Has Country Music Gone Too Pop

THE CASE: Taylor Swift isn’t just the best-selling country star right now – she was one of the best-selling pop stars of 2012, with her fourth album Red selling more than one million copies in its first sales week. Even Miranda Lambert thanked Taylor for popularizing non-”twangy and cheesy” country in the mainstream, while at the same time deeming her a pop singer. Of course, country-to-pop crossovers are nothing new – remember Faith Hill and Shania Twain? But when all of country’s biggest stars – from Lady Antebellum and Carrie Underwood to Jason Aldean and Blake Shelton – are crossing over, is the genre considered in trouble or thriving?