Question for anyone who doesn't live in the "South"?

[snykymom]

Boston checking in and we have 2 major country music stations and at least 3 country music television stations plus the music choice country station. Country or talk/sports talk is all I generally listen to in my cars.

In fact, country is the fastest-growing segment of the Boston radio market (and I believe the Providence market as well).

 

[pixiewings71]

ok I didn't read all the replies but this thread cracks me up....country in CA? Ummmm yes.....LOL 105.1 KNCI, Sacramento's #1 country, 103.3, Cat Country, 95.7 the Wolf in San Francisco, 95.3 in San Jose, 101.9 also in Sacramento, 92.9 in Petaluma.....and that's not nearly all of them. We never have any problems finding country music to listen while driving, even outside our "comfort" zone. Line dancing is also very very popular out here, I met DBF 7 years ago at a country bar.......we just went line dancing last Saturday. Country is HUGE in CA........and no, it's not just the "mainstream" country acts like Keith Urban or Taylor Swift. I love me some Trace Adkins, Jimmy Wayne, Reba, George Strait......and so many others. My kids like country music too, of course we listen to other genres (I have to, I work in the industry) but country is our main music style.

 

[daisax]

Country's very hot in Boston now, but I grew up here and I don't believe there was a country station until the late 80s. You heard Kenny Rogers and such when they had crossover hits (and there was a LOT of crossover in the Urban Cowboy period) but there weren't whole stations devoted to it.

 

[NotUrsula]

For an int'l perspective, I have a cousin who is a DJ at a country station in the west of Ireland. American Country music is very popular in rural Ireland.

Every few years her station sends her to Nashville to do interviews; a whole group of Irish radio hosts go at once. The performers get a real kick out of trying to decipher the Irish DJs' accents.

 

[Mermaid02]

Maine here.......... Love country!

 

[Pikester]

Small town here in NH and we have a local country station downtown. I use to listen to country back in 91'-95'. Patti Loveless, Reba, Garth, Travis, Lori, Randy plus whoever else was on the radio at that time but I don't listen to it now.

 

[HelenePA]

Ah, c'mon - "Before He Cheats" may be a crossover hit, but it's a country song through and through . And that "Achy Breaky" guy? I heard he has a kid who sings and maybe acts a little?

Barbara Mandrell (and a little bit of George Jones), "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool"

My favorite song when I was small was Elvira

 

[bumbershoot]

I don't know why but this topic is so interesting to me!! Whoever mentioned the thing about Country also being Country Western slipped my mind- good point!

I think it's interesting too. I mean, I grew up in San Jose CA, and there were always "cowboys" around...even with "southern" accents. Now once I moved to SC and started learning the different ways of speaking, i realized that the CA people were likely transplants, or grown children of transplants, from Texas and Oklahoma who had stuck with the accent, fashion sense (hats, boots, etc), and attitude. And music.

To me country western isn't southern, it's ranchers, farmers, etc etc, and there's a ton of that in the West.


As for other areas...isn't Keith Urban from Australia? And Shania Twain is Canadian, right?

And I'm sure that quite a lot of country music sounds like traditional Irish music, and then you could compare line dancing to Irish dancing in a way... I was at a "disco" in the west of Ireland in the 90s, and even though it was euro/techno mainly, the attitude of the dancing felt not very different from the clubs in Spartanburg, even though the music wasn't the same.

(then again, I can also hear the similarities between a Southern accent and a British one, so I'm either onto something or have lost my marbles)

 

[Anne34]

My oldest DD is a huge country fan. There are quite a few country stations here in the Chicago area.

I do occasionally hear country music when flipping the channel, but I really don't know anyone who listens to it! (I'm in my 40's)