I.

Hate.

Country.

Music.

Or at least that’s something I’d’ve said, say, maybe 5 or 6 years ago. And it was true! I hadn’t heard a single song I could identify as “country” that I could stand, let alone “like”.

But it all started with Lil’ Nas X and “Old Town Road”. I think the first time I heard it, I dismissed it without really “getting” it. But when I started hearing and liking other things by Lil’ Nas X, and when one of my favorite YouTube content creators said good things about “Old Town Road” on a stream, I listened again. More out of curiosity than anything. But with more context, I understood “Old Town Road” better. And, dare I say, liked it.

“It’s ironic country music”, I told myself. “It’s ok for me to like that. It’s got the affectations of country music, but it’s not country music in its bones. It’s actually pop if you really think about it.”

I.

Hate.

Country.

Music.

(Except “Old Town Road” because it’s only “ironically” country.)

See? It’s so simple. The world still made sense. And I could listen to it and like it, and admit to myself that I liked it.

And then came Jelly Roll.

It was New Year’s Eve (I don’t remember what year it was), and I was watching New Year’s Rockin’ Eve as I do every year (and plan to this year). And on comes a country artist. I groaned and reached for the mute button. But my friend wanted to hear it. So…

He sang “Need A Favor.” And, it was… good. I liked it.

Try as I might, I couldn’t think of an excuse why I was allowed to like it. And I didn’t listen to anything else by him for a good while, gut when I did, I liked it too.

I.

Hate.

Country.

Music.

(Except that one song by Nas X. And I guess I like that one song by Jelly Roll. But that’s it.)

And I did listen to a little more Jelly Roll and it was surprisingly enjoyable as well. And I still hadn’t resolved the cognitive dissonance when…

Bam! The most recent episode of SNL came on. And the musical guest was Shaboozey.

And since then I have not been able to stop listening to “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” practically on repeat.

And it was a few days before I let the intrusive thoughtsYouTube algorithm win and play me another Shaboozey song. It was “Highway.” And holy shit, it was… if anything better than “Tipsy”.

And I’ve listened to a bunch of Shaboozey since, and his stuff ranges from “actually really good” to “I can’t stop playing it.”

I…

guess I…

kinda… maybe…

like…

country music…

actually?

It’s really surreal. But it’s clearly impossible to continue to believe that “I don’t like country music”.

The jury’s still out on Post Malone’s “I Had Some Help” featuring Morgan Wallen. But honestly, I’m listening to it as I write this to try to form a more solid opinion on it and I can feel it growing on me a bit.

I’m not sure whether I’m changing or country music is. This is all still very new to me.

Maybe I’ve just been racist against country music until I started seeing some less “traditional” country musicians. A part of me is worried the country music I’ve been enjoying lately is going to end up being a gateway drug to the harder stuff like Kenny Chesney’s “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy” and Toby Keith’s “As Good As I Once Was”. But doing research for this Lemmy post, I just listened to a (small) part of each of those two, and I can report I’m at no risk of developing a habit of either of those.

…for now.