Does Europe have country music

[eschatological]

Folk music and country music are distinguished in the U.S. People like John Denver and early Bob Dylan are folk music, but country music has some specificity to it, and most of it seems to involve twangy guitars played poorly. And they over enunciate their southern accents, when music often gets rid of accents because of the harmonies you're singing. IE, you can't really tell Adele has the accent she has, when she sings, but country singers make sure you know they're good old boys from the South of the U.S.

[OriginalName]

Well apparently it isn't very big outside their native countries? "shrugs"

Is american country music big outside of the US?

I have no idea, but that wasn't the question.

[Kithelle]

Is american country music big outside of the US?

I have no idea, but that wasn't the question.

Does Europe have country music was the question...someone called said question stupid...I said I thought the question wasn't stupid because I've never really heard of country music being produced from other countries, unlike with other genres of music...

Why make your last few replies to me at all if all you cared about was the main question?

[XangXu]

Country music is just the trailer trash version of Folk Music.

Any music genre that embraces such lyrics as “Love is as tough as a pickup truck” has to be trash.

[ravenmoon]

Sweden has a lot of country music and yes, it's just as terrible as the american music.

Well, finally we get an honest answer

- - - Updated - - -

Is american country music big outside of the US?

I have no idea, but that wasn't the question.

I wouldn't say it's "big" in the UK, but it certainly is well known. Especially in London, but then taht may be you have a large American diaspora here.

[pinkz]

Is European folk anything like Country Western?

K-Pop for example is just like American Pop music...but sung in native Korean.

Baby Metal is Japanese...

Ramstein is German...

I've never heard of any bands doing Country Western music in their native language.

Is European folk anything like Country Western? US country western...NO, they like US country western, some of their CW bands predom sing it in english.to EU audiences. there are some that will sing some songs in various languages....if it works out with the music

[Cosmic Janitor]

There are some niche bands that copy/apply the style but it's more of an american thing, like you won't find much bavarian folk music in america, even if you have some piss poor imitation band in a las vegas oktoberfest-copy. Rock, pop, hip-hop and rap on the other hand have spawned considerably more local variants across the globe.

[XDurionX]

They don't have American country music in countries that aren't America, no. That's like asking do they have Japanese enka music in Spain.

Most countries have various kinds of folk music or traditional music of various styles, but country music in the American variant is fairly idiosyncratic.

Pretty much this.

[Weeps]

That being said. Europe has amazing folk music (way better than the american counterpart if you ask me).

That is why I love The Decemberists. They're American (Portland, Oregon based) but they write and sing in old english language/vocabulary. It's really nice.

[Nathanyel]

In Germany, there's the Schlager (literally "hit") genre, it's basically the post-WW2 folk music that evolved to include elements of US-style Pop/Rock. Current Schlager has become a really shitty version of Pop music, so I'm not gonna cover it, but to offer a comparison to what I assume is considered "Country" music, Willie Nelson's version of "City of New Orleans, the tune was adapted into a Schlager song that was very successful back in the day and is still enjoyable today: Rudi Carrell's "Wann wird's mal wieder richtig Sommer?" - singer is Dutch, hence the accent. Translated lyrics for context.

[baskev]

Does Europe have country music? I mean like American country. I know they have like rock and rap and stuff but I didn' tknow if country music was unique to the US or not.

Yes, schlager music in germany, netherlands etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlager_music.

Its pretty much the samething. Some small differences. But not as much as with other sub genre's.

[Larsadius]

Funny, I didn't think my line of work would ever be relevant in an MMO Champ thread.

If anyone here is actually interested in the topic, there are quite a few sources you can look into.

First, are country and folk the same thing, and what even is folk music? Folk music is actually a genre of music defined by class, purpose, and instrumentation. Folk music can only be "folk music" if it is made by the "folk", i.e. the lower class. If someone wealthy starts making folk, it isn't really folk music anymore, and that's where it starts to get different labels like "country", "alternative", or "indie". Folk music also has a utility aspect: folk music is written for work songs like cow-calls in Norway, or lullabies, etc. and are passed down orally rather than owned by one person that other people "cover" in the way we think about it. Matthew Gelbarts "The Invention of 'Folk music' and 'Art music' is a great source on this.

