The Country Music Renaissance
Header by Sydney Hanson
A couple of years ago, the extent to which I listened to country music was if I turned the radio on to the wrong channel. For the most part, I entirely rejected the country genre, diminishing it to songs about trucks, beer, and girls drinking beer on top of a truck (or something like that). However, in recent years, country has continuously been one of the top genres I listen to, and I am not alone.
Country music is facing a resurgence in popularity, with the top 10 on the billboard charts continuously having at least one country song present. The most surprising part of this is that the songs re-occurring on the charts are no longer the ones with endless promotion and formulaic production that usually helps country hits sneak into the pop radio charts (take, for example, Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night”). Artists such as Zach Bryan and Oliver Anthony are now present on the charts, with songs played on acoustic guitars and lyrics that steer away from generic pop country clichés. These songs talk about ordinary life and the trials and tribulations that are born out of it. They are bringing back the country genre as we once saw it at the height of artists such as Johnny Cash, who sang about the working man and the vices he faced. Songs of this nature are representative of a bigger country music renaissance.
Country music has had a long history, ebbing in and out of popularity and mixing with numerous
other genres, such as folk and rock. Country music as we know it now, intertwined heavily with pop, is more recent, having gained popularity in the 1990s and early 2000s. However, the country music that artists such as Zach Bryan pull inspiration from, gained popularity in the 50s and 60s, with Johnny Cash and the rest of the Highway Men (Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson) at the forefront of the movement. My grandfather, Dave Ducharme, is now, and was then, a big fan of Cash. When I asked him why he liked Johnny Cash so much he told me that Cash sang about problems in the world that my grandfather saw around him. My grandfather grew up in a farming town in the 40s and 50s and no matter how sheltered or wealthy your upbringing was, you saw people facing financial hardship, drug addiction, and alcoholism. The world Cash described through his songs reflected how my grandfather and many others saw the world. This may be one of the reasons why Cash’s version of country fell out of favour for a more upbeat, generalizable pop country movement. As the middle class increased, one could grow up separated from people who were facing those hardships. Therefore, what Cash and other artists sang about no longer reflected their own lives but also did not reflect what they saw in society. Therefore, a general “Trucks! Girls! Beer!” was much more relatable and successful in the charts. However, that is starting to change. Currently, there are huge income inequalities in Canada and many other nations. The cost of living has risen tremendously, and people are struggling to keep up. Now, for the first time, a lot of the hardships that people face (what Cash sings about) are becoming more apparent in society as the division between the upper class and the middle and lower classes widens. Therefore, songs that tell tales of hardship are now back in favour.
The extent to which country music is back in its 1960s form can be seen in the success of Oliver Anthony’s Rich Men North of Richmond. Anthony is not a mainstream country singer; he isn't even signed to a label, yet his aforementioned song went number one on the Billboard charts. The song doesn't rely on any big hooks or bridges, but more simply, an anger-fueled political message to get Anthony’s point across. This is why it resonated with enough people to go number one on the Billboard charts. Anthony sings about working long, hard hours for “bullshit pay”. He sings the sentiments that many are feeling now as the price of living has shot up, with minimum wage and average salaries staying relatively the same. However, the song does misplace anger, with claims of unfair allocation of welfare provisions by the government. But all the same, the success of the song demonstrates the economic position most people are now in and their frustrations with how little they feel they can do about it.
With that being said, as the cost of living goes up, people are now finding pleasure in a more simple, cost-effective, life. We see this with the rise in homesteading on social media platforms, encouraging people to return to a life of less consumerism. These videos are generally set to folk country songs, with Tyler Childers being the main voice behind them (does the success of “Jersey Giant”, “All Your’n”, and “Feathered Indians” ring a bell). One of the most popular songs trending from Childers currently is “Way of the Triune God”, with Childers singing the lyrics “I don't need the laws of man, to tell me what I outta do”. Parallel to Anthony’s political statement, Childers also insinuates rejection of governmental rules and, more generally, societal rules that have been placed on individuals. Country songs that have blown up on Tik Tok also often center around the common theme of not needing a lot of materialistic items to be happy. Take Zach Bryan’s, “Smaller Acts”, for example. Bryan sings about a girl that does not need much to be happy, as “All the money in the world couldn’t make her smile/She prefers things that are worthwhile/Like small towns, that old style, and smaller acts.” While artists have been suggesting through music that all you need is love to be happy for a very long time (at least since 1967, when The Beatles released “All You Need is Love”), the popularity of songs that turn away from consumerism to highlight the simple pleasures of life are also a reflection of the current economic status, as well as the possibility that people are becoming sick of the overconsumption that has been seen in the past few decades.
All in all, the rise of folk country is part of a larger movement that focuses on songwriters rather than performers (see Noah Kahan, the current voice of folk music). As the internet makes everything seem increasingly fake and the ultra-rich continue to flaunt wealth, it is refreshing to hear authenticity on the charts. I, for one, hope the country music renaissance is here to stay.
