Lambert & Underwood Battle Bro-Country w/ ‘Somethin’ Bad’
Photo: Miranda Lambert / RCA Records Nashville – Carrie Underwood / Artista Nashville
UPDATE: Read the review of the song and Billboard Performance.
Who would have envisioned this ever happening a few years ago? Not that Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood have been at each other’s throats over the years or anything, but for the last half decade or so, Miranda and Carrie have defined the polar opposites of mainstream female country in many respects. Miranda is the rough-edged, hard-scratch Texas girl ready to squeeze triggers and light shit on fire if provoked, while Carrie Underwood is the more refined and elegant American Idol winner with world-class pipes. High-caliber voice vs. high-caliber pistol. And though nothing but cordiality has reigned between the two publicly, their opposing polarities have created an unspoken friction, if only between elements of their fan bases.
Yet here they are, joining forces to release a duet called “Somethin’ Bad” as part of Miranda Lambert’s new album Platinum due out June 3rd, and debuting the song on the Billboard Music Awards. “Singing with Carrie Underwood is very, very intimidating,” says Miranda Lambert to the AP (see below). “She’s an amazing vocalist, I’m a big fan of hers, and asking her to do this was nerve-racking. I sent her an email, this long, blobbing email about if she wanted to sing on the record, it could be cool, but maybe she didn’t want to, if she liked the song, but she didn’t have to like the song. When I sent it I thought, ‘This sounds ridiculous.'”
Ridiculous or not, Carrie Underwood accepted, and “Something Bad” came into being. But the next question is, why this pairing, and why now?
Despite what the duo may or may not say or allude to publicly, “Somethin’ Bad” has one primary purpose: to break through bro-country’s stranglehold on country music. That is what this is about. The bro-country phenomenon has lasted for too long, and the pairing of country music’s two top females (Taylor Swift notwithstanding) may be the only way to break the bro-country monopoly. “Something Bad” is the symbolic, “We are the women of country, hear us roar!” statement. Yes ladies and gentlemen, war makes strange bedfellows.
Both the Lambert and Underwood camps are no doubt hoping this will be a big hit, and it’s no accident the Billboard Music Awards are also involved. The last time Miranda made it to the top of the Billboard charts was with another duet, when she paired up with Keith Urban in the song “We Were Us.” But that success was fairly short-lived. “Something Bad” is meant to be a statement against the male oligarchy. Even the day before the Billboard Music Awards, Miranda Lambert posted a photo to her Instagram account saying, “Welcome country’s new duo … Oklahoma Texas Line” with her and Carrie pictured in matching Thelma & Louise T-shirts, making a not-so-slight allusion to the bro-country extraordinaires Florida Georgia Line, and the “take no prisoners” attitude of this song.
“Two girls from Texas and Oklahoma that are living their dream right now,” Miranda continued to the AP. “We’re really rocking in country music, and we’re coming together as a force … If you’re sitting on the front row, you might want to scoot back. It’s a force, you know what I mean? It just feels exciting to me … It’s been too long since two girls in our genre have come together like that, especially in a song that’s kind of in-your-face. I’m excited, and I’m hoping that she’ll come to the dark side, and blow something up, or set something on fire in the video or whatever.”
The pairing does raise concerns that Miranda may be persuading Carrie Underwood to the dark side of female country music, and not just figuratively. As a song on Miranda’s upcoming record and not Carrie’s, “Somethin’ Bad” features Miranda in the driver’s seat, calling the shots. And for a while now, Carrie seems to have been somewhat following Miranda’s dominating style of these “woman scorned” revenge songs that in some respects are the female version of bro-country—using song formulas that swap beer, trucks, and tailgates, for smashed taillights, cat fights, and bonfires fueled by old boyfriend’s mementos, however less frequent and better-written as they happen to be.
Make no mistake, “Something Bad” is not just another song. This is Miranda and Carrie taking a baseball bat to bro-country’s pretty little souped up 4-wheel drive, and it will be fun to see just how this attempt to crash the good ol’ boy party at the top country’s charts will be received.
May 18, 2014 @ 3:03 pm
This sounds pretty intriguing. I’m hoping it’s a good, true country song. It would really make a statement to the industry. I’ve never been a big fan of Miranda, but she is much better than the other stuff on the radio. Carrie had a good first album, but has since went pop. But I’ve always loved her voice. There’s no denying she’s a great singer. I’ll definitely be following this story.
May 18, 2014 @ 3:03 pm
” The last time Miranda made it to the top of the Billboard charts was with another duet, when she paired up with Keith Urban in the song “We Were Us.”
Wasn’t the song “Automatic” by Miranda Lambert a pretty big hit?
This is weird. When these two ladies have to team up to get attention, you know things are bad for women in country. I actually kinda like both as people and as performers, though Miranda’s songs too often focus on sassy-girl retribution themes as alluded to in the article, and Carrie’s music is rarely actually country as far as I can tell.
