"No One Else On Earth"-Wynonna Judd

When did it become cool to say that you listen to everything "except rap and country"? When did these two genres fall into such disfavor, at least with the people I'm talking to?

To figure that out, we first have to look at the people I'm talking to. Let's just say for the sake of argument that the majority of HYPOTHETICAL people I'm having these conversations with are white, politically liberal, middle to upper-middle class, college-educated, and live in cities. I probably have a total of, like, two black friends. HYPOTHETICALLY. I have a lot to say about the rap/hip-hop issue, but that's a conversation for another day. What I want to talk about this time around is why the majority of the people I associate with on a daily basis hate country music.

I want to first admit something shameful. When people tell me that they don't like or listen to country, I often stick up for the genre in the most pathetic of ways. "I actually sort of like it," I offer carefully, "but--you know. Only the good kind." I assume the listener knows what I mean: Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline, all of the classic stars that time has redeemed. But not POPULAR country. Nothing, of course, that they would play on the RADIO.

The war against pop country is just as much about race and class as the war on rap, but not as many people will talk about it. While someone might reasonably say, "Yeah, I just don't like the way most of the rap artists I've heard treat women in their songs" or "I don't like the culture of violence," the main complaint against current country seems to be more along the lines of, "It just sucks." Apparently everyone agrees on this point, and I didn't get the memo.

What I think is going on here is, at least partly, our idea of who this music is for. It's not made for us. It's for white trash.

"White trash" is an epithet that has always made me massively uncomfortable. The way some people can say it like it's no big deal baffles me. I will admit that I have an ongoing flirtation with offensive words ("gay" and "retarded" are two that I'm particularly ambivalent about) but this one just gives me the creeps. I think it's the first word, "white" (which assumes that we all know who the other sort of trash is) combined with the second, "trash" (and if referring to a human being as a piece of garbage isn't cruel, I don't know what is). So, we assume that the primary audience of this music is ignorant and poor and has no class and therefore we don't want to be associated with them. We are elitist assholes. End of story.

But I don't actually think that's the end of the story. Because we're talking about a group of potential voters, and they're powerful! They could make it impossible for us to get married, or have abortions. They could get us into wars that we don't agree with. For real! That shit is serious! So in that sense, our fear is justified. As much as we try to make country music look small and ridiculous, we have to acknowledge that it has political power, like any popular (and unpopular) art does. So really it comes down to the word that Democrats would be smart to reclaim, which is "values." We don't feel that country music reflects our values. The same way I feel fratty listening to reggae (despite the fact that the originators were not frat boys) we might feel listening to country as if we are polishing our gun collection, waiting for our pregnant daughter's boyfriend to come home so that we can give him a talking to (or, alternately, take him fishing).

What I am going to suggest is that this mental picture is something we ought to challenge if we want to enjoy country music. "Now, why would one want to do something like that?" you are very likely asking. Like developing a taste for beer or whiskey or coffee, it's only worth the effort if you think the work will eventually be rewarding. I believe that it can be, and I want to tell you why. But since I have to, like, go to work and stuff, I'm going to do that part tomorrow.

In the meantime, enjoy this badass song by Wynonna Judd. The video is pretty dated, but the song is killer.

open your mind