Move Over Bro-Country, “Boyfriend Country” Is Here

Does something really exist until the popular American zeitgeist gives it a universally-recognized nickname? That’s the question many people asked when the term “Bro-Country” was coined by writer and journalist Jody Rosen in 2013. The list-tastic, hip-hop-infused, shallow, and male-dominated style of country music had been around for a few years before the term was adopted en masse. It was referred to around these parts as “checklist country” for years previous, but apparently that term didn’t roll off the tongue just right. It wasn’t until Rosen wrote the Bro-Country term in an article that it was adopted wholesale by the public and music industry alike. Meant somewhat as a pejorative initially, Bro-Country eventually was adopted by some as a term of endearment. However you feel about the term or the music itself, when someone mentions “Bro-Country,” you now know what they mean, and there’s no doubt that its time dominating mainstream country will go down in history as defining era in country music, for better or worse.
“Bro-Country” may now be solidified in the annals of popular culture, but the music itself has definitely been on the wane for a number of years. This can be verified by the fact that many artists that helped usher in the Bro-Country era weren’t even in attendance at the 2019 CMA Awards. Jason Aldean’s massive 2011 country rap song “Dirt Road Anthem” set the stage for the proliferation of Bro-Country. Florida Georgia Line’s “Cruise” is what sent the subgenre into overdrive, and was the direct inspiration for writer Jody Rosen coining the phrase. But despite the continued success of these acts as touring performers and radio stars, they are no longer defining the era as they did a few years back. Chris Stapleton helped drive a nail in that coffin when he shocked the world during the 2015 CMA Awards, and now the emergence of Luke Combs and more country-sounding artists who don’t include rapped verses or drum machine intros in their songs are the ones dominating the awards and airwaves.
But as we’ve seen time and time again in popular country music, one trend gives way to another in the copycat conveyor belt culture of Music Row. Bro-Country in many ways was the backlash to the proliferation of pop in country symbolized by the popularity of Taylor Swift in the years before. Metro-Bro with EDM-inspired artists like Sam Hunt and Walker Hays tried to sweep in and dominate, but didn’t quite solidify into a more widespread movement. Actual country music is actually starting to emerge as a serious trend in mainstream country today with Jon Pardi, Cody Johnson, Luke Combs, Midland, and others finding success, but we still need to see more widespread adoption before we declare ourselves in the midst of another neotraditionalist resurgence. Instead, the new trend that has begun to emerge and is looking to dominate popular country music in the years to come is the one now being described as “Boyfriend Country.”
In the last couple of years, the duo Dan + Shay has emerged as one of the most popular acts in country, with now six #1 singles. Their current single “10,000 Hours” with Justin Bieber has been on top of the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, and the just won the CMA for Duo of the Year. If you want an example of what Boyfriend Country is, Dan + Shay is a good place to start. Kane Brown is another good example. As Saving Country Music said in the review of his latest album Experiment in late 2018, “The true story of the record is one generic, sappy, and subservient love song after another. The primary inspiration of ‘Experiment’ was not to mix country and modern sounds like the explanation of the title reads, it was to record a love letter to Kane Brown’s new wife. It’s just a shade away from Luther Vandross screw music.”
And this is true for many of the albums and singles of many of country music’s current male stars, including former Bro-Country proprietors such as Florida Georgia Line, and even the more traditional-style artists like Cody Johnson and Luke Combs. Thomas Rhett is another easily-identifiable Boyfriend Country artist. It’s their sappy and sentimental songs slanted towards singing the praises of women that are being selected as singles. Even Chris Stapleton could be accused of being part of this broad-based movement with his recent hit single “Millionaire.” Everywhere you turn in country, men are espousing their love, devotion, appreciation, and admiration for their women, and that is what is resonating with the mainstream’s predominately female listenership. Instead of EDM and hip-hop influences being fused with country like we saw in the Bro-Country era, Boyfriend Country favors R&B styling, though it can also blend with more country and rock influences like we see with Luke Combs.
So the next question is if this new Boyfriend Country trend is something to be alarmed about. Compared to Bro Country, Boyfriend Country is certainly a much better alternative for the mainstream to get obsessed with. Where Bro-Country angered the blood, Boyfriend Country just blends into the background. Rhythm and Blues have always been a more integral partner to country compared to EDM and hip-hop. Boyfriend Country may not be good, but it can’t possibly be as bad as Bro-Country. Florida Georgia Line had you fighting mad. Dan + Shay just puts you to sleep, unless you have a boyfriend, and fall for this fawning style of inoffensive and overly-sentimental songwriting.
But one big concern is the emergence and prevalence of Boyfriend Country is elongating the continued trend of male performers dominating in the mainstream. As Saving Country Music said in previously-referenced review of Kane Brown’s latest record Experiment, “If you wonder why Kane Brown concerts are 70% women, and 100% women in the front row, it’s because that’s who he’s singing to, as are many of ‘country’ music’s newest male stars. If you want to know why there’s a dearth of support behind young female stars, look at the crowds and comments sections for anything having to do with Kane Brown.”
