playlist with some country in it but it's also made up of rockabilly and folk: A Lil'bit Country (Rock & Roll,Rockabilly,Folk)

Some of the subject matter is so ridiculous it's hard to hate it (aka "she thinks my Tractor's Sexy". "She's rockin the beer gut and she ain't ashamed" "i'm all over the road" etc). I wouldn't say I like it, but I do have moods where I listen to it.

No genre does sappy sad songs better than country.

Cash is the only one I like because he was a straight-up fucking rockstar and a country singer. He sang about doing blow and killing his wife and being an all-around degenerate and not giving a fuck. Most country is about ignorant conservative christian bullshit about patriotism and Jesus and how great beer is. But that's their lane and they do a good job at it, I guess. Country fest manages to sell out Gillette Stadium every year so they're doing something right.

Also, fuck this song. Fuck Brad Paisley's white guilt and fuck LL Cool J. That verse wouldn't have been acceptable in the '80's. He needed to quit rapping in the early '90's, he's a fucking relic now and apparently think rhyming "good" with "hood" is still cutting edge lyricism.

Depends, I like some country singers and groups such as Johnny Cash and Old Crow Medicine Show, but there are some country singers and groups I don't like. I'm not a fan of Darius Rucker's cover of Wagon Wheel and the video screams "GO WATCH DUCK DYNASTY!" Go see it yourself and you'll see what I mean.

I'm from Kansas and currently live in Texas, and I've had to listen to enough of that noise to fill multiple lifetimes. There isn't a single country musician on the face of the Earth that I can stand to listen to.

I like country music ... not that I seek it or anything but I dont mind it playing and do like the sound (but Im a total neophyte about it )

It's terrible. The whole genre is creatively bankrupt and alongside pop music it is one of the easiest cash grab genres in music. The only time I can ever tolerate country music is when it's playing in the background at a party. It just seems to fit better than most other music for some reason.

I find it to be mostly awful. There are a couple exceptions, mostly songs written 50+ years ago, but that's about all I can stomach of the genre. It appears to me as a music genre founded on stupidity and willful ignorance.

After watching The Wire I've wanted to check out Steve Earle because this song was catchy as fuck.

That's about the extent of my interest in country.

There is no genre of music that I have a blinding hatred for that even approaches the dislike I have for country music. It's not even that I really dislike any of the artists in particular or the people that listen to their music, just something about hearing country music makes me want to punch the radio until it stops.

I don't know if you can really even divide it into just old stuff vs. new stuff. Most modern country is radio trash and I find its sound is completely horrible, but there are people out there who actually do make quality country music right now. I was pretty big into Ryan Bingham recently. I don't like his new album much, but the first few he put out are a good example of someone doing country the right way.

Hank Williams, Johhny Cash, and Townes Van Zandt are really the only older country artists I care about. A lot of stuff influenced by country is some of my favourite music, like Neil Young, Fleetwood Mac and The Band. I think country has so many good qualities that really shine when they're done right, but the stuff on the radio and tv has really smeared its name.

I enjoy the sound of a banjo playing. But I rarely seek out country music.

I don't hate it but it's not the type of music I would like to listen too. ( I will however give anything a fair shot)

country music is alright. the mass market pop-country that gets radio play is steamy bull piss.

The old stuff is awesome. Nowadays (by which I mean the last 30 years) it's either forgettable pop music with a twang or such overly-patriotic opportunistic bullshit that it makes me nauseated. Of course, like all genres, there's the occasional song that I enjoy, but I'll never intentionally seek out modern country. More than anything else, it's just dull.

It all depends, Catch me on the right day I'll listen to Johnny Cash.

I had a brief country music phase back in my youth, but I learned better. I can't listen to most country music nowadays, particularly when the infuse pop into the mix. Bluegrass, however, I can listen to that on occasion.

@sanity Hey, when you say rural Pennsylvania, are you talking like just far enough outside of Philly to spot deer in my backyard Pennsylvania or holy fuck I'm in Potter County and nobody has any teeth left Pennsylvania?

I like a few artists but generally I think most of it is garbage, and I tend to like the older country rather the newer stuff