Study: Pop Fans the Most Closed-Minded of All Genres, Don’t Reciprocate Love for Country
For many years we’ve heard people say that country music should be thankful for artists such as Taylor Swift and Sam Hunt because they bring new fans to country music who may in turn become country fans, or even start listening to more authentic country in the future. It’s the gateway drug theory applied to music, if you will. Though the idea that Sam Hunt fans would somehow start listening to Waylon Jennings, or even George Strait for that matter always seemed quite circumspect, now a new scientific study validates that doubt, while also revealing pop music fans, not country fans, are the most closed-minded fans of music.
McMaster University, a research university in Ontario, Canada, recently partnered with phone manufacturer Nokia to study the listening habits of music fans in their new Digital Music Lab. The massive project is researching around 20 million song downloads to study how we listen to music. As researchers cull through the crush of data, they have been releasing certain findings to the public that reveal interesting characteristics of listener behavior, including the “exclusivity” of music fans, meaning how likely fans of a certain genre are to have music from another genre in their listening repertoire.
The McMaster University study found that out of all music fans, pop fans were the most closed-minded out of the ten genres ranked. “Indie” fans were seen as the most receptive to listening to other genres. Country fans ranked fourth in the amount of open-mindedness towards other styles of music. The study ranked the open-mindedness of the genres’ listeners:
- Indie
- Jazz
- Folk
- Country
- Classical
- Rock
- Metal
- Rap
- Dance
- Pop
The study also found that fans of certain music were more likely or less likely to be fans of another genre of music. For example, classical fans were more likely to also be jazz fans, and vice versa. However metal fans were less likely to listen to jazz, and jazz fans were less likely to listen to metal.
Then there were some strange anomalies the study called “asymmetrical pairings” where one genre might like another, but that love wasn’t necessarily returned by fans of the other genre. The study found that country fans were also likely to be fans of pop, but pop fans were less likely to be fans of country. In other words, the likelihood of cross pollination of pop fans to country was less likely to happen, but a siphoning off of country fans toward pop was a greater possibility.
Of course there’s exceptions to every rule, and now that country has basically become a subset of pop, its even more interesting to ponder these findings. But the idea that more pop fans are flocking to country because country is fielding more palatable artists to pop fans may be more myth than reality, according to the McMaster University findings.
Royce
August 24, 2015 @ 8:32 am
I grew up on country music through the early 90’s to the early 00’s (my mom would not let us change the station), so discovering different genres wasn’t too hard after coming of age. That said, I was way late on the “discovering new music bandwagon”. I really didn’t start exploring other genres until about five or six years ago. Working for a jazz radio station helped though.
I made a conscious effort to find new music. Actually that what’s brought me here to Saving Country Music. I knew I wasn’t going to find what I was looking for without some help. Nowadays looking outside the realms of Top 40 isn’t hard to do, but I think people don’t like feeling uncomfortable with music. Most of my friends don’t listen to indie, jazz, folk, classical, or country. Of course I am not saying that’s a bad thing either. To each their own. I felt like I needed to make an effort though. There’s tons of music out there and you can surprise yourself. I can’t express the exuberance of finding something that speaks to you.
Dave
August 25, 2015 @ 9:05 am
Here are the artists I’ve seen or am going to see this year:
Garth Brooks, Kacey Musgraves, Don Felder, Buddy Guy, John Mellencamp, Taylor Swift, Dwight Yoakam, Peter Frampton & Cheap Trick, Eagles, Brandon Flowers, The Spinners, Alabama Shakes, Stevie Wonder. I was born in 1974 and grew up listening to ’60s and ’70s rock mostly. I still like a lot of the ’80s music even though there’s a lot of terrible stuff from the era. My mom started listening to country in the mid ’80s and I really started to get into country in the ’90s. I’ve never really listened to jazz but I can appreciate it. I can’t get into newer rap and death metal is just noise to me. I can’t imagine listening to just 1 kind of music though.
Hunter
August 24, 2015 @ 8:38 am
I grew up on Alan Jackson, brooks and Dunn, Garth, Waylon, and Hank jr but I never really liked it much as a kid. I was always a rock/indie fan until about the end of high school. The two songs that really got me into country were Jason Alden “fly over states” and Luke Bryan “all my friends say”. When country started swaying more pop I started seeking out more songs that had a lot of pedal steel. For some reason I just loved that sound. I found artists like Aaron Watson and Jason Boland and from there I’ve found so much good music that I could care less about mainstream country anymore but it’s funny to think that two of the biggest sell outs in country are the ones who got me listening in the first place. (I still think Jason Alden can do a damn good song if he tries to)
Trigger
August 24, 2015 @ 10:39 am
I definitely think there’s stories out there like yours Hunter, that’s why I mentioned in the article that there’s exceptions to every rule, and that’s why you can’t go off of sheer statistics alone. But I do think you’re an exception. I think there’s a certain muster in folks to seek stuff out, while others are content eating whatever they’re fed. I’ve always tried to separate those free thinkers from the herd, because those are the ones who most need to be reached.
