Opinion: Modern country is the worst musical genre of all time

@tylermunns Agreed, but also they're two completely different iterations of the genre: one steeped in the traditions of bluegrass and frontier folk, while modern country is a cousin of contemporary rock, specifically southern rock and Americana.

Having played in an alt-country band for many years, it was interesting to see the audience reaction when we covered much of the canon of those you named versus when we would throw in a Kenny Chesney, Brothers Osbourne, Eric Church, or similar modern artists. The former always elicited a lot more smiles and applause than the latter. Usualy because the audience was older. 

The familiarity factor, or perhaps even the nostalgia factor may indeed have caused the notably higher positivity in responses.
Obviously this statement I’m about to make is entirely subjective, but I would posit that the music of the artists I listed is 20x better than that of Kenny Chesny, Brothers Osbourne, Eric Church, and music of that ilk.
That may also contribute to more positive responses.
The “iteration of genre” point you made is moot.
Every musical thing is a “new iteration” of what preceded it.
It just so happens that this new iteration really, really, really sucks.

@alexatpos  Thank you so much, Kurt Elling's voice inflections in the song are a great segue back to the great Country music artists who use only their voice and acoustic guitar to make a statement. And yes the original composition by Donald Byrd played in Dextar Gordon's "One Flight up" is a work of art...

At the risk of beating a dead horse (no relation to a broken down pickup truck ;-), I must reiterate that there are many current Country artists making music that is deeply rooted in the music’s Hillbilly origins, not in Rock music, Southern Rock, or Garth Brooks and his ilk. No, you don’t hear it on radio or see it on TV, but so what? They’re out there, you just have to care enough to look for them.

Speaking of which, Robbie Fulks has a new album entitled Bluegass Vacation coming out on April 7th. Providing Robbie with musical accompaniment are a who’s who of Bluegrass practitioners: Jerry Douglas (the master of the dobro), Sam Bush, Tim O’Brien, Ronnie McCoury, Alison Brown, and John Cohen. All these musicians are virtuosos on their instruments, many of them also playing Bluegrass-Jazz Fusion music.

I mean, Jerry Douglas is heard on all of Alison Krausses albums, for God’s sake. Just pick up a copy of No Depression Magazine for an intro into the world of Americana/Alt-Country.

@alexatpos , I thought it was catchy, with a good beat. It would not even make it into my top-5.  If I had to vote, I would probably say that brief period of what came across as highly manufactured music from the 60s, like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MJLi5_dyn0