Funny, I do not care for the "Pop 40" "Country" played on the radio for the most part. Sometimes, it sounds like I am hear more "Pop", and even "screaming guitar hard rock".
I tend to prefer older country.
But at the same time, look at some of the artists and what they did. I was listening to some Bob Will's this weekend. The song "Ida Red" was the base for Chuck Berry's "Maybeline". Some of Bob's stuff was definitely blues, jazz, and rockabilly. Some stuff going back to the '30's was definite rock and roll. No wonder he is in the Rock and roll Hall of Fame...
Listening to Patsy Cline. Now there is THE Country Queen! OMG! She did plenty of cross-over to Pop though, and a little swing/rockabilly. Not to mention when she passed, she was with Hankshaw and Cowboy Copas, both great country artist. Who also played some good rockabilly...
And Waylon, well he was one of Buddy Holly's Crickets, an amazing country star and rebel, and could rock with the best of them.
I dunno. So hard to criticize current music, when even so many years ago, the classic artists crossed over, and influenced other music so much.
I still dont care for Pop-40 country on the radio though. Fortunately, can find classic sounds on the computer; like KVMR in Grass Valley, has Bluegrass and Classic type country shows a couple times a week. Lot of local public radio stations do that.
Now I think I'm gonna put on some "Red Knuckles and the Trailblasers....