Summer Jam
August 24, 2015 @ 5:28 pm
Same here, I grew up in the 90’s, listening to 80’s and 90’s country. It’s what my family listened to and I was basically forced to listen to it. I remember liking a handful of songs, but other than that I wasn’t really into it. When i turned 12 when I hit puberty, I started listening to strictly Top 40 pop music, ya know, back when Top 40 was great and full of real talent. In recent years, since like 2008 or so, I heard songs that I liked from Jake Owen, Trace Adkins, Uncle Kracker, and Big & Rich, and a few other country artists at gas stations and restaurants…..i put alot of their music on my ipod, but I never tuned into country radio or was a real country fan till 2013 when I was forced to listen to it by my fiance. I’d have to say that Jake Owen and Jason Aldean took my greatest interest, I enjoyed them both when I heard them before, so i started looking deeper into country music. Now I’m a huge fan, new and old. I enjoy other genres too, though. But mainly country. Alot of the pop country is good, but I find myself tuning into alot of Alan Jackson and George Strait, as well as other classical artists like Kenny Rogers and Conway Twitty.
E
August 25, 2015 @ 6:27 pm
I had a similar experience to you, Started with Toby Keith, early Jason Aldean, a lot of the guys from the late 00’s and early 10’s got me farther into country, and from there, I started liking a lot of real classic country, and now I’ve found so much music that I love, but I hardly recognize the music as country anymore (if I even do). It was a pretty quick change.
BJones
August 24, 2015 @ 8:38 am
I’ll give pretty much anything a try but other than country, folk, jazz, blues, and classical, I wouldn’t lose too much sleep if everything else dried up and blew away.
Patrick Harris
August 24, 2015 @ 8:40 am
This makes intuitive sense to anyone who grew up in American musical culture in the last 30 years. Country music (just like Southern and rural culture in general) is low-prestige. It is not (and rarely has been) “cool.” I wouldn’t care about that if it weren’t always presenting itself as the the submissive genre and whoring itself out to be “relevant,” as Trigger has often observed.
Hip-hop is also a highly polarizing genre in that sense that many people can’t stand it, and it too has gotten more pop influences as time wears on. But pop has also gotten a lot more hip-hop influences in it; the evolution is bidirectional. There is no equivalent trend in country. Country become more and more pop, but pop does not become more country, because commercial country long ago abandoned any distinctive sound beyond a bad imitation of 80’s rock with a twang, and any sensibility beyond bro-hick clichés. Hip-hop has its own (often quite atrocious) thematic clichés, but at least at has a modicum of self respect as an art form.
TX MUSIC JIM
August 24, 2015 @ 9:00 am
I was always into other types of music. I’ve always loved country but was also into all types of Rock. I loved blues and folk music. Never much of a jazz or classical fan but enjoy Sinatra and a lot of the crooner stuff. Enjoy some more pop oriented stuff like old Buffett and beach boys. I can’t imagine why someone would purposely limit themselves musically. I will admit to not ever developing a taste for rap or hip hop. Sure do love the old Motown stuff though. It’s a shame the most distinctive parts of musical styles like country are being lost to the”mono-genre”.
Jim
August 24, 2015 @ 9:08 am
I think if you identify as someone who listens primarily to pop music you’re probably not putting a lot of effort into finding new music. No offense meant, but it’s very easily digestible. Most blues/jazz/metal/etc fans I know spend a lot of time seeking out the music to listen to. Most pop fans I know just listen to “whatever is on the radio.” When that is your approach to music, country radio can cater to them all they want and go 90% of the way, but the pop audience mostly isn’t going to go the extra 10% to meet them. Even as country does its best to transform itself into “pop music with kind of a Southern accent.”
A friend came out to see me play a gig one time, and I did Hank’s “You’re Gonna Change (or I’m Gonna Leave)” and he LOVED it. I tried to loan him a Hank Williams CD though and he looked at the cover and said, “Not gonna lie, I won’t listen to this.”
Dusty
August 24, 2015 @ 9:30 am
Yeah, I agree with you that for a lot of listeners anything that isn’t pop and played on the radio is considered “work.” Folk, indie, and metal take patience and a few listens to understand the lyrics. Jazz and classical don’t have words and sometimes don’t even have repeating melodies. Good country music takes developing an appreciation for instruments like the steel guitar and idiosyncratic voices like Floyd Tillman, Hank Williams, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, and Dwight Yoakum. I get frustrated with people who ask me to recommend them “new” stuff to listen to, but really just want more songs that sound exactly like the ones that Hollywood and the Top 40 radio have already conditioned them to hear.
Eric
August 24, 2015 @ 2:17 pm
“Folk, indie, and metal take patience and a few listens to understand the lyrics.”
