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Notes -
Is This Country Song Racist?
No wait, that's a Key and Peele sketch. Here's the real song that's making headlines:
Jason Aldean - Try That In A Small Town (Official Music Video)
The song is about shooting rioters. One can argue about to what extent shooting rioters is actually a good thing, one can argue about to what extent said rioters are "racialized" as African American, but the song is transparently about shooting rioters. Just what exactly is, "Around here, we take care of our own. You cross that line, it won't take long," supposed to mean? Surely it's a metaphor, not a literal line (like say, some train tracks) right?
Needless to say, the video has been pulled from Country Music Television (whatever that means). Seems more like fake backlash than real resistance to me, but I don't know much about country music. Are these guys a big deal?
Also, my God country music is terrible. It's better than rap, but rap hardly counts as music. I'm glad Red America finally has the balls to stick up for itself, but this is not exactly art that's going to mog the cathedral.
In a hilarious (to me) update (to me), the music video was shot Infront of Maury County Courthouse, site of a medium sized race riot and the lynching of Henry Choate; one of those classic cases where a black dude got accused of assault, beaten to death, dragged behind a truck to the court house, hung by the neck and left there for while before the state decided that nobody involved should be charged with anything in particular.
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Not a big deal, but a popular/widely played one, if that makes any sense. If I had to draw a parallel to a mainstream/prog-rock artist that user's here might be familiar with it would be Nickleback. To echo @Templexious, Aldean's always been viewed as a bit of a poseur. a city-centric artist who serves as the fantasy partner for liberal "horse girls". That said this recent controversy actually does seem to be helping him on that front. If that was intentional than hat's off, played. In the meantime even in the world of pop-country he's still no Luke Combs or Lee Brice (recent success not withstanding)
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The music video notwithstanding, the lyrics don't mention rioting at all:
I'm not even sure the lyrics are about shooting those people either. He suggests shooting people who try to take his gun away, but otherwise it's just unspecified violence.
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It isn’t pulled for “violence” — mainstream rap with corporate sponsors has been about killing your enemies for decades and many of them have, in fact, killed their enemies, like “Melly” who is[*] currently on trial (the kids love him!). The problem is (1) the song supports the politically controversial right for conservatives to defend their community, (2) the music video highlights the 2020 riots that the Dems would like to totally sweep under the rug.
That’s supposed to be is, not isn’t. I’m mentioning because he is currently on trial for murders
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New Country is terrible. Like all genres, Country Music has about 90% mush and the rest ranges from "okay" to "great".
Still my favourite cross-over country music collaboration 😁
Like as a genre, or just anything that's new? Sturgill Simpson is pretty damned good, IMO.
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Country and rap both have some good tracks but also a big amount of generic tracks that follow cliches, "I'm just a simple boy with my beer, gun, and truck" in the case of country and "guns, money, and pussy" in the case of rap. Well, they have guns in common.
There are only so many themes that are cool to sing about. The first full year of the Billboard Hot 100 was 1959, with the top ten being:
To a first approximation, these are songs about guns, money, and pussy. I guess (7) stands out as more storytelling, but is kind of the 1950s version of, "I'm just a simple guy from small town, livin' my small town life, got my honey and my truck, and things are gonna be alright".
Men like wealth, weapons, and women. Ain't nothin' new under the sun.
Carrie Underwood’s “Church Bells” seems a little less original now :(
The format of having a “3 act” country song, where the words of the chorus are the same, but the lyrics of each act change the meaning of the chorus is very popular in country music.
I can only think of a couple examples off the top of my head right now, but there are a lot more.
Kenny chesney’s there goes life
Tim McGraw’s Don't take the girl
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I mean, I think it's cool to sing about, e.g., The Moon Landing, or The possibility of Extraterrestrial life, (no, really), or the sweeping cosmic history of 'life' in the Universe.
But in that case the only genre taking on those topics is Progressive Rock.
So while I'm complete granting the point that there are a limited number of themes which are likely to generate commercially viable songs, there are whole books full of topics that might be cool to sing about.
I would argue that Country and Rap are thematically limited in part because they're inextricably tied to their culture of origin, which is to say that 'authentic' country and rap are going to be about things that were common in the culture of the respective artists that originated it.
Granted, sometimes you'll get a weird outsider who manages to pull an out-of-left-field hit.
Some days I get actively annoyed that there hasn't been any pop song similar to Bohemian Rhapsody (or others in Queen's ouvre) in, seemingly, decades.
I could stand to watch roughly 20 seconds of it before closing it and thinking to myself "Maybe the North Koreans are right".
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I think there needs to be a delineation between 'pop country' and 'country'. Historical country in terms of bluegrass, early American songs, etc is very different from the overprocessed rehashed highly codified least common denominator 'music' that it is today.
Even pop country has at least decent stuff in it, even if most of it is window dressing for the lead singer being enough of a celebrity to be an imaginary redneck boyfriend for suburban high schoolers.
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No. Radio stations and VEVO are a bigger deal, though, and you might want to check on whether they’re still airing it.
There is legitimately a pretty wide variety of country music and most of the most popular songs are essentially pop music aimed at women. Quality exists if you look for it, and is very popular among red tribe men. It’s just that 20 year old girls who think cowboy boots are hot buy more music.
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The best thing that could happen to that song is it gets “canceled” and gets publicity that way because even by pop country standards it is awful. Whole thing feels like a fake controversy.
