Many posts have discussed the politics of popular culture.
EVEN ACROSS THE whole history of the genre, unabashedly conservative country songs are harder to find than non-fans might think. Nashville’s prevailing ethos has always been far more focused on entertainment than on stirring up trouble on sensitive issues, even from a side many core listeners might find sympathetic. But at least since our culture war found its current form during the Vietnam years, twang-infused songs that take up right-wing arguments keep popping up — most recently in the form of Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town” and Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond.” (The latter song is a complicated case, since its own creator doesn’t see it as conservative — but many of its most vocal initial fans did.) In the wake of those two songs topping the charts, here’s our look at the most conservative country tunes of all time. (And yes, there are also plenty of progressive-leaning country songs, too, from Maren Morris’ “Better Than We Found It” and Kacey Musgraves’ “Follow Your Arrow” to almost anything by Jason Isbell.)
