Country music

At one time a deep, earthy, and universally respected genre of folk music embraced by people from all walks of life, and performed by heartland poets who wrote touching melodies and thought-provoking but subtle messages about life, love, and loss, country music has now grown into a dim shadow of its former greatness. Record companies have appropriated it for their own profit as they will with any great artistic movement. Insipid, voiceless dandies with the depth of wading pools have been propped up as the new "idols." Irresponsible and uninformed political rhetoric has usurped the lyrical foreground, alienating many fans and completely betraying the music's original status as art for the everyman, while mediocrity and uniformity sum up the musical direction. If we can ever be blessed again by another visionary, a Williams Sr., a Cash, a Cline, or a Miller, maybe things will change. But for now, country music remains a brutally raped and distorted picture of art stolen from the artists.