Carrie Underwood looks for something different

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Pop-country has made superstars out of acts like Rascal Flatts, Taylor Swift and more, but the term is not particularly endearing in Nashville, even to the artists who have come to define it.

“I hate saying pop-country – I hate using that,” Carrie Underwood says during a recent interview while talking about some of her favorite artists.

Underwood, who has sold more than 10 million albums since her 2005 debut with hits that have appealed to both the MTV and CMT set, prefers to describe such music as “contemporary.” But she acknowledges the sonic shift between some of her childhood idols and today’s country stars.

“I loved Alan Jackson and Brooks & Dunn, those were the people that really first made me love country music. Then there were people like Bryan White who were like coming on the scene,” the 26-year-old Oklahoma native explains. “And he was like one of the people that was like ‘OK, they don’t have to all sound like this.’ People can sound all kind of ways. And he was young and hot.”

“I’ve had people tell me, ‘I never listened to country music until I saw you on “American Idol,” and now I’ve been to a Rascal Flatts concerts, and I went and saw so and so,’” she adds. “And it’s wonderful that we all kind of have our place in country music and we all pull listeners in for different reasons, and because of that we can hear everything.”

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