May 18, 2014 @ 3:09 pm
“Automatic” has been doing well. I think it peaked at about #5 and is at #7 on Billboard’s Country Songs chart. Still there’s been such a Monopoly, this may be a move to try to get something featuring women, and women exclusively to #1.
May 18, 2014 @ 4:23 pm
I resent that crappy songs of people like FGL and Luke Bryan zoom effortlessly to #1 on Mediabase and Billboard, and stay there for more than 1 week, but they can’t even give 1 week to Miranda’s lead single to reach #1.
May 18, 2014 @ 3:05 pm
It can’t be no worse than FGL/Aldean/Brantley.
They both are really hott hope they make a video for it.
May 18, 2014 @ 4:27 pm
Are we 100% positive that this song is intended to call out bro-country? After all, unless I’m just not paying enough attention, nothing to such an effect was really said. And when you get right down to it, Miranda would be attempting to kill her husband’s music as well with such a move.
May 18, 2014 @ 4:53 pm
I don’t think the song will “call out” bro-country. It might. Tonight will be the first time I will hear it, just like everyone else. What I’m saying is it is meant to do battle with bro-country. They might try to fight fire with fire, or bet on the sheer star power to carry it to the top of the charts. Either way, I think this is a very symbolic song, of strong, popular female artists coming together to attempt to give them some representation at the top of the charts and on country radio. Miranda has already said she expects a video, so we can glean that this is going to be a featured track from the album. I also think that however the song scores tonight on social network and other places is going to determine just how much they push it.
May 18, 2014 @ 4:54 pm
Miranda and Carrie have performed together before Something Bad.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=carrie+underwood+and+miranda+lambert+live
Carrie and Miranda has talked about how there should be more women in country. I do think that’s the song intent although they may not do it directly.
May 18, 2014 @ 5:55 pm
Certainly didn’t mean to imply Carrie & Miranda have never sung live together before. Releasing a song together is certainly a different thing.
May 18, 2014 @ 4:57 pm
I am looking forward to this pairing. Not a huge Carrie fan but as a singer she reminds me of Raul Malo in that regardless of the genre they are both able to make it their own. Lyrically I hope this song packs a punch musically I hope country is in high gear.
May 18, 2014 @ 5:44 pm
I just heard a preview of it on YouTube.
NOT a country tune at all… Rock/pop tune..
Just more of the same current sound etc so
Don’t get excited.
Yawn.
May 18, 2014 @ 7:10 pm
Believe it or not, I’m more interested in the political importance of the song at the moment than how it actually sounds. That’s a whole other matter entirely.
May 18, 2014 @ 11:36 pm
Annnnnnd now that you’ve heard it?? 😉
May 18, 2014 @ 11:50 pm
https://savingcountrymusic.com/review-miranda-lambert-carrie-underwoods-somethin-bad
May 19, 2014 @ 2:53 pm
Thanks for the review Trigg.
I actually didn’t hear anything about these 2
teaming up but Im not at all surprised with the
final product…. We really are at a crossroads
and divisions within country are seeming inevitable.
May 18, 2014 @ 5:49 pm
Funny enough, when people mention “Something Bad,” I often think of Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood’s music.
May 18, 2014 @ 11:28 pm
wow, that was clever
May 18, 2014 @ 7:04 pm
Wow.Just watched it.Female Fl/GA Line.Just what we needed..Can´t wait untill the remix with Izzy Adela.
May 18, 2014 @ 7:12 pm
Yeah, it was pretty terrible. All attitude, no melody. Like Joan Jett mixed with Aerosmith. May review the song soon…
May 18, 2014 @ 8:18 pm
I was also hearing an Aerosmith influence as well.
May 18, 2014 @ 8:21 pm
Somehow I am not surprised. Miranda Lambert actively challenging the status quo in country music would be tantamount to shitting where she ate. So to speak.
May 18, 2014 @ 8:42 pm
I’m not at all surprised that this is not a good country song, considering that both of these women launched their mainstream careers on reality TV shows. They are both part of the pop country scene, though Miranda occasionally tries a little harder to earn just enough country credibility to differentiate herself commercially from Carrie and Taylor. Anyway this song does help to drive home the point I was making before, that bra country ain’t the solution to bro country. The real root of the problem is the music itself, and the type of audience Music Row has been trying to appeal to, not the gender of the singers.
May 18, 2014 @ 11:38 pm
Exactly!!!! Well put.
May 18, 2014 @ 7:07 pm
Well that was certainly…interesting. I know that wasn’t a country song. I regret hearing it, especially after they showed one of the tools from Florida Georgia Line bobbing his head to it.
May 18, 2014 @ 8:13 pm
They kept showing him and when they showed him during the song he almost had that look of “I’d tap that”
May 18, 2014 @ 7:11 pm
It totally sucked.
May 18, 2014 @ 7:23 pm
Ok … so that song is not going to help.
