Why is country music having a moment during the pandemic? And how does it relate to the COVID-19 prevention backlash? Spencer Kornhaber has a theory:

While pop tends to envision one big night where you transcend your boring condition, and hip-hop often touts material success turning an ordinary life into an extraordinary one, country fetishizes the day-after-day realities of homes, highways, and beer halls. There are exceptions, but typically it’s a genre in which work and family and place all are held up as things that must be defended…

The Atlantic