#Go to old town road skin

His pop-sounding megahits and his wacky flying over arena stages on a wire in his way-too-tight Wranglers made my skin crawl. Then the 1990s brought us Garth Brooks, more commonly known as just Garth, who I originally thought was all hat and no cattle, surely the final nail in the honky-tonk coffin. But the truth is, bluegrass had been around for only about 20 years at the time. And of course there was the great вЂњfolk scareвЂќ of the 1960s, which threatened to kill off traditional bluegrass. Willie and Waylon ushered in a more hard-core вЂњoutlawвЂќ country in the late вЂ70s, but then in 1980, John Travolta rode into town on a mechanical bull in вЂњUrban Cowboy,вЂќ and traditional country music took another hit. Now itвЂ™s considered a groundbreaking classic. Traditionalists got bent out of shape in 1962 when Ray Charles recorded вЂњModern Sounds in Country and Western Music,вЂќ which took the genre and transformed it into something more approachable for a mass audience.

Ever since the Carter Family made their famous Bristol recordings in 1927, people have been arguing about what country music is, was and should be. How did we get to this strange, alien land where thereвЂ™s a country-awards show that honors pop-music teeny-boppers and a lot of the songs arenвЂ™t really country by even the stretchiest definition? It didnвЂ™t happen overnight. In 2009, Steve Tuttle wrote for Newsweek that country today just isnвЂ™t the same: University of New Hampshire Professor David Finkelhor dubbed the phenomenon of the current generation freaking out the next generation is weak or not what the last generation was as Juvenoia.Д¬ountry music has their own version of Juvenoia: a fear the next generation of country music isnвЂ™t really country or not what it once was. ThatвЂ™s not too shocking, as nostalgia overwhelms objectivity. Billboard and so many others say that Lil Nas XвЂ™s вЂњOld Town RoadвЂќ is not a country song.ДЇor nearly as long as country music has existed, critics have lampooned that todayвЂ™s country isnвЂ™t really country.

Somehow thatвЂ™s not enough to make it country. The most popular song in America features country artist Billy Ray Cryus and is about riding a horse, overcoming opposition and longing for home.

Go to old town road