Why you should listen to country

Essay by SteamboatHigh School, 12th grade December 2006

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I like country music. Many people hear the name country and turn away with scorn. This is understandable, because 99% of what is on the radio is crap. It is super produced pop with twang, and it all sounds the same. I have found the best country music was in the 60's and 70's, the 'Golden Age' of country. Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, and Hank Williams Sr. and Jr. This music is heartfelt, honest, and most of the time, either real sad or real fun. Most music tries hard to get you to relate to it, and uses common experiences such as love, sadness or pulls you in with a good story. No matter who you are or what appeals to you in your music, country has something to offer you.

Many young people don't like country music based entirely on their immersion in the hip-hop culture, and feel like the two cannot co-exist.

They feel like country is for hicks, and therefore bad based on their grasp of hip-hop culture. However, if they were to look and listen a little more deeply, they would see that rappers and country singers have more than they think in common. They both love guns, big trucks, drinking and women. There are numerous country songs that share very similar topics with rap songs.

The song "Momma tried" by Merle Haggard details his slippery slope into a life of crime and life in prison despite his mothers pleading. " Dear Momma" by Tupac, "One more Dance" by Nas, and countless other rap songs detail such a life of crime and mother appreciation. They hardships that many rural poor white people endured and still endure are very comprable to the ghetto that all hardcore rappers claim. food stamps, wellfare and single...