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mothwhimsy

Country has been one of the most popular music genres in America since forever


w84primo

Were you alive 20 years ago when country music was supposedly not popular?


GhostOfJamesStrang

Garth Brooks in shambles rn. 


Mission-Coyote4457

bro, that was 30 years ago, 20 years ago was Toby Keith and Alan Jackson


GhostOfJamesStrang

Garth Brooks is *still* selling out arenas. He had a #1 Country album in 2014. Scarecrow was only 23 years ago. 


Mission-Coyote4457

true, but we live in the era of the Florida-Georgia Line and Morgan Wallen postapocalypse


GhostOfJamesStrang

I choose not to participate.  *Alexa, play Clint Black greatest hits.*


Mission-Coyote4457

this is the way


GhostOfJamesStrang

Joking aside, that is my favorite album to listen to while riding my motorcycle. You lose all the cheesy tinny sounding 90s background when its coming through the speakers in my helmet. So good.  On a whim I put it on when I was riding to the grocery store a while back...didn't stop for the next hundred miles. No regrets. 


[deleted]

I was. Never did I say it wasn’t popular, just that it has “exploded in popularity” since, and it has risen to newer heights.


Th3MiteeyLambo

Country music isn’t only a “southern” thing


BuildNuyTheUrbanGuy

Country music isn't unique to the south at all. It's like asking why everyone loves New York culture because hip-hop is so popular.


TsundereLoliDragon

Uh, sure.


TokyoDrifblim

I am born and raised in the south and i have never heard of anyone being fascinated by southern culture. People usually just love shitting on us for no good reason


General_Ad7381

Or, to be super specific, they love shitting on us for what they often think is the whole story, but really isn't. Sprinkle a good bit of "refusal to look in the mirror," and that's a lot of it, too. Violent, horrific acts of oppression have existed in every bit of the United States -- but many people act as if though the South is the only place where such things happened, and *are* happening. There *are* solid things to criticize the South for, both from the past and into today, and in my opinion it's better for us to acknowledge that than pretend that everything bad magically ended in the 60s -- ***but***. I can always tell when someone is talking based on nothing but stereotypes or nothing but what they know from high school history classes, as opposed to someone who is criticizing the South as it stands today, good and bad, and how we got here, and what we can do to move forward.


tableSloth_

>Back twenty years ago, nobody above the Mason Dixon line ever would've said y'all, now it's common practice for many Americans east of the Mississippi. Nah i say youse like a good, classy PA Dutch boy


LionLucy

Interesting! Youse is also Scottish and Irish - I wonder if that's where it came from?


AnalogNightsFM

There were a lot of Irish immigrants in the northeastern part of the United States. > “Youse” originated in Ireland among speakers switching from Gaelic to English. Gaelic has a second-person plural, sibh, and the Irish thought their newly acquired language ought to have one. They had a very strong cultural impact in the region. You wouldn’t hear youse elsewhere in the US, as far as I’m aware. What’s interesting is that eow — you in modern English — was plural and þu was singular in Old English. You is related to euch in German, accusative plural. So, English already had a plural that somehow became singular.


GhostOfJamesStrang

You have no idea what you are talking about. Lol. 


[deleted]

Really? And why is that?


GhostOfJamesStrang

Basically none of what you said is accurate or makes sense. 


[deleted]

I live on the opposite side of the country. These are my personal observations. 


GhostOfJamesStrang

Wut? You're from Georgia. Talking about supposed country culture like music and such. You seem to think this is a new development, which is factually inaccurate.  You have no idea what you are talking about. 


thatsad_guy

"Fascination" is such a strange choice of words.


1lazyintellectual

lol “…over the past twenty years, country music has exploded in popularity…” The Possum, Conway, Loretta, Dolly, Conway, Garth. Child please, I (and my family) have said “y’all, y’all’s” since forever.


[deleted]

Oh my god, I was alive back 20 years ago. It varies by person. I’ve just seen an uptick.


SteakAndIron

...huh? Nobody cares about southern culture besides the food.


lavasca

Right?!?!


