The Identity Crisis of Country Music

Country Music, a wide known genre in music, is often associated back then with hillbilly songs, cowboys songs, and other ballads which are accompanied with string instruments like acoustic guitars, banjos and many more. Recently, this traditional-like music is undergoing various and diverse transitions and bonded with different elements from other genres like sounds from electric rock and roll guitars, electronic music often seen in pop music, and rap verses from hip hop songs. This brought a debate which had modern and traditional country music fans as the opposing sides.

The debate is said to have originated back in 2013, from the conflict between Luke Bryan and Zac Brown. The conflict between the two brought attention to various country music fans who immediately took sides in the conflict, which practically brought to light, the 'identity crises' of country music.

The said crisis was further emphasized when various country icons have also taken part and shown different side of them which infuriated some country fans. On January 23, The Voice Coach, Blake Shelton, garnered various negative feedbacks from classic country fans as he stated that nobody cares about 'grandpa music' of 'old farts' and further mocked them by saying they're 'jackasses'. This infuriated not only the classic country music fans, but also the artists themselves.

Various songs that were released also took their part and contributed in the timeline of country music. Blake Shelton's "Boy's Round Here', although it reached the top of the ranking, garnered different negative feedbacks criticizing the rap-infused style of the mentioned country song. There are also women who took part in the country music crisis, but impact on it in a positive way. Women like Kacey Musgraves and Laura Bell are said and hoped to be the ones who'll break the confusing journey of country music today. There's also the song 'Titty's Beer' which even though, didn't garner fame, still made traditional and classic fans remarked that country music is getting dumber and dumber as days and years gone by.

Also, the song of Luke Bryan, 'That's My Kind of Night' further earned many controversial comments. The song talks about his truck and many more which in the eyes of many, is the trend of country music which is going down.

Many events happened and are still happening, which practically makes confusion and of what country music really is. This is further emphasized as conflicting sides from the class country and modern country music emerged. Incorporated with many elements from different genre, is it really a good thing or not? That's probably for you to decide.