They probably have never heard The Man in Black.

You say RADIO. I honestly can say I love country music, but if you turned on the radio and I had to listen to stuff like Brooks & Dunn then I'd not only rather be kicked in the nuts, but go ahead and rip them off as well.

Damn, if you had just waited 6 more weeks, this could have been a 2 year thread bump!

Well, I've been hounding her for such a long time
Trying to impress her with my hillbilly whine
But she told me I was barking up the wrong tree
She liked every kind of music but country.

Every kind of music but country
She liked it fast, she liked it loud, she liked it funky
She liked everything about me, 'cept for one thing
She liked every kind of music but country.


Well, I thought I had a big one on the line
She said listening to music was her favorite pastime.
But she told me I was trying to swim upstream
She liked every kind of music but country

She saw I had a guitar in my hand
But she thought I was a hick until the night she heard my band
And now she can't remember having told me
She liked every kind of music but country

I used to hate country and that would be my standard answer. But I've found that I really like older and classic country and I LOOOVE Bluegrass. I guess I've changed over the years. My Father liked Country and the like but I would always turn my nose to it.

Now my answer is "everything but Rap and R&B".

Spot on. I agree that it probably refers to anything since Garth Brooks hit the scene.

I'm usually the "anything but country or rap" guy. But.. it is a generalization. Really, what I don't like about country is the southern vocalists. In music, I just can't stand that sound/accent.

Funny that's brought up. I love rockabilly.. country I could usually do without. And a lot of my friends get on me because they say it's the same thing (it's not ;) ).

i usually say "everything except <i>contemporary</i> country (which to me means mass-marketed), metal and industrial." this is just my preference. to me, contemporary country just isn't audibly pleasing. i'd much rather spend my time listening to rock or alt-rap or indie or reggae or classical because it's what appeals to me most.

i like the influence country has had on some mainstream rock/pop artists - hell, i'm from mellencamp's new hometown (Bloomington as opposed to Seymour, Indiana) and he tends to throw in a bit of twang. ditto for the Eagles. i liked what country did for them. but what it didn't do was add the thick twang (this is a term i'm trying to use, but probably isn't the correct choice) to the voice, which is what i think truly annoys me about contemporary country.

i also like the old school country artists - hank williams being a primary example. he had a thick twang in his voice, but it also fit his more bluegrassy music. i don't mind the peripheral country music if it's more bluegrass and less pop. hell, if people want to recommend any bluegrass-country music to me, i'd be happy to give it a try.

fwiw, i like whiskeytown (also ryan adams) and alt-country (jayhawks) as well.

Most people who say that "everything except country" actually do love more of the genre than they actually think. Pretty much everyone that has said that to me in "real life", end up naming a ton of country music that they love. For some reason they just don't understand it.

I don't consider music in terms of genre anymore. I think of music in terms of quality. Like there's horrible music, cookie cutter, good, great, etc...

I used to say "everything except rap" and "everything except classical", but as I've grown older and I've stopped looking at music just in terms of genre, I've been opened up to an entire new world of music, spanning all types of music.

Anyone who thinks of Country and instantly refuses to listen to anything with that stamp on it, is seriously limiting their musical tastes. Just like with all other types of music, there is horrible country music and fantastic country music. The same can be said about all other musical genres.

I've always said the opposite ends of the music spectrum are country and rap (or "crap"). Neither end takes a huge amount of talent to create, although I do appreciate each one's existance and what little each has to offer certain people. I'll even admit to liking rare instances of each genre.

I don't get it, so they want anything but country, and when you show them stuff that isn't rock, suddenly they want country? I'd think that the customers would probably at that point just say "Why don't you just show me some good rock music?" or whatever genre they were looking for in the first place.

My tastes in country run toward Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and people like that. It's definitely one of those genres where I have a limited amount of artists I like, and am reluctant to deviate from those artists. I know I don't like all the Garth Brooks/Tim McGraw/Shania Twain/Dixie Chicks type people. In other words, new country. But sometimes some artists are able to channel some older country styles into their music and have it work really well. Best person who did this in the rock world was Graham Parsons.

But I'd be much more inclined to try out a new classical or world music artist than a country artist I haven't heard before.

People who say "everything but A and B" usually are giving themselves too much credit or looking at the world of music too narrowly.

I used to be in the 'everything but country' group, until the last year or so. I've since been exposed to something other than what is played on the radio, and I enjoy it much more than I originally thought.

