A Thought on Country Music

I find it interesting that rock and pop artists have been popping up more and more in country music in recent months and years. Just to name a few, The Eagles, Jewel, Sheryl Crow, and Darius Rucker (Hootie!) have all recently had songs on country radio. I suppose there are two possible explanations for this (not to say that they are mutually exclusive):

1. When rock/pop stars are washed up and can no longer succeed in their original genres, they move to country music because its really easy to be a country star. After all, all country fans are dumb yokels.

2. Pop and rock are so image-centric that when you reach a certain age, you can no longer be a mainstream star in these genres, regardless of the quality of your music. Country fans, on the other hand, care only about the quality of the music produced, regardless of the age or sex of the person producing it. (See 55-year-old George Strait touring last summer with 17-year-old Taylor Swift.)

I've thought about this for a while, but I've never had a way to test these competing theories. Now, a possible litmus test has emerged: I just heard that Jessica Simpson will be performing at a big country music festival in rural Wisconsin later this summer. If she does attempt to move into country music and if she succeeds, clearly theory #1 is true. If she fails, however, there's hope for theory #2 yet.

(Also, for what it's worth, I'm a fan of Hootie's new country song, "Don't Think I Don't Think About It.")

(Also, despite the anti-Hootie backlash that emerged in the late-1990's, Cracked Rear View was a phenomenal album. I just heard "Let Her Cry" on the radio this morning, truly a timeless song.)