Imagine that you get to go to your favorite restaurant and order your favorite soda; however, this soda has been sitting out for 3 hours and just tastes awful. Now, imagine that the original soda was country from before the 2000’s and the soda you received is country from the last five to ten years.

For as long as I can remember, country and I haven’t gotten along very well. You could imagine that this provided a difficult time for me, since I’ve lived in Texas all my life and everyone buzzes about the new country song.

Ever since I was a kid, my family tried to show me artists such as Willie Nelson and Hank Williams, but it was never my cup of tea. Now don’t get me wrong, I can see how the older country singers influenced music. I mean look at Johnny Cash. His name is still thrown around from time to time, and you could probably not find a single person who would argue that he is one of the greats. My beef is not with them, but with newer country stars.

The new breed of country is really where me and the music got off on the wrong foot. Most country songs now just use the same sound from other songs, which bugs me. They also have about the same lyrics. Country songs are either about a girl, driving a truck or both. Country songs especially start to gain traction in the summer.

It just seems to me like these songs are the exact same. There is no originality. It also seems to me that most of the popular country stars are only concerned with money than with the quality of their music. I’m not saying that it isn’t like this in other genres, but they don’t cover it up with some backwoods facade.

There are also more alcohol references in country music than many other types of music. If you want to argue about it, look at the song “Drunk on a Plane” by Dierks Bentley. Then “Whiskey in my Water” by Tyler Farr. Then “Sunshine and Whiskey” by Frankie Ballard. Yeah, there is a lot of alcohol references.

I just can’t listen to country for more than 5 seconds without getting really tired or angry. I personally think that the people who like it are still sipping from that 50 year-old soda, hoping it’ll get better. Sorry, but it won’t.