On Jason Kelce’s Rant About Country Music
Travis Kelce is the one dating Taylor Swift, not Jason Kelce. Jason Kelce is the perennial all-pro Center for the Philadelphia Eagles who retired from the NFL last year. Travis Kelce is the one that plays for the Kansas City Chiefs who you saw sucking face with Swift at the Super Bowl. This is an important disambiguation deduced through research on the world wide internet that is important to this story.
The two Kelce brothers host a podcast together called New Heights, and have the internet all agog after Jason Kelce (the brother NOT having intercourse with Taylor Swift) twisted off on country music during the latest episode on Wednesday (6-19). The two got talking about technology and time travel (weird, I know), and the discussion veered toward what music is going to sound like four years from now. Jason Kelce first lit into modern hip-hop.
“Hip-hop in the ’90s, and hip-hop in the ’80s, when it was done by dudes that were living that life, hits way different than now when it’s like auto-tuned renditions. And it’s the same thing in country music,” Jason Kelce said.
Then as if the spirit of Cody Jinks or Whitey Morgan entered his body, Jason Kelce became super animated, and started ranting with wild gesticulations …
“If I have to hear one more country song that’s like, ‘I got my boots in my truck, going through the fields.’ What the f–k are we talking about? That’s not country music! Put on some f–king Willie Nelson. I am tired of country music and what it’s become. It is horseshit.”
After Travis Kelce (the one having consensual intercourse with Taylor Swift) stops laughing at his brother’s rant, he responds in a mild manner, “I like some of the country music coming out.” He then asks his brother what he thinks about Shaboozey. Jason responds, “I’d have to listen to it.”
Jason Kelce goes on to say that he can listen to some modern country and some modern hip-hop, especially if it’s being played in a club. But actually “listening” to music is a different experience. “Listening to it to like really enjoy it, like Willie Nelson to me, the way he wrote songs … Chris Stapleton obviously right now. He’s unbelievable. Tried and true. Tried and true.“
You can see the whole interaction below.
This Jason Kelce rant and the reactions to it really speak to how far we’ve come in country music in the last few years. 10 years ago, Kelce’s rant would have been spot on and significant. Today, it’s frankly kind of dated and cliché. Sure, there are still country songs played on the radio that can be boiled down to, “I got my boots in my truck, going through the fields.” But the much maligned “Bro-Country” era has mostly passed, and those still peddling it are not nearly as popular as they once were.
Kelce’s rant is still notable though, because it speaks to the permeation of distaste for bad country music, and why it was so problematic when it was defining nearly every aspect of popular country. Jason Kelce is not some diehard music guy who’s boned up on all the latest trends. He’s a football player. But his hyperbolic hatred for the genre illustrates that the Bro-Country era left us a major mess to clean up.
It’s also interesting to note that country music fans aren’t angry with Kelce for calling country “horseshit.” Many country fans completely understand and am glad someone famous is speaking up about it, even if it’s a few years late. And sure, it would have been even more significant if the rant came from Travis Kelse since he is the brother regularly engaging in sexual congress with Taylor Swift, since Swift started her career in the country genre and her exit helped usher in the Bro-Country era.
But the simple truth is that when Jason Kelce or anyone else says in 2024, “I am tired of country music and what it’s become. It is horseshit,” they’re just flat out wrong. This isn’t 2014. Country music is brimming with so much incredible talent, including in the mainstream. Luke Combs just released an incredible record called Fathers & Sons. Lainey Wilson is the CMA Entertainer of the year, not Luke Bryan. Florida Georgia Line has been defunct for a few years now.
And that speaks nothing to the overwhelming talent bubbling up in the independent ranks at the moment. There’s so much of it, it’s hard to keep up. You understand the sentiments Jason Kelce and others share about how “country music sucks.” But instead of agreeing with them, or passionately disagreeing, people should patiently explain to them that it’s a new day, and share the good stuff with them.
My guess is that if Jason Kelce is a Willie Nelson and Chris Stapleton fan, he would be blown away if he heard Charley Crockett, Zach Top, or Charles Wesley Godwin. If he saw Sierra Ferrell or Billy Stings live, he’d never be on his podcast ranting about how bad country music is, he’d be shouting these artists out by name. Chris Stapleton is a start. But that should simply be a gateway into “country music and what it’s become” in 2024, which is something that country fans can finally be (cautiously) proud of, even if there is still much more to do.
