Trailer Trad Tunes: The Rural Romanticism of New Country

Country music today offers many things that are sorely missing from most popular music. The first thing I'd like to point out is how deeply emotional some of my favorites are. Many many describe this as sentimentality at best or cold Music City manipulation at worst. Regardless, where else does this old fashioned humanity exist in modern music? As much as I like many alternative music genres, very few songs plumb much emotional depth besides EMO rebellious alienation. Hipster Americana and New Grass engage in ironic mimicking of various emotions, sure, but real emotions like love often ring hollow for me.

The messages of the lyrics and the imagery in the videos are surprising considering its popularity with men. Lyrics usually consist of men idolizing women and hoping to marry one by promising them the moon or by laying out romantic plans. These don't seem like hollow pickup artist ploys but heartfelt renderings of classic, American love.