Is a Taylor Swift backlash afoot?

Pop-country got bashed by country legend George Jones in an interview he gave the AP this week. Jones told the AP that he thinks pop-country stars like Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift are good, but "they've stolen our identity." He feels that the new crop of country stars needs to invent a new name for whatever you want to call their music, but it's certainly not traditional country in his opinion.

Fair enough, but it's safe to say that the likes of Underwood, Swift, and Chesney have tapped into something that country's old guard hasn't lately: new fans. Jones finishes his interview by bashing rap music, something that would've endeared him to rock disciples, say, 15 years ago. Now he just seems out of touch.

Underwood herself says she isn't too keen on the pop-country label either. She wants country to be a big tent where artists both old and new can come together and fans can discover all of them. She told the AP that she'd rather call her kind of music "contemporary," which seems to be more of a marketing ploy than to say anything about the sound of young country music.

Frankly, it makes me think of music suitable for a dentist's office.

All of it smacks of backlash against Taylor Swift, whose rise to fame has eclipsed the likes of Underwood, leading NY Times critic Jon Caramanica to wonder if Underwood hadn't prematurely aged against the backdrop of the insouciant Swift. That the ex-'Idol' star would try to distance herself from Swift is no surprise, but why not abdicate the tween audience and play up her sexuality in a bid to be the second coming of Dolly Parton? She has the looks, charm, and songs to pull it off!

It would be foolish for country music to start feuding like so many Hatfields and McCoys at a time when radio promotion is less a part of the music landscape than any time in the past. Country needs to rely on its young stars to drag it from the depths of being music solely for red staters. Country music would be well served by getting out of politics altogether and get back to partying.

Country music has seen dark days in the past. If memory serves, country bounced back from synth-drenched '80s tracks by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, to fun-loving tunes by the likes of Alan Jackson, Reba McEntire, and Garth Brooks. It's time to embrace pop-country and expose new fans to the kind of music they want playing at their prom. Is it so bad to want to have fun?