…oh and get over the Taylor Swift jokes you prudes. She’s the one out there splattering her love life all over the tabloids.
June 20, 2024 @ 8:03 am
Trig you need to do a ctrl+f for “kelse” on this article. Hope you maximize your Taylor Swift SEO with this one.
June 20, 2024 @ 8:12 am
To be fair, there’s some decent material on the Shaboozey album. I like “East of the Massanutten” a lot, and “Steal Her From Me” is growing on me, despite its processed vocals. Both have significant country elements to them, and lyrically they are very country.
June 20, 2024 @ 11:45 am
“East of the massanutten”?? Is that a song about a plantation guy who sneaks out to the side houses at midnight?
June 20, 2024 @ 12:18 pm
This isn’t really about Shaboozey.
I may have a review of his album up soon.
June 20, 2024 @ 8:16 am
I think I agree with trigger on about all of this. He’s wrong mostly but that’s cause country pushed so much dogshit in the mainstream it’s not Jason kelce’s fault that this is the impression pop culture has given him. Trigger has talked about this too when like Luke Bryan sings the national anthem at an nfl game for many people that’s their sum total impression of what country music is. Hence why a guy who plays I bc the nfl has this impression.
I remember in college having these conversations with people especially girls. “Oh I hate country” no actually you like country you just hate this stuff that sucks. Specifically I had made the argument no you love Wilco they’re actually a country band. This argument would have been much easier now too than it was in 2009. Justin Townes Earle and the Avett brothers were the ones that actually ended up resonating the most when I tried to explain why Kenny Chesney wasn’t real country music. Also Corey smith remember that guy lol
June 20, 2024 @ 8:32 am
There is a big nexus between sports journalists and hatred for “todays” country music, as well as a love affair with folks like Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson, and Jason Isbell. The reason for this is because the NFL and college football push the WORST versions of country music, because they only know to go with what they believe is safe and “popular.” That’s how you have Walker Hayes all over the place, and Brantley Gilbert playing halftime shows. Meanwhile if you read the social media comments whenever they feature this bad country music, these guys are getting TROUNCED.
I’m not going to fault football players for not knowing about alternatives to country radio. That’s not their world. But as time goes on, technology opens the music up, and the word gets out, hopefully it filters down to them. Everyone is being presented with better options at this point. They just need to take them.
June 26, 2024 @ 11:40 pm
i’m sorry trig, but you seem to imply that football players and a grasp of country music can’t co-exist (“that’s not their world.”) . i like country music. is it out of the realm of possibility that i understand and like football too?
of course, i’m joking…and man, do i love the swift jokes!
but i wonder- are we sure it’s consensual on his part? just a random thought…
June 20, 2024 @ 8:22 am
One thing this site consistently shows is this: there is a TON of great country music out there. You just have to go beyond the radio to find it. Which is why these publicized rants get old, it’s a lazy way of putting everything in the genre under one umbrella. I am 48 years old and would say at this point, the halcyon days of the early-to-mid 90’s and the past 5-8 years are the 2 great eras of country music of my lifetime.
The point remains however: most of it ain’t on the radio.
June 20, 2024 @ 8:23 am
If you watch the “Kelce” doc from last year, you’ll hear him reference Guy Clark a lot and even uses some of his music, (and this was all waaaaay before any of the TS and TK dating stuff). I don’t know what kind of country they are playing on the radio in Philly, but if he’s trying to listen (and it’s anything like the Dayton, Ohio country stations) they still play a SHIT TON of bad taste country. I’d cut him some slack.
June 20, 2024 @ 11:40 am
Maybe I’m just leaning into my love for certain metal sub-genres at this point of my life more than country, but I don’t think there’s that much great truly country music out there. I think there’s a fair amount of relatively unique, highly talented modern artists, but many many more artists who are either following the formula of said modern greats (how many Childers imitators have we seen already, vocally?), or imitating the legends. Those imitating the legends are much more tolerable.