The same goes for Dan + Shay and many others that are currently comprising the top tier of popular country artists. These are men singing directly to women in music that is written and marketed to appeal to women. In January, Saving Country Music posted an article speaking about this deepening lyrical trend, though at the time we didn’t have a name for it like we do now. The observation was shared,
In many cases these lyrics aren’t just sharing romantic notions, they specifically go out of their way to say that the man is inferior to the woman, and even that the man needs to be taught how to be better in life by the woman. Whether it’s Jimmie Allen’s “I’m not the man I was before you,” or Kane Brown’s “The way you’re taking care of me … I want to be the man you want me to be … I just wanna be good as you,” these ideas begin to veer into the territory of men expecting their partners to be more like mothers than lovers. Where some women might find this trend burdensome and off-putting, many female country radio consumers find it appealing as men play to women’s romantic notions of commitment. Songs from women just can’t compete with all of these songs telling women how perfect they are from gorgeous men.
In an article posted in Billboard on November 13th called ‘Boyfriend Country’ Brings Sensitivity to the Genre, writer Tom Roland observes, “Female voices have been woefully underrepresented on playlists since the dawn of the bro-country era, though they matter as much as ever in the storylines of the male artists who dominate the charts. The current Country Airplay list is loaded with songs by men extolling the value of their wives or girlfriends. It’s a development that some music industry and radio insiders have dubbed ‘boyfriend country.'”
This not only means that the industry is recognizing this trend itself and catering songs and artists to it, they also now have a name for it. And as Billboard observes—just like Saving Country Music did previously—it comes at the exclusion of women performers, even though in some ways Boyfriend Country is made to be country music’s answer to the current political environment. As Billboard’s Tom Roland says, “Indeed, the rise of the MeToo# movement and the record-setting number of women running for president reflects a shift in female power. Plus, songs that encourage cooperation between the sexes help soothe some of the rancor that stems from the current sociopolitical environment.”
But that’s not necessarily true when it comes to folks complaining about the lack of women representation on country radio. “Boyfriend Country” just sounds like another rich excuse of why women can’t get played, and why men are receiving most of the attention. But for some reason, these voices of dissent continue to refuse to acknowledge that women are comprising a large portion of the audience behind these popular male artists, and some even go further to label anyone who would assert that women are helping to drive these trends is sexist, or “blaming women.” In general, men are not listening to these sappy songs from Dan + Shay, nor a lot of the selections from artists like Kane Brown. Nor is the music written, recorded, and marketed for men. They are speaking directly to women who make up a majority of country radio listeners.
There are exceptions of course, but “Boyfriend Country” is for listeners with boyfriends (or husbands). If the individuals and entities advocating for country women really want to address this continued dilemma head on, they must be honest about the economic forces behind these trends, and the obvious demographic appeal of artists like Dan + Shay, and so many of the radio singles by males dominating country’s charts. Country radio is a for-profit business, and will play whatever they believe will make them the most money. They have no vested interest in purposely excluding women performers. It is one thing to complain about the lack of opportunities that women are receiving at radio, witch is a worthy concern. But refusing to acknowledge that women are helping to drive this new “Boyfriend Country” trend is only refusing to be able to address it holistically by understanding the trend’s underlying drivers.
“Boyfriend Country” is here, and now we have a name for it that has apparently been adopted by the industry, and very shortly may be adopted by the public at large. You can’t control the whims of popular music, but you can work to acknowledge them, and study them if you wish to effectively engage and affect their influence and trajectories. Just how long, and how effusive this trend will ultimately be, we’ll just have to see. But there is no denying now that it’s here, for better or worse.
November 20, 2019 @ 12:17 pm
I didn’t know Jon Snow was in Dan + Shay
November 20, 2019 @ 12:21 pm
You know nothing, Kris Hitchcock.
🙂
November 20, 2019 @ 12:28 pm
Doesn’t look like he’s getting ready for winter in that getup.
November 20, 2019 @ 9:15 pm
Jon snow sort of forgot about winter
November 20, 2019 @ 8:57 pm
The radio is dark and full of terrors ……….
November 21, 2019 @ 12:26 pm
Not Jon Snow. Rather, rest better that the Geico Caveman has found a way to support himself.
November 20, 2019 @ 12:24 pm
Hi, Trigger!
Who coined the term Boyfriend Country?
November 20, 2019 @ 12:41 pm
I don’t know. Tom Roland was the first to put it in the title of an article for Billboard, but it sounds like he took for folks who are using it in the industry.
November 26, 2019 @ 8:18 pm
I have a less “friendly” term for it that’s more accurate, but I’ll just call it pop bullshit for now
November 20, 2019 @ 12:25 pm
Well written. What percentage of the audience is female? I quickly tried to find out and came across this, not sure how accurate it is because it reads like an advertisement:
https://www.cmaworld.com/research/
Funny that they list everything else under the sun (what percentage of county fans use digital assistants for ex.) but completely leave out the male / female breakdown. Almost like it was on purpose…
November 20, 2019 @ 12:29 pm
Oh boy, the “country music” version of the Chick Flick.
