Our story starts, as many of the best stories do, with Tim McGraw. And YouTube.
I was listening to one of my favorite songs by country music super-star Tim McGraw (She's My Kind of Rain, a single from 2003) when it happened. I'm sure you're all familiar with the dislike bar on YouTube, and with the tendency for viewers to make a clever comment about the number of dislikes a video has received. This particular video had twelve dislikes, and one of the fans decided to comment on how crazy someone would have to be to dislike such a lovely song. I decided to reply. The conversation went something like this.
Random YouTube Viewer #23,835: "Twelve people must be Obama loving socialists."
Me: I'm an Obama-loving socialist and I love this song. I didn't know those were mutually exclusive."
Random YouTube Viewer #23,835: "Kill yourself."
Now, I know how stupid it is to get into arguments with people on YouTube, and I've only rarely done it, but on this particular occasion, I decided to. I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe my brain got tired of being fundamentally non-confrontational and some aggression just oozed out. Maybe I ate some anger-toast that morning for breakfast. Maybe I got sick of people assuming that just because I support Obama I'm required to hate country music and vice versa.
Oh, wait...I think that last one might have accidentally been serious.
I love country music. I don't love all country music, and some of it makes me want to throw the speaker across the room and barf, but I like most of it. I know country has it's own share of problems, like a tendency to glorify drunk driving, frequently objectifying women, a decently large religious connection (not really a problem but not something I particularly relate to either) and a sad, sad lack of artists who write their own material, but at the end of the day I still love it. Part of it is nostalgia. I started listening to country when I was in middle school, and it's given me many excellent memories over the years. Any time I hear the song "Three Wooden Crosses" by Randy Travis, I'm that cute blond seventh grader getting into country for the first time. So, yes. Part of my love for country is certainly nostalgia. That being said, part of it is a true appreciation for the fundamental things that Today's Country almost always gets right.
I'd like to share a few songs that are on the radio right now and make my point in excellent fashion.
I was listening to one of my favorite songs by country music super-star Tim McGraw (She's My Kind of Rain, a single from 2003) when it happened. I'm sure you're all familiar with the dislike bar on YouTube, and with the tendency for viewers to make a clever comment about the number of dislikes a video has received. This particular video had twelve dislikes, and one of the fans decided to comment on how crazy someone would have to be to dislike such a lovely song. I decided to reply. The conversation went something like this.
Random YouTube Viewer #23,835: "Twelve people must be Obama loving socialists."
Me: I'm an Obama-loving socialist and I love this song. I didn't know those were mutually exclusive."
Random YouTube Viewer #23,835: "Kill yourself."
Now, I know how stupid it is to get into arguments with people on YouTube, and I've only rarely done it, but on this particular occasion, I decided to. I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe my brain got tired of being fundamentally non-confrontational and some aggression just oozed out. Maybe I ate some anger-toast that morning for breakfast. Maybe I got sick of people assuming that just because I support Obama I'm required to hate country music and vice versa.
Oh, wait...I think that last one might have accidentally been serious.
I love country music. I don't love all country music, and some of it makes me want to throw the speaker across the room and barf, but I like most of it. I know country has it's own share of problems, like a tendency to glorify drunk driving, frequently objectifying women, a decently large religious connection (not really a problem but not something I particularly relate to either) and a sad, sad lack of artists who write their own material, but at the end of the day I still love it. Part of it is nostalgia. I started listening to country when I was in middle school, and it's given me many excellent memories over the years. Any time I hear the song "Three Wooden Crosses" by Randy Travis, I'm that cute blond seventh grader getting into country for the first time. So, yes. Part of my love for country is certainly nostalgia. That being said, part of it is a true appreciation for the fundamental things that Today's Country almost always gets right.
I'd like to share a few songs that are on the radio right now and make my point in excellent fashion.