June 20, 2024 @ 7:14 pm
See my post below for what the Philly station is offering. We are trapped with the worst stuff possible in our area. Sirius is the only alterntive.
June 20, 2024 @ 8:44 am
Trigger, did you have to start this article with such a crude sentence – “Travis Kelce is the one banging Taylor Swift, not Jason Kelce”? It is just juvenile and denigrating.
June 20, 2024 @ 9:52 am
Yes I did.
I have decided to adopt a “sex positive” platform when it comes to human procreation.
June 22, 2024 @ 8:15 pm
We aren’t aloud to talk in public about s*x, interc*urse or b*nging anymore!!
June 23, 2024 @ 9:36 am
Not funny, only disrespectful, inelegant, vulgar, childish.
June 20, 2024 @ 6:21 pm
It wasn’t crude, it was funny, and true. In the not too distant future, it will be wrong because someone else will be banging her. ????
June 24, 2024 @ 7:01 pm
How do we know someone else isn’t banging her right now?
June 26, 2024 @ 11:41 pm
good point!!
June 20, 2024 @ 8:52 am
Honestly, the only time I hear about bad country music is on this site and from people my parent’s age or older who haven’t discovered the internet. It does feel like sporting events (halftime shows and the like), televised awards shows and terrestrial radio are the only places where bad country is still allowed to flourish. And that makes sense. Mega corporations own the TV networks, the radio stations and the record labels. No need for payola when you already own it all.
June 20, 2024 @ 9:02 am
Country music is in trouble now from the algorithm abusers and Zach Bryan copycats, not songs about trucks and beer, get with the times Kelce! Lol.
June 20, 2024 @ 6:52 pm
Country music now is like walking into Hot Topic as someone in their late 30’s. I remember it being good 20 years ago and I recognize some things but what the hell is this other crap?
Who are the Zach Bryan copycats?
June 21, 2024 @ 8:11 am
Chayce Beckham? Bailey Zimmerman? A lot of this “emo country” has more than a little in common with Zach Bryan’s style.
June 20, 2024 @ 9:52 am
I’m tired of the Kelces. They aren’t as funny as the world thinks. Then again, the world thinks Swift is worthy of worship.
His rant is dated and there is better country music than Willie and Stapleton. Merle, Jones, Jackson, Pride, Strait, etc.
June 20, 2024 @ 9:57 am
Country music has an image problem. People who don’t listen to country music still think it’s all still shaking sugar makers, putting bare feet on a dashboard, running down them red dirt roads with a cold beer, etc.
There’s a popular meme on social media that says something like “Male country singers tell their women to cook their dinner, fetch their beer, and dance in cut off jeans and female country singers murder their men.” That’s they way people who don’t follow country see it.
It will slowly change as bro country rots on the garbage heap of time, but the industry has to stop pushing the trash to the masses on radio and big events for that perception to completely die.
June 20, 2024 @ 10:24 am
Wait what? Taylor Swift is seeing someone? Huh.
My apologies if anyone has heard this horror story as I may have shared it a few years ago but I get where “the one not banging Taylor” is coming from. He may have had a similar experience to mine. Circa 2016/17 I was trapped on a bus for a brewery hopping charity thing with a couple buddies and about 30 suburban 40-something soccer moms who had control of the music and were pounding White Claws in between stops. I can’t say for sure what crap radio country songs were being spewed from the speakers but I can only assume FGL, Luke Bryan, Dan and Shay, etc…were involved. The women were singing (screaming) every word and gyrating like they had spent years working stripper poles. My own personal version of hell. After that I swore I would never ever until the end of time listen to country music fearing I would relive the nightmare in my head over again. Thankfully shortly after that horrific experience a friend took me to a Lucero show. Then I found this site and the treasure trove of amazing music that came with it. Whichever one isn’t hammering Taylor, (or the other one that’s not maybe – I lost track) just needs to have his “Lucero show moment” and his blind eyes will be opened.
June 20, 2024 @ 10:36 am
Texas Roadhouse needs to get with the times. They play a never ending stream of terrible music in their restaurants. At least play some music from Texas.