From a strictly sonic standpoint, folk lyrics are very easy to discern since the ambient noise level is minimal. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was significant crossover between the folk and classic country fan bases.
Metal, on the other hand, is the hardest genre when it comes to hearing the lyrics.
Indie lies somewhere in between, though modern indie certainly leans more toward the folk style.
Mike2
August 24, 2015 @ 9:17 am
Just curious, do you know where fans of classic/alt-country fit in this study? Would they have been classified as country, or would they be more in the indie and folk categories?
Trigger
August 24, 2015 @ 10:42 am
That’s a good question. From what I understand about the study, there’s going to be an expansive abstract with tons of numbers released eventually. But as they crunch through those numbers, they’re releasing interesting tidbits they come across. I’m not sure if they made any distinction between mainstream country fans and alt/classic/Americana fans.
Devil Anse
August 24, 2015 @ 9:45 am
I once tried to loan a friend “Metamodern Sounds In Country Music”, but she took one look at the track list and handed it right back, saying, “I’ve never heard any of these songs.” As a musician, I naturally like to discuss music, but since everyone I know is like that, it’s getting difficult to do so.
Mule
August 24, 2015 @ 9:59 am
People like that astonish me. How, logically does she ever hear new music with that attitude? Yes, I know it’s probably “from the radio”, which tells her what to like. I can’t get over that mentality. I guess radio must still wield a helluva lot of power to influence people that way in 2015 and I was a radio programmer and manager of a radio group for 27 years.
Acca Dacca
August 24, 2015 @ 10:38 am
This study strikes me as a bit suspect. Firstly, what type of country music was weighted? Only authentic country, or also pop country? If it was mostly the latter then it makes perfect sense why country would be ranked so high, and that’s because it’s basically everything else these days. Also, the idea of “Indie” music coming out on top is kind of amusing. Just what the hell IS Indie music, anyway? Are there any parameters for the actual music? The status quo seems to be determined more by the artist’s popularity level than anything else.
I’ve not met a whole lot of Indie fans that give REAL country much credit. I had an acquaintance listen to “Turtles All the Way Down” and he told me there was nothing unique about the song, and that the lyrics weren’t progressive at all. It should be noted that I only *like* Sturgill Simpson; he’s nowhere near one of my favorite artists, and I’ve only listened to each of his albums about three times each. But I know that he was trying some of his own stuff with his newest album and particularly the opening track. One doesn’t have to like it, but it baffles me how someone couldn’t at least SEE how different that song is in country, particularly if you’re an outsider that only thinks our songs are about crying in your beer, tailgating and dogs.
Trigger
August 24, 2015 @ 10:45 am
This study is in its infant stages, and this was just one preliminary finding of the stody as they continue to crunch the massive amounts of data. I agree that a more specific breakdown of both “country” and “indie” fans would have been helpful, but I don;t know that this materially changes these preliminary findings. Hopefully in the future we get more hard facts from the study.
I took “indie” to mean basically indie rock as opposed to mainstream rock since the data is identified by songs as opposed to who listeners identify as.
Nadia Lockheart
August 24, 2015 @ 11:55 am
There are MANY I know who listen mostly to “indie music” who are absolutely closed-minded about country music entirely.
As much as I highly respect TheNeedleDrop, for instance, Fantano NEVER reviews albums listed as country. I can’t recall ever hearing him explain why that is, so won’t try and put words in his mouth, but this is a tendency also shared by countless other sites that review àlot of “indie” albums like Conséquence of Sound, Sputnikmusic, Pitchfork to a slightly lesser extent, etc.
Slant Magazine has more of the right mix, I think. You see them review plenty of “indie” releases, but don’t turn their backs on country releases.
Acca Dacca
August 26, 2015 @ 9:20 am
This is exactly what I’m referring to. With “indie” fans, music is just political. As I alluded to above, indie isn’t a sound or aesthetic, merely contractual status that somehow guarantees quality in the face of the mainstream. I respect artistry as much as the next music fan, but such a mindset is ignorant and insular. PLENTY of mainstream artists are on independent labels, and certain indie artists have moved to majors. Half the time neither move makes a difference in the artists’ sound (other times it completely changes who they are).
Nonetheless, I resent the fact that indie “fans” came out on top here. They already pat themselves on the back for being “cultured” and more “receptive” to art than the general ignorant populace; they don’t need validation of those mindsets, particularly when they don’t show it themselves.
JacobB
August 24, 2015 @ 10:46 am
That doesn’t surprise me at all. Most indie fans probably care more about the music instead of the genre it’s labeled as. Pop fans are pretty lazy. They put very little effort into finding music. A good portion of America are pop fans. Is it any wonder that our culture is disappearing when so many people want to be like everyone else and listen to the same garbage fed to them intravenously.
Charlie
August 24, 2015 @ 11:07 am
Pop music is short-term, trendy music. It excludes other music styles by definition.
