Political Memes

The settled on term is "alt country", though a lot of country fans prefer to other modern mainstream radio country as "bro country" since alt country implies that alt country is a departure from traditional country despite being more of a return to classical roots than an intended presentation of departure from the norm. I often tell people if Johnny Cash or Dolly Parton were starting their careers today they'd definitively be put in the alt country bucket.

Which also gets me to an important point I wish more people would take into consideration: genre is a constructed element of music, largely stemming less from artistic movements and more from radio formats. The modern day music landscape has much less to do with artistic expression and much more to do with what advertisers thinks will sell tires, cheap beer, and fast food combo meals. Even deconstructed genres like hyperpop stem from the record industries need to assign everything to a specific radio format and artists wanting to put a spotlight on the commercialization of one of humanities oldest endeavors (song / dance).