May 18, 2014 @ 10:17 pm
For an expression of pure attitude with no melody or proper vocal showcase (I don’t imagine the studio version will sound much better), it might chart about as high as any current douchebilly hit; whether it’ll have any kind of staying power is another matter. :p
May 18, 2014 @ 7:57 pm
Trig – You have to check out the fan backlash to Lambert and Underwood’s duet on Lambert’s facebook page. I have never seen that many negative comments on an artists FB page.
May 18, 2014 @ 8:13 pm
Yeah, it’s pretty brutal.
May 18, 2014 @ 8:15 pm
At least her fans know a crap song when they hear one. I was also trying to figure out what Miranda was wearing there.
May 18, 2014 @ 8:25 pm
There was no one who posted about this song on her own website until I started a thread discussing it (which no one has responded to yet). I think my fellow Miranda fans are in shock since it really was somethin’ bad.
May 18, 2014 @ 8:03 pm
Ugh, just heard it and I guess Blake is more of an influence on Miranda than she is on him. With the 2 most consistent female chart toppers I would have expected something better. Bro-country has nothing to fear with this song.
May 18, 2014 @ 8:35 pm
Even Blake didn’t seem so intrigued by the song. I think he was more intrigued with Mike Fisher standing next to him.
May 18, 2014 @ 8:53 pm
I’m just going to post what I posted on her forum:
Okay, so I listened to this song a few times just so I couldn’t outright dismiss it as garbage because Miranda is one of my favorite artists. I just can’t give it more than 3 stars if one were to use that system. It’s very flashy and somewhat catchy with little substance. I couldn’t tell if they were trying to do Bro country or an Aerosmith meets country kinda thing? Either way, not good. However, this song has one saving grace..Miranda didn’t write it.
May 18, 2014 @ 9:16 pm
I have yet to find a link to stream it, but what I will say is that I hope it isn’t the prototypal “man-bashing” anthem, either.
As much as I’ve had it up to here with the “bro-country” trend, I’m equally not a fan of the familiar material both Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert (at least in terms of their most attention-getting and commercial songs; as I acknowledge that when you look past many of their singles there is obviously much more topical range and substance revealed) either co-write or get peddled by industry writers. You know: the “Cowboy Casanova, Good Girl, Kerosene, Gunpowder & Lead, Two Black Cadillacs” brand of loud-and-proud pseudo-empowerment anthem.
(What should we call that in short? “Kerosene Country”?)
Anyhow, the point is I’m tired of narrow topical range among radio releases REGARDLESS of gender and type of performer. I don’t like “Automatic” because it sounds a bit disingenuous despite the understandable sentiment driving the song, but at least Lambert and her co-writers seem to have had the right idea in moving away from her previous topical crutches (at least as far as what gets shipped to radio often is concerned). And we can only hope “Something Bad” is NOT “Good Girl (Part II)”, or “Cowboy Casanova (Part III)”, or “Gunpowder & Lead (Part VII)”.
May 18, 2014 @ 9:30 pm
Okay, I just viewed the live performance on YouTube.
I’ll reserve opinion of the studio version until I hear it, but WOW………..they weren’t kidding! That was, indeed, “Something Bad”. =X =X =X
You know you’re in for a long night when Underwood sounds off-key in her singing, Lambert sounds even worse, and the sound is so cluttered. I could hardly discern the lyrics, honestly, but while what my antennae was able to pick up didn’t strike me as either a prototypal man-bashing anthem nor their hand at “bro-country”, it was still utterly embarrassing and the last thing the genre needs right now.
If there was a female Florida-Georgia Line in theory, it would sound something like the live Billboard Music Awards performance of this song.
May 19, 2014 @ 5:09 am
I’m confused by the polar opposite thing. If anything Carrie released
more hell raising songs than Miranda. She has even said she is not into the mushy stuff. I have to agree the sound was not great but I dug the song itself, I’m a lyrics person and can’t wait to hear the studio version so maybeI’ll be able to make out the words.
May 19, 2014 @ 8:18 am
So much hype over this song and preformence. They sounded good vocally but the song was rushed and it was hard to follow along with the lyrics. If you watch it over a couple of times, it’s not to awful.
May 19, 2014 @ 2:20 pm
I bought Miranda’s CDs and Pistol Annie’s CDs with some degree of reluctance due to what i perceive to be a friendly relationship with the pop country genre.
Best I can tell, she is in the bag with pop country, so I will take a pass on her music going forward.
Her narcissistic and ubiquitous husband is a PITA.
I can’t believe I was listening to someone whose spouse is on “The Voice”.
What was I thinking?
May 20, 2014 @ 11:03 am
I watched the Voice last night. I think that young Jake Worthington could win.
Blake and Jake sounded great. “A Country Boy Can Survive”. It was the best performance of the night.
July 23, 2014 @ 2:08 pm
this song is surely something bad. just plain terrible and instant station changer. what a waste!