Megan Conley
August 24, 2015 @ 11:39 am
The most interesting part of this was the part about the “siphoning off” of country fans to pop being more likely than vice versa. I have mentioned before than I love country, but I like and appreciate many other styles of music. In my degree, I studied jazz, blues, rock, classical, and opera, and came to appreciate something about each of them. However, the main thing that really made me a “pop fan” was actually country itself.
I grew up with country in the 90’s and 00’s and liked most, if not all, of country music, right up until about five years ago. I even liked the pop country of Taylor Swift before she became completely pop. But then radio became nothing but tailgating and club songs, and I didn’t know about all this other country music out there. In my mind, country was dying. As a music lover, I had to find something else, and I gradually started getting into pop. Even their club songs are better than country club songs. (I am not professing a great love for pop, I am simply saying I’d rather listen to Nicki Minaj sing and rap about clubbing than Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean.) I’ll never like the pop the way I love country, but if it hadn’t been for sites like this, I would have become a pop fan because the country music I knew had died. When your country becomes bad pop, you seek out better pop because that’s at least a little better. If you already like pop, why go listen to country when it’s just worse pop?
Nadia Lockheart
August 24, 2015 @ 11:44 am
How, exactly, would one define “indie”, though?
After all, Jason Aldean just claimed in a new interview when defending his stance on Spotify that he is on an indie label and represents the mom and pop store. Yet, much of his musical output as of late resembles Wal-Mart and Monsanto.
“Alternative” and “Adult Alternative” (the two formats that most play so-called “indie artists”) have suffered identity crises for years now. They have no idea what they want to cater to. Back during the mid-to-late 2000s, Alternative was basically Active Rock-lite (i.e. the format you hear acts like Disturbed, Shinedown, Papa Roach, Avenged Sevenfold among other interchangeable heavy rock bands that exaggerated anger)………….while Adult Alternative tried to be a more “world class rock” version of Hot Adult Contemporary.
Now, Alternative has distanced itself from Active Rock as much as possible (of which that can only be construed as a good thing)………..but juggles acts with earnest collège rock sensibilités like Death Cab For Cutie, with singer – songwriters who aren’t as glossy as the top pop artists but still have egregious pop crossover appeal like Halsey and Lorde, to neo-folk like Houndmouth, to established bands who nonetheless still enjoy relative respect among factions of the NeedleDrop/Conséquence of Sound/Pitchfork communities like Coldplay, Foo Fighters and Mumford and Sons.
More quixotically, so-called “Alternative” artists often émerge into public consciousness as of late by climbing the Alternative, Pop and Adult Top 40 charts SIMULTANEOUSLY. How can you expect me to believe you’re Alternative if you’re getting large amounts of Pop and Adult Top 40 treatment right off thé bat too? (X Ambassadors, Lorde, .fun, looking at you)
*
It makes a lot of sense that jazz scored highly on the open-minded index, as did classical. And, obviously, country.
Country is my favorite genre when I’m looking for strong lyricism and emotionally rich fare, while jazz is my favorite genre when I’m looking for music with a poetically speechless and often improvisational quality. But I dig intelligent rap and hip-hop as well (Aesop Rock, Sage Francis, À Tribe Named Quest, Talib Kweli, etc.) as well as EDM, all kinds of music elsewhere across the globe and experimental noise as well.
Andrew
August 24, 2015 @ 11:45 am
I grew up on George Strait and Garth Brooks and was mostly country only for about the first 20 years of my life. I finally started branching out after taking a history of rock class and now have found myself listening to more and more variety as I get older.
Pete Marshall
August 24, 2015 @ 12:07 pm
I’ve been listening to country since 1985 and I was heavy into the 1990’s. Last few years I am branching out to Rock of the 70’s and 80’s. I still like and listen to country music of the 70’s to 90’s and 2000’s. I stay 90% away from today’s country that don’t sound country.
DarthBadGuy
August 24, 2015 @ 12:26 pm
I’m not a fan of sweeping generalizations, and I don’t want to make any here, but honestly the bottom three doesn’t surprise me at all. Speaking as a younger viewer of this site I’ve known/seen a lot of douchebags in my peer group who listen to nothing but horrible rap and dubstep.
Amos
August 24, 2015 @ 12:55 pm
I find it strange that there’s no listing on there for “punk,” as the most open-minded people I know tend to be fans of punk first. Of course, there are lots of punks I know as well who will only listen to punk rock, but all the people I know that have diverse taste in music can normally find a common ground through punk rock.
Six String Richie
August 24, 2015 @ 3:28 pm
I agree with you to an extent, as I am a huge punk fan, but there are few genres with more purist fans than punk.
For example, there’s always somebody in every chat room or fan base who insists that Green Day isn’t punk because they’re on a major label. Same for Blink-182. They’ll go on and on about what “punk” is and what it isn’t. They’ll insist that Simple Plan is for teenage girls but Screeching Weasel is real punk. Despite the fact that Screeching Weasel is the definition of pop-punk.