November 20, 2019 @ 12:35 pm
Grady Smith called stuff like Dan + Shay “Nashville pop”. I prefer a term like that to calling it any kind of country. I don’t lump the likes of Luke Combs in with that, obviously.
November 20, 2019 @ 3:14 pm
Well said. It’s just what used to be called adult contemporary though it doesn’t fit in with adult contemporary playlists now since they’re too busy playing The Chainsmokers and Shawn Mendes. In fact, with two straight AC hits and the Justin Bieber collab picking up adds at the format, Dan & Shay are a certified AC core artist now.
November 21, 2019 @ 2:31 am
” beautiful crazy ” ….??? luke combs . who is he singing THAT for ?
November 20, 2019 @ 12:38 pm
Great article. I wonder how much of this R&B influence comes from emulating the pop charts. I could be behind the times but besides rap, surely the massive success of guys like Ed Sheeran and Khalid are influencing the music industry as a whole also? Especially with the creation of the “monogenre” as you’ve written about previously. I’m guessing females are the prime listeners of pop radio as well (and males more rap, but I could be wrong), therefore females relating to smooth R&B boyfriendish songs on pop radio also?
November 20, 2019 @ 12:45 pm
Well, many wanted more female involvement in country music. Now you have it. They are the predominant audience in these shallow acts. Be careful what one wishes for.
November 20, 2019 @ 1:08 pm
Women have long been the number one market demographic for country radio, my theory has always been that this happened after hair bands stopped being the top money maker among woman 25-40 yrs old (top consumer spending market segment). In the 90s and early 00s, country replaced consumer rock as the best branding opportunity because of this market segment.
The concern in my understanding has been how to get those consumers to listen to female artists.
November 22, 2019 @ 9:25 pm
I still haven’t heard anything Country from most of the female singer’s or male for that matter. It seems to me that no one is really interested in cutting country songs. The female singer’s seem to be caught up more in the idea that if they dress and perform looking like hookers that will get them more attention. I suppose all that is really what their label producers (men I’m sure) are telling them to do to draw in the male ticket sales. As for the so called bro-country or Boyfriend or any other gimmicky attempt at tricking COUNTRY FANS to fall in line, has never worked and never will be a country success! “IF”… you had a COUNTRY ARTIST, he or she would be performing country, not cheap imitations that are nothing but stolen Brands. Money Men have controlled every bad move since they rolled into Nashville and BOUGHT the MUSIC INDUSTRY, only to lose the game they never learned to play!
March 30, 2021 @ 5:33 pm
You want COUNTRY? Listen to MORGAN WALLEN!!!!! Great writer, Great voice!!
Morgan Wallen, FANtastic❤❤❤????????????????????????❤????????????❤????????
November 20, 2019 @ 12:54 pm
I thought Dan + Shay were an actual couple.
November 20, 2019 @ 1:04 pm
Aren’t they? 😀
November 20, 2019 @ 1:08 pm
Attractive young men singing safe, inoffensive love songs targeted at teen girls and young women. It’s made millionaires out the managers, agents, and labels of boy bands for decades. Boyfriend country is just the latest iteration of a very reliable formula.
November 21, 2019 @ 10:33 am
Think Air Supply.
November 26, 2019 @ 8:20 pm
It’s the polar opposite of the Buffalo Wild Wings jacked up truck sideways hat rape pop that Florida Georgia Line polluted humanity with
November 20, 2019 @ 1:22 pm
Nothing particularly new though, Dan + Shay literally sound just like Rascal Flatts and Lonestar both vocally and lyrically. And that is not a good thing.
November 20, 2019 @ 1:50 pm
Said it before and I’ll say it again: I thought Rascal Flatts was pretty terrible when they first came out, but Dan + Shay make RF sound like fucking Hank Thompson.
November 20, 2019 @ 7:07 pm
I’m glad you said Lonestar because the whole time I was reading the article, I was thinking of them.
November 20, 2019 @ 8:29 pm
Summer Nights and Mr. Mom were near the top of my worst country songs list back around 2012 or so. The slide has been precipitous since then. Now I am not sure they could even crack the bottom 100. They might make a 150-way tie for the first entry on the list though.
November 21, 2019 @ 6:45 am
Disagree. Mr. Mom is a banger.
November 20, 2019 @ 9:45 pm
Tequila talking is better than anything these 2 will ever do.
November 21, 2019 @ 7:06 am
“I’m Already There” is a really good song though.
November 20, 2019 @ 1:27 pm
“Boyfriend Country” is for listeners with boyfriends (or husbands).”
Amend that to say “Boyfriend Country” is for listeners with boyfriends (or husbands) WHO DON’T SATISFY THEM.”
This overly sentimental tripe is for unfulfilled women. Women living in a fantasy world. It’s for women who prefer men with “deep spray on tans and creamy lotiony hands that can’t grip a tackle box.” (Thank you, Brad Paisley!)
