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What happened to the “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” “Delta Dawn,” “Hello Darlin’” and “He Stopped Loving Her Today” type country songs? These classic country hits spoke to the heart of country music. Many of today’s efforts, while good music, just are not country. Taylor Swift is a good example of this phenomenon. She is country enough to have started on country music radio, but she has migrated to a pop music category while clinging to a country fan base. Many artists have done this same thing with varying degrees of success, including Carrie Underwood, Lady Antebellum, Shania Twain, Billy Ray Cyrus and Rascal Flatts. No list would be complete without telling you about the biggest crossover for country music: Garth Brooks. Garth was a huge success in country and pop music. He sold out countless venues worldwide. His music was grounded in country, but it started to have more and more of a pop feel to it. Crossover success, while exemplified by Garth, was not started by Garth. Dolly Parton enjoyed much success in the pop world, as did Kenny Rogers, Glen Campbell, Willie Nelson and Dottie West. Later on in country music, artists such as Alabama and Eddie Rabbitt experienced a fond welcome on the pop charts. Although these artists have some good music, I would prefer my country radio stations to play country music more in line with “Crazy” and “There’s A Tear In My Beer.” When I want to hear pop music, I will tune into a pop radio station. Bring back the country!The information party rocks on: Quotable Country – 09/19/11 Edition