Women Going About Battling Bro-Country All Wrong
Last year about this time, music periodicals left and right were falling over themselves to declare 2013 the “Year of the Woman” in country music. From Billboard, to NPR, to right here on Saving Country Music, the recognition of the creative leadership coming from female performers such as Kacey Musgraves, Ashley Monroe, Brandy Clark, Caitlin Rose, Lindi Ortega, Holly Williams, Kellie Pickler, and others was seen as one of the universal themes of 2013. Of course this theme paralleled one of the worst commercial performances by country’s females in history, seeing the virtual evaporation of women from the top of the genre’s main indices, and making the “Year of the Woman” a tale of two stories.
Music Row in Nashville may be dumb, but it’s not stupid. They saw the need to ramp up the female quotient to restore some diversity to the format. And here in the summer of 2014, we’re very much seeing the results of those efforts. And unfortunately, it’s not very pretty.
The first onslaught our ears were subjected to was the lamentable duet between two of country music’s most powerhouse females in Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert. An intriguing pairing, it was sure to get the attention of people even if the song was terrible, which it was. “Somethin’ Bad” was nothing more than a story-less banshee yawp taking two stars completely out of their element to try and show up the boys, and ended up denting the dignity of these artists as an obvious attention grab. It was the proverbial “Hey, look over here!” moment. And though the song did crest Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart for a very short period, it has since fallen, while stalling on the Country Airplay chart at #21. Even with a double shot of star power, “Somethin’ Bad” didn’t have nearly the staying power of many of Bro-Country’s biggest anthems, which quickly rise to the very top, and stay there sometimes for months.
Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert weren’t going to “out bro” the Bro-Country stars, and attempting to do so was futile. Besides, Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert were two of the three female names (along with Taylor Swift) who actually could still climb country’s charts on their own.
As strange as it may seem to characterize Underwood and Lambert as older stars since they still feel like fresh arrivals in the country scene in many respects, they are now both in their 30’s and are very much part of the established country music vista. Bro-Country has been mostly fueled by non-established male stars springing up left and right and landing monster hits. As soon as super hits from Luke Bryan or Jason Aldean begin to falter from a multi-month reign, there’s a Florida Georgia Line or Cole Swindell to back them up. Country music needed some girl power, and from some fresh faces if it was going to attack its female problem with full force. And that is just what we have seen over the last few weeks.
So now we have Maggie Rose and her tune “Girl In Your Truck Song” taking a submissive, pandering role to the Bro-Country phenomenon, hoping to ride the coat tails of the trend to a high chart rating. A new artist named Raelynn has a song out some are touting as being an answer to Bro-Country called “God Made Girls”. And leading them all might be Maddie & Tae from the Big Machine Records stable and what they hope to be a blockbuster in “Girl In A Country Song”.
All of these girls are very young, very cute, and very blonde, but do they deserve attention, and will they ultimately be successful? Though each artist and song deserves to be dealt with individually because they pose such variations to the Bro-Country backlash, they all are still taking the stance of referencing or utilizing the same approach as Bro-Country does in one capacity or another. It’s the “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” attitude. Leadership is not seeing what someone else is doing and attempting to capitalize off of it, whether that be from a positive or negative stance. It is about blazing your own path and making others follow in your wake.
READ: Is Maddie & Tae’s “Girl In A Country Song” Anti Bro-Country?
One of the problems with the approach of these girls and their songs is they fail to recognize that Bro-Country is already very long in the tooth as a trend. Public sentiment is turning against Bro-Country in big numbers, and whether positive or negative in their take on the trend, by harnessing themselves to it these girls risk going down with the sinking ship. They may be very successful in the short-term, but if Bro-Country does a disappearing act like the disco or hair metal of country music, there will be collateral damage, just like there was in the disillusion of those trends.