November 20, 2019 @ 4:01 pm
I can assure you having been to many of these shows……(free of course…lol for something to watch…err… I mean do) there’s a large percentage of mom/daughter combo’s that are totally single (NO MAN) ogling over a Brett Young or whoever while I was there to listen to the serious music of Carly Pearce opening for him…LOL 😉
Last year we had Luke Combs for our Joe’s Live/Toys For Tots Christmas Party this year we have Boyfriend Country heart throb purdy boy Dylan Scott with Carly opening. Ohhh well it’s for a good cause so I have to go. Of course Tanya Tucker is here Friday night so I’ll be there as well with a much more mature audience in my age range. Really looking forward to that.
November 20, 2019 @ 1:34 pm
I’m just curious as to how some of you might answer this question
Are Dan + Shay better, equal to, or worse than Rascal Flatts?
Dan + Shay pretty much seem like an updated version of Rascal Flatts, now that they’ve fallen out of relevance.
November 20, 2019 @ 1:52 pm
Worse. Much worse.
That’s not to say RF is any kind of good, mind you. Think stomach flu vs. stomach cancer.
November 20, 2019 @ 1:59 pm
Just curious, what makes you say Dan + Shay are that much worse?
Generally, I think Rascal Flatts made music that sounded more country, but Dan + Shay are better vocally, so I consider them about equal overall.
November 20, 2019 @ 6:44 pm
I think it’s the snap tracks, drum machines and all that. At least Rascal Flatts made more use of actual instruments.
November 20, 2019 @ 3:22 pm
saw dan and shay play right before turnpike troubadours at a fest; made the latter seem like merle haggard and the strangers. saw dan and shay open for rascal flatts at the local outdoor shed; made the latter seem like the highwaymen. no act comes close to how bad dan and shay are live.
November 21, 2019 @ 4:33 am
They’re much worse. No matter their country radio sins, Rascall Flatts released some great songs from time to time. “Fast Cars and Freedom” was one of the better songs from the early 00’s. “What Hurts the Most,” overplayed or not, terribly sung by Gary Levox or not, is a great song.
To date, Dan + Shay have released one great song in “How Not to.” Coincidentally, that’s also the only song on which Shay Mooney finds his vocal sweet spot and doesn’t sound like a deflating balloon. “Tequila” and “Nothing Like You” are both tolerable to great, but not on the same level.
November 20, 2019 @ 1:35 pm
Honestly, there’s been a trend towards excessive sentimentality and away from the darker side of life in country for a long time. Why can’t we go back to the self-loathing of a song like Margie’s at the Lincoln Park Inn, the violent revenge of The Cold Hard Facts of Life, the heartbreak of D-I-V-O-R-C-E?
November 20, 2019 @ 4:41 pm
You hit the nail on the head, Chris. Not every woman is perfect. There are still dark aspects to life. Songs like Devil Woman, and The Grand Tour, and Slide Off of Your Satin Sheets come to mind. Stuff like this still happens. Marriages break up. Women cheat on men. I would think that themes like these could still resonate. BUT apparently the main demographic just wants to be told how perfect women are. It makes for really boring songs IMO.
November 21, 2019 @ 2:46 am
i think its obvious why we don’t get REAL country songs on radio anymore . the market being targeted is too young to relate to real world experience . look at any awards show – mostly very young girls . THAT’S the target demographic. they don’t know about cheating , divorce , raising kids , how substance addiction destroys families etc…
November 21, 2019 @ 3:28 am
Definitely. I keep thinking of a quote I saw (I think it was in the comments section on one of Trigger’s articles). It said, “Luke Bryan is too damn old to be singing a song like Knockin Boots.” The songs and subjects dominating country are childish, repetitive, and boring. Even the singers pushing into middle age follow the formula, all for the sake of airplay.
November 20, 2019 @ 1:45 pm
An excellent, clear-sighted article.
Not to be melodramatic, but it’s probably to be expected in this overly cautious post-MeToo era. Like the high school bully who all other students are subservient and ingratiating towards, men are behaving in such a way towards women as they fear upsetting them.
The incontrovertible fact is, not all men are great and not all women are either. Everyone is different and no single gender holds the monopoly on decency. Yet some of the equality movement’s most vociferous proponents seem to believe that women are basically flawless while men are sexual predators with too much power and not enough restraint. (Another incident in which women are partly culpable is the Harvey Weinstein scandal: if all those women had rejected the sick little pervert en masse, there wouldn’t have been a scandal to speak of).
Consequently, men are too cowed to counter this “women are wonderful” narrative, at the risk of appearing combative and closet-misogynists. Plainly, we’re scared, and fear being “cancelled”, and having the mud stick when it should just slide. So we go too far the other way, deep into simpering, soft-headed sycophancy, where there is no risk of controversy or being “called out”. In music, anyway, there is a tendency to wax romantic, and many writers will feel the gravitational pull towards doe-eyed idealism devoid of nuance or complexity – quite reasonably, because the song has to last less than four minutes and the repeating of the chorus means you can’t wander too far away conceptually as you must get back to it in a few moments.
