Obviously, “One Week” is not a Country song. It doesn’t sound like Country, it’s not written like Country, and it was played on Rock, Alt-Rock, and Pop stations. If it were their only song, I wouldn’t hold this opinion. I also recognize that socially, the band didn’t market themselves as a Country band, they didn’t target the typical Country crowd, and they’re from Canada not the US South. Those are all fair reasons to say they aren’t really a Country band.
But musically, a lot of their songs would fit in just fine on Country radio. Listen to It’s All Been Done, for example. There’s so much twang in those guitars! The rhythm is straight out of Country Rock, and the lyrics are about a jaded relationship. If that’s not enough for you, how about Alcohol? A song about getting drunk all the time in a slow drawl with that same Country guitar rhythm.
I know some of you are shaking your heads and calling this a stretch, but I’ve got one more bit of evidence. If I Had a Million Dollars. You don’t even need to make it to the first vocals to know this is a country song, but when they come in, they make it even clearer.
I don’t think this should change your opinion about whether the band is good or not, I still love their music. I’m only saying that a lot of their songs sound like a lot of Country songs.
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I think they land in easy-listening rock with folk and country undertones.
Country fans would be furious if Barenaked Ladies all of a sudden showed up on their playlists/radio stations. That alone is reason enough why your opinion is not unpopular, but just wrong.
They’re alt-rock/folk-rock.
When they were actively making music that’s what it was at the time. Country music wasn’t completely whitewashed into pop at that time, so their music was literally folk-rock.
Country being pop washed today shouldn’t be causing existing bands to be rebranded into other genres.
BNL are one of my favourite bands and I fully disagree. But enjoy the upvote for having a rare actually unpopular opinion.
They were always much closer to folk rock than country.
I assume op thinks Neil Young is country too
That take is so dumb. No upvote for you.