I agree the signature country sound of today owes more to RAP than classic country. Listen to the newer vocalists, many speak the lyrics in time with the beat of the song for much or all of a song. Mixing and production values owe more to rap's "in your face" style than was common in country just a few years ago.

Part of that has to do with the artists, their relationship with music and the audience they want to attract. Luke Bryan, Florida-Georgia Line, Eric Church, The Band Perry, Jason Aldean don't care what genre their music is classified. They just want to attract the largest crowd they can to their events. Blake Shelton, Toby Keith & Josh Turner's country is old school.

Jim Fogle - 2025 BiaB (Build 1128) RB (Build 5) - Ultra+ PAK
DAWs: Cakewalk Sonar - Standalone: Zoom MRS-8
Laptop: i3 Win 10, 8GB ram 500GB HDD
Desktop: i7 Win 11, 12GB ram 256GB SSD, 4 TB HDD
Music at: https://fogle622.wix.com/fogle622-audio-home