Really, the most successful challenges to Bro-Country haven’t been coming from girls, but from men. Dierks Bentley was able to release an album and multiple singles that have shown surprising success amongst the Bro-Country landscape despite not giving into the trend himself. Same could be said for Eric Church. And as ironic as it may seem, Florida Georgia Line’s “Dirt”, which just became the most-added debut country single in country radio history, and has already landed at #1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, might be the most successful ANTI Bro-Country song yet, because it comes from one of the subgenre’s pioneers, and still works well within the styling of the trend while delivering greater substance. “Dirt” does what the women failed to do: offer a more subsnative alternative that still includes mass appeal.
The problem with country music’s females are not the songs. There are plenty of songs out there that challenge Bro-Country; not because they directly call it out, but because they illustrate how you can have substance in a song, and it still be engaging and relevant. But those songs aren’t being released to radio, or promoted heavily by their labels.
What the women of country music need to do is to continue to the leadership they displayed during “The Year of the Woman” and let the men come back to them in the implosion of Bro-Country, not try to beat them at their own game. If you released a song like Kacey Musgraves’ “The Trailer Song” to radio, you would have a Top 10 hit with a waltz-time tune that would also have the country world singing along and tapping their toes. This would illustrate to country consumers that they have females choices in country music too.
The women are doing nothing wrong. There’s no need to have a change of direction. There are plenty of women and songs already saving country music. We just have to let them.
July 21, 2014 @ 8:09 am
Thanks, Trigger. I wholeheartedly agree. This is something I’ve been saying for a long time, and not just from the female angle either. In order to buck the trend, we songwriters/artists must provide a better option. My apologies for not doing so as of yet! : )
The ladies, the ones you’ve highlighted here, fall info a trap that I absolutely abhor. I’ve never been a fan of artists singing songs about songs. I don’t know…maybe it’s just too much of a personal bias, but it really eats me up. Why sing a song about writing a song that’s so much better than another type of song that’s been written? Why don’t you sing us the song you’re talking about in that song? And of course, some would say that’s exactly what you do in that case (such as, in Song About A Girl)… but that takes the actual substance and throws it into a 3rd party position.
I don’t get that.
Then again, I’m not a wildly successful songwriter.
Great write up, bud!
– Dukes
July 21, 2014 @ 8:38 am
I like this piece. I agree completely. Kacey, Holly, and Brandy (to name three) need to keep blazing the path for women to return. I hear Kacey’s “Keep It To Yourself” quite a bit down here in Oklahoma on 93.3. And with “The Trailer Song” creeping in, one can only hope she continues to follow her own drum beat and become a leader in a genre on a brink of change. I mentioned Sunny in a previous comment, but her upcoming album will hopefully garner more mainstream attention and help put women on the map again. Blonde or not blonde, Sunny Sweeney has a sound that I think can be successful on the radio.
July 21, 2014 @ 8:49 am
Good article. Bra country ain’t the solution to bro country.
July 21, 2014 @ 9:06 am
I agree. As usual. I was really disappointed in Miranda for both this and helping out hubby with Boys Round Here. She is capable of so much better and should be carrying a flag of more traditional country.
DOn’t really have much to say for Carrie. Great voice, but nothing really good since the debut album.
I will stick too the other fine ladies you listed and the likely unreleased singles on Miranda’s albums – and of course the stuff in my iPhone!
July 21, 2014 @ 9:15 am
Unfortunately the bar for what is perceived a traditional country these days is very low. To carry the flag for “traditional” country, Miranda doesn’t have to record classic country songs, she just has to be very slightly more country than Carrie.
July 21, 2014 @ 11:14 am
What EXACTLY were you expecting from Miranda? One assumes that since she’s married to Blake Shelton (and they both talk about how they previewed each other’s music) that she doesn’t loathe his output. She probably likes it, if anything else. “Somethin’ Bad” was less an anti-bro country song as it was a “pander to my bad girl image” song. Just look at the picture at the top of the article. Carrie Underwood even tried her hand at the same angle with Blown Away and even as far back as “Before He Cheats.” In my opinion this image is just as much of a facade as bro country. It’s just never dominated the charts so no one complains.