But I’ve also met punk fans that love real country music as well as metal, bluegrass, folk and other genres.
Mike
August 26, 2015 @ 4:40 am
If you want to see a REALLY closed musical society, check out the documentary “Once Upon A Time In Norway.” It is a documentary about the rise of Black Metal in Norway and the rest of Scandanavia. The documentary talks about the “Black Metal Police,” a group of fans and musicians led by Mayhem guitarist Oystein Aarseth aka Euonymous, who actually sent death threats to bands who did not fit his definition of black metal. He also took the time to belittle anyone who disagreed with his definition of the music. Of course, his life ended at the hands of Varg, but I digress.
Trigger
August 26, 2015 @ 9:10 am
Sounds like underground country today, and Shooter Jennings fans. Basically you fall in line, or get your life threatened.
RD
August 24, 2015 @ 1:00 pm
I drove a truck and/or worked in a warehouse for many years, and spent 10 hour days listening to classic rock radio. I have probably heard every classic rock song released between 1966 and 1982 at least one hundred times. There are very few classic rock songs/bands/albums that I can still listen to without wanting to jump out the window. When I was on my own time, I would listen to country, but every other person I worked with insisted on classic rock or whatever “X” type music was popular in the mid/late-90’s/early 2000’s…
Eric
August 24, 2015 @ 2:29 pm
It’s interesting how the fans of older American genres are more open-minded. The 3 main popular genres of the last century have been jazz, rock, and rap/modern-pop (in that chronological order). In the list above, jazz fans are the 2nd most open-minded (after indie, which I would argue is not really a genre), rock fans are in the middle, and fans of rap/dance/modern-pop are the least open to other genres.
Eric
August 24, 2015 @ 2:30 pm
I bet that if this survey were done 3 or 4 decades ago, rock would have ranked at or near the bottom of the list.
Also, going back to my previous question, did the study show any crossover between folk and country fans?
Eric
August 24, 2015 @ 2:36 pm
I think that with Taylor Swift, her early fans were not modern pop fans, but rather soft-rock lovers. These were the people who were the most disillusioned with modern-pop. If you go visit the Youtube comment pages for some of her old videos, you can sense the disappointment that many of these fans feel about her current music.
Dusty
August 25, 2015 @ 9:12 am
Taylor’s early fans included a lot of youngsters. You’re probably right that they were listening to soft rock, but specifically the soft rock on Disney soundtracks like The Lion King (Elton John) and Tarzan (Phil Collins), and that of bubblegum acts like NSYNC, 98 Degrees, and early Brittney Spears. I bet most of her fans started listening to her before they were aware of genre distinctions or conscious of their own preferences.
Bill Goodman
August 24, 2015 @ 2:43 pm
I listened to a lot of country when in the backseat of my grandparents car on long trips. That was the early 80’s. I don’t have any memory of any certain musician or song but I do remember Kenny Rodgers playing a lot. My Dad listened to the oldies station (Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, etc) and my mom listened to the pop stations of the mid-late 80’s. I grew into my own and became a rock fan when Guns -n- Roses released Appetite for Destruction. From there I was a fan of popular rock music (which in the early to mid 90’s was pretty good, especially the grunge years). I wrote off country as “hick-shit” and refused to listen to anything in the genre. About 10 years ago I was getting sick of the newer rock and metal. My cousin introduced me to a band called Clutch. From there all I listened to was “stoner rock” and “doom metal.” I don’t quite remember how I stumbled across this site but it was a few years before I got back into country. I had discovered Lindi Ortega through this site but it was Sturgill’s release last year that really cemented my love for good country. Now I listen to mostly country but I still love my indie “stoner rock” stuff, especially Clutch!
Now if I could only get my wife away from pop-country and those damn Twilight soundtracks.
KeepItCountryKids
August 24, 2015 @ 5:18 pm
I only like two kinds of music: country and western.
sweet on stuart
August 24, 2015 @ 5:30 pm
It doesn’t surprise that country fans (whatever kind of country they listen to) tend to be receptive to other genres. If you go by the notion that most country lovers are from the South or mid west, those folks are also exposed to pop/rock/r & b their entire lives. They can and do dig it.
But you can live in traditionally non country areas like the NYC metro area and not hear country in your entire life. Before Nash FM (for better or worse) country hadn’t been on the airwaves for 25-30 years or whatever.
Jack Williams
August 24, 2015 @ 6:57 pm
Actually, it had been 17 years since NYC had last had a country radio station when Nash FM went on the air. My understanding is that the NYC area always had a fair number of country radio listeners and thus the local country station would get decent ratings, but the listeners tended to be older and thus not in the target demographic of a lot of advertisers.
