Pollstar Top Twenty Concerts

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by redbird

I don't know if this is overreaching but I feel that at least in the States, country music benefits a lot from the cultural/political polarization (the culture wars) that's snowballed in the last 20 years or so. People who like country music often like strictly country music, meanwhile people outside of it treat it like that embarrassing uncle at family reunions, so it really digs in to its niche very well and has its loyal base that's glued together perhaps by a cultural element.

To me, things seem nearly the opposite. I think it's more cross over than ever, going between political and cultural lines. Just as music genres have blurred and become hybrids of one another, so have their audiences.

I mean, sometimes things do get entrenched, but it seems to me that happens more outside of the music based on off-stage personalities. The music seemed to have wide appeal, but sometimes things are said outside of the music (Toby Keith, Dixie Chicks, etc.) that causes people to take sides.

Michele