June 20, 2024 @ 11:43 am
Lainey Wilson sucks, and Charley Crocket is not a good singer. (His band sounds amazing though)
June 20, 2024 @ 4:42 pm
No, his inability to sustain a note is actually his twang lol.
June 20, 2024 @ 10:40 pm
I’m so tired of Lainey Wilson, honestly. She has a few good songs, but she’s really not all that. I actually prefer Megan Moroney, Hailey Whitters, and Carly Pearce to her by a country mile.
June 21, 2024 @ 1:37 am
I don’t hate Lainey. Her personality is likeable and her image is clean. And she came off really well in her Interview with Theo Von. But her songs lyrically are weak. Good songs always win out in traditional-sounding country. I just wish she had better songs and didn’t lean so hard into the wannabe-rocker chick thing. I did love on that song ‘herrassment’ with Dierks Bentley and the Hot Country Knights (even though it was a joke song). I’m really hoping the 80’s and 90’s country can come back in the mainstream and come back with substance.
June 20, 2024 @ 11:46 am
No worries. Post Malone and Jelly Belly will save us.
June 20, 2024 @ 4:17 pm
I wish Jelly Roll would donate 15 pounds of his fat back to Lainey’s ass. Especially since both are pictured together at every award show.
June 20, 2024 @ 5:44 pm
Now that’s funny.
June 20, 2024 @ 6:57 pm
Out of all the misfits to jump on the country bandwagon I think Post Malone bothers me the least. I seem to remember him covering 90’s country songs before Ernest, Hardy, and Morgan Wallen. I could be wrong about that but I can at least tolerate Post’s pop stuff if I am forced to hear it. It’s not the same for those other nitwits. I don’t understand Jelly Roll’s constant fat bastard victim schtick. Dude probably cries when they call his name at Chipotle
June 20, 2024 @ 11:50 am
Man has opinion. Come on, you’re better than this SEO rubbish!
June 20, 2024 @ 12:32 pm
Weird comment. Did you read the article?
It always boggles my mind what some think is “SEO” or “click bait.” It’s usually the exact opposite of what they think it is.
June 20, 2024 @ 12:20 pm
The problem is that if you are stuck in the car with the only two country radio stations VT has to offer, then Jason Kelce’s rant is spot on, even in 2024. Country radio is nothing but endless horseshit.
June 20, 2024 @ 4:59 pm
These two have had too many blows to the head. Their brains must be incredibly small, but you can still end up as swiftie’s boyfriend. What a world.
June 20, 2024 @ 5:51 pm
Which one of them is the one having frequent sexual intercourse with Taylor Swift? Unclear.
jermpinymcripperson
June 20, 2024 @ 7:04 pm
At which point has country music not been easy to make fun of?
I mean I grew up with the stereotypes of “wife left, lost my job, dog died”
Then it was overpatriotism and redneck (courtesy of red white and blue, where were you etc) and then just went redneck and towns.
Before that there was outlaw long hair music, while Nashville was making over polished songs about a semi-rural life which seemed far removed from reality.
Now we can make fun of guys with beards and acoustic guitars singing about coal mines while walking in a forest.
I mean, every form of art and enjoyment is easy to make fun of because none of it is logical. It just seems that right now, country is easy because making fun of it doesn’t affect a minority.
June 21, 2024 @ 5:09 am
Agreed all on counts.
The stereotype, back when country music didn’t try to pander to the 18-24 crowd, was my wife left me, the dog died, and the truck broke down. That stereotype persisted long after it was relevant. I heard it in the early 2000s when syrupy love ballads ruled the charts.
Now we have wannabe comedians like Jason acting as if Bro-Country rules the waves. He is building his brand. Don’t expect him to fact check. He just needs to rant enough and name check two popular singers and the mindless masses eat it up. Willie is cool (he smokes weed unlike the rest of those prudes!) and Stapleton is super popular among the younger set.
Blackhat nailed it. White culture, especially Southern culture, is one of the few remaining acceptable targets. Unfortunately, country music tends to make it easier for slings and arrows.
