2013: Country Music And Substance Abuse – Recap/Review
Image: http://forthecountryrecord.com/wp-includes/js/tinymce/plugins/wordpress/img/trans.gifArguably the biggest story of 2013 was bro-country. I’m sure this will come to define the year in time to come, hopefully viewing the southern clichés of trucks, tailgates, daisy dukes, ice cold beer and moonshine, as well as the clumsy infusion of commercial rap and an intense barrage of autotune and electronically polished pop ditties as a mere blip in country music’s illustrated history. Of course, there have been blips like this before, but none perhaps so polarizing or really as far from country music’s true core as bro-country has been. Having said that, perhaps I’m just victim to the fish-eye lens of the present. Everything look bigger when you’re looking at the center.
So Florida Georgia Line, a mild debut hit from 2012, kicked off this year of craziness with a collaboration with Nelly on their moderate hit ‘Cruise’, catapulting the annoyingly catchy but ear-assaulting dirge to a 24-week run at #1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs. This was significant precisely because in the chart’s 69-year history no act has ever achieved this, and the others in the top 10 are of a much higher quality and substance than Florida Georgia Line could even fathom, never mind produce. Biases and arguments over new chart methodology aside, this was a line straight into the history books, and the most startling indication that bro-country was perhaps not limited to a silly few-act fad, confined to an intoxicating summer.
And intoxicating it was. I dare not even attempt to count how many songs on country radio this year mention some form of substance, whether it be beer, moonshine, or weed. Whiskey and cigarettes were still present but took a downturn (perhaps too “decadent” for the Millennials?), particularly the latter which lost out to its more illegal cousin. Having said that, it’s not all to be decried, as some of the perpetrators of this trend included Ashley Monroe, Kacey Musgraves and Brandy Clark, three of the female “saviors” of 2013, leaping into the mainstream and demanding more substance, noting a switch to more traditional sounds with rather modern subjects covered. They are just a snapshot of the rise of the women this past year, which saw acts like the Pistol Annies, Holly Williams and Lindi Ortega make music that was insightful, nuanced, and undeniably country, the modern incarnation of the genre that the mainstream was waylaid while it was searching for.
With women making Americana-straddling intelligent music of substance (a two-way meaning here?), and as a result not being played on the radio, even more women with more of a “mainstream” approach failed to chart, producing a very male-orientated picture lasting even until now. Within the male-dominated songs that were charting, women were often “little hotties” who would ride in the passenger seat on that ol’ dirt road, pass her man beer and then have sex with him when he parked out by the lake. Parties, bonfires, fireworks, it’s like country music’s post-coming of age, where they graduate college and realize that the world is brutal, a pretty horrible place without some foresight and sheer luck. As a result, they resort to all the college behavior that they should have grown out of, too old to act like idiots and making a farce of what was originally perfectly intelligent and reasonable. If country music was jerked out of its niche little corner in 2013, it would make perfect sense.
We also saw stars from other genres make their appearance. Sheryl Crow made a move to country although failed to impact in sales/radio, Darius Rucker had an overwhelming hit with the Bob Dylan cover ‘Wagon Wheel’, and Kelly Clarkson released another “country” single ‘Tie It Up’, although it’s still unclear where she lies genre-wise. Tim McGraw also made a huge comeback with ‘Two Lanes of Freedom’, The Band Perry grew into a pop/rock band with a twang, and Big Machine reaped the earnings of every big mainstream artist, including Taylor Swift who lost some of her foothold on country music this year. Stars began to turn on each other in the wake of the identity crisis, too; Zac Brown called Luke Bryan’s monster hit ‘That’s My Kind of Night’ the worst song ever, which caused a huge heap of backlash and commentary from everyone going, although what Justin Moore’s authority is on the subject is anyone’s guess. Dallas Davidson, member of the songwriting trio The Peach Pickers and co-writer on the song, hoped that Zac would get flu, oddly.
Even weirder, the CMA Awards, which took place just a couple of months later, saw a staged Zac and Luke laughing and literally kissing and making up. The CMA Awards was also the venue that the former used to debut their new collaboration with Dave Grohl, and equally Eric Church performed ‘The Outsiders’, the lead single off his new record and one that was essentially rock and metal. This divided country music once again and left fans and industry folk wondering where we were going to go from here – if Eric Church is one of the biggest stars of country music, producing a metal solo next to the autotuned party anthems of Florida Georgia Line, well where do we stand?
One thing’s for sure, it was an interesting year. I’m not sure we’ll ever experience a 12 months like that again, or at least for a very long time. But that’s ultimately a good thing. Hopefully this year we can all take a breather and get back to “normal”, whatever that is.