July 21, 2014 @ 1:41 pm
“One assumes that since she”™s married to Blake Shelton (and they both talk about how they previewed each other”™s music) that she doesn”™t loathe his output.”
Not necessarily. Perhaps she liked his output back when they started dating, but not anymore.
July 21, 2014 @ 2:56 pm
Yes, Miranda was so disappointed with her significant other’s recent artistic output that she decided to appear on the opening track of the album in which he officially went in the crapper and therefore spurred the conversation about her “helping out her hubby.” The loophole adds to the clarity 😛
July 21, 2014 @ 9:50 am
“From Billboard, to NPR, to right here on Saving Country Music, the recognition of the creative leadership coming from female performers such as Kacey Musgraves, Ashley Monroe, Brandy Clark, Caitlin Rose, Lindi Ortega, Holly Williams, Kellie Pickler, and others was seen as one of the universal themes of 2013. ”
Let’s hope THESE terrific new writer/artists can hang in long enough to get serious attention from radio and/or REAL music fans . Hopefully they can all do it on THEIR terms and not be label-handled into succumbing to what the powers -that-be seem to THINK radio and its minions of teenage listeners want .
July 21, 2014 @ 1:45 pm
Kacey Musgraves has already received serious attention, including winning the Grammy for Country Song and Country Album. The others on the list could definitely use some publicity, though.
July 21, 2014 @ 12:19 pm
I agree with the core thesis here: that male artists who apply their influence and commercial appeal to a new type of country song will do far more to “kill” bro country than women who release “bro” songs (Maddie and Tae have even referred to their song as “bro country” from a musical standpoint) with antagonistic lyrics.
I’m also stunned–and appreciative–of the non-hate for FGL’s pretty strong new single.
But I do feel like some people get a free pass when it comes to avoiding the bro country label. George Strait’s “I Got a Car” is textbook bro country (I mean – if you read the first two lines of that song – you’d swear it was by Cole Swindell).
And while I absolutely love the Dierks Bentley album, singles “Drunk on a Plane” and “I Hold On” both have very bro-y tendencies. Drunk on a Plane is clever because it masks a song about heartbreak under a really silly, goofy premise, but it still involves him drinking and getting “mile high flight attention” from a “sexy stewardness.” It also references a G6. It’s as bro as it gets.
“I Hold On,” meanwhile, suggests that because he isn’t willing to give up his old car or guitar, he obviously won’t give up on his girl. The song doesn’t sound like a bro country tune, but that sentiment is unbelievably bro-y.
July 21, 2014 @ 12:19 pm
*stewardess
July 21, 2014 @ 1:18 pm
I agree that the Dierks songs have some bro-like elements, but I don’t think that is a mark against them. If you can make a song that hits on relevant styles of the day, but also does them better by still having substance and creativity in them, then it is a win-win. There is nothing wrong with listing off artifacts of life in country songs. It has been done since the beginning of the genre. The problem is when it is done with no story, moral, or substance involved. I’m not a big fan of “Drunk On A Plane” at all, but “I Hold On” and “Dirt” are perfect examples of list songs done right. This is how bro-country will be defeated, not by making songs that reach for the lowest common denominator and are presented as different just because they’re sung by females.
July 21, 2014 @ 1:49 pm
The bad thing about Dierks is he often sticks up for the “Bros” on social media,and does a lot of touring with them.As been mentioned before on this site, he makes it hard to defend him at times.
July 21, 2014 @ 1:54 pm
No doubt. He plays the game, because he wants to get paid. And that’s what you have to do. But he tends to draw the line at his music, at least to some extent. Which is refreshing from a top mainstream male performer. Is he perfect? Far from it. But at least he tries.
July 21, 2014 @ 2:58 pm
Speaking of which, I very much enjoyed his song “Home,” whether it was “stolen” from an alcoholic Jason Isbell or not.