June 21, 2024 @ 8:04 pm
I have no desire to get into a back and forth. I will not reply if you respond. I am white. On both my father’s and mother’s sides, my ancestors emigrated to southern America in the 1700s. You say that “white culture… is one of the few remaining acceptable targets.” What is white culture? To use a dictionary definition, what are the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of white culture that are being targeted? I honestly have no idea. Thank you in advance if you reply.
June 22, 2024 @ 9:48 pm
Yes, let’s look at “under attack” for example, the Cowboy Carter issue. Media outlets,unjustly, attacked and 0 painted with a broad brush, the entire country industry and its fans as “racist” and exclusionary – because it “tradionally” has a White majority audience and industry participants – which to some equates “evil”. (While self servingly ignoring Charlie Pride or that there are some sports or entertainment spheres wher Whites are a minority). Sure there are historical facts to be clarified and corrected, like anything else. However the vitriol certainly was perceived as an “attack” – and that will definitely not create a welcoming environment for dialogue and change.
The preceding modus operandi is used to attack anything that doesn’t meet ideals of the ultra radical ideologies prescribed by an identity politics driven strident minority. And to that end anything that is classically “centrist”, “moderate”, “liberal(in the philosophical definition of the word)”, or even “conservative(in the non political sense of the word)” is deemed “White Culture” and therefore a target, deemed “privileged” and requiring “unpacking”, “critical thinking” and reinvention (obliteration). And for the record, the reaction of other “strident” minority is just as toxic and damaging.
Being from the Southern “United States” (Ametica is a continent) from 1700s makes none no more White than a third generation generation Western European moderate (ancestors escaping Bolshevics and Fascists) living in New York City.
June 21, 2024 @ 8:09 pm
…except that he also criticized hip-hop. You’re giving Jason Kelce way too much agency. He’s a jock. Music is background noise to him, not an integral pert of his life like it is to the people that read music blogs.
June 21, 2024 @ 10:56 pm
“You’re giving Jason Kelce way too much agency. He’s a jock. Music is background noise to him”
I can’t speak to the quality or artistic merit but he managed to get two Christmas albums released.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Philly_Special_Christmas
Also, “In 2015, Kelce performed a cover of Cover Me Up by Jason Isbell and his original song Homes Change on WXPN.” I’m gonna hazard a guess that’s more than most music blog readers have done.
June 22, 2024 @ 7:25 am
CountryKnight accused Jason of being purposely obtuse to be “popular,” as well as attacking White people because that is the only socially acceptable group to attack anymore, both of which are false (since Jason also commented on hip-hop). Don’t mean to criticize the guy’s musical bonafides. Honestly, I know very little about the Kelce brothers. Your point about the Jason Isbell cover dovetails with the comment I left above about the strange love of Isbell in the sports world, which I’ve written whole articles on. I’ll stand corrected about how much he may know about music. But if he does, that makes his statement that much more irresponsible, because he DOES know there is better country music out there, and could have used that opportunity to shout out Isbell or someone like him.
June 21, 2024 @ 10:59 pm
“Then it was overpatriotism …”
Not.
Although, will not debate, Where Were You.
Can’t stand that song. The very essence of narcissism.
June 20, 2024 @ 7:08 pm
Jason has only one country music station in the Philadelphia area to listen to …. and it’s probably has the worst playlist of any mainstream station in the country. It is still filled with Walker Hayes, Sam Hunt, Kane Brown, HARDY, etc. and oldies from the bro-country era. I hope that he invests in Sirius to sample the better channels they provide at least. And, as you pointed out, the artists the NFL and individual college teams offer for half time shows, etc. are often totally irrelevant. Jason used to attend country-based festivals around the country so he does have an idea of what could be enjoyed.
June 20, 2024 @ 7:36 pm
What you said about Swift being responsible for the bro-country pandemic, you’re more accurate than I think you realize. Remember that random Thursday afternoon in October 2012 when Billboard suddenly and without any buildup decided to split the country charts into two, relegating country airplay to a secondary chart and making the main chart a mixture of country airplay, streaming… and POP RADIO AIRPLAY? At the time there were rumors and allegations that Swift’s camp pressured Billboard to do that as country radio had started to cool on her, rightly allowing her horrendous “We Are Never Ever Ever Getting Back Together” to stall out at #13. Because Swift was the country darling of top 40 radio at the time, it gave her a very unfair advantage. The first weekend they tried this dishonest methodology that song regrettably rocketed to #1 and even more regrettably stayed there for a very long time. And another Swift song, “Red”, which at the time had not even been released as a single, debuted at #2.
