The responses to your question should be interesting reading. First do you mean live or recorded music? My answer is geared toward recorded music because it's the recording publicity people and media programmers that stick genre names on not just recordings but also the artists and entertainers. Those decisions determine how artists and their recordings are marketed.

To me it's song arrangement, instrumentation, how tracks are recorded and how a recording is mixed and mastered as much or more than the song or artist. (Note: for this conversation I'm treating vocalists as instruments. A good vocalist will adapt and embellish to fit into the song production.) Modern artists can and do record real country but it sounds different than the recordings of decades ago. However, many real country artists have released modern country material without success since they have a difficult time developing a feel for the songs, arrangements and production. Even when they do succeed many times the listening audience is not accepting of the change.

Real country music, versus classic country music, has its roots in genres now called Old Timey, Bluegrass, Blues, Ragtime, Rockabilly, Hawaiian, Western Swing, and Folk. Current country music adds elements of Rock, Pop, Rap, Funk and Hip Hop into the mix.

Genre labels can be very loose as numerous examples demonstrate. Classic country artists Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash are in both the Country Music and Rock & Roll halls of fame. The Charlie Daniels Band is enshrined in the Country Music Hall of Fame. Singer/Entertainer Charlie Rich burned the card announcing John Denver as Country Entertainer of the Year on an award show broadcast on live television. Charlie Rich believed John Denver was a pop artist, not country.

Four good examples to listen to as a positive demonstration of production changing everything are the artists Don Williams, Conway Twitty, Johnny Horton and Jim Reeves. (Interesting non related side note, did you know heart throb singer Michael Bolton began his career as the lead singer of a heavy metal band?) Each of these singers re-recorded songs they recorded early in their career and it's the re-recorded version that is more well known.

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