Lady Antebellum’s Charles Kelley Opens Up About State Of Country Music
There’s been a long-running debate about what makes a song “country.” With the genre ever-expanding, fans, artists, and industry insiders seem to have a different opinion on the subject.
Lady Antebellum’s Charles Kelley recently opened up about the heated topic with reporters backstage at the 2015 CMA Music Festival.
“I said, ‘Man, that’s like traditional country now. It’s got fiddle in there,'” Kelley says of listening to their chart-topper “Our Kind of Love” recently. “[Back when we recorded it], we were looking at each other going, ‘Is this going to be accepted in the country genre?’ Because it was pushing it. I think it just goes to show how broad the genre is going.”
The singer even talked about the popular, but controversial Sam Hunt, who is currently opening for the band on their Wheels Up Tour.
“With Sam, at first I was like, this is really pushing it. . . but [his music is] so good,” Kelley says. “I’ve said the past four or five years, we need to start looking at this genre as a different thing. It’s broad. Pop music is so broad, why can’t we be broad? And let George Strait and Josh Turner live on the same channel as Sam Hunt and Taylor Swift — why not?”
As the genre continues to grow, lines are bound to be blended. Do you agree with Kelley’s comments?