At the same time, I think Facebook, Instagram and selfies, among many other things, have made millennials (of which I am one) become narcissists who need to be constantly reminded that they are beautiful. They want to be worshipped in the way they themselves worship celebrities. Usually, such people get this from friends when they post a picture of themselves on the internet, but the shot of sweet oxytocin they receive is so addictive that they need it in other areas of their life too. Music, after all, has the power to reassure and empower us, and having such compliments piped out of our car speakers during a drive can give us a buzz. It should also be remembered that music – pop music, in particular – is often a source of romantic fantasy and the listener can feel as though the artist is singing such platitudes to him or her and not just a studio microphone.
November 21, 2019 @ 11:12 am
A great reply. Even though this is framed for “boyfriend country” parts of this reflect our society as a whole. Should be an “ok ed” piece. Great insights here…
November 21, 2019 @ 3:41 pm
You’re very kind.
November 20, 2019 @ 1:48 pm
If you can find me one woman who thinks Shay Mooney’s helium prepubescent voice sounds sexy, I’ll eat my boots for supper.
November 20, 2019 @ 2:17 pm
Oh I’m sure there are. Just go to one of theirs concerts and they’ll prolly all say that.
November 21, 2019 @ 2:53 am
eddie kendricks , smokey robinson , michael jackson , russell thompkins jr , curtis mayfield etc…….all guys who sang in ” helium prepubescent voices ” and woman LOVED it . and so did most guys . the difference , of course , was a little thing called SOUL .
November 20, 2019 @ 1:50 pm
I have been posting on here for years that the only songs Country Radio will play are men singing about the beginning of a relationship or the end of the relationship. It’s possible that Remember You Young is both about the beginning of a relationship and the end of a relationship. I’m amazed that “Even Though I’m Leaving” got played and my guess is if someone like Brett Young recorded it a song about being a son and dad, it wouldn’t have gotten played. I bet we all could make a list of father-son songs that did poorly on radio in recent years.
November 20, 2019 @ 2:13 pm
7 minutes of my life i will not get back , reading about something that makes me sick.. Why do i do this to myself .
November 20, 2019 @ 2:17 pm
Soap opera music for suburban soccer moms.
Can’t wait for Luke Bryan & Cole Swindell trying to sound like Dan + Shay with some sexy ass-wiggle action singing “Too All The Girls (Boys, Trans, Fluid) I Loved Before”.
November 20, 2019 @ 7:10 pm
Stereotype much? I’m a suburban soccer mom, and I think boyfriend country sucks.
November 20, 2019 @ 2:18 pm
Not a fan of dan and shay….country radio overplayed that stupid tequila song……but this is just my opinion….I miss 90s country….travis tritt….trace adkins….reba….shania….toby keith …
Tracy lawrence… garth….the list goes on…..
November 21, 2019 @ 4:40 am
It’s 70s Country that I miss. As a child in that decade I remember mainstream country seemed to fill the Top 40 in my country, and I was exposed to 60s Country too, through my parents. Then for some reason in the 80s it went away, and I kind of forgot about it. When it came back in the 90s I realised that now I hated it. I’m still sitting on the sidelines, hanging around this place and waiting for Country to be the music I loved in the 70s again.
I don’t imagine that’s ever going to actually happen.
November 20, 2019 @ 2:22 pm
Thank you for putting definition and clear terms to what I (among countless others I assume) have noticed has dominated the country radio circulation. You speak alot about women in country music having so much trouble, well this will really put them in a rough spot. There is no female answer to this type of music; men do noy generally listen to female voiced love songs and women want to hear it from a “desirable man”, not a woman. When women go the other way and write the set your car on fire independent songs they limit their audience to only female and then further to mostly either single or spurned women. I think its funny when my girlfriend listens to these songs and thinks they are saying anything deep, all i hear is “yeah, I’m gonna f#@# you”. Riley green should go on this list if Stapleton has to as well. Now its hard to take any good love songs seriously because it ia so prevalent.
November 20, 2019 @ 2:23 pm
I look at Jason Isbell’s “Cover Me Up” as a precursor. Now, I wouldn’t lump it in with this crap as it was an honest, heartfelt song about having struggled with addictions and overcoming those things because of his wife, but it absolutely came to mind reading this post. Trig, you wrote that Cover Me Up was becoming a Country standard. Could be that widespread recognition of the song is resulting in the dilution of its themes with less talented writers turning them into marketable material. Just a thought.
November 20, 2019 @ 2:54 pm
I’m not really sure that “Cover Me Up” is a power player in this trend. There are a lot of songs that are from men singing lovingly to women, and just because you could label a song “Boyfriend Country” doesn’t make it bad. I just think that anything when it becomes prevalent starts to become predictable and cliche, and generally that’s not good for the music. A song like “Cover Me Up,” or Randy Travis’s “Forever and Ever, Amen” are iconic, and speak for themselves. Just like Bro-Country, it’s not that list songs are terrible. It’s that they become terrible when that’s all you hear, and there’s not inspiration or uniqueness behind them.
November 20, 2019 @ 7:35 pm
Yeah, but, what if everybody is getting laid more …
That can’t be bad, right?
Fabulous exercise, great endorphin release, great sleep after, etc., etc.