Joe Nichols--"Sunny and 75"
Joe Nichols, who brought us such gems as "Brokenheartsville" and "Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off", recently came out with a single called "Sunny and 75". Let me explain why i love this song. There's nothing mind-blowing about it--it's actually a pretty simple song. There's not anything complicated going on stylistically, and the lyrics certainly don't have all that much variety. "Sunny and 75" is just a song with a lovely message (namely, that Joe feels a sense of peace and joy whenever he sees his girlfriend) sung by a good-looking man with a nice voice. If every song on the radio was this pleasant, I'd never be depressed again. No mentions of sex, no mentions of drinking, no "bitches" or "hoes"--just a song that makes me feel good. That's why it's one of my favorite country songs on the radio right now.
Lee Brice--"I Drive Your Truck"
There are a bunch of reasons why I love this song, but I'll tell you why I picked it for this list. It invokes every subject that country music people love to hear about, but it invokes them in an unobtrusive way. Let's take a look at the country staples involved in the song "I Drive Your Truck", shall we?
-The Military (army boots, t-shirt, dog-tags, the flag)
-Chew
-Pickup trucks
-Mama
-Country music
-Manliness (in the form of arm-punching and the pressure to be emotionally barren)
-God
-Prayer
-Back roads
The only song I know that surpasses this in terms of stereotypical content is Brad Paisley's "This is Country Music" and he was doing it on purpose. That being said, this song is still a great example of a country song that uses the genre in the right way. Even though it evokes all these stereotypical country music images, it doesn't slap you in the face with them. It uses them effectively to tell the story of a man who lost his brother to the war and uses his old truck as a way to feel close to him. It's an intense message, done (in my opinion) almost perfectly.
-The Military (army boots, t-shirt, dog-tags, the flag)
-Chew
-Pickup trucks
-Mama
-Country music
-Manliness (in the form of arm-punching and the pressure to be emotionally barren)
-God
-Prayer
-Back roads
The only song I know that surpasses this in terms of stereotypical content is Brad Paisley's "This is Country Music" and he was doing it on purpose. That being said, this song is still a great example of a country song that uses the genre in the right way. Even though it evokes all these stereotypical country music images, it doesn't slap you in the face with them. It uses them effectively to tell the story of a man who lost his brother to the war and uses his old truck as a way to feel close to him. It's an intense message, done (in my opinion) almost perfectly.
Zac Brown Band--"Sweet Annie"
Alright, I'll be honest--I don't really think of the Zac Brown Band as country. They're not exactly folk music, but they've got an extra something that lifts them out of the rather humdrum and simple country label. Still, they're on mainstream country music radio and that's good enough for this list! I think the Zac Brown Band produces lovely, stylistically interesting, unique music, and the fact that they're so popular means that the genre is taking a step in the right direction. If you like "Sweet Annie", I would recommend listening to their other music as well. I particularly like "Cold Hearted" and "Colder Weather".
Miranda Lambert--"Mama's Broken Heart"
I really only like this song because of the music video, but I love the fact that Miranda Lambert is allowed to be dorky, crazy and sexy all at once. She doesn't always ham it up (I like her rendition of "The House that Built Me" quite a lot) but I'm appreciative of the fact that the genre allows her to ham it up when she feels like it. Country music doesn't have a ton of high-profile female artists right now--the ones that come immediately to mind are Carrie Underwood, Hillary Scott from Lady Antebellum, Kimberly Reid from The Band Perry, and of course Taylor Swift. Although there is a ridiculous amount of objectification in county music (Thomas Rhett's recent line "You're shakin' that money maker like a heart breaker, like your college major was twistin' and tearin' up Friday nights" comes to mind. At least he assumes she went to college, right? Although hopefully a college graduate wouldn't have to shake her ass to make money...) I will say that the ladies of country music are one talented group of women.
I guarantee that anyone listening to the four songs I mentioned above will enjoy them, and that's why I appreciate country music so much. At the end of the day, it still holds to the ideal that it started with--to provide accessible, easy to relate to music that everyone (from the Obama-loving social atheists to the bible-thumping Republican gun-slingers) can love. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Random YouTube Viewer #23,835.
I guarantee that anyone listening to the four songs I mentioned above will enjoy them, and that's why I appreciate country music so much. At the end of the day, it still holds to the ideal that it started with--to provide accessible, easy to relate to music that everyone (from the Obama-loving social atheists to the bible-thumping Republican gun-slingers) can love. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Random YouTube Viewer #23,835.