At the time I predicted that this would spell the end of chart success for acts like Zac Brown Band, Josh Turner, Blake Shelton, George Strait, & Eric Church, just to name a few, as pop radio would never play them Now this would thankfully prove to be mostly untrue but what it did do was give rise to acts like Florida Georgia Line and Sam Hunt. It also led to the Nelly remix of “Cruise” hitting #1 despite never once getting played on country radio. It led to Bebe Rhexa’s godawful “Meant To Be” spending almost an entire fucking year at #1 just because it featured FGL. The biggest effect it had on country radio is it would lead to some established artists like Blake Shelton, Luke Bryan, and Jason Aldean to release some really, really, REALLY bad material. Now suddenly Nashville record executives were desperate to go out of their way to create music that shamelessly pandered to the pop & even hip-hop audiences who would never listen to country otherwise. Songs like “Boys Round Here”, “That’s My Kind Of Night”, and “Burnin’ It Down” were the direct result of this. Now luckily in the last few years things have been slowly improving. Artists like Luke Combs, Cody Johnson, Carly Pearce, and Jon Pardi have been turning the tide back towards a sense of genre and established acts have started making better music again. And hell even artists who started in that dark era like Cole Swindell, Thomas Rhett, and shockingly enough Florida Georgia Line have released some quality music. But you still got certain acts who never would have succeeded on country radio before the changes to the chart methodology.
And before anyone brings it up yes the week the change happened Billboard introduced a new chart called Country Airplay that still ranks songs using radioplay like the old chart but that’s now considered a secondary, less important chart. If the average schmuck looks up the biggest country songs of all time they’ll see songs like “Meant To Be”, “Body Like A Backroad”, and “Cruise’ with zero context or idea that those records need to have a giant goddamn asterisk next to them. Sorry for the extended rant but in summary country music is so much cooler when it’s not trying to be “cool”. And my favorite genre was hijacked and that Taylor Swift song opened the door for that to happen
June 21, 2024 @ 1:47 am
I see what you mean but it was an entire shift away from modern country having songs about “real” things. Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan are the antichrists of traditional country and are complete and utter whores for selling out and playing the crap that made them successful. Brad Paisley’s best music in the early 00’s was when he was singing songs about his real life and struggles with dating and then finding his wife THEN he starting writing songs about alcohol and sports which he doesn’t drink. Even Strait didnt sing about alcohol until the 00’s. Maybe the dive into jingoistic songs after 9/11 helped to ruin mainstream country music. I also think the music started to mirror culture and how infantile millenials and gen Z were compared to Gen X and earlier. (I’m a millenial) Vapid drinking sounds have always been in country but we lost the ‘Backside of 30’ and ‘Chiseled in Stone’ and “Whenever you come around” for simplistic bro country and nutless boyfriend country songs. My thoughts on this are incomplete but I think it’s an authenticity problem.
Also Cole Swindell is the biggest embarrasment to me for writing the worst country song that I have ever heard…that Heads Carolina (She’s a 90’s country fan..like I am) Literally the stupidest most cucked song I can think of for someone who looks like he does.
June 24, 2024 @ 2:40 pm
That could be the reason Brad doesn’t play the Opry anymore. He knows the real country fans don’t want to hear it.
June 21, 2024 @ 1:51 am
When DJ’s started to replace live bands the music shift was noticeable. Hits in the 90’s and back could easily be played by any bar band. Trying to capture that hip hop audience makes sense with what bro country was. Music has to change and evolve but we are at a point where it has to go back to the past and capture authenticity or it will eventually die.
June 22, 2024 @ 10:05 pm
Agreed. Starting about 2000 or so, the downward spiral started..
Aside from the disgraceful “BroCoubtry” era, some of today’s country stars come across as Park Slope* coffee house elitists, moralizing instead of enticing with moralizing wrapped in a traditional sound.
I still love the class of 1989 and some of the others from that eta (Wade Hayes is so underrated!).