Oh all right, couldn’t resist ….
Boyfriend Country will have its day/season, and then hopefully, somehow, we’ll get back to more traditional country
November 20, 2019 @ 2:31 pm
I’d like to know what age these women are that attend the Kane Brown Shows. My guess is that they are girls, not women. Teeny boppers through the ages have needed their androgynous idols, be it David Cassidy, or Justin Bieber, so why not expand that to country. We used to have a genre called Bubblegum to encompass those folks.
I also agree with those who say this trend is not far from the Rascall Flats phenomenon. Mature women don’t want to be put on a pedestal or be told they are some wayward grown-ass man’s savior. Mature women and men, in fact, probably aren’t that far apart in musical tastes. I mean, don’t we all appreciate Willie Nelson?
November 20, 2019 @ 3:13 pm
In the previous article I posted on this subject, I linked to a report from “Country Aircheck” which talked about this.
https://www.countryaircheck.com/pdfs/current011419.pdf
“The Kane Brown crowd was predominately female, but ages ranged from young girls and teens and twenties, all the way up to women my age and older. There were guys there, too, but you could tell that there weren’t a lot of single dudes in the crowd. These guys were there with their ladies, and they were enjoying a night out together.”
This has basically been my experience poking my head into clubs when some of these guys were up-and-comers. That’s why I’m a little stupefied of why people refute that it’s women driving these trends.
It’s not fair to say that women don’t want to hear other women. But it is fair to say that women are at the heart of the popularity of acts like Kane Brown, Dan + Shay, and others. And I don’t know what to do about that. I have great sympathy for the women of country who feel like they can’t get attention. But it’s not just male program directors decreeing that no women should be played on radio. They’re simply working off of data points that tell them their target audiences wants to hear these “Boyfriend Country” songs and acts. Once we recognize that, then perhaps we can have a discussion about what to do about it. But unfortunately, some of the ideologues who are driving the narrative on this subject refuse to recognize this trend because they say it’s “blaming women.”
November 20, 2019 @ 2:38 pm
Country music isn’t the only place the women are perfect message occurs- and no, I’m not anti-woman. I had a girl friend years ago who pointed out that TV commercials often showed the man in the family to be less than competent going so far as to making kids look smarter.
There are a couple of commercials on TV now that make the man look like a complete idiot- one of them is (IMS) an xfinity commercial with a woman showing a man (with his wife sitting beside him an a couch) how *easy* the remote can get you the program you want- I just SMH at how stupid commercials really are an insult to consumers intelligence.
So this current *fad* isn’t at all surprising- oh, BTW, that guy in the picture, sitting on the floor, accompanying this article ought to let a real woman help with his pants and foot wear choice-
November 20, 2019 @ 2:58 pm
Yeah the women are angels, men are devils thing is pretty timeless and tired also.
And these guys fail my Tractor Test. If you’d look ridiculous riding a tractor in it, don’t wear it.
November 20, 2019 @ 3:09 pm
Brett Young should be crowned the king of boyfriend country. It’s every single song he sings.
November 20, 2019 @ 4:44 pm
I agree but he’s a hell of a lot better than Danshay
November 20, 2019 @ 3:34 pm
Women are clearly driving this trend, but I still don’t buy the “women won’t listen to women” narrative. Most of Carrie Underwood’s fans are women. Same with Maren Morris, Kelsea Ballerini, and Miranda Lambert. These women have had a lot of radio success. I think if radio would start playing other female artists they could find an eager audience, but they seem to only be interested in featuring music by a handful of “girl singers.” Trigger might be right that women need to take an alternate route to getting exposure for their music (like Kacey Musgraves) but I still think it’s a shame.
As for “boyfriend country,” well, it’s bad, but it’s not like we had anywhere to go but up.
November 20, 2019 @ 4:02 pm
I totally agree that “women don’t want to listen to women” is not true, but I also think this phrase is being used as a reduction of the clear and obvious issue that it’s women who are significantly helping to support these male mainstream acts, and only by acknowledging this can this issue be properly addressed. That’s also not to “blame women,” it’s just giving an accurate assessment of the situation. What do women need to do to connect with the audience the same way the men are?
And also, let’s stop pay so much damn attention to radio, giving it more credence than it deserves. Sure, it’s still a viable format and the way mainstream stars get launched, but it’s losing stream, and is basically a niche format at this point. Look at Ashley McBryde who just picked up two more Grammy nominations. It would be great if she could get radio play, but she’d be a fool to base her career around it. There are alternatives.
November 20, 2019 @ 6:52 pm
Trigger it’s no different to romantic movies, remember the Notebook. Dan + Shay are just the Nicholas Sparks of the Country music genre. Just like Ed Sheeran is the Sparks of pop. This is why they are appealing, people are suckers for unrealistic romantic notions – why I have no idea. Life is so much more complicated than that and relationships/love is not always sunshine and roses.
That’s why I love Luke’s Beautiful Crazy, cause he was straight up honest about how crazy us women can be sometimes, and yeah some of us can be real cray cray, but that’s part of who someone is.
