Poptimism and Country Music and You (Plus 6 2025 Country Radio Hits You'll Actually Like)

If you're chronically online (and I'll start by saying I hope you aren't), you probably caught a secondhand whiff of various discourses earlier this year among the tragically music nerdy about poptimism — a savior or a villain or something in between, depending on where you're sitting. Carl Wilson did an admirable job of distilling why the term has become such a flashpoint for take-havers inside and out of music, and yet even after all that discourse and his lengthy exploration I still have thoughts. 

The core idea of "poptimism," if it can be called a philosophy (which I'm not sure it can) is just that pop music — which is typically how much of the music by women, all people who are not white and all people who are not cis or straight gets characterized, whether it's apt or not — is worth evaluating seriously. 

That's it, that pop should not be a diminutive term or a way to signify triviality but rather an indicator of exactly its original meaning — to refer to music that is popular — or a genre (a messier take but genre is always messy) that is no greater or lesser than any other. It was intended as a correction against decades in which self-serious white straight men held most of the cards and thus more often than not rewarded the work of other self-serious white straight men; the question of whether it's worked at all is anyone's guess. Systemic inequality persists, so…

Country still tends to be the ugly step-child when it comes to broad discussions of music criticism (remember when we had to vent about it behind the paywall…), and it doesn't fit neatly into the poptimist vs. rockist arguments. Most country music, whether it's commercially oriented Music Row fodder or "progressive"/Americana/etc., is made by those same self-serious white men, ones who are…mostly loathe to describe their music as a variety of pop; even, I think, your Morgan Wallens etc. would chafe at the description of "pop star" though that is undoubtedly what he is. The mission of poptimism, to give artists who have historically been unfairly maligned in part because of their identity and audience a fair shot, doesn't feel quite as forceful when you're arguing that it's worth thinking critically about say, Luke Bryan and Florida Georgia Line. They may not be widely respected or taken seriously, but they've got just about every imaginable privilege otherwise; they often have unsavory politics, and are remarkably successful regardless of whether critics give them the time of day or not.

Here at Don't Rock The Inbox, we started out with that, I guess, poptimistic mission — to put everything that could possibly be conceived of as "country," from radio hits to Americana stars to small-time honky-tonk bands to folk to ??? on the same plane. Not to ignore the parts that are plainly terrible, whether musically, ethically or politically, or to argue that only we know the way, the truth and the light of country music, but because we like a lot of music that's made in this tradition and know we're not the only ones. Because it's worth trying to understand what's resonating with people, even when that leads you to some pretty sick and depressing stuff (no, we don't want to think more about Jason Aldean and Oliver Anthony but we won't look away from it). And by actually engaging with it, we can try to amplify more marginalized voices working within the genre credibly!

The point is the same as it is in all music writing and criticism — to find and tell good stories, and better understand culture through its music (and maybe find a few good tunes along the way). But funnily enough, choosing this path as progressive writers makes us niche, even though we're writing about an enormous industry/genre/scene. Country is one of few things that is generally considered OK to write off as a monolith (and don't get me wrong, Nashville has done plenty to encourage an "us vs. them" mentality) even in our poptimistic era — but we know you're here because your minds and your ears are open, and we're grateful for that (and for your patience when we tell you that yes, you should actually listen to that Walker Hayes song). So cheers to the next batch of twangy bangers of all stripes, and to (say it with me) country radio in a better world (or just the '90s), when we get all the country-pop goodness without the Music Row conservatism. 

Here are six songs that were country radio hits in 2025 that you might not hate (really!). Some of them we've featured before in our picks, but here they are out from behind the paywall: