Um, Kane Brown Loves What “Like Country Music”?

If Kane Brown loves his woman like he loves country music as he says in his new song, that means he’s sleeping with her sister and gave them both a case of chlamydia that he contracted from some floozie he picked up in a bar. It means Kane Brown is engaged in an abusive relationship and someone needs to slap a restraining order on the situation. “Toxic” to say the least.
Did you know this dude has his own cereal now. Kane Krunch? I’d rather eat a bowl of Post Toasties that Travis Tritt took a wicked piss in. Having your mug on this box is like the antithesis of Wheaties. On the back is a maze where you help Kane Brown find his way home after he gets lost on his own 30 acres.
In all seriousness though, Kane Brown has a massive radio hit on his hands with his new song. This thing has been the most added track on country radio for two weeks straight, and it’s already knocking on the door of the Top 20. If anything, they’re going to need to slow the song down, or Kane’s summer smash is going to peak by Memorial Day.
“Like I Love Country Music” is the latest installment of a tried and true way to get country radio to play your stuff: name drop radio and promote the format in the song itself. Programmers at Cumulus and iHeart heard the the line, “You turn me on as much as I turn on my radio” and immediately threw it in the hourly rotation. Hey, they’re circling the drain, and they’ll take whatever shout outs they can get.
Similarly, “Like I Love Country Music” predictably name drops hot retro 90s country stars like Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn, and even weaves in the names of Willie Nelson, George Jones, and Johnny and June (Cash). Ronnie Dunn even sings a little line. I’d love to be a fly on the wall when they asked Alan Jackson if he’d contribute something to this. But of course, it’s easy to drop a name, but Kane Brown doesn’t work any of the paramount influence of these country greats into this song.
What makes “Like I Love Country Music” sort of an interesting discussion point, and difficult to cast off completely, is the fact that there is an ample amount of steel guitar and fiddle in the song. This is counteracted by the 808 beats, and the overall bad idea behind the premise for the song itself. But sonically, it really is a mixed bag, like a new radio song and a classic country song smashed together.
Look, Kane Brown has always participated in some of these “more country” moments in his career. Though you would never put a song like this above something like Carly Pearce’s recent #1 with Ashley McBryde, “Never Wanted to Be That Girl,” a song that actually has steel and fiddle that is shooting up the charts at least should give us some bit of pause before completely shitting on it.
And hey, maybe some Kane Brown fans and country radio listeners will hear the names of Alan Jackson and Brooks & Dunn, and dig for their music. After all, if you think the resurgence of interest in 90s country is being fueled solely off the nostalgia of 40-somethings, you’re not paying attention. Younger audiences are also participating as they listen to the music of their parents, and are trying to find something with a bit more meaning than today’s “country” selections.
No doubt, Kane Brown and his co-writers Matt Mcginn, Jordan Mark Schmidt, and Taylor Delmar Phillips are trying to piggy back off this phenomenon with “Like I Love Country Music,” adding just enough elements to give it a retro vibe, while also attempting to appeal to contemporary listeners and the mainstream radio format.
But ultimately, even if you’ve poured yourself the most tasty bowl of cereal, mixing it with piss (from Travis Tritt or anyone else) is going discourage distinguishing consumers from partaking. In fact, many fans of Alan Jackson and Brooks & Dunn would rather pipe up a straight up pop record record than listen to a pop country song that tries to incorporate so many contemporary pop elements into it.
Though you have to begrudgingly give a modicum of credit to Kane Brown for incorporating actual country instrumentation into this track, the premise of this song is just off, and incredibly transparent, which is all the more reason to believe this will be a massive and ubiquitous summer smash heading straight to #1.
1 1/2 Guns DOWN (3/10)
May 18, 2022 @ 11:37 am
No offense, but for me this sounds like a Hip Hop song. I can’t understand how this is called Country.
September 30, 2022 @ 1:17 pm
Are you nuts? You need to listen to more music. Or maybe not.
May 18, 2022 @ 11:38 am
In case you’re not reviewing Orville pecks bronco I’d still be interested in your brief thoughts on the record.
