No doubt organizers of the ceremony, held in Nashville, realize that for many TV viewers, this will be the most (or the only?) country music they hear all year. So the awards presentations are minimized, to make room for performances by old favorites and new ones. Viewers who made it through Rascal Flatts’s agonizing battle with “Still Feels Good,” the opening song, got a chance to gawk at the garish and rather entertaining mishmash that is commercial country music in the ’00s.

The fiery young singer Miranda Lambert sang “Gunpowder and Lead,” a revenge song with lyrics that a rapper probably wouldn’t be allowed to deliver on network television. Mr. Strait, widely and rightly acclaimed as one of country’s all-time greats, sounded a bit imprecise on “How ’Bout Them Cowgirls,” but it was still fun to see him win album of the year for “It Just Comes Natural.” And then there was the 17-year-old Taylor Swift, who won the Horizon Award.

She’s the kind of performer who typically thrives on pop radio, not country radio: likable and shameless, with a big smile and a small voice and no evident aversion to making a spectacle of herself. She toted a glittery acoustic guitar and sang from the middle of a pink flower, then returned a few minutes later to gyrate alongside Brad Paisley, the male vocalist of the year.

How many longtime country fans were charmed, and how many were horrified? Often, it seemed the night belonged to the belters. Carrie Underwood, who won single of the year for “Before He Cheats” and female vocalist of the year, delivered a downright operatic version of “So Small,” a power ballad.