Hi Floyd!
Thanks for posting this summary - a bit of an education for me. I have to admit I’ve not listened to much country, so anything I say will come with quite a lot of ignorance - naïveté might be a better word.

I listened to a sample of these songs - mainly the ones with YouTube displaying inline - and it made me ask the question ‘What defines the genre country music?’ I think this is the same point you are making in a way. For reference, I don’t know examples of where radio country has gone rubbish because I don’t listen to it, so I am assuming your list you consider to be good country.

To my ears, these are the elements that jump out of a song to make me think it’s country:
  • The accent or vocal stylings of the singer - a certain twang and emphasis on rhotic pronunciation - the latter not exclusively.
  • The choice of instrumentation - put in a steel guitar, resonator, double stopped guitar or fiddle and it yells country.
  • The rhythm - something like train e.g. Lainey Wilson ‘Keep up with Jones’

For the first two points, you could swap out the singer and drop an instrument or two and you’d have indie, rock, folk rock or alternative. To illustrate in reverse, if you put Jameson Rodgers’ vocal on Blur - Tender would it become country?

Without wanting to go on a tangent, I have the same dilemma about rock and pop. What is it that defines these?

I just did a quick check of 3 Australian country artists (not current but very popular) to see if these elements are present, and sure enough!
Lee Kernaghan ‘Boys from the bush’ Boys from the bush
Troy Casserole-Daly ‘Born to survive’ Born to survive In this live performance, contrast the way he speaks to the way he sings.
Kasey Chambers ‘The captain’ The captain

For clarity, the above is genuinely not to be critical of country or of the songs listed or of the issue at hand. I think we are all seeing our favourite genres being diluted.

Andrew

Regards,
Andrew D
Adelaide, Sth Aust
Soundcloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/SQE4btVvNVkLq74e9
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@andrewoftheantipodes