the eldest boy

Growing up, a hit song crossed demographics whether the genre was your favorite or not. People who don’t primarily listen to country still know Dolly, Shania, Carrie, The Chicks, etc. because they made actual hit records that crossed over. If a song can spend 23 weeks at #1, breaking records that stood for 20+ years, while a huge portion of the public is sincerely saying they’ve never heard it, maybe the conversation isn’t “people hate country.” Maybe @RollingStone should be writing about how streaming-era chart dominance no longer equals cultural dominance because there’s some trickery at play. That’s the real story being avoided. Don’t gaslight us.