Have you ever wondered why the same people who are completely offended that rapper Eminem published a song in which he kills his wife, would then go home and listen to the song “In the Pines,” a bluegrass piece about murder, and think nothing of it?
I’m sure that they would claim it was in appreciation of their culture without realizing that Eminem is also singing about his culture.
People yawp about the morality and decency of country and bluegrass and the immorality and indecency of any other genre without really stopping to consider the lyrics.
There are as many concupiscent and violent songs in the country and bluegrass genre as there are in rock, rap and pop.
Believe it or not, there are people in this day and age who still think that rock music is inherently sinful and that there should be laws to regulate it.
Even more disturbing to me is the fact that I am related to some of them.
Many people think that it is not the lyrics that make a song sinful but it is the rhythm that is the determining factor, thus leaving room for country and bluegrass and making contemporary Christian sinful simply because it has a beat.
People honestly believe that Satan is at work in songs like “What if God was One of Us” and not in songs like “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”
This is insane logic. I say, and I would bet most people would agree with me, that it is the lyrics that make a song “bad” or “good,” meaning that not every song in any genre is good just because of its affiliation with that genre. Not all Christian songs are good and not all “gangsta” rap songs are bad.
Country is not only not all good, but in my mind mostly bad and single-handedly responsible of the furthering of the degradation of the southern culture.
People already think that we are uneducated, toothless, barefooted, inbred, buffoons and country music perpetuates this stereotype.
As if Jerry Springer wasn’t bad enough!
Who would have ever thought that the white trash of America, who by the way should never be seen in public as their mere existence also feeds the stereotype, would be trusted with something so valuable as music.

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