However, I still haven't been able to find any R&B that I like. I'd say about everything else, I like.

or maybe they just don't like what they hear?

as with everything in life, choice in music is personal preference. i won't slag on people who do listen to country, but it ain't my cup o' tea and i'll stand by that. or the same goes for metal. i don't like it because <i>to me</i> it has no beauty to it. it just sounds like anger being funnelled through a guitar. but that's my opinion and i won't hold it against somebody who does like it.

don't give yourself too much credit because you honestly like listening to everything (since you're disqualifying those who listen to everything "but a and b"). that's not meant as an attack, i'm just going on what you said.

going on what you said, as well, i do agree with you about the fact that some people are unintentionally or intentionally limiting themselves to a narrow band of music. but to each his/her own. i might try to slip something under their door but i'm not going to bust it down.

i have a friend who doesn't listen to music at all. he's a film editor and he barely knows about film and film history. it's astonishing to me that he's so out of the arts while simultaneously making money from it... but to each his own. i was actually dumbfounded when i asked him about music because everybody, even my brother who only has a small-ish cd collection, seems to like SOME music... but my friend, honest to god, couldn't identify a beatles song from a group consisting of one song from the Beatles, Pantera, U2 and Snoop Dogg... (that's an exaggeration but probably not too far from the truth) but i don't hold it against him. it's an endearing trait actually since music is such a fundamental part of my identity and it's not even a tiny part of his.

not to mention that there's just too much music out there to listen to every genre of music in equal proportion. there will always be something overlooked. i might like listening to classical music but it's something i only do for about 1 hour every two weeks. i mostly listen to rock and hip-hop because it's what suits me best. there was a point in my life where i mostly listened to ska and reggae. but now i barely listen to ska or reggae. and there's the matter of availability and knowledge of world music since we also seem to lapse into a narrow interpretation of music as that which is common in the Western world. the genres that we lump into "World Music" outnumber our Western-defined genres by a vast margin.. i mean, how often do you listen to Soca? or throat singers?

anyway, opinions are opinions and there's no reason to disqualify them since by their nature they cannot be disqualified for any reason.
-di doctor-

Sorry, I see now that my statement was unclear. I didn't mean that people should like A and B. People are free to like and dislike what they will. I meant that more than likely, they just don't even know about the existence of genres C, D, E, F, ... that if they did know about, they wouldn't like either. In other words, I'm not saying what people's tastes should be, just that the phrase "everything but A and B" is rarely an accurate description of them.

Lick it, country. Lick it.

Paid for by the Guy Who Lived in Wyoming and Will Never Go Back Fund.

I use to say "everything but country and metal" --- now I have some Gram Parsons, Lucinda Williams, Ryan Adams...

But I have yet to find a good metal band. (I don't really like growling).

In the past couple of years, I have been getting into traditional country, bluegrass, and rockabilly.

I really like: Hank Williams Sr., Johnny Cash, The Carter Family, Buck Owens, Loretta Lynn, Wanda Jackson, Hank Williams III, June Carter, Emmylou Harris.

I still do not like the country/pop crap that is popular.

I listen to country sparodically. I got into it in the mid-90s (along with most everyone else I know), but haven't followed it much in the past few years. I've always liked the classics and often listen to Johnny Cash, Hank Sr. and Waylon Jennings.

When I was younger, I probably used to say that. Now I realize I was just foolish. The funny thing is, the older I get, the more I get into country, bluegrass, americana, and folk. I've loved Bob Dylan, CCR, and The Band since I was 16, so it's kinda ironic that I still said I hated "country" music (they certainly are a flavor of it).

I think that Oh Brother Where Art Though really introduced me to bluegrass (as well has a ton of other people). I've been into it since. I really like Alison Kraus, Doc Watson, Ricky Skaggs, and Tim O'Brien. I recently bought The Cheiftains "Down the Old Plank Road" where they team up with country and bluegrass artists (I think they did 3 albums with American country artists). The Three Pickers is on its way to my house as we speak via Netflix.

In addition, I've been listening to stuff like Johnny Cash, Ryan Adams, The Green Cards, Bering Strait, Cold Mountain S/T, John Denver, Laura Cantrell, Elizabethtown S/T, Old 97s, Simon & Garfunkel, etc.

If you don't like Metallica "Master of Puppets" or "Ride the Lightning" it's probably safe to say you'd never like metal. :)

Not to totally derail the thread, but I hate Ride The Lightning and Master of Puppets doesn't hold up to repeated listenings. But ...And Justice For All, that is a classic album.