The closest I can get to country music would be artists like James Taylor or similar, probably considered to be "folk music", although in some ways Johnny Cash is pretty cool. I have found artists like Garth Brooks to be somewhat of a bad joke...many country artists(today), imo, seem to be trying to immitate rock musicians from yesteryear but use a slide guitar or fiddle here or there to justify it as country music. If you ever listen to Shania's music alongside certain Def Leppard songs, you'll hear a lot of similarities fiddles/slide guitar aside.
Agree with all negative comments on rap "music", throw pop music in there too!
