The popularity of country music in rural sub Saharan Africa • Hacker News Board

Re: The popularity of country music in rural sub Saharan Africa

#91

Post by AnotherGoodName » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 1:14 AM UTC

paulpauper wrote: post #59

betwixthewires wrote: post #9

A lot of people don't really know it, but American country music is the most commercially successful music genre worldwide and is popular in places such as southeast Asia, Mongolia, sub Saharan Africa, even India and Latin america. Europeans and city dwelling Americans love to shit on it but the world loves it, probably because it's easy to relate to lyrically and uses pleasant melodies and simple to follow rhythms.…

As someone who lives in a city, shitting on country music is not something that has ever crossed my mind

I've seen it. I've also seen people talk down classical, disco and a few other genres at various points in my life. It seems there's always an uncool genre of the day. Which is a shame as people are simply limiting themselves.

Re: The popularity of country music in rural sub Saharan Africa

#92

Post by jamal-kumar » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 1:15 AM UTC

mrwnmonm wrote: post #88

Off-topic: I never understood why native English speakers use Sahara and desert and think they are different things. Sometimes they even say "Sahara desert".

That prompted me to look up what 'sahara' and 'desert' are in Arabic -

صحراء - Sahra' - Desert

الصحراء الكبرى - alsahra' alkubraa - The big desert?

What language are you coming from?

Re: The popularity of country music in rural sub Saharan Africa

#93

Post by prescriptivist » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 1:24 AM UTC

guelo wrote: post #83

betwixthewires wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who's people like me?

People that blame everything bad in the world on their fellow americans that live in cities who they feel they are in a death struggle with.

> People that blame everything bad in the world on their fellow americans that live in cities

Not even close to what the comment was saying?

Re: The popularity of country music in rural sub Saharan Africa

#94

Post by adfjalkfja » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 1:25 AM UTC

There's so much terrible country music out there that I admit put me off. But lately I've been listening to Townes Van Zandt and well... my god

Re: The popularity of country music in rural sub Saharan Africa

#95

Post by betwixthewires » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 1:25 AM UTC

guelo wrote: post #83

betwixthewires wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who's people like me?

People that blame everything bad in the world on their fellow americans that live in cities who they feel they are in a death struggle with.

You seem to feel like you're in a death struggle with someone, and it isn't me. I'm not destroying you.

It's common to hear "I like everything except country" from people who live in cities, it's common to hear derisions of southerners and flyover country and inbred bumpkins and the like. People from cities do shit on it, it's a trend that exists, all I did was say it out loud.

Re: The popularity of country music in rural sub Saharan Africa

#96

Post by betwixthewires » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 1:29 AM UTC

unmole wrote: post #80

betwixthewires wrote: post #9

A lot of people don't really know it, but American country music is the most commercially successful music genre worldwide and is popular in places such as southeast Asia, Mongolia, sub Saharan Africa, even India and Latin america. Europeans and city dwelling Americans love to shit on it but the world loves it, probably because it's easy to relate to lyrically and uses pleasant melodies and simple to follow rhythms.…

> American country music is the most commercially successful music genre worldwide [citation needed] > even India Yeah, no. Unless you are using a very liberal definition of popular . American music is a niche in India and country music is a niche within a niche. Rock, pop and hip-hop are far more popular.

"Popular" just means that a lot of people like it. That's a pretty run of the mill use of the term. It doesn't mean it's a major cultural trend in a country. I just said it's pretty popular worldwide.

Re: The popularity of country music in rural sub Saharan Africa

#97

Post by joemi » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 1:29 AM UTC

unmole wrote: post #80

betwixthewires wrote: post #9

A lot of people don't really know it, but American country music is the most commercially successful music genre worldwide and is popular in places such as southeast Asia, Mongolia, sub Saharan Africa, even India and Latin america. Europeans and city dwelling Americans love to shit on it but the world loves it, probably because it's easy to relate to lyrically and uses pleasant melodies and simple to follow rhythms.…

> American country music is the most commercially successful music genre worldwide [citation needed] > even India Yeah, no. Unless you are using a very liberal definition of popular . American music is a niche in India and country music is a niche within a niche. Rock, pop and hip-hop are far more popular.

I'd love to see a citation for both the claim you wanted a citation for and for your claim.

Re: The popularity of country music in rural sub Saharan Africa

#98

Post by prescriptivist » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 1:31 AM UTC

bnralt wrote: post #68

guelo wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> American country music is the most commercially successful music genre worldwide Sorry I'm very skeptical about this claim. According to the recording industry's annual report Pop music continues to dominate and Country is not in the top 10 https://www.ifpi.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/IFPI-Engagin... (page 15) Also, as a city dweller, why do people like you constantly attack us about everything? That feeling of…

It's also interesting because there's 5 examples of American country songs in those videos. One sung by Johnny Cash in the 60's, one written and sung by Dolly Parton in the 70's, two sung by Kenny Rogers in the 70's, and one co-written by Bob Dylan and Old Crow Medicine Show (which I suppose is country-adjacent). At least three of those are just famous in general, and most people would recognize them whether or not t…

Most folks globally (and domestically, tbh) probably know Wagon Wheel not from OCMS but from Darius Rucker who sang a cover that made it to #1 on the country charts.

Re: The popularity of country music in rural sub Saharan Africa

#99

Post by EarlKing » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 1:33 AM UTC

guelo wrote: post #25

betwixthewires wrote: post #9

A lot of people don't really know it, but American country music is the most commercially successful music genre worldwide and is popular in places such as southeast Asia, Mongolia, sub Saharan Africa, even India and Latin america. Europeans and city dwelling Americans love to shit on it but the world loves it, probably because it's easy to relate to lyrically and uses pleasant melodies and simple to follow rhythms.…

> American country music is the most commercially successful music genre worldwide Sorry I'm very skeptical about this claim. According to the recording industry's annual report Pop music continues to dominate and Country is not in the top 10 https://www.ifpi.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/IFPI-Engagin... (page 15) Also, as a city dweller, why do people like you constantly attack us about everything? That feeling of…

Uh huh. From the paper reference:

> The study was carried out amongst a demographically representative sample of the online population aged 16-64 in the following territories: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and United States. The study was also conducted in China and India but results from these two countries are not included in “global” figures due to the size and nature of these markets. In total, 43,000 internet users were surveyed with higher numbers of respondents in larger markets.

They literally just surveyed first world users and made no effort to control for class or other confounding factors that influence musical taste. This pretty much only tells us what first-world city-dwellers like, not the world generally. We're no closer to knowing whether country music is truly the most commercially successful music genre worldwide, but neither are we any closer to disproving it.

Re: The popularity of country music in rural sub Saharan Africa

#100

Post by betwixthewires » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 1:39 AM UTC

astrange wrote: post #57

guelo wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> American country music is the most commercially successful music genre worldwide Sorry I'm very skeptical about this claim. According to the recording industry's annual report Pop music continues to dominate and Country is not in the top 10 https://www.ifpi.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/IFPI-Engagin... (page 15) Also, as a city dweller, why do people like you constantly attack us about everything? That feeling of…

> Also, as a city dweller, why do people like you constantly attack us about everything? That feeling of persecution is destroying us. I read it as an attack on people who "like everything but rap and country", which I associated with teenagers' Facebook profiles in the 2000s, not so much city dwellers. There's definitely some cities associated with country-like music too.

There's no attack intended, at all. I'm just pointing out that Europeans and american city people are insulated from recognizing it and I'm pointing that out because they're overrepresented online.