Country without borders

Those household names and the new generation of fans they've attracted have put country music -- that twangy, red-headed stepchild -- at the center of pop for the first time since the heyday of Garth Brooks and Shania Twain nearly a generation ago.

Old prejudices are disappearing as country gains a foothold across the TV dial, in urban music venues and on the Internet. And kids -- even urban and suburban -- can dig country songs without any fear of reprisal. That's because the younger generation encounters music in a different way than its parents did. It's an iPod-shuffling generation with eclectic tastes.

"With the onset of digital music, there has become less defined lines between genres," said Swift, who turns 20 next month. "When you discover your music on the Internet like I do and like a lot of my friends do, a lot of times, genre doesn't come into play. It's more about the lyrics and the melody and if you can relate to them."

Even younger radio listeners aren't necessarily glued to one station. Twin Cities radio executive Gregg Swedberg knows his 12-year-old daughter jumps from the Top 40 of KDWB to her dad's highly rated country station, K102.

"She listens to Taylor Swift one second and Jay-Z the next," he said. "She likes Rascal Flatts and Jordin Sparks. I don't see as many barriers [in front of country] as I did when I was kid."

Country, hip-hop, pop, indie rock, dance -- it's all music to their ears. That's a big reason why country is as prominent on television as it's ever been. Swift hosted "Saturday Night Live" this weekend; Underwood will star in her first TV special Dec. 7 on Fox, and this summer's "CMA Music Festival: Country's Night to Rock" was ABC's second-highest-rated show of the summer.

TV's ratings king, "American Idol," also has been a high-profile promoter of country, whether it's having the finalists cover a country song or showcasing Underwood, the most consistently successful CD seller among "Idol" champions.

"From 'American Idol,' Carrie has brought an audience with her," said Michael McCall, a writer/editor for the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. "By watching her on things like on the CMA [Country Music Association] Awards, those fans discover that they like other [country] artists, too, and maybe it decreases the built-in prejudices that people sometimes have against country music."

Underwood, who will co-host the CMA Awards on Wednesday with Brad Paisley, is on a roll. After scoring six No. 1 country hits on her first two albums, she delivered her third disc last week as her tune "Cowboy Casanova" climbed to No. 11 on Billboard's pop list.

Country moves into the city

Country has become so assimilated into today's music mix that its stars are no longer relegated to county fairs, outstate casinos and exurban bars.

Luke Bryan played the always trendy Fine Line in Minneapolis' Warehouse District last month, and the enduringly cool Cabooze on Minneapolis' West Bank has presented a parade of new country stars including Eric Church, Heidi Newfield and Darius Rucker.

It's no coincidence that country is showing up all over the map. There are organizations, including the CMA, to market the music. In fact, country is the only genre with three awards shows of its own -- CMT Video Awards, the Academy of Country Music Awards and the CMA Awards, billed as "country's biggest night."

Why so many? Swedberg thinks it may reflect a long-standing inferiority complex in the industry. "Country music is just underappreciated" by folks outside the business, he says.

But that's not the case with rockers like Dave Matthews, who will perform with Chesney on the CMAs, or Chris Daughtry, who will team with Vince Gill that night. Nor is that true of actresses Nicole Kidman and Kimberly Williams, whose husbands are Keith Urban and Paisley, both finalists for CMA entertainer of the year.

Today's country stars are a different breed, which helps them appeal to a broader audience. They didn't grow up on Hank Williams and Loretta Lynn, points out Kiss singer Paul Stanley. They were raised on Queen, the Eagles and, of course, Kiss.

"I love Brad Paisley and Dierks Bentley and Carrie Underwood," says retro rocker Brian Setzer, who is known for blending rockabilly, jazz and blues. "You can hardly call it country. It's really rock 'n' roll."

Zac Brown, a nominee for the CMA's best new artist and single of the year, cites James Taylor as his biggest influence. Urban and Paisley, stars who play guitars, are known for sneaking in classic-rock riffs -- from Zeppelin to Creedence -- at their concerts.

Arena-rock influences surfaced in country in the 1990s with Brooks and Twain, but country has been diluted by pop sounds for decades. String sections replaced fiddle and pedal-steel guitar in the so-called countrypolitan sound of the 1960s (Eddy Arnold, Patsy Cline, Glen Campbell), and the country-rock of the Eagles became the twang-free Nashville sound of the '90s and '00s (Alabama, Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts).

Hootie and the Swift machine

Country is so hot that when Brooks -- once the genre's 800-pound gorilla -- announced last month that he'd end a 10-year retirement by returning to the stage in Las Vegas, he couldn't steal the headlines away from the new wave of stars.

One of the big stories this year is Rucker, the first rock star to successfully pursue a country career since Kenny Rogers. The frontman for 1990s hotshots Hootie & the Blowfish has landed three No.1 country hits and two CMA nominations -- best new artist and male vocalist.

But the biggest story is Swift. Not only has she sold more albums than any act in the past three years, but she has scored two huge pop hits, "Love Story" and "You Belong With Me." The latter won an MTV Video Music Award -- the first ever for a country artist -- and unexpected notoriety as rapper Kanye West interrupted Swift's acceptance speech. The incident brought mainstream media exposure that she could never buy.

Swift is as savvy about marketing as she is open-minded about music.

"Taylor is a fan of all kinds of music," said Top 40 program director Rob Morse of KDWB, which keeps her songs in high rotation. "She is affable to do duets with [rockers] Boys Like Girls, [rapper] T-Pain and others. She's a fan of [new pop stars] Justin Bieber and Owl City. She's even doing a few pop radio [station] Christmas shows, in L.A. and New York. She can write a mean song, whether you want to label it country or pop -- or whatever."

Jon Bream • 612-673-1719