We’ve all been to a party with an NBA game on in the background. Some people are watching intently, others socially, and still more are casting judgmental glances at the group by the TV. One guy is talking your ear off about analytics or why LeBron is better than Jordan. Another is watching the NFL on his phone. God help the person who walks by and lets out a “go sportsball”.
Country music is now that party.
The self-described “ball knowers” keep drifting further into the fringes and further back in time, on an endless crusade for the “real” country music, and they’ll tell you why Turnpike Troubadours deserved Album of the Year last year whether you asked or not. The sports bar regulars are there for the drinks and the vibe just as much as the music. They listen to the radio and the Spotify Top 50, the way some people catch their home team and the national game of the week.
For the LeBron fans, one artist is the whole sport: Morgan Wallen. They create fan accounts, go into credit card debt for the yearly show, buy merch, and defend him to the death in comment sections. And whenever the game gets too loud, there’s the “go sportsball” crowd or the side comment about who one of the players is dating. They’re pop fans who can’t figure out how Ella Langley is having this moment, why Wallen is so popular, or why anyone would travel to Nashville, Austin, or a festival in Florida. They see a regressive genre, a political monolith, or a blank canvas for their own big ideas. They theorize instead of investigating.
None of this is a judgment.
Country music is now so popular that everyone has an opinion. Most of us have been two or three of these fans in the same week. And social media has done for Country Music what it did for the NBA: you no longer have to listen to be a fan. Clips, feuds, rumors, awards-night grievances, and bracket accounts do what the music and critical thinking used to do. You can follow the whole league, pick a side, and defend it without even taking the time to do so much as skim an artist’s most popular songs on Spotify or give Morgan Wallen a fair shot (looking at you, haters… also maybe looking at myself).
For better or worse, this is the product of success. And cynicism aside, it’s more fun when everyone at the party thinks they can tell you what’s really going on.
