Country vs Rock - is a Southern Accent the dividing line?

A lot of Country and Rock music nowadays sound very similar, both have a strong pop-rock influence. Is the modern dividing line between Country and Rock the presence of a Southern accent? These genres used to be much more different.

 

With the old style pop-rock sound folded in that you note, and even hiphop and modern dance-pop sounds incorporated in pop-country, and the old signifiers of fiddles/pedal steel etc almost gone, to my ears the vocal drawl is indeed all that marks a popular song as "country" now.

(Also, lyrics with some connection to rural/smalltown/lower middle working class American lifestyle and concerns to some extent but not vital.)

 

Country Music will survive. When contemporary country radio fails me...there's always Colt Ford:

 

Awesome! And I'm not a country music fan.

 

There is the term Southern Rock. So the answer clearly must be a no.

I cannot tell you much about how Country Music as a genre gradually developed more into the stylistical direction previously held by rock and pop music, but I guess there are experts for this on this very board.
Still, it must have had a certain influence on Country Music that when, back in the early 00s, the Country Music audience was still buying physical product and the rock and pop audiences didn't nearly as much, Nashville became an inviting destination to move to for musicians from all across the US of A, whereas in the past, LA and New York City had the same appeal. Sure, it was expected of these musicians and writers to "sound country" to some extent, but their rock and pop roots surely must have shone through in their work and shaped the genre as a whole.
Also, during the same timeframe, young country acts that were starting out, almost always listed successful rock and pop artists from the 70s amongst their prime influences. That certainly helped turn Country Music's current sound closer towards stylistic elements that used to be exclusive to rock and pop.
And let's not forget Country-Rock which, much earlier, opened up rock audiences for the drawl and the twang and the fiddle.

Come to think of it, it feels like the stylistical crossover has been around for a long, long time, no matter if marketers reject it on the grounds of two kinds of music maybe selling better than one?

 

Yannick's "There is the term Southern Rock. So the answer clearly must be a no." was the first thing that came to my mind.

 

I am not at home enough in country music to answer this question. On a personal note, I like the integration of different music styles. I'm a huge fan of hick hop and country rock. I do think that the southern accent does, absolutely, give an extra twang.