I grew up in the NYC area and while I didn’t much like country music when I was a kid, I was definitely exposed to it. My Bronx-born Dad liked to listen to country station WHN (1050 AM – a 50,000 Watt station. It’s slogan was “the most listened to country station in the nation”) and he had at least a couple of Johnny Cash records. He liked country crooners like Eddy Arnold, Jim Reeves and Marty Robbins, too. I’ll never forget him saying to me once in his “Archie Bunkeresque” accent: “Mark my words, Jack. One of dese days you’re gonna like country music.”
Smalley
August 24, 2015 @ 5:55 pm
Listened to country as a kid, moved to classic rock as a teen, then on to hard rock and metal. By now, I’ve come back around to be mostly a Red Dirt/Texas guy, but I still likes to get my metal on at times.
the pistolero
August 25, 2015 @ 4:39 pm
Yep, I discovered red dirt about 15 years ago and have been digging that and classic country since then. I got into metal about ’09 or so and listen to that and the other stuff about equally now. Back when I was in junior high & high school in the late ’80s on up into the ’90s, though, I listened to mainstream country a lot, but when I went to central Texas in 1998 and started hearing the classic and Texas country more, my interest in mainstream country waned significantly and never really got back to where it was.
Eric
August 25, 2015 @ 5:45 pm
Seems to me like a lot of the commenters here were metal fans at some point. I don’t mean to be antagonistic, but I do find this to be a curious phenomenon. Could you explain why metal fans would like classic country, or vice versa, given the drastic sonic discrepancy between the two genres?
the pistolero
August 25, 2015 @ 5:58 pm
For me it’s the authenticity of the art forms those genres are and the appreciation the artists in those respective genres have for said art forms. It all appeals to me on a very deep level.
(I can probably elaborate more on this when I get to a real computer…)
Trigger
August 25, 2015 @ 7:46 pm
The reason a lot of commenters on here are also metal fans is because Hank3 brought a lot of metal fans to classic country through Superjoint Ritual, and then through his various metal projects. That’s in the roots of this site, and metal fans also tend to be tremendously loyal and engaged with music, meaning they would engage with sites like this more often.
the pistolero
August 26, 2015 @ 8:13 am
Could you explain why metal fans would like classic country, or vice versa, given the drastic sonic discrepancy between the two genres?
It has always struck me that metal, older country music, and the red dirt stuff come from a different place than newer country and pop music, at least. I know that Waylon and Willie had the idea of at least being able to sustain themselves just like Luke Bryan and FGL do, but to me there’s just more meat to that older music compared to the newer stuff. Same deal for metal. I remember hearing “Charon” from the new Symphony X album, for example, and thinking, you know, not much can bring out the inner music snob like a song based on Greek mythology. I’m all for fun music, but there is such a thing as fun music with substance, and for the most part that just seems lost in mainstream “country” anymore. It’s mostly just a bunch of brain-dead product with no soul anymore, whether it’s bro-country or this metro crap.
S.B
August 24, 2015 @ 6:48 pm
I grew up in the 2000’s listening to a lot of rock and even more country. Even though I drifted away from rock until earlier this year, I always stuck with country. And now, I can’t tell what I like more: traditional or more modern sounds. I’m going to be honest: I was a fan of a lot of the songs that critics like you panned (2013’s bro country phase) And at that time, I thought you guys were overreacting when people called it the worst stuff ever (please know that I have no disrespect for you) I actually liked some of the pop country. It wasn’t until mid to late 2014 when I was getting tired of it. And now we’re in the age where “nu-country” has taken over. (Stiff pop country) And I’ve moved to the middle of the fight between both types of country music and I can’t pick a side. It’s very confusing…
Heavy Metal Cowboy
August 24, 2015 @ 8:42 pm
Just pick the traditional side, bro-country is already dying a slow painful death and it’ll be forgotten about in the next few years.
S.
August 25, 2015 @ 5:56 pm
For me, it’s not that simple, since I’m still not the biggest fan of traditional country music and I still like a few bro country songs and I can argue that there is a level of quality in the sub-genre, ranging from decent to god awful (Ex: B.Y.H.B) Especially seeing how I am somewhat of a fan of Brantley Gilbert, and I don’t consider myself a fan of many artists in all genres combined. I just feel that country music this year has improved in some areas and has gotten worse in others. As for traditional, I don’t really have anything to say on it and that’s something that’s making me more confused.
Banner
August 24, 2015 @ 7:09 pm
93.75% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
Fuzzy TwoShirts
August 24, 2015 @ 7:10 pm
I listen to anything that doesn’t suck.
Joco Blake
August 24, 2015 @ 7:35 pm
I’ve found in my own experience that indie rock listeners are the most closed minded.If a band isn’t totally obscure they won’t consider it.And the minute their “favorite” band gains mainstream appeal they label them as “sell outs”.
