I’m not referring to lyrics here. More something in the music itself that makes your brain say “that’s country music”.
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The classic country rhythm guitar style is usually a big part of making music sound country. Usually, they’ll play a bass note on beats 1 & 3, and strum on 2 & 4. Rock or folk rhythm guitar will usually be full strums, and are often more syncopated (strums between the main beats). Blues (and blusier rock) rhythm guitar follows a triplet-based “swung” rhythm. I think there are similar difference in drumming styles too.
Instrumentation too. Part of country music evolved from the old fiddle-led stringband dance music, so those instruments (fiddle, mandolin, banjo, string bass) are common in country, and rare in other 20th century popular music.
Structurally, they’re pretty similar though (chord progressions, song structure, rhythms, etc.) It’s pretty simple to do a country arrangement of a 3-4 chord rock song, and vice versa.
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