Nice thread.

"New Country" and "Young Country" are terms for pop music done in "hickface". So is a lot of the b.s. designation "Alt-country", only with a punk or indie conceit behind it. It's just as commercial; it's simply in reaction to overt commerciality, a more elaborate, childish posture toward country music.

But there is still real country music being made.

It's like what's going on in the realm of Bluegrass. There's a lot of contempo fluff out there, the jam bands, the jazzed-up hybrid stuff, and the breathy, mic-dependent, pitch-corrected, overproduced pop (are you reading, Allison?) that gets called Bluegrass - and then there are bands that are actually continuing the form, respectfully, not slavishly, without a lot of hype.

If you love the original forms, it's not hard to tell the poseurs from the real deal. A lot of what people hate about contemporary so-called "country" is the grotesque commercial pretense, the "hickface" that trivialzes and demeans the form that it cynically refers to.

Enough! or Too Much.

Thanks, Mudcatters.