Albert
August 24, 2015 @ 7:40 pm
Addictions . Exposure to a lot of one type of music in our youth conditions our brain synapses to be used to /comfortable with / easily able to process and relate that music/sound to impressionable , often first experiences ( sexual , of course , first time camping on a wilderness lake , the smell of the first bar you went to , what the radio station was playing on the way home from your first break-up .) Its a familiarity with the genre that gets ‘stamped ‘ on your brain .
” Dad played Miles Davis and Coltrane around the house . I love jazz ” .
“Mom had the country station on when I came home from school and hit the homework . I
love country music ” .
“My Grampa was a symphony conductor and took me to all the rehearsals and concerts . I love classical music ” .
Call it conditioning , ingraining , ” educating ” …whatever . Repeated musical experiences which our brains become used to and comfortable processing…particularly in our youth -the most impressionable time in our lives – determine what we’ll likely listen to later . And what sister-genres might pursuade us to partake . Its how addictions are created …stimulating a pleasure center …dopamine ( feel good stuff ) is released and we are in a comfort zone . Exposure to music which demands more of us intellectually when we are young will make it much more difficult to listen to something far less stimulating later . We’re used to getting the ” high dosage fix ” of interesting , thoughtful , slightly complex musical notions .UNLESS we consent consciously or otherwise to being ” dumbed down ” ( mainstream country anyone ? ) without putting up a fight . With constant exposure, this results in a re-conditioning ( brain-washing ) . Its the addictive nature of our reactions to a stimulant we’ve grown comfortable with ( comfortably numb , in some cases ) which makes us gravitate to the same ol same ol . It can be called ” ritualistic behaviour ” ( I get up at 7 , always put the coffee on before I wash my face and brush my teeth …always read the sports news first …always have corn flakes , always leave for work at 8:10 ….etc. We grow comfortable and feel safe with our consistent morning rituals . The behavior triggers synapses which are programmed to easily accept and process the behaviors without feeling threatened, creating anxiety , fear of the unknown , or a feeling of ” wrongness “.
Addictive behaviour …all of it . We’re programmed to respond to a certain stimulus , or we like a certain music and seldom intentionally try to reprogram ourselves .
Eric
August 24, 2015 @ 8:35 pm
If this hypothesis were fully true, then what explains the phenomenon of teens rebelling against the music of their childhood? The data shows that, at least at the pop level, people cling far more strongly to the music they heard when they were coming of age than to what they heard in their pre-teen childhood.
Take the early Boomers, for example. For most of their childhood, jazz was the dominant force in popular music. As they entered their teens, however, they completely abandoned jazz in favor of rock n roll, and they still remain fans primarily of mid 60s to early 70s rock, not 50s jazz.
Albert
August 25, 2015 @ 7:46 am
Eric …its more than ” hypothesis “. Its what addictive and repetitive behavior is known to be based on . Synapse ‘ memory ‘ .
……and I think in the 50’s 60’s 70’s there was TV and tons of radio and record stores …most ‘ kids’ of that generation were surrounded by more pop/ rock n roll than what they may have regularly heard at home . Hence THAT was their programming . However you may notice that kids of that era who were exposed to , say , country music at home , in the car etc..have more of a nostalgic affinity for it than kids who were not . Likewise with other genres. That early introduction to music styles stays with us whether we are cognizant of it or not .
Alex
August 25, 2015 @ 6:02 am
I’m pretty shocked about ‘Dance’ fans reportedly being the second most closed minded.
I must say that my preferred genres DO fall under the ‘Dance’ spectrum but I don’t feel that I’m closed minded at all. I love Drum & Bass (Liquid, Jungle, Jump Up & Neurofunk) House (I pretty much like all house music with the exception of Big Room) Dubstep (Not the kind most people think of when instantly dismissing Dubstep. I like the much more chilled and melodic side mainly and some of the more old school stuff) and many many more genres that would be considered as dance. The only ‘dance’ genres I haven’t been able to really get into is the bigroom house that Spinnin’ Records put out and Trap (although some of it’s ok)
In addition to liking that I also like all of the more so called open minded genres that are listed in the study and even some rap and pop, including genres that aren’t even listed there and in some cases, it might be a drum and bass track that introduces me to that genre because they incorporate elements of it into their music.
I’d never really got into metal before (not sure why, just haven’t) but my friend listens to metal and has invited me to come with her next time she goes to one of her gigs and I have agreed to because she was playing some in her car and I quite enjoyed it.
Also, you rarely ever hear/see a dance fan looking down on and telling other people that what they listen to isn’t even real music and then listing what they should actually be listening to, in the way many fans of other genres do to us. I can’t count the amount of times somebody has said to me “it’s not real music” or totally dismissed a genre when they don’t really know anything about it (like dubstep for example. Lots of people who claim to be open minded about music love trashing dubstep, dismissing it as just noise and assuming it’s all Brostep) so I’ve always found it to be the other way round.
