When will people realize that this narrow "genre"-lization of music is just small-minded idiocy. We in the business need to encourage crossover music, not decry it. That Faith Hill is not "country", whatever "country" means in the definition of your particular narrow little mind is 100% irrelevant. If you want whatever your little mind defines as "country" go get some Merle, or Dwight, Lyle or, hell, Olivia for that matter. Definitions are, res ipsa loquitur, as broad as your own personal defining wants to get. But stop whining about labels. Faith and Shania sold more records than all your so-called legitimate "country" artists combined, and that's kept a lot of us employed, including many of the artists you consider the only "legitimate" ones. (And frankly, if an artist sells 10 million records, that makes her by definition a whole lot more "legitimate" from a music business point of view than yours who sells 10,000).

The fact is not a whole lot of people in this world, relatively speaking, care about musicians who meet your definition of "country", so just embrace the fact that crossover artists allow your preferred artists to keep making music and stay out of gas stations.

[This message has been edited by PaulOlivetti (edited 09-10-2003).]