Going through past columns recently, I noticed I've talked at least a couple of times about what constitutes country music. Here I go again. Just when did Def Leppard become a country act? Or T-Pain?

Both showed up on the recent CMT Awards show to honor country music videos. That's surprising in itself since lately CMT has more programs like "My Big Redneck Wedding," John Rich trying to make D-list "celebrities" into country performers and reruns of wife-swapping, out-of-control-youngster and house-rebuilding shows than country music.

Anyway, I'm really not a musical snob. I like all kinds of music, some just a little better than others. Sometimes it's interesting to hear different artists try something different, although I still seriously doubt Tony Bennett could ever really sing a country song. The irony is that George Strait could sing one of Tony's songs with no problem. Even Willie could do a Tin Pan Alley tune (remember his "Stardust" album).

But when it comes to country, it's hard to find honest-to-goodness country music these days. There's not a whole lot of singers doing songs like Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Conway Twitty, or Hank Williams these days. They sang real country music (although George Thorogood contends Hank Williams really had the first rock song with "Move It On Over").

Country music today is becoming dominated by performers who would have been pop acts not so long ago and by pop performers who haven't been doing so well in that genre. Darius Rucker, the former front man for Hootie and The Blowfish, is one example. He's gone country, and is doing well with it, and a couple of his earlier songs probably could pass as country-style now. I wish him good luck. He's said he'd like to do a duet with Charlie Pride, and I know that's a song I'll listen to.
Taylor Swift is one of the best young music performers today. She writes, she sings, she performs like it's going out of style. I like her, but she ain't country. Actually, Swift and many of her peers are almost interchangeable with their pop sounds. Again, I like some of them, but it just ain't country (nor is Def Leppard, whose lead singer sang with Swift at the awards show).

Some of the young "hat acts" with their brims pulled low, their scowls and growls and hot guitar licks aren't really country to me, either. I think they're wannabe rock stars who decided they couldn't get far in that field so they went country.

Actually, country seems to have become a homogenized catch-all genre these days, at least the nationally marketed country. You still can find independent artists who really do sing country music thanks to local VFW halls and the Internet.

Now, if some of them could just move their music careers up a notch or two, there'd be some more country in country music.

Sonny Garrett is editorial page editor of The Baxter Bulletin and a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.