George Jones: New County music needs a new name

George Jones 78, a legend in the country music industry and a member of the Nashville country music Hall of fame said that he was not pleased about the way country music has changed over the years. In his recent interview, he mentioned artists like Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood, who he believes have used the county music category as a platform to enter the industry and have “stolen our identity”.

According to Jones, traditional country music is the creation of artists like Alan Jackson and George Strait. However, his views go against the fact that many country musicians have created remakes of tracks from other genres. For example, Johnny Cash was criticized for his views when interviewed regarding his remake of the Nine inch nails song “Hurt”. When asked if he would ever branch into a different style of music he simply said that although he listened to many styles, that certain types of music such as rap cannot be called music and he labeled this type of music “tacky”.

Since Jones’s story was released many bloggers were outraged that some of their present-day county favourites were undermined. Jones cleared any confusion by releasing a further statement that explained the point he was trying to make was that today’s modern county music artists have little comparison to traditional country music. The country singer will be releasing a new album called “A Collection of My Best Recollection” next year. The CD includes come of his most popular and most requested songs over the years.