Been listening to country/western my entire life and not just what is "popular". Country music changed about 15 yrs ago for the worse and permanently it seems. Today's music is just pop music with saw dust sprinkled on it....<cough> Shania and her garbage. Even George Strait's music changed around that time, there was no more sense of Lefty, Hank, or Western Swing anymore in his music. Good artists who actually wrote their own music and could actually sing stopped showing on the radio, unless it was one of those stations that still played Marty Robbins, Hank Snow, Gary P Nunn, Texas Tornados, or the Statler Brothers.

No offense to those who listen to the 'new' stuff, but it lacks soul, lacks feeling, and no real story or lesson to it, rhyming words to a drum beat doesn't make a song. Take "He stopped loving her today', "San Angelo", or "If that ain't country", and so many more, they tell stories, they shine a light on slices of life that many other have lived. Today it is just a silly, catchy chorus yammered over and over.