These surveys are never accurate and are just an excuse for people to feel all good about themselves and to turn their noses up at other people.
Tezca
August 25, 2015 @ 12:30 pm
Is it alright if you give me examples of the Dubsteps you listen to? I also like dance music if you call listeing to fun dance remixes of various pop/pop country songs I like dance music. I think i listened to dubstep remixes but they mightve not been the kind you’re talking about.
I also like dance kinda music and I should check out more of them. Is there any EDM you would recommemd? So far the ones I heard is some of the stuff Big Kenny was doimg with Electro shine(granted it was EDM/country but obviously I like both lol) and the remixes I mentioned earlier.
Thanks!
I feel open minded when it comes to music as well, I’ll listen to anything that sounds good.
the pistolero
August 25, 2015 @ 8:06 am
I always thought that gateway drug theory was highly suspect at best and downright horseshit at worst. Saying that Sam Hunt is a gateway drug to, say, Jason Boland is like saying that a vegan diet is a gateway drug to the world of Texas barbecue.
skinny jeans hipster
August 25, 2015 @ 10:12 am
indie fans are music snobs, most of them are hipsters and dont like any bands that are popular. also they like to brag about knowing bands no one else knows. i am calling BS on this study.
Consumerism
August 26, 2015 @ 4:25 am
This study shows that you are all POWERLESS against me!!! No matter how much you try, you shall never defeat me. I shall not rest until Earth is conquered and you are all my slaves, mindlessly consuming what I tell you to! In the end, you shall be MINE!!! ALL MINE!!!!
BWWAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!!
Mike
August 26, 2015 @ 4:32 am
Are you mad? Well here is a cape. Then you can be SUPER MAD!!!
Mike
August 26, 2015 @ 4:41 am
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ My last comment was directed at skinny jeans hipster
Marky mark
August 27, 2015 @ 7:14 pm
Based on the comments,I seem to be a rarity on this site. I grew up on the east coast listening to rock, a healthy mix of classic rock, hard rock and heavy metal. I was in my early thirties, just graduated from law school in California, when I moved to Fresno CA and a buddy from law school (that grew up in “The ‘no” as we called Fresno) said if your gonna live in Fresno, you gotta listen to country. I was all about Maiden, Zeppelin, AC DC, the stones, mellencamp and Tom petty, but he made me a mixed tape with some DAC, Garth and Waylon and I loved it. From there I found Steve Earle, Dwight and the Mavericks and was hooked. So us rockers can come to your neck of the woods too.
CountryKnight
August 28, 2015 @ 9:22 am
I have to deal with hipsters/indie lovers in the English department at my college. They easily appear the most open-minded until they discover that your views aren’t their views.
Melanie
September 23, 2015 @ 2:07 pm
I’ve still never met another person (except my older brother, and He probably influenced me) who loves both the oldest, most traditionalist forerunner of country music you can find-the old mountain music -murder ballads, etc-that existed before the Original Carter Family had ever been heard of by Ralph Peer, and progressive rock, and classical-Wagner, eyt-and classic progressive rock, and cool jazz-ie Brubeck-and bebop-Charlie “Bird” Parker-and early jazz, white
Melanie
September 23, 2015 @ 2:18 pm
I’ve still never met another person (except my older brother, and He probably influenced me) who loves both the oldest, most traditionalist forerunner of country music you can find-the old mountain music -murder ballads, etc-that existed before the Original Carter Family had ever been heard of by Ralph Peer, and progressive rock, and classical-Wagner, ect-and classic progressive rock, and cool jazz-ie Brubeck-and bebop-Charlie “Bird” Parker-and early jazz, right after ragtime-Paul Whiteman-and Tin Pan Alley-Irving Berlin-and Great American Songbook type music-Cole Porter, etc-and bluegrass, and classic rock, and jazz fusion-Weather Report, Chick Corea “Vulcan Worlds” stuff-and 60s-70s bubblegum, and Deep Purple/ hard rock, Boradway show tunes (especially from the Ethel Merman heyday) and more. It’d be easier to say what I don’t like-rap, or hip-hop, contemporary pop and “new country”, and I’m not wild about Dixieland jazz. Other than that, let ‘er rip-I’ve got an extremely eclectic mix on the ipod. It’d be odd enough for a guy to like all this, much less a gal, especially the progressive rock stuff. I’ve been asked how I can love bluegrass and classic prog rock and flamenco/Spanish guitar-I couldn’t say at first, but then I realised that they have instrumental virtuosity in common, and that always gets me. Especially as there are so few females who are not only virtuosos on their instruments, but innovators and creative with their music, not just “speed thrashers” to prove that they can. It seems it’s the guys who the envelope pushers instrumentally, in bluegrass, prog rock, classical, etc. (No Nancy Wilson is not a virtuoso up there with the likes of John McLaughlin or Al Di Meola, she’s good for a female guitar player, sorry).