Country Music on iTunes

Country, Country Pop Rock, Country, Classic Country, Oldies, Nostalgia or Country, Top 40, Pop?

If you use iTunes to purchase / organize your music, you may be familiar with the Genre column which allows you to assign a song as a particular Genre to assist in categorizing, sorting or creating playlists for your music.

iTunes has 39 Genres available to choose from, including None, Custom and Unclassifiable (?), but what struck me as interesting is that there are 4 Genres for Country – the only Genre with more that 1 Genre choice.

These Genres include “Country”, “Country Pop Rock”, “Country, Classic Country, Oldies, Nostalgia” or “Country, Top 40, Pop”. Has Country music become so diversified musically that 4 Genres are necessary?

Would Taylor Swift or Carrie Underwood be classified as Country Pop Rock or Country, Top 40, Pop? How about Lady Antebellum or Zac Brown Band?

How about Jason Aldean? Blake Shelton? How would these artists be classified?

Veterans like George Strait and Alan Jackson, who still come out with new releases but have a “classic sound”, are they just Country or “Country, Classic Country, Oldies, Nostalgia”?

You would think with all these Genres it would make it easy to search for “Country Pop Rock” music within the iTunes store, but that is not the case. In fact the top result for that search is the band Big Country.

Anyone have any thoughts or am I the only one confused by this?

Keep it Country,
Jim Nash V.

Jim Nash V is a contributing writer with a passion for country music. Jim works to promote line dancing and country music in Long Island New York. For more on Jim, visit YeeHawLI.comCountry Music Photo Gallery