Jon Weisberger wrote: then see how many of them carry a steel guitar. As far
> as I know, the majority of those acts derided as HNC do. The point being
> not that this makes the alt.country acts bad, but that, suggestions to the
> contrary notwithstanding, the absence of the instrument, or of the fiddle,
> is not a reliable marker for HNC, and especially ought not to be used as a
> point of derision by alt.country fans.
But this has moved down the slippery slope from the original question of what
HNC meant. And If I recall correctly, the term was coined to identify a
non-twangy type of country music, in which the steel and fiddle, when present-
is put way back in the mix. The derision of HNC acts, is, I think, based on
just this attempt to de-hickify the music and make it palatable to the suburban
woman demographic (which is not a slur, but what I recall reading radio guys
saying--that's the audience they want to sell to advertisers). Now if we can
accept the basic tenents of that history, then we get to what it means, and
whether "deriding HNC" is useful, justified, or just whining about mass tastes
yet again in the vast wasteland.
Stuart