May 18, 2022 @ 12:04 pm
Kane Brown takes priority
May 18, 2022 @ 12:28 pm
Despite some of the silliness in this particular review, I take the reviewing of songs and albums very seriously. I appreciate you and others would like to know my thoughts on the Orville Peck album, but I first need to become confident and conclusive in them myself, and my guess is if or when that happens, they won’t be “brief.” I review reams and reams of music each year. Not reviewing something should never be taken as a commentary on it in any way. Sometimes it just means I don’t have anything to say, or don’t know what to say. I also never post one article in lieu of another article. I simply post about what I’m confident or passionate about at any given time. Orville Peck’s new album is being considered for review.
May 18, 2022 @ 2:05 pm
Cool, cool, I was just curious, no rush of anything, given the absolute fast pace albums are coming in at this year
May 18, 2022 @ 2:51 pm
I honestly hope you don’t review it on this site. I have heard the album and it is great, love the music, but now that there are quite a few gay and transgenders coming into country music, it will be disgusting to see how many responses there will be that will be homophobic and transphobic from the backward ass right wingers on this site. So yeah, it is a great album, just please don’t review it, just to let the comments get over run with toxic hate speech.
May 18, 2022 @ 3:29 pm
I have commonly reviewed music from artists who happen to be gay, and very rarely are there homophobic or transphobic comments here. And if they were especially out of line, they would be deleted. For the most part, folks just care about the music.
May 19, 2022 @ 8:23 am
“Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think?” – Alanis Morissette
May 20, 2022 @ 4:42 am
Honky Château album by Elton John is more country than anything on the radio. Countryfan68 needs an easy strawman to get angry at because that’s all he’s got to feel important.
May 21, 2022 @ 4:35 am
@Eric. If you think Honky Chateau is country, give Tumbleweed Connection a listen.
May 18, 2022 @ 2:14 pm
I really liked Orville Peck’s new record. Lot of new agey but country sounding heaters
Thanks for the anti kane brown rant trig these make me smile
Trig has been mulling over what to say about the October 2021 Jeremy Pinnell album for months now so whenever he drops that review (no rush at all) it should be a banger
In my opinion, the october 2021 jeremy pinnell album “goodbye LA” absolutely rips
May 20, 2022 @ 6:34 am
JP is one of my favourite contemporary country artists..plus he loves Danzig!
June 4, 2022 @ 11:17 am
Anyone who loves Danzig will always pique my interest! 4
May 18, 2022 @ 12:12 pm
Jeremy Pinnell, suks
May 18, 2022 @ 2:11 pm
He sucks only if you hate country albums from october 2021 that rip super fuckin hard in a remarkably pleasing, consistent, and delightful manner
May 18, 2022 @ 3:38 pm
See how easy that is? : D Helping you keep his name out there.
Halfway tempted to throw a quarter bet that if Mr. Pinnell saw this, he cracked a smile
May 19, 2022 @ 3:20 pm
You know, after you’ve been ripping on this for, what is it? half a year now?, it’s finally starting to get really funny, at least for me. Still hasn’t gotten me to actually listen to the album, but I’d say that’s just around the corner too.
May 19, 2022 @ 7:42 pm
C’mon Euro South,
If we had to, you have to.
Double dog dare you
May 21, 2022 @ 8:06 am
I’ve been drowning in Pinnell’s badass rip tide for several years now, no intention of trying to escape.
May 18, 2022 @ 3:24 pm
????%
May 19, 2022 @ 6:08 am
I just listened to this Jeremy Pinnell that everyone has been talking about on here, and boy oh boy does this thing just rip. I absolutely love it. thank you again for everyone here, I found another artist I never would have even looked twice at otherwise.
May 19, 2022 @ 7:59 am
JUST downloaded this because of all the suggestions from this site. Let er rip.
May 19, 2022 @ 7:35 pm
You have to check out all releases by Jeremy Pinnell and then go find live videos of him.
May 18, 2022 @ 12:41 pm
Did Brantley Gilbert and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle draw all over the arms of their talentless love child? The country radio bar has been set so low, all you need to do is step over it
May 20, 2022 @ 5:12 am
nothing makes a millennial more badass than altering the body to look like a coloring book.
May 18, 2022 @ 1:01 pm
Nothing gets you more hyped in the morning than a nice warm bowl of Travis Tritt’s Peeties!
May 18, 2022 @ 1:19 pm
Krusty Kane…Kane Krunch…Krunchy Krust…whatever…
Better name for the mess is Kane Brown’s Trailer Trash Sugar Bomb.
When you like country music…why don’t you release a country song?!
May 18, 2022 @ 2:07 pm
Blasphemy and heresy.
Country music needs a Spanish Inquisition.
