Some country songs sing of work. Some tell stories of family life. Some tell stories of the past and simpler times. Most Americans want to hear a good story. It adds to the entertainment value of a song when one can relate a life experience to the story being told in a given song. One author says, “I can’t understand that pop and rap music with all the screamin’ and yellin’. But I like country music. It always tells a real good story (Steward 1)”.

If a song tells a story and it concerns ordinary people in everyday life does that make it a country song? The key to that question is the word ordinary. What is ordinary in the life of Americans? It is ordinary for people to work for a living. Most country songs are about working people; farmers, mechanics, assembly line operators, housewives, and sales people. The songs that make people feel proud of their jobs, rather than feel

According to one critic, country music has a bigger more diverse audience than ever before (Reid 110). Reid tells how a group of musicians in the late 1960’s, led by Willie Nelson, left Nashville, Tennessee for Austin, Texas to start what became known as the “Progressive Country Movement”. Reid also stated how before the 1960’s country music had become worse than soap opera television. Divorce, alcoholism, and struggling to get rich for nothing were the main topics of all the lyrics. Country music dealt with all the standard derangements all right, but it turned them into sentimentalized virtues. It was the music of a despairing status quo (Reid 123). Reid credits singers like Nelson and others that went back to the basics and back to the roots. He believes that this movement has been responsible for increasing the base of support for country music. This movement has also drawn a younger audience to country music.

the songs are often sugar coated and sometimes even silly, it is what people want to hear. Today country music is at its highest peak, and has many superstars, such as; Garth Brooks, Reba McIntire and many others. Country music reflects the values of millions of Americans. It sings about the past and the future. It will remain popular Americans can turn to country music to renew their spirits, and the lyrics continue to tell st

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