November 21, 2019 @ 3:45 am
“What do women need to do to connect with the audience the same way the men are?”
Express female solidarity — it worked for Shania Twain a couple times. Or express female competition (“you ain’t woman enough to take my man”).
November 21, 2019 @ 5:18 am
‘And also, let’s stop pay so much damn attention to radio. . .’
If country radio has one foot in the grave, then let’s all push and then throw the dirt on it before it can climb out. I’ll bring the shovels.
And the headstone should read,
“Here Lies ‘Country’ Radio
Long Live Country Music”
November 20, 2019 @ 5:17 pm
Does anybody actually like Maren Morris’s music? I feel like there’s pressure to like it just because and almost none of it is memorable.
November 20, 2019 @ 4:58 pm
Great article, though I needed a brain cleanse after reading it. Therefore, I will be listening to Whiskey Myers until further notice.
November 20, 2019 @ 5:36 pm
I thought it was called boyfriend country because Dan and Shay are both dudes and their music is gay
November 20, 2019 @ 5:45 pm
this trend isn’t exclusive to to country, it’s all over top 40 pop too. Lauv, Shawn Mendes, Marshmallow, Charlie Puth … Bruno Mars was catching grenades and stepping in front of trains for women a few years ago. Lyrics by men that convey total subservience to women is what’s selling now. Meanwhile recent major hits from Selena Gomez, Dua Lipa, Ariana Grande and Lizzo are about fantasizing about the exes or trashing men in general.
November 20, 2019 @ 6:07 pm
Since I get stuck listening to the Highway with my wife, another thing about boyfriend country is all of these guys are exactly the same:
Brett Young
Mitchell Tennpenny
Russell Dickerson
Chris Lane
Matt Snell
Michael Ray
Jordan Davis
Hardy
Morgan Wallen
There’s more but I don’t feel like giving the highway clicks to look up their top 30
They are all Rhett clones. You could tell me any of their songs by a different one and I would have no clue you are bullshitting me. None of these songs are memorable or identifiable. I do agree some of this is the lack of adult contemporary music.
Also agree totally that RF doesn’t look so bad anymore
November 20, 2019 @ 6:13 pm
Ew.
November 20, 2019 @ 6:37 pm
How about this for a country music trend:
ACTUAL COUNTRY MUSIC!
November 20, 2019 @ 7:17 pm
And most of the female artists are anti-men country. It would be nice for them to fawn over their dude.
November 20, 2019 @ 7:22 pm
Are you sure Conway did it this way?
November 20, 2019 @ 7:27 pm
On another (shallow) note, Dan needs to cut his hair. He looks like a clown. What’s he trying to prove?
Forgive me if it’s for charity like locks of love.
November 20, 2019 @ 7:29 pm
Should Willie Nelson get a crew cut too???
November 21, 2019 @ 12:25 am
If Willie Nelson kept it short he’d smell slightly less like weed.
November 20, 2019 @ 7:28 pm
God, if this article didn’t hit the nail on the head. As someone in his early 20’s, this shit is awful on the ears and even worse when girls actually want you to act like those types. I’ve somehow turned it into a positive though. When this trash music comes up, I ask if I can play them a real country love song. Proceed to blare “Every Girl” or “Feathered Indians” or something like that and let the music do the talking. I’ve even turned a few of them on to Turnpike, Childers, etc. in doing so lol
November 20, 2019 @ 8:15 pm
I heard it argued elsewhere that bro-country was a reaction to Taylor Swift’s success. If that’s true, and the pattern holds, the reaction to this boyfriend-country trash is going to be utterly horrific.
November 20, 2019 @ 8:43 pm
This crap may have one wishing for the return of Bro-Country. That’s actually how bad it is. Way to go women. Where’s the Waylon Jennings ‘ crowd when you need them?
November 20, 2019 @ 10:38 pm
Exactly, Waylon gave us songs like You Can Have Her, This Time, Only Daddy That Will Walk the Line, Just to Satisfy You, Mental Revenge, Mississippi Woman, The Last Letter, and Never Could Toe the Mark to name a few…now we have crap like Speechless…sad, very sad. Not many Alpha Males left in country music.
November 21, 2019 @ 12:26 am
At least Bro-Country is good for light listening
November 21, 2019 @ 3:55 am
I’m a woman who loves Waylon and cannot stomach Boyfriend Country. Reading this article, the song that came to my mind was “Lucille (You Won’t Do Your Daddy’s Will).” He loves her, he wants her to come home, but she ran off. We all know there are plenty of women out there like Lucille, but Boyfriend Country panders to the unrealistic idea that all women are perfect and men are useless without them. As I said in a comment above, it makes for really boring music.
November 21, 2019 @ 12:24 pm
There was actually music to be heard in Bro-Country as opposed to boyfriend country which is all just a boring snooze fest. Lyrically neither variation is better, both follow the same uninteresting cookie cutter fashion, and for that reason, I’d much rather listen to almost any bro-country song over almost any boyfriend country song.
November 20, 2019 @ 9:22 pm
If you feel like it, look up Jerry Reed’s, PMS I Guess.
