Creepy Country: Have we Gone Too Far?

I know I am not the first person to take notice of this or even to write about it publicly, but what is up with all this creepy country music? There is a sect of traditionalists that loves to denigrate the “bro” country movement, but I will take tailgates and dirt roads anytime over overt date rape.

You guys, and definitely you gals, have all heard the songs in question. The premise is:

  1. Let’s round the boys up
  2. Get a girl drunk and get her into my truck
  3. Take her out to the woods to, “a place only we know”

Before you roll your eyes and bring up other genres men, stop and have a thought from your upper brain for once. It works in R&B because those guys are scool. Sex appeal is inherent to that style. Exemplified in country music by songs like Conway Twitty’s “Love To Lay You Down”. A love song to a consenting woman he presumably has already courted and wants to grow old with.

It works in hip-hop because it is so over the top to come across almost facetiously. And the people that get it are in on it. We get a country taste of this in Trace Adkins’ “Honky-Tonk Badonkadonk”.

Not to say that country can’t be sexy or even a little risque, but when perpetrated by a white dude at 3am in a camo ball cap, glitter jeans and a perditious smile who offers without cessation to keep buying you shots of cinnamon whiskey all night and then repeatedly asks if you want to go with him to hang out at an after party, the creep factor shoots up faster than his false ego.

I do not want to sound like a grandpa or prude over here. I just see a difference between addressing the “One Night Rodeo” in a tune and straight up objectifying the distaff. Equality is not about pretending everyone is all the same in every way. We know women are the sexier gender and music used to foster that idea by venerating their female artists and subjects.

That is why I am so glad the all girl duo Maddie & Tae released “Girl In A Country Song” as a rebuttal and glib slap in the face to snap these guys out of it. Understand that most of these songs meant no harm and were written by partially washed up writers trying desperately to keep up with trends of music fans 30 years younger than them, or new artists attempting to get a jump on what may be next. That being said, can we put it behind us and move on? Just because Luke Bryan wears Lil’ Wayne’s pants does not mean we have to sing his lyrics.

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