Exporting country music

The 42nd annual Country Music Association (CMA) Awards will be held on Wednesday in Nashville. While millions of Americans tune in to see if Kenny Chesney, nominee for seven awards and performer of such hits as She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy, takes home some gold, the rest of the world will be totally unaware -- despite the somewhat ironic award of an ‘International Artist Achievement Award’ during the course of the evening. Considering the US has given the world rock and roll, hip hop and jazz, why has its second-best selling musical genre failed to succeed overseas?

One reason may be the youth factor. Younger audiences abroad tend to be more receptive to cultural imports. American cultural exports that do succeed abroad (rap music, basketball, action films) tend to appeal to younger domestic audiences than those that do not (baseball, country music). Another reason may be the lyrics, which rarely translate to a non-American audience. It is hard to imagine a person from neutral Sweden singing lines like “we’ll stick a boot up your ass, it’s the American way” like Toby Keith did in his pro-war Courtesy of the Red White and Blue (The Angry American). The music’s conservatism, too, plays a role: country is often seen abroad as the music of the 'red states,' and reflective of their values.