Interesting side note Alden was the artist on stage when the Vegas shooting happened.
Yeah, so I'm listening to it and it is much worse writing wise, boring, than the two other similar songs it makes me think of. Beer for my Horses (https://youtube.com/watch?v=o1JOFhfoAD4) and the rah rah 9-11 song, Courtesy of the Red White and Blue.
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It seemed to work out for White Boy Summer.
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Yeah the irony is the kind of people so transparently itching for a fight with dysfunctional black America is dysfunctional white America.
I think this is an unfair characterization. What they want is the left to establish the same social norms that would be good for black America. In effect allies. If you think the black community has a lot of low IQ populace then you care a lot about the messenging they get from society. Like the exact message of the song that looting and crime shouldn’t happen.
I watched about ten seconds of that video, and I think the messaging is as much, or more, aimed at the white progressive allies. The clip I saw had a blonde white girl fronting up to the police. So it's as much about "if you tried that here, your daddy would whup your ass, missy" as it is about black people.
So it’s aiming for the Kevin Costner’s Yellowstone viewership. Got it.
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At least there exists good rap; good rap is theoretical possible. The design specifications of rap allow for good.
The essential element of stadium country is that it is vapid garbage for people that hate music. It is mid 2000's R&B level worthless trash.
Here are the things that are good about pop country: You can dance to it.
It's the Mcdonald's of music. Bland, overproduced, overpriced, and super salty all the time.
Wait, hold on, I have more bitching in me! And it's deffo not all sour grapes that my guys never break into the mainstream!
"The popular stuff is bad. It is sterile, there is no feel to it, because it lacks all of the interesting rough edges of actual human artistry. The popular stuff is only popular because most people aren't capable of appreciating the art form, so they want the indications of artistry (aka human creation) sanded away."
This is what I call the I'm calling the indie/hipster take.
I've never agreed with the indie/hipster take on music. I like the pop stuff, and much of the indie/hipster stuff sounds like garbage or at best something in need of more work (aka underproduced).
However, my hobbies are defined by me following the indie/hipster take on writing. I engage in amateur political/culture war writing on this website, and read all the other amateur takes. I read fiction and fantasy stories over at royalroad (and wrote my own story for a while), but the books that get published always feel to edited and sterile to me.
I've also tended to follow the indie/hipster take on video games. I sometimes enjoy the silly bugs. I hate the games that have a progression treadmill calculated down to an exact science. I like the modding scene and sometimes breaking games with the bloated ideas of a dozen different nerds thinking "whoa wouldn't it be cool if this game also had X".
I have the indie/hipster take on some artforms and have the pop/mainstream take on other artforms. But even knowing that and trying to hold the idea in my head, I still can't help but sneer when I meet someone with the opposite take as me on an artform. I find it hard not to gloat at people with the indie/hipster take on music "ha, suck it, no one likes your crappy band's sounds. And if your band ever became good enough for most people to like it, then you would stop liking them!" And I find it hard not to gloat at the pop/mainstream take on video games "you rich idiot, you spend so much money on a glorified slot machine with pretty lights and colors." I have at least learned not to speak these thoughts aloud, instead mumbling some platitudes about 'people can enjoy different things, thats fine'.
I should know that I am both of these people, the indie/hipster geek with an eye and appreciation for the rough edges, and the mindless pop/mainstream follower that likes my art sanded down to the most average and palatable of forms. Coincidences of circumstances have led me to the interests I have, and the interests I lack.
Not sure where I was going with this, but that is part of the fun with amateur writing: The meandering of human thought that any good editor will sand away to a proper form of something like 'idea->example->idea->example->synthesis->conclusion'.
The thing is, I'm not a hipster about the things I really like (excepting coffee.) I like pop rap, pop rock, pop dance, pop edm. I think TacoBell is an incredible restaurant, and so on.
They are also lowest common denominator, but there is still some there there. I even like some pop country!
I feel like stadium country is an exception, and I think the reason why is the cynicism of it. Not to say other genera don't have that too, but country just has the most.
Lot's of country dudes are spectacular artists with really excellent American folk or bluegrass albums/songs they do on the side for artistic fulfilment, then they go out on stage in the big tent and play slop for the hogs.
Imagine a walking into a Michelin star restaurant and the waiter takes the menu out of your hands and says "I think sir would prefer the chicken nuggies". Nuggies are fucking great, nobody hates nuggies. But the context!
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Jason Aldean is a city-centric "country" artist and tends to be rejected by most rednecks, his audience was usually 16 year old girls who've never left suburbia or cityville. The kinds that Bo Burnham make fun of in his skit about country songs.
Artists like Colter Wall, Ryan Bingham, Cody Jinks and Cody Johnson tend to be considered more "true" country.
hat tip for good taste, all three are good songsmiths, but I feel like Colter in particular deserves more mainstream exposure. If you ask me his devil in a suit and tie is way better than anything else that's come out in the last 5 - 10 years.
I must confess that I don't listen to them very much, just a song here or there once in a while, so my personal opinions are half-baked, though Colter wall definitely deserves more than he's getting, even if he is still extremely popular.
That said, George Strait and his mopey music did lasting damage to the genre.
Agreed on both counts.
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Even for Jason Aldean that was pretty generic pop-country suck.
Indeed
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Tyler Childers is pretty good.
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