Hi, everyone. Banthony Jotano here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and I think there's a country problem. Yeah, a real problem with the country right now.

But no, I'm not talking about the place in which I live. I'm talking about the genre of music, to which some of you might reply, Anthony, there's a problem with country music right now. I mean, commercially, it seems to be doing better than it has in quite a long time. And also in recent years, we have seen a lot of interesting names and faces and great records coming out of the underground.

The mainstream of the genre, though, in a lot of ways, is as ugly, horrendous, and bland as it's ever been. And some artists in this lane are actually starting to call it out a bit. Enter one Mr. Charley Crockett, a country singer and songwriter with a really deep voice, a lot of charisma, and a new record that's come out recently. Which if you're looking for some country music that has a bit of an old-school flair and twist it, you're most definitely going to want to listen to that. I mean, it's a little samey in comparison with his last couple of records, but there's still some good highlights on it.

Recently, Crockett has taken to Instagram to post a bit of a country screed where he says, "Hey, country folks, Beyoncé ain't the source of your discontent. It was 25 years of bro country. Number one country artist on Earth listens to nothing but rap, openly says he doesn't really know any country music. Got to respect his honesty." I'm sorry if I'm a bit out of the loop here, but are country fans still complaining about Beyoncé?

She did the One Country album. It was filled with many good songs, did very well commercially, a project that contained many wholesome and thoughtful tributes to the genre that came across as honest and authentic and rustic. Sure, maybe not so much the Miley cut on the album, but let them do a fun one. It was one of the better songs on the album anyway.

I've done, I believe, numerous videos at this point where I've talked about this just very annoying whining that some people have done in response to Beyoncé doing a country album. But those were a while ago, and it's crazy to me that the conversation is still ongoing. I mean, with 1,700 comments on this Charlie Crockett post, clearly he has struck a nerve.

And I guess I just don't really know why. Country fans are already having their cake and eating it, too. You have Post Malone fully converting over to country music. You have Morgan Wallen, like Charley Crockett here is alluding to, going number one and doing so not only just with some of the blandest production in the genre today, but also beats and instrumentals on that album that sound like something off of a fucking Future record, essentially making trap or making hip hop in a way, but calling it and branding his country.

But Charley Crockett goes on, saying, "The machine points to a black woman who's making a statement about marginalized people being removed from the conversation altogether. And somehow we act like the entire pop industry didn't just ambush roots music. These "country boys" been *singing* over trap beats for years. So what's different now?"

No, I think Crockett makes another very fair point here, and an artist that I feel like exemplifies this exact point is one of country's newest and brightest stars, Jelly Roll. A guy who, coming out here in his live performances and on record, too, is just as pitch-corrected and autotuned as your favorite pop singer.

In fact, speaking comparatively, when you take the instrumentation and general production palettes on something like the new Sabrina Carpenter record and compare that to the new Jelly Roll album, it kind of sounds more organic. And if you want to go further, the vocals and instrumentation on Chappell Roan's Midwest Princess record sound more raw and authentic than anything on the fucking Jelly Roll album. Literally the mainstream country stars of today are making more processed pop slop than the actual pop girlies.

Charley Crockett then goes on to talk about his own experience being corded by the music industry in this way to produce records that have really crappy instrumentation and a whole lot of writers on the songs and that thing, which, I believe it, that guy looks great, has a ton of talent. I'm sure there are numerous music industry execs that would kill to promote him and market him over Jolly Roll.

He then talks about people putting down Beyoncé and then goes on to say that he loves BigXthaPlug, who is one of the most massive voices, literally speaking, in hip hop today. Not one of my favorite artists, but his very big, hefty vocals do have a massive crossover appeal, to the point where he actually recently did a country rap hybrid album, too. Not a record I'm probably going to be going crazy about or anything like that, but the dude does have an undeniably Texas flow and delivery.

"The challenges country music faces aren't unique. It's an issue in every genre. I don't have a problem with Americana. I have a problem with being compartmentalized by the music business," which again, also true, also factual. Seemingly, every organic underground strain and style of music that gains any social relevance eventually rises to some level of commercial prominence, and along the way ends up getting neutered and whitewashed and defanged to the point where you're just hearing a very easily digestible version of the original idea.

While there's nothing inherently wrong with enjoying commercially successful music or widely popular music, I feel like it is important as a listener to remain well-rounded, explore more alternative artists and sounds from time to time. Not everybody who gets exposed on the mainstream level to a certain sound, a certain artist, a certain whatever, is doing that digging or even knows how to properly, if not given the tools to do so.

That's just as true of country music as it is many different styles of electronic music, punk, hip hop, and the list goes on. And this leads to, in my opinion, a lot of people who I think in other contexts would enjoy or appreciate country music, but they're just hearing like Morgan Wallen and Jolly Roll, maybe even Beyoncé to an extent, and thinking like, 'oh, well, I mean, if that's country music, I don't know if I'm really into it.'

"Outlaw as a sub genre of country was artists standing up for their rights against a rigid system. Ain't no reason to imitate Waylon and Willie Nelson if you ain't about the fight. Texas forever." Yeah, I mean, sadly, it is clear there is not enough Waylon Jennings and old-school Willie Nelson influence, even old-school Johnny Cash influence going around on a lot of these new mainstream country records. Tyler Childers is actually doing a better job of keeping that torch lit on his latest LP, even with there being as much rock influence as there is on that album.

But again, I don't really disagree, and I think Mr. Crockett here is making some very fair points in terms of how, again and again and again, one of a kind, authentic, roots style genres of music keep getting chewed up, bought up, spit out, rewritten, while artists are robbed of their art and their hard earned money, and music fans are robbed of the ability to have a greater understanding of the context and cultural world that a lot of their favorite sounds and artists come from or are supposed to represent. Let me know what you guys think about all of this down in the comments below. I'm sure you will.

Anthony Fantano, Charlie Crockett, Country Problems, Forever.