May 19, 2022 @ 9:31 am
When reading the comments, the last thing I expected was the Spanish Inquisition.
May 19, 2022 @ 3:16 pm
A Monty-Python-referencing commenter wasn’t very high on this cowboy’s list of expectations either, so there!
May 18, 2022 @ 2:18 pm
Well I’ve heard worse things on the radio but it could definitely get annoying fast. Unfortunately it sounds like the type of song my girlfriend would blast on the car radio.
May 18, 2022 @ 2:20 pm
Oh my. This is just awful. Couldn’t get through 15 seconds of it. But yes, based on the crap I hear coming out of friends’ car radios when I am forced to hitch a ride, this song will be massive.
May 18, 2022 @ 2:43 pm
Have we reached the bottom?
May 18, 2022 @ 3:59 pm
wow nice to see the typical liberal hate seeping into country music too.
May 18, 2022 @ 4:14 pm
Huh?
May 19, 2022 @ 12:48 pm
What’s wrong can’t find any pro child killing rallies to attend or Antifa? Or how about anti gun march where you spout off it’s the gun and not the lunatic it’s in the hands of?
May 19, 2022 @ 3:31 pm
So you assumption about who I am is short sighted at best. Maybe you can re-read my comment and understand what I said.
May 18, 2022 @ 4:47 pm
Wth…can’t believe im going to say this but if not for that distorted guitar, it wouldn’t be….that terrible??
Not great of course, but there’s far worse out there than this.
May 18, 2022 @ 6:00 pm
I mean… it SOUNDS more or less like country music
Or at least a reasonable facsimile thereof
It sounds more country than Blake Sheltons chew tobacco song
Mixed ‘ is a great word because THIS is at least an example of somewhat decent genre blending
The lyrics are stupid for sure
But the actual music is… tolerable
And Kane Brown… unlike SOME in the mainstream can in fact actually sing a good country song
May 18, 2022 @ 8:35 pm
Thanks for reminding me of Blake Shelton’s absolute sack of doo. I was working at a terrible job in PA when that came out. It was basically the last situation where I ever had to listen to country radio and it will not be missed.
May 19, 2022 @ 2:18 am
It was one of the only country songs a close friend of mine would listen to.
…so I insisted on only playing rap when we hung out, haha.
May 19, 2022 @ 6:21 am
So you played “Boys Round Here?”
Doesn’t get more hardcore rap than chew tobacco, chew tobacco, spit! /s
May 18, 2022 @ 7:45 pm
Kane DOES have the talent; however, it is so misused. And I could say much more, but this subject had been written “ad….” oops, almost again jimincincy. I am getting better.
May 18, 2022 @ 9:30 pm
Don’t be so hard on yourself Wiyne. Keith’s induction has been really rough on you buddy. You are only on level two on the Five Stages of Grief(anger). The anger will subside and you will move on into bargaining and then depression phase. Things WILL get better.The encouraging news is you should be good as new in about six months to four years. So hang in there. You WILL get better Wiyne.
May 19, 2022 @ 6:59 am
Jumincincy,
Hah! That was pretty good. I know when I am licked. We will leave it at that. Have a good one.
May 19, 2022 @ 2:14 pm
I call a truce Wayne. You be safe and have a good one also sir.
May 18, 2022 @ 8:14 pm
It’s simple…..This is CRAP!
May 18, 2022 @ 8:31 pm
I haven’t been on your site for reviews for for quite a while as I have many musical directions that i follow, county being one of them. But when I read ‘Programmers at Cumulus and iHeart heard the the line, “You turn me on as much as I turn on my radio” and immediately threw it in the hourly rotation. Hey, they’re circling the drain, and they’ll take whatever shout outs they can get.’ I knew there was still a voice I can still believe. this was literally the first time i have been on here in years and also the first time i have ever heard Kane brown. this is a more guitar rock driven tune with rap tendencies. As you have noted, more name dropping than evidence of influence. my personal opinion is that its drivel, not country.
May 18, 2022 @ 8:33 pm
Welcome back Patrick.
May 19, 2022 @ 10:58 am
Patrick said:
>> ‘Programmers at Cumulus and iHeart heard the line, “You turn me on as much as I >> turn on my radio” and immediately threw it in the hourly rotation.
It probably won’t happen, but I am kinda hoping that Joni Mitchell’s current legal reps stumble onto this post.