July 21, 2014 @ 1:29 pm
“I Hold On” has great lyrics, but from my point of view, the lack of melody makes it rather unpleasant to listen to.
July 21, 2014 @ 6:58 pm
In defense of George’s ” I Got A Car ” , this is a song with a strong narrative -a beginning , a middle and an end- in the tradition of classic country story-telling standards . It has a deceptively simple title/hook which keeps coming around in a slightly different way ..but works each time . It’s a timeless lyric , universal and accessible by pretty much listeners of any age . I won’t go as far as to say its among his best , lyrically . But for my money and to my ear , it’s light years away from most bro-co in terms of keeping its listener engaged with a storyline AND a strong melody .Added to the fact that the “wall of grunge” guitars associated with bro-co NEVER overwhelm or bury the vocal and the story .
While I’m commenting on YOUR comments , Daw , I think Dierks ” I Hold On” is a clinic in crafting a country lyric (…notice I said COUNTRY lyric ) . Granted ..as a pop lyric the truck and guitar references wouldn’t quite cut it . However as a country lyric , the singer is talking about the sentiment the tradition , the history and the love he has for those two things and tells us WHY he holds on to them with total respect . Now we know a lot about what kind of man he is . Those things are a part of who he is and he wouldn’t be the man he is without them . This is why his simple I Hold On statement carries so much weight and trust and honesty when he says that about his relationship . He’s trustworthy , he’s sentimental , he’s respectful of tradition and his word is gold . Damn …that’d be good enough for me if he wanted MY daughter’s hand .
July 21, 2014 @ 11:41 pm
While I understand your point, the problem with applying it here is that bro country, for all its faults, DOES often involve very vivid imagery and very clear storytelling. The images and stories are extremely shallow, but they exist. That’s more than you can say for a lot of today’s female country releases, which adhere to the Diane Warren strategy of singing about generic love sentiments.
“Play it Again” and “Drink a Beer,” like it or not, do tell stories. “Cruise” and “Round Here,” like it or not, do paint pictures. They adhere to the traditional country songwriting style — they just don’t have the gravity of the classics.
So, to me, one does not escape the bro country label by virtue of featuring storytelling elements. It does so by telling a story of substance.
July 21, 2014 @ 2:05 pm
Yeah, “Somethin’ Bad” does seem to be underwhelming somewhat.
Digitally, it is still selling pretty well. It’s at #31 on the iTunes composite chart trailing only Florida Geotgia Line, Kenny Chesney, Dierks Bentley, Lady Antebellum, Jake Owen and Sam Hunt’s latest efforts. However, considering the amount of hype surrounding the release and its smash music video…………even digitally it seems to be a mixed bag.
Where it’s really struggling, however, is among their own fans and callout surveys. Countless fans of both Lambert and Underwood weren’t afraid to take this song to task on their Facebook pages as you remember. And this single is also performing poorly compared to its competition on callout surveys.
I said initially I wouldn’t be surprised if “Somethin’ Bad” had a chart run similar to that of Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw’s similarly overhyped “Feel Like A Rock Star”. And while “Somethin’ Bad” has already surpassed that in chart weeks, I’m still predicting this is not going straight to #1.
July 21, 2014 @ 11:47 pm
The problem, first, is that they don’t sound good together. We’ve always thought of this as some sort of dream collaboration, but their voices do not gel at all on the record.
The problem, second, is that neither is particularly good at this style of music. Both have released songs with this level of attitude before, but the delivery is a bit too rock for their comfort zones.
Carrie Underwood might have made her name on “Before He Cheats,” and Miranda Lambert might have a reputation as a bad girl, but both women are far more vocally sound on songs like “Jesus Take the Wheel,” “Temporary Home” and “The House That Built Me.” When they were performing those types of songs, they were the most bankable live performers in mainstream music (for awards shows and whatnot).
The renditions of “Somethin’ Bad” I’ve heard have been absolutely terrible.