90s Country

The New Style of Country Music:
During the nineties, there was a new style of country music that emerged - it was referred to as alternative country by some as well as insurgent country and neotraditional. Generally, the younger musicians performed alternative country music and were inspired by the performers of traditional country as well as the country reactionaries and it completely shunned country’s mainstream sound that was Nashville dominated.

In country music, one consistent but infrequent theme is that of stubborn, proud independence. “Copperhead Road” and “Country Boy Can Survive” are two of the songs that are more serious along those lines, where “Redneck Woman” and “Some Girls Do” are variations that are light hearted surrounding the theme.

Cable Networks Airing Country Music:
In the nineties, there were at least four different cable networks in the United States that were devoted to the country music genre. They were CMT which was owned by the well known Viacom, as well as Rural Free Delivery Television which was owned by the wonderful Rural Media Group, the CMT Pure Country which Viacom also owned and GAC which is owned by the ever-so-popular E.W. Scripps Industry. Originally the cable channel for country music videos was TNN which is The Nashville Network. In the early eighties, the channel launched and by the turn of the century, the channel was reformatted and renamed to TNN or The National Network and was basically a network of general interest in order to compete with TNT, USA Network and the Superstations like WGN and TBS.

TNN or The National Network later became Spike Television, which was the very first network for just men.

Different Genres of Country Music:
Country music consists of several music genres, such as Alternative Country, Americana, Appalachian, Bakersfield Sound, Bluegrass (which consists of nu-grass, new traditional bluegrass, progressive blue grass, old time bluegrass, and reactionary bluegrass),  Cajun, Country Gospel, Country Pop, Cowpunk, Country Soul, Folk Rock, Country-rap and Country Rock. Remember, these are only a couple of music genres that are considered to be part of nineties country.

Radio and Televisions Programs:
In ’92, Country Countdown USA aired as a radio countdown program that was hosted by Lon Helton. From ’91 until the very last episode in ’98, The Statler Brothers Show was ranked as the highest show airing on The Nashville Network. This show featured the co-host puppet, Shotgun Red. Today, not much has changed in country music, but one thing you may notice is that country music today doesn’t have emotions and feelings like the country music of the old days.