May 18, 2022 @ 9:02 pm
I like the fiddle and the steel. Love the Ronnie Dunn interludes. Hate the rest.
May 19, 2022 @ 7:02 am
Still don’t understand why he won’t make that song “Whiskey Sour” a radio single. Fans love that song and it’s much more like actual country music.
May 19, 2022 @ 7:13 am
I made it through the song and I come to the conclusion that Kane Brown hates country music.
Did it take negative talent to write the line “Top-to-bottom perfect, you’re like Brooks & Dunn’s debut album”
May 19, 2022 @ 8:12 am
One of the things I’ve tried to teach my sons is that the price of listening to good music is absolute fury, disgust and hatred when you hear crappy music. People could be listening to Tyler Childers or Colter Wall (much less Hank Williams or George Jones) and they “listen” to this? So thanks for providing the fury Trig! Or as my 10 year old son said when I played 5 seconds of this abomination – “Wow that sucks!”
May 19, 2022 @ 8:26 am
I can’t unhear that nor unsee that picture of him either.
May 19, 2022 @ 9:02 am
I’ve been waiting for Trigger to do a review on SCM of the country performances on the Billboard Music Awards. Specifically that awful mess of a performance by Miranda Lambert and Elle King of that terrible Drunk song. It was a bad drunk Karaoke performance and both were out of tune and flat on live network TV. It was an embarrassing for country music. Elle King is apparently now calling herself a country music artist now. That Drunk song started on the alternative rock charts but was released to the country music charts and is played on country radio. So Miranda and Elle were representing country music in that live train wreck of a performance. Just proved to me that neither of them can actually sing.????
May 19, 2022 @ 10:47 am
Not the worst I have heard by some distance. Not a great song though….by some distance. I quite like some of his songs but he is definitely not traditional country but then he does not pretend to be.
May 19, 2022 @ 2:07 pm
My god, the name-dropping in this one is cringey and lame. Not a great song by any means, but I don’t hate it quite as much as I thought I would.
May 20, 2022 @ 5:10 am
Name dropping is the laziest form of songwriting, and the cheapest way to attempt to gain any clout.
May 20, 2022 @ 6:46 am
first time i listen to a whole KB song, first impressions: busy, loud, boring.
May 21, 2022 @ 9:51 am
Kane Brown Rocks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And his cereal is great too!!!!!!!!
May 21, 2022 @ 11:26 am
Hmmmmm.I hear Mr. Brown is popular with the ladies,but….aren’t those muscles reminiscent of Mr. T.’s HUGE pythons ? (Happy 70th birthday,Mr. T.!!!!!!)
May 21, 2022 @ 11:28 am
I actually kinda like Jon Pardi,but again,that’s just me.
May 21, 2022 @ 2:17 pm
You always eviscerate this guy. It’s entertaining for sure.. but HE’S the one? Seems like there is much worse out there. I live on 35 acres (mostly woods) and before I became familiar with it I got turned around and had a slight panic moment. But I knew that I I just kept walking in any direction I’d eventually come out somewhere. I bet he’s spent almost no time in the woods like that and I’m sure it was very embarrassing for him. You trot it out in every article about him too.
It’s your platform you do with it what you will.. but this guy actually does have a very good voice, R. Travis-esk and can sound country when he wants to. He does pander to a wider poppier audience. I guess what I’m saying is it’s bizarre how much venom shoots out of your keyboard at him.
Very country when he wants to.
May 22, 2022 @ 8:22 pm
I just hope after this single (If it climbs higher than top 20), he could released an actual new-traditional country single or more of them (and get them higher than Top 20). I could give him credit for putting steel and fiddle in this “throwback” single. But he needs to do more than just name-dropping 90s country to be taken seriously to be consider a new (neo)-traditional country singer like Randy Travis and (at least most of) 90s Country Artists.
June 7, 2022 @ 3:25 am
I understand if you are not from the COUNTRY but we are more than trucks, trains, dogs, jail, etc. we also sing about old and new artists it’s called remembrance and love
August 28, 2023 @ 2:50 pm
Kane Brown, you are a wonderful country R&B singer and you just make music easier to listen to. When you sing your voice just gives off a vibe that really sets the tone for your fans and you know how to hype up your fans for real. I am a huge fan and to be honest I know a lot about you and I think its cool that you don’t let what people have to say about you or your music. You legit a big inspiration to me and my family and to the world. LOVE YOU KANE BROWN.