I noticed that Grady Smith’s top 10 Best Country Albums of 2013 for Entertainment Weekly was primarily stacked with Americana acts.

As much as I appreciate the high-profile that Smith’s choices will bring to these performers the bright spotlight of EW, I was puzzled by the word “Country” in a list that featured Jason Isbell and Lindi Ortega.

When I asked about that on twitter Smith responded:

“I thought about calling it “10 Best Country/Americana Albums” but thought it made it too muddled.”

Fair enough. But apparently some folk thought the list wasn’t “mainstream” enough. That’s true, and the point of the list choices. Mainstream country sucks.

Smith responded to the critics in the best way possible. He made a video short showing how redundant and unimaginative mainstream country has become. The video is tearing up on the Internet because people get it. They agree. but that a major mainstream critic has said it is a big, big deal.

This brings my comment that some music is “so country it’s Americana” full circle.

Here’s the description from the video and the video below. Enjoy.

“I was inspired to make this supercut after posting my 10 Best Country Albums of 2013 list for EW. A few commenters told me that my choices weren’t mainstream enough, and I thought, “Well, yeah, because so much of what’s on the radio these days sounds exactly the same!” So I decided to make a video to prove my point.

I hope country fans will stop settling for this derivative junk. I love a dumb party song every once in a while (including some of these!), but when they’re the only flavor available, they get old very, very fast. Here’s to better music in 2014.”