There were so many. I think we can all admit that country music itself is no stranger to tropes, clichés and the like. Of course, you have your classic beer, trucks, dirt roads, dogs and mama clichés that have invited critics and haters to subsequently dunk on the worst the genre has to offer. That’s not to say that songs with any or all of those cannot be good — look at Chris Stapleton’s “Maggie’s Song” or his penned Luke Bryan hit, “Drink a Beer.” With that being said, I think that anyone who has closely followed the genre over its history would be kidding themselves if they haven’t found a particular trope or trend a bit annoying at times. The 2010s, which many (myself included) consider the dark ages for the genre, brought about a lot of different trends. Dominated by both the rise of bro-country and its softer, nauseatingly romantic offshoot, boyfriend country, it spawned some of the worst country had to offer and ultimately inspired a whole lot of copycat artists. With names like Florida Georgia Line, Thomas Rhett, Dan + Shay, Sam Hunt, Kane Brown and more rising to the top of the genre from roughly 2012-2018, that six-year period saw the genre arguably hit an all-time low. While many like to rightfully harp on both the bro-country and boyfriend-country era, one trend that was also pretty prevalent in the 2010s was the odd obsession with simply writing a song by naming and referencing older, significantly better tracks and building around them. Of course, this isn’t an entirely new concept, but it was brought to a ridiculously higher level throughout the time period. Tracks like Old Dominion’s “Song For Another Time,” Walker Hayes’ “90’s Country,” Lauren Alania’s “Ladies In The ’90s,” which were some of the worst the trope had to offer, were these odd amalgamations of simply writing lyrics around massive, hit songs. Sure, this could be a fun songwriting exercise; however, I personally never really understood the appeal of simply listing off old songs, which are undeniably better. I should probably preface this by saying that not all of these types of songs are inherently bad. As you’ll see later, there are actually some incredibly solid tracks that name-drop classics throughout. With that being said, however, a majority of the good ones have a key feature that the bad ones lack: an actual through line. With all of that being said, let’s take a look at some of the best and worst this rarely-talked-about trend had to offer. Good Examples “Hippie Radio” – Eric Church In typical Church fashion, he elevates this trope tenfold. Instead of simply vomiting out as many classic songs as he heard on the titular hippie radio, he crafts a narrative of how classic tracks such as “Carry On My Wayward Son,” “Rebel Yell” and “Cat’s In The Cradle” have impacted him at different times in his life. Going on a journey from childhood in his father’s Pontiac to his first love to becoming a father, “Hippie Radio” is an expertly crafted journey through Church’s life that is more than just name-dropping songs for the sake of it. Songs Referenced: “Carry On My Wayward Son” – Kansas “White Wedding” – Billy Idol “Rebel Yell” – Bon Jovi “Werewolf in London” – Warren Zevon “Lady Marmalade” – Labelle “Cat’s In the Cradle” – Harry Chapin “Nashville Without You” – Tim McGraw While not an incredible song by any means, “Nashville Without You” has some groundings that both acknowledge the history and importance of Nashville as well as the most influential songs in country music history. Packaged as a love letter to both the genre and Music City itself, it sounds great production-wise and ultimately is one of the better examples of this type of song out there. Songs Referenced: “Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain” – Willie Nelson “Ring of Fire” – Johnny Cash “Crazy” – Patsy Cline “Stand By Your Man” – Tammy Wynette “Hey Good Lookin'” – Hank Williams “Mama Tried” – Merle Haggard “The Gambler” – Kenny Rogers “Jolene” – Dolly Parton “Smoky Mountain Rain” – Ronnie Milsap “A Country Boy Can Survive” – Hank Williams Jr. “Galveston” – Glen Campbell “He Stopped Loving Her Today” – George Jones “Fancy” – Reba McEntire “Old Alabama” – Brad Paisley Though it can be argued that Paisley’s doing exactly what I harped on earlier, there’s an inherent amount of charm with this one. Couple that with the fact that Alabama themselves hop on the track and even add in the bridge of “Mountain Music,” it feels much more reverent and respectful to the songs (and band) referenced here. The breakdown at the end goes pretty hard too. Songs Referenced: “Dixieland Delight” “Feels So Right” “Love in the First Degree” “Why Lady Why” “Tennessee River” “Mountain Music” “After the Music’s Stopped” – Jake Owen Though this one is bordering on egregious, given the 27 songs listed throughout, Jake Owen delivers this reference-filled track, penned by Tom Douglas and Jaren Johnston, marginally better than other songs of its type. Owen and Co. really covered all their bases, giving nods to everyone from Brad Paisley and Johnny Cash to Pink Floyd and The Beatles. It should also be applauded that the theme of never getting over a heartbreak is further added to by listing a seemingly never-ending list of songs, making “After the Music’s Stopped” a smarter song than meets the eye on a first listen. Songs Referenced: “Wish You Were Here” – Pink