What are we talking about when we describe that classic country music sound?
Classic country is referred to as a time when country music sounded like real country music. A decade of radio hits from pre 1970's or so. Classic country fans prefer that old time easy listening sound when the vocals were the main instrument. In fact during this time in history, most of the instruments heard in a recording session where acoustic and produced a softer quieter background sound that supported the artist's voice rather than drowning it out like the more popular Pop country music sound. Many mainstream radio stations don't play that classic country anymore and that bothers classic fans.
Pop country (a mix of country and rock) is more popular with the younger generation of 40 years of age and younger. While classic country listeners are usually in the older age bracket of 50 plus or better. Of course there are exceptions to this dividing line. Some younger music fans are discovering that old classic sound for the first time and are loving the vocal dominated recordings. And there are always a few older people who just love that loud driving drum and electric guitar dominated country sound. No matter what category you may lean toward, there is still much controversy over radio air time. Argument being...there are only so many hours in a day to play music at the local radio stations and the older classic country fans are getting mighty tired of the pop dominated country music industry. Classic country music fans still want to hear their favorite tunes and the radio stations are not playing it very much for reasons to do with the advertising market.
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