Onto the question of why Europe doesn't have country music, it's because when they do its purposely imitating American country western music which is the only true "country western" genre. Ken Burns just put a documentary on the genre last summer which answers every question as to why "country" is unique from "folk" music and why it's a uniquely American genre.

Europeans have folk bands, but they have their own local traditions they pull from rather than sounding American. Sweden has groups like Väsen, Denmark has Dreamers' Circus, but they aren't "country". If a european band sounds "country", it's because they are explicitly imitating our American genre of country music.

[Athredas]

Back in the 90's it was very popular in Czech Republic for some reason

[Cosmic Janitor]

Back in the 90's it was very popular in Czech Republic for some reason

Cotton Eye Joe doesn't really count .

[Ringthane]

Why start a question thread without a question mark? Otherwise it just seems like a random statement from an uneducated, mindless beast.

Flaming isn't allowed. Infracted.

That's not flaming, that's an opinion.

Here's flaming: You started a question thread without a question mark, which makes you an uneducated, mindless beast.

I mean, it's just the English language. We've all only been using it for decades now. It never hurts to get it right.

(Infraction in 3, 2, 1...)

And yes, I believe everywhere has country music. Somebody has to like it - law of averages and all that.

[Queen of Hamsters]

We've had some bands/artists specifically doing American-style Country Music.

As for folkmusic, we had that before the US was even a colony.

[Brubear]

You might be thinking about folk music.

Country music according to wikipedia:

"Country music, also known as country and western (or simply country), and hillbilly music, is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern United States in the early 1920s. It takes its roots from genres such as American folk music (especially Appalachian folk and Western music) and blues."

That being said. Europe has amazing folk music (way better than the american counterpart if you ask me).

American Country music is just pop American folk music. And yes, other countries have pop versions of their folk music.

[Puupi]

Yes, there are European country music bands/artists.

I mean, they play the same kind of country music the people in the US do.

Our folk music is obviously different.

[ThrashMetalFtw]

Funny, I didn't think my line of work would ever be relevant in an MMO Champ thread.

If anyone here is actually interested in the topic, there are quite a few sources you can look into.

First, are country and folk the same thing, and what even is folk music? Folk music is actually a genre of music defined by class, purpose, and instrumentation. Folk music can only be "folk music" if it is made by the "folk", i.e. the lower class. If someone wealthy starts making folk, it isn't really folk music anymore, and that's where it starts to get different labels like "country", "alternative", or "indie". Folk music also has a utility aspect: folk music is written for work songs like cow-calls in Norway, or lullabies, etc. and are passed down orally rather than owned by one person that other people "cover" in the way we think about it. Matthew Gelbarts "The Invention of 'Folk music' and 'Art music' is a great source on this.

Onto the question of why Europe doesn't have country music, it's because when they do its purposely imitating American country western music which is the only true "country western" genre. Ken Burns just put a documentary on the genre last summer which answers every question as to why "country" is unique from "folk" music and why it's a uniquely American genre.

Europeans have folk bands, but they have their own local traditions they pull from rather than sounding American. Sweden has groups like Väsen, Denmark has Dreamers' Circus, but they aren't "country". If a european band sounds "country", it's because they are explicitly imitating our American genre of country music.

Pretty sure that was the OPs question all along, and yes, there are plenty of bands in Europe playing Country. It's its own genre, like Rock or Blues. When European bands are playing American style Country, they are playing Country... That was his question, and here is the answer. And no, Country music is obviously not American Folk music. It might have its roots there, but it evolved to become its own genre more than half a century ago...


Folk music is simply old musical traditions, usually originating from a specific area in a specific country, carried onwards generation after generation from memory/oral tradition (as opposed to being written down). Most folk musicians in Norway have many years long music educations specialized in folk music, so the idea that folk music "is for the lower classes" is ridiculous and simply wrong.