And as far as these phonies today with their “messaging” …nothing beats Loretta’s “The Pilll”…..
* Park Slope – ultra elitist hipster trendy h*ll of a neighborhood in Brooklyn.
June 27, 2024 @ 12:02 am
i lived in nashville for five years (i left in 2015- what i thought was country had ended. it was time to go). haven’t been back since i left, but i can only imagine what an ear-splitting walk down broadway would be like now…my band is louder than your band, etc.
terrible music. and sometimes, terrible players. that’s right, i said it. just because you moved to nashville didn’t mean you suddenly developed talent. summer’s the worst- all the good players are out on the road.
you’re right about the DJ thing, and what you say about the need for real country to reemerge. let’s hope it does, cause the alternative is scary…
June 21, 2024 @ 12:36 am
…bringing ms.swift into this is (totally) unnecessary. also, the point made “…since Swift started her career in the country genre and her exit helped usher in the Bro-Country era” is arguably wrong.
the term “bro-country” was coined by a journalist: “Writer Jody Rosen coined the phrase Bro-Country in a piece that appeared in the August 19th, 2013 issue of New York Magazine where he defined the term as being music from a ““tatted, gym-toned, party-hearty young American white dude.” The term caught fire from there, being featured in numerous segments on NPR, including one that interviewed Rosen about the phenomenon. Next thing you know, it was being adopted society wide.” (scm, February 5, 2015).
it is fair to say, that when something has become “adopted society wide” it most likely has been garnering considerable attention or impact well before that moment in time, which happened in the second half of 2013. taylor swift left country music only in 2014, when she realeased her “1989” album in october of that year. more than one year later. claiming that she “helped ushering” bro-country is more than a far fetched theory with regard to the actual timeline. bro-country had been becoming a “phenomenon” already in the run-up to 2013, when it finally got its name. furthermore, scm wrote on febuary 5, 2015: “In full disclosure, Saving Country Music declared Bro-Country dead in September of 2014.”
June 21, 2024 @ 9:08 am
Nobody is saying that Taylor Swift is responsible for Bro-Country. However, when she left country music, she was the most popular artist in the genre, and a 2-time reigning Entertainer of the Year. Her departure created a vacuum that Bro-Country filled and became the most dominant influence in the genre, replacing pop country. Also, Swift’s departure also plunged the representation of women in country, which also helped give rise to Bro-Country.
Bro-Country is not Taylor Swift’s fault. But her departure definitely was a factor.
June 22, 2024 @ 7:01 am
…no, sir, as i said, do the timeline and you will see that the sales figures of the main bro-country protagonists – florida georgia line, aldean, bryan – started to decline from 2015 onward. like you pointed out at the time (not bad an assumption by the way) – bro-country pretty much peaked around 2015.
what you are overlooking, however, is the impact of sam hunt and chris stapleton. hunt’s “montevallo” and its huge hits came out right at the time when taylor swift moved on to continue her career in pop music with the release of “1989”. one year later also chris stapleton took off with “tennessee whiskey” and “traveller”. if anybody, it was them filling any “vacuum” ms. swift’s departure might have created. arguably, thomas rhett would slow down the retreat of outright bro-country somewhat for a little while.
the rising new superstars of the genre – hunt and stapleton as well as perhaps thomas rhett to some extend – were the ones filling a possible void left by swift moving on. that’s what the sales figures and the charts indicate. league tables very rarely lie (even the kelce boys would subscribe to that after last season).
also her departure did not “plunging the representation of women in country”, at most it exacerbated an already long lasting systemic industry shortcoming: remember “tomato gate in 2015”? that radio consultant’s (guy hill) controversial conclusions were not the result of a single impact but a development that had been going on for years in country music/radio.
to finish off our little exchange: the kelce brothers may be great football players, but their understanding of country music – at least when it comes to the elder one – does not reach any further than repeating rather outdated clichés.