Floyd “Be My Baby” – The Ronettes “Heartbreak Hotel” – Elvis Presley “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” – Marvin Gaye “Comfortably Numb” – Pink Floyd “Highway to Hell” – AC/DC “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” – Otis Redding “Hound Dog” – Elvis Presley “American Pie” – Don McLean “Tangled Up In Blue” – Bob Dylan “Dancing In the Street” – David Bowie & Mick Jagger “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” – The Beatles “The Tracks of My Tears” – Smokey Robinson “The Sound of Silence” – Simon & Garfunkel “Set ’em Up, Joe” – Vern Gosdin “Fire and Rain” – James Taylor “Born to Run” – Bruce Springsteen “Thunder Road” – Bruce Springsteen “Dazed and Confused” – Led Zeppelin “Purple Haze” – The Jimi Hendrix Experience “I Walk The Line” – Johnny Cash “Whiskey Lullaby” – Brad Paisley & Alison Krauss “I Fall to Pieces” – Patsy Cline “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” – The Rolling Stones “What a Friend We Have In Jesus” “Ain’t No Sunshine” – Bill Withers Bad Examples “Song for Another Time” – Old Dominion Arguably the most egregious of these, numbers-wise at least, is none other than Old Dominion’s 2016 #1 hit, “Song for Another Time.” Referencing a total of 20 hit songs across genres, it simply smashes you over the head with classic, infinitely better songs throughout the decades. Songs Referenced: “Marina Del Rey” – George Strait “Yesterday” – The Beatles “I Can’t Make You Love Me” – Bonnie Raitt “Brown Eyed Girl” – Van Morrison “Sweet Caroline” – Neil Diamond “Free Fallin'” – Tom Petty “Small Town Saturday Night” – Hal Ketchum “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'” – The Righteous Brothers “Dancing on the Ceiling” – Lionel Richie “Teenage Dream” – Katy Perry “Paradise City” – Guns N’ Roses “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” – Hank Williams “One More Day” – Diamond Rio “Oh, Pretty Woman” – Roy Orbison “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” – Kris Kristofferson/Johnny Cash “Take Me Home, Country Roads” – John Denver “Pink Houses” – John Mellencamp “Candle in the Wind” – Elton John “Always on My Mind” – Willie Nelson “I Will Always Love You” – Dolly Parton/Whitney Houston “What’s Your Country Song” – Thomas Rhett* Though this one technically came out in 2020, all the problems present on the other songs still remain. Building a song around framing iconic songs and lyrics as questions simply isn’t that interesting and ultimately just makes me want to listen to them instead of this Frankenstein’s monster of a song. Songs Referenced: “Drive (For Daddy Gene)” – Alan Jackson “Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound” – Hank Williams Jr. “Mama Tried” – Merle Haggard “Cruise” – Florida Georgia Line “Dixieland Delight” – Alabama “Chattahoochee” – Alan Jackson “Barefoot Blue Jean Night” – Jake Owen “All My Ex’s Live in Texas” – George Strait “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” – Hank Williams Sr. “That Ain’t My Truck” – Rhett Akins “Friends in Low Places” – Garth Brooks “Neon Moon” – Brooks & Dunn “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool” – Barbra Mandrell/George Jones “Strawberry Wine” – Deana Carter “Family Tradition” – Hank Williams Jr. Abhorrent Examples “90’s Country” – Walker Hayes Mr. Applebee’s himself crafted a song about 90’s country that feels neither ’90s nor country. It’s truly incredible how Walker Hayes even made somewhat of a career for himself despite releasing some of the most abhorrent singles year-in and year-out. Unsurprisingly, “90’s Country” is another example of this. Songs Referenced: “Strawberry Wine” – Deana Carter “Amazed” – Lonestar “Cowboy, Take Me Away” – The Chicks “Wink” – Neal McCoy “I Like It, I Love It” – Tim McGraw “Check Yes or No” – George Strait “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy” – Kenny Chesney “Jukebox Junkie” – Ken Mellons “Vidalia” – Sammy Kershaw “Queen of My Double Wide Trailer” – Sammy Kershaw “Shut Up and Kiss Me” – Mary Chapin Carpenter “John Deere Green” – Joe Diffie “I Cross My Heart” – George Strait “Walkaway Joe” – Trisha Yearwood “The Church on Cumberland Road” – Shenandoah “Dust on the Bottle” – David Lee Murphy “Sold (The Grundy County Auction)” – John Michael Montgomery “She Don’t Know She’s Beautiful” – Sammy Kershaw “Chattahoochee” – Alan Jackson “Daddy’s Money” -Ricochet “Don’t Be Stupid (You Know I Love You)” – Shania Twain “Friends in Low Places” – Garth Brooks “Ladies In The ’90s” – Lauren Alania Somehow worse than Walker Hayes’ disaster that is “90’s Country,” Lauren Alania’s “Ladies In The ’90s” is even less country than the aforementioned track. I guess you can argue that Alania was simply talking about the nineties in music as a whole. With that being said, however, it doesn’t excuse the track from being as aggressively terrible as it is. Songs/Artists Referenced: “Strawberry Wine” – Deana Carter “…Baby One More Time” – Britney Spears “Man, I Feel Like a Woman!” – Shania Twain “Breathe” – Faith Hill “Say My Name” – Destiny’s Child “No Scrubs” – TLC “Cowboy, Take Me Away” – The Chicks “Fancy” – Reba “Genie in a Bottle” – Christina Aguilera “Vogue” – Madonna “Wannabe” – The Spice Girls “You Oughta Know” – Alanis Morissette The post Looking Back at Country Music’s Bizarre 2010s Obsession With Name-Dropping Old Songs first appeared on Whiskey Riff.