It is hilarious.
Looked up Jerry Reed, after reading the article of Roy Clark’s passing.
November 21, 2019 @ 4:18 am
You know how you hate it whenever Jon Caramanica dips into country criticism despite being a hip-hop writer? That’s how I feel almost every time you reference a genre traditionally unrelated to country (like R&B and hip-hop). You seem to have, at best, a passing interest in them that’s almost completely disconnected from their legacies. It boggles my mind how you can advocate for the soveriegn purity of country while turning your nose up to other, equally valid styles of music.
November 21, 2019 @ 6:50 am
Do you criticize the roofer for having only a passing interest in plumbing issues? Shouldn’t you thank him for being a good roofer? Because your point is really nonsense.
November 21, 2019 @ 10:29 am
If the roofer decided to ‘fix a few small issues’ with my plumbing while whining that nobody respects roofers and those nasty electricians need to stay out of roofing, then yes, I would. Stay in your lane, roofers.
November 21, 2019 @ 2:44 pm
Strange comment for what I asserted in the article, which was that R&B and country have closer ties than hip-hop. Perhaps you disagree, but hardly a controversial statement, and was only made in passing. That’s a little different than asserting broad and often incorrect stereotypes of country in articles published in the “newspaper of record.” When I start reviewing hip-hop songs and records here, get back to me.
November 21, 2019 @ 4:38 am
They’re much worse. No matter their country radio sins, Rascall Flatts released some great songs from time to time. “Fast Cars and Freedom” was one of the better songs from the early 00’s. “What Hurts the Most,” overplayed or not, terribly sung by Gary Levox or not, is a great song.
To date, Dan + Shay have released one great song in “How Not to.” Coincidentally, that’s also the only song on which Shay Mooney finds his vocal sweet spot and doesn’t sound like a deflating balloon. “Tequila” and “Nothing Like You” are both tolerable to great, but not on the same level.
November 21, 2019 @ 12:22 pm
How about posting this one more time? “Great” lol… Just stop.
November 21, 2019 @ 5:26 am
How long till we see one of these Masked Singer contestants score a #1 hit song?
November 21, 2019 @ 7:04 am
This may just be because I’m an engineer, but whenever I see “and” stylized as “+” I always read it as “plus” instead of “and”. I literally thought the group name was “Dan plus Shay” for a couple of years because I only ever read the name, never heard it. I also confused them with “Joey + Rory” for like 2 years as well.
November 21, 2019 @ 8:02 am
You nail it.
Capital is risk adverse and consequently Music (Trashville) will invest their money on sure bet. Bro Country was popular now it’s Boyfriend Country.
A innovative movie is a hard bet so we rarely see those movies showing up. A song with deep lyrics or high quality instrumental may sound too different from what people are used to. I compare this to “comfort food”.
November 21, 2019 @ 11:56 am
shania was not successful singing country music . she was successful singing pop music selling sex to do it …and not smart substance-driven pop music ….shit pop music ,
under the guise of ‘country’ attracting a pop female demographic to the country fold and forcing the genre to adapt to please that pop female demographic . taylor swift (shania v2 ) furthered the luring of that pop listener to the ‘country’ fold and ultimately made the biggest and most important contribution ever to what was left of the genre ……SHE LEFT .
soon after , it became a pop mainstream genre ….mostly men singing pop songs which pander to women .
ironically , however, and in an unexpected turn …WOMEN , arguably , are NOW writing and singing the more substance-driven material ( erin enderlin , tenille townes , emily scott robinson , miranda lanbert , reba , etc… ) but singing to female radio listeners conditioned by the males’ insipid and vacuous non-song pandering . they have a difficult mission which I wholly support by commenting like this , sharing GREAT writes with friends and whomever I think may be interested enough to listen and by generally trying to make people aware of the much much better song options out there ……by male AND female writers and singers .
November 21, 2019 @ 2:12 pm
Bro-country definitely made me angry, but I’m not sure it made me as angry as that picture up there.
November 21, 2019 @ 4:18 pm
When I first heard Dan & Shay. Til this day I refer them as Rascal Flats Jr. I have a dislike for BroCountry
November 21, 2019 @ 4:20 pm
Boyfriend Country is generic, repetitive, boring as hell, and generally, just plain bad. And even if I were in love or wanting to hear a love song, it wouldn’t be from any of these guys. I’d want a love song that actually makes me feel something.
November 23, 2019 @ 3:15 am
Next step should be “coming out country”. Sugar coated pop music with a young and beautiful guy finally singing to his gorgeous boyfriend! Looking forward for this…
November 25, 2019 @ 2:02 pm
Yall mean Borefriend Country, because this music is vanilla, safe, uninteresting & boring as all helllllllllllll!! I cant believe I’m saying this, but I’d rather have Bro-Country than Borefriend Country. That’s rather sad, if ya ask me.
December 11, 2019 @ 5:47 pm
Isn’t Boyfriend Country Bro Country’s equally annoying backlash?
July 11, 2021 @ 6:25 pm
Beta Country Music