June 22, 2024 @ 7:31 am
Hey Tom,
I think we’re generally on the same page here, though I would disagree about certain characterizations. For example, Sam Hunt never really got to “superstar” status. He had some massive, massive, one-off hits. Meanwhile Stapleton did become a superstar, and still is barely represented on radio. Again, I am not saying the Taylor Swift departure caused Bro-Country, or that the “women in country” issue wasn’t there before. I’m just saying it exacerbated trends happenin in country music, inadvertently of course.
June 21, 2024 @ 6:06 am
There is a lot of people that still get their music and musical tastes from the radio. Ive been telling my girlfriend for years now about spotify and other places where you can find all different kind of stuff and have it curated to your own taste but she just avoids it. Still just listens to radio. So radio still has a lot of influence but its changing.
June 21, 2024 @ 6:26 am
He could easily be equating ‘country music’ with ‘country radio’ – and though we have made some progress in that area – I agree with what he is saying. If I happen to appreciate the hook or spin of a radio song nowadays (which is rare), I usually don’t play it again or identify strongly with it in any way. Looking at the country radio singles this year compared to 1994 for example – the quality and substance from earlier days is noticeable and has been for quite some time. This is apparent at awards shows too.
June 21, 2024 @ 8:53 am
“Get over the Taylor Swift jokes you prudes. She’s the one out there splattering her love life all over the tabloids.”
That’s not how tabloids work. And you should know that, for someone who considers himself a “journalist”. And then being snarky calling it part of your new “sex positive platform”? This is total incel behavior. It’s not even offensive; It’s just lame and desperate. Very sad and pathetic to see a once passionate writer resort to cheap tactics.
June 21, 2024 @ 9:11 am
Taylor and Travis aren’t letting you join in, Dave.
Taylor uses her relationships for marketing and songwriting purposes. It is fair game.
June 21, 2024 @ 9:12 am
Please. This is actually a very important story and discussion around Jason Kelce’s perspective. But it didn’t matter what I said or how I approached it, people were going to gravitate toward simply talking about the Kelce Brothers and Taylor Swift, so this was a way to address the elephant in the room and disarm any trolls. A lot of people “got it.” Obviously, many others didn’t. But the fact that grown ass adults are “offended” by saying things that aren’t even as bad as you regularly hear in a 7th grade class is hilarious.
“This is total incel behavior.”
Okay? Got to love how you attack me for being judgy, and then judge me based on wild-eyed assumptions.
June 21, 2024 @ 11:31 am
Trig,
You need to send Jason a ling to your playlist and, frankly, this website. That will get him straightened out.
I would love to be a fly on the wall the next time Jason and Taylor are in the same room and this rant comes up in the conversation.
June 21, 2024 @ 11:50 am
Would love to, but it’s not like I’ve got his digits. We run in a bit different circles.
June 21, 2024 @ 5:31 pm
So Trigger was triggered?
June 21, 2024 @ 8:10 pm
???
Some strange takes on this article that don’t seem to be rooted in anything that was said.
June 22, 2024 @ 8:15 am
By Kelce
June 22, 2024 @ 10:13 pm
Discourse triggered by intercorse?
Great article Trig….
June 23, 2024 @ 6:59 am
It was so offensive, inelegant and sexist the reference to intercourse.
June 24, 2024 @ 5:46 am
This guy played on the biggest stage in sports for 13 years and his biggest claim to fame is that he is Taylor Swift Adjacent. Tells you all you need to know.
June 24, 2024 @ 10:14 am
I don’t know why we have to reduce the whole Travis Taylor thing to intercourse.
June 24, 2024 @ 11:36 am
You mean sexual intercourse? Here’s Taylor:
In the middle of the night, in my dreams
You should see the things we do, baby…
They never see it comin’, what I do next
This is how the world works
You gotta leave before you get left…
It feels like one of those nights
We ditch the whole scene
It feels like one of those nights
We won’t be sleeping
It feels like one of those nights
You look like bad news
I gotta have you…
I am shocked, shocked I tell you, that Ms. Swift would stoop so low as to use her sex appeal to sell records. Who would do such a thing?
June 24, 2024 @ 11:28 am
I see Kelce Ltd, Inc., continues like the Kardashians to make something out of nothing.
Just think of it: if Travis(TM) hadn’t banged Taylor(TM), we’d’ve all been spared their brand flex pop culture drivel.
But life is unfair.