Country music gets a bad rap

By Pat Hogan
Collegian Editor
March 22, 2006

“I like pretty much almost every type of music, except country, of course.”

I winced when I heard the girl sitting at the table behind me at the B&G say this. I immediately felt the urge to turn around and ask her about the “of course.” Why is it a foregone conclusion that if you have an appreciation for all kinds of music, country music would be the only one to escape your eclectic tastes?

It wouldn’t have been the first time I’ve defended country music. It’s a task I’ve taken on multiple times among my friends. The immediate conclusion they draw when they hear me questioning their statements on the genre is that when they don’t see me on weekends, I don boots and a cowboy hat and head to dives south of the border (of Pennsylvania, that is).

The fact of the matter is that I’m really not that crazy a country fan. Long Island is hardly the heartland. To be frank, I don’t even know all that much about the genre. I once wrote a short story for a fiction writing class that contained a character who was a big country music fan. The professor completely called me on the fact that it was obvious this character (and the author by extension) knew next to nothing about country music. The professor is from Texas, after all.

What I’m reacting to when I defend country is what I perceive as ad hominem attacks. Most of those who disparage the music rarely have anything critical to say about the music itself; they seem to be more interested in who is making the music and who is listening to it.

A kind of approved discrimination exists involving the south and mid-west, the two bastions where country music is the most popular. Usually when I ask the question “What’s wrong with country music?” the response is that it’s music for “inbred hicks.”

Can you imagine the reaction if a person applied such generalizations to a more racial category? They would be labeled as racist, and rightly so. But when it comes to country music, it’s okay to disparage it in such a way because the people who listen to it are mainly white and not from around here. I don’t like this, and that’s the primary reason I (poorly) defend country music every chance I get.

I refuse to believe that this city is filled with nothing but hatred for country music and its listeners. There has to be some fans out there. I come from New York, and the only exposure we have to country music is the occasional Faith Hill single or when some DJ decides to pay some lip service to Johnny Cash. You guys have at least one country radio station, so there have to be some of you out there.

Whoever you are, speak up. Defend your genre, because I’m getting tired of doing it for you.

hoganp1@lasalle.edu