Slow Boring

Slow Boring

Evening Edition

Everything is country

How a once-loathed genre became the sound of America

Halina Bennet's avatar
Halina Bennet
Aug 29, 2026
∙ Paid
Dolly Parton, who redefined the country-music genre, performs in 1976. (Photo by David Redfern/Redferns)

“Anything but country” used to be a common, glib response to questions about musical taste. It reflected a widely held view among non-fans that country was the one genre of popular music that could be written off entirely, even by people who generally…

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