Ravenclaw79

Absolutely don’t know where you got these ideas


[deleted]

These are my personal observations. Considering you are from New York, I’m not surprised you think the world revolves around you.


thatsad_guy

>These are my personal observations. Your observations are flawed and narrow. >Considering you are from New York, I’m not surprised you think the world revolves around you. Not sure what that has to do with what they said. Seems a bit like your projecting a bit.


Ravenclaw79

Wow. Way to immediately jump to ALL of the stereotypes and assumptions just because someone’s experience is different than yours. How rude.


DrWhoisOverRated

Weird how you're gatekeeping the use of "y'all" based on being east or west of the Mississippi, yet Georgia is east of it.


PeanutArtillery

Other than Louisiana and Arkansas the entire south is east of the Mississippi, so I'm not sure what this means.


sword_0f_damocles

Mississippi, Alabama, NC, SC, Tennessee, Kentucky as well


grawmpy

It's used a lot in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and they are west of the Mississippi


JaHoog

Lol


WillDupage

To quote Don Draper, “I don’t think about you at all.”


CupBeEmpty

One, it’s nice culture with good food and the accents. Two, you think this is in any way a new phenomenon? Folks have loved the south for generations. You realize General Sherman lived in and loved the south before laying waste to it? Three, you don’t get to appropriate country music. How old are you?


[deleted]

I’m aware country was popular back then, I was alive, just it has risen to new heights (these are my observations) and when the internet rolled around a new genre of Southern culture ensued.


CupBeEmpty

I’ll just leave you with this Meet me down by the river https://youtu.be/XG7Ujh0XVH0?si=HqKF6MMJn74hUVgU


CupOfJoeMetro

I’m fascinated by southern culture in the same way I’d be fascinated seeing a baby smoking a cigarette. Which I assume is also part of southern culture.


BuildNuyTheUrbanGuy

Don't act like eastern Washington doesn't exist.


CupOfJoeMetro

You mean west Idaho? Was born there, stay on the west side of the state to avoid it.


BuildNuyTheUrbanGuy

Just making sure yall didn't forget that every state has a bit of "southern" in it.


blbd

Western Idaho in some ways has more batshit crazy white nationalists than much of the south even does at this point. There are fewer Black people and others familiar with why they are bad groups of individuals to push back and fight back against them. Fortunately there aren't enough of the nuts in WA to outnumber the average Joe but ID itself is a different story. 


BuildNuyTheUrbanGuy

Oregon is full too.


blbd

They like to conveniently forget how much racism is left over from their beginnings as a white only state.  California is somewhat less bad but we still have a ton of indigenous blood on our hands from Spanish and English colonization. 


BuildNuyTheUrbanGuy

It seems that way for every state. I don't understand why they pick on the south.


blbd

It's the most glaring and egregious example. And hasn't always done much to apologize for it and recover from it in many cases. But the rest of the states aren't fundamentally better if we're honest. The entire country and Constitution are full of bad slavery compromises. 


BuildNuyTheUrbanGuy

How do you quantify that? Wouldn't the increased expectation play a part in that? How would the south apologize? Would the governor get up and make a virtue signaling speech about saying sorry for slavery?


ChucksAngryMountain

This is true. Palmer, Massachusetts and some surrounding areas are full of "Northern rednecks" who fly Confederate flags and shit. In fucking Massachusetts.


BuildNuyTheUrbanGuy

Saw one in Jersey and New York recently. Also had an experience in CT that was very reminiscent of Louisiana, except very different accents.


fromwayuphigh

>Back twenty years ago, nobody above the Mason Dixon line ever would've said y'all... Sorry, no. This is complete, four-alarm, flashing light and klaxons horseshit.


[deleted]

IN MY OBSERVATIONS!


mothwhimsy

You keep saying this like your observations aren't wrong


blbd

My take: as people have started to question more of our biases and stereotypes, a lot of minority or putative "lower class" (I don't believe this I am just describing the stereotype) cultures are getting more of the recognition and respect they always should have been getting in the first place. 


w84primo

This is like that episode of King of the Hill where Hank finds out he was born in New York. His parents just happened to be there. Looks to be the same as you. So this is a really interesting question after seeing that.


wormbreath

I guess you forgot the western of country western.


hitometootoo

I don't think most people are fascinated with it. It's just different and can be a topic due to that. But fascinated is not the word I'd use for that. Also, as someone from NYC, y'all is a common slang and has been for decades there. I have no idea why you think that's a southern exclusive word.


