James Knight, student cartoonist
In another world...
Turning on the radio to any country station during the past couple of years has been the ultimate disappointment. Like many people from the South, I grew up listening to country music, and I love the genre. Nowadays, however, I will happily listen to silence before the atrocities occurring on country radio.
Beer. Trucks. Cutoffs. Partying in a field of some sort. These tropes sum up the depth of the “Bro’ Country” phenomenon. Bro’ Country is the mainstream country music that pulls influences from pop, rock and hip-hop. Its ringleaders include the likes of Luke Bryan and Florida-Georgia Line.
Recently, I went down the Buzzfeed rabbit-hole, and one of the top-trending quizzes was “Which country song cliché are you?” It perfectly illustrates how Bro’ Country is destroying any artistic credibility that country music ever had. Country music, now thanks to the Bro’ Country movement, is the butt of a joke.
Not only is Bro’ Country mindless and cliché, but it has also become extremely misogynic. I don’t hear women on country radio anymore. Taylor Swift, Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood occasionally have songs that garner attention—but not often. Kacey Musgraves recently won a Grammy for her album, Same Trailer Different Park, and has not had a single song on the country top-ten airplay chart.
Even when they are allotted some airtime, women are misrepresented. For example, RaeLynn’s new song, “So God made Girls,” basically summates a woman’s worth as wearing a “pretty skirt” and being the person to make her man “go to church.” I, as a woman, am worth more than that, and men should want a woman with a little more depth.
The genre that brought women such as Loretta Lynn, who sang “The Pill” and stood up for women’s reproductive rights, and Martina McBride, who brought awareness to domestic violence and encouraged women to get out of abusive relationships through such songs as “Broken Wing,” has been ultimately desecrated by Bro’ Country. Where are the women in country music? Where are the Loretta Lynns, Dolly Partons, Patsy Clines and Tanya Tuckers?
Country songs used to have meaning and make listeners feel something. The only reason a country song has made me cry recently was when the entire chorus was “yeah yeah.”
The good songwriters are still out there. Country radio, and by proxy the country music audience, just ignores them. There are still people out there, like me, who want to hear the poetic lyrics, reminiscent of Kris Kristofferson and the woeful sadness of Randy Travis from days gone by.
Country radio has created a mindless genre in recent years, and as country music’s popularity has soared, the music has gotten dumber and dumber.
It is obvious there is no more romantic art left in country music; it’s all about money. The record labels have perfected the moneymaking recipe: songs that glorify reckless behaviors with mind-numbing lyrics and musical arrangements.
Bro’ Country is embarrassing. It humiliates southerners, women and the people who admit to being country music fans.
I’m turning off country radio for now. I’ll keep on humming the beautiful and poetic songs of country music’s past while I try and scourge from my memory the misogynic, artless and thoughtless Bro’ Country of the present.