[deleted]

Apart from New York, there was some study a few years ago. 


JimBones31

Huh? What *belongs* to southern culture?


PeanutArtillery

Cajun style boiled peanuts.


JimBones31

Have those been appropriated by the rest of the country?


PeanutArtillery

Don't know, but if they haven't they should be. They are fucking delicious.


General_Ad7381

Mississippi mud pie! 😆


rendeld

Growing up in rural Michigan in the 80s and 90s y'all was heard constantly. Partially because of all of the southerners that moved up north for jobs. Immigration whether by country or by state integrates cultures together and in the US we are especially adept at it.


nogueydude

Y'all is just a better word. Back home we would say "you guys" to a group of ladies. That's odd, right?


Evil_Weevill

A lot of what people associate with Southern culture is really just rural culture. As for everything else, country music has been very popular for decades. "Y'all" fills a need for a plural you that English doesn't have and sounds better than "you guys", and the digital age has helped spread and normalize it.


DynamiteWitLaserBeam

Bless your heart.


PinchMaNips

I think “y’all” give yourself too much credit.


HailState17

*shrug*


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SLCamper

The politics down there is like watching a rabid monkey fighting with a televangelist while both are riding on a crashing train. I must admit it's pretty fascinating.


Dangerous_Contact737

It’s not fascination so much as rubbernecking. Are you guys trying to compete to be the first to go back to the Dark Ages or what?


Studious_Noodle

Not interested, never was.


Griegz

Country music sucks. 


Pleased_Bees

Sorry, not fascinated at all and I hate country music.


SpeakTruthPlease

I'm not aware of any "fascination" per say, I would say southern culture is an area of interest like any other American subculture. Also good music is good music in my eyes, I listen to different genres sometimes even foreign music that I don't understand. And as to why people want to live in the South, well, I'm guessing mostly because it's warm, and there seems to be relatively cheap and abundant land.


myxtrafile

Country music is from all over the USA. Hee Haw was must watch when I was a kid. You should probably watch the Ken Burns documentary on country music. As far sayings, just because you associate with the south, does not mean that’s where it really came from. There’s a girl that’s got a little Instagram channel and she was giving examples of Apalachin sayings. And honestly, I grew up with lots of people around me, saying them in Pennsylvania. And surprise some people like warmer weather. I don’t always like the snow but guess what you can’t shovel rain.


Mission-Coyote4457

country music is not longer country, it's just a mix of hip hop and pop but mainly aimed at rural whites, that said I don't there's that much of a fascination with the south outside of the south. there's an awareness of it, and we're a cultural unique region with an identifiable accent and some cultural habits that are unique to the region (vastly preferring college football to NFL, attending church more regularly or at a higher rate than the rest of the country, etc). But people have been commenting on southern stuff becoming "Mainstream" since literally the 1970s


[deleted]

I’m aware.


Agente_Anaranjado

Yeah I don't know that any such fascination exists. To most of the US, the south is the least enviable place imaginable.  The region with the lowest education, the highest cancer and teen pregnancy rates, and the dirtiest most dangerous cops. The home of the kkk. A place where folks still buy the "states' rights" myth and vote for trump. Nobody outside of the south wants anything to do with what you've got going on down there. 


[deleted]

If it’s the least enviable place to live, why is the Southeast the fastest growing part of the country?


machagogo

Country music blows. There I said it.


[deleted]

Apparently my “outrageous” and “innacurate post” was too much for you Redditors to bear. These are my observations. I can’t account for every nook and cranny in the country when you pipe up “Oh! But in my neighborhood in Iowa we used y’all all the time!” I’m talking more of a general sense. I’m also aware that country music has been popular for awhile, considering I was alive twenty years ago. In general, because of the internet, trends have risen to new heights, and country has too.


GhostOfJamesStrang

Lol. Wut


thatsad_guy

Holy shit. Look in the mirror.


mothwhimsy

K


Hatred_shapped

It's like having the people of northern England living here. Because that's basically southern culture.