Country

Personally, country is my favorite genre of music to listen to. After this week’s classes I realized that as much as I listen to country songs, I hadn’t noticed the social issues of today’s society that are discussed in them. After looking into it I noticed that many of the songs created by my favorite artists within the past few years touch upon controversial topics. I found a few examples of songs that discussed homosexuality. In Little Big Town’s song “Girl Crush”, the female artists state “I gotta a girl crush. Hate to admit it”. This conveys the point that people who are gay or lesbian often hide their sexual orientation and feel too ashamed to come out to their family and friends due to the lack of acceptance from some people in today’s world. In “Most People Are Good”, Luke Bryan says “I believe you love who you love, ain't nothing you should ever be ashamed of”. He explains that you can’t control who you love and there is nothing wrong with being attracted to people of the same gender as you. For this reason, you shouldn’t feel embarrassed and instead should embrace who you are. He also alludes to the fact that everyone should be accepting and create a safe environment in which people can feel confident coming out. Kacey Musgraves expresses in her song, “Follow Your Arrow”, “Kiss lots of boys, or kiss lots of girls, if that’s what you’re into”. She showed that it is okay to be attracted to people of the same gender as yourself and that no matter what anyone says, you should love the person of your choosing. 

Country songs also discuss the treatment of women. In the song “Girl in a Country Song”, by Maddie and Tae, the girls state “We used to get a little respect. Now we’re lucky if we even get to climb up in your truck, keep out mouth shut and ride along”. These two female artists call attention to the way women are objectified and how they are portrayed negatively in many country songs. Keith Urban sent a similar message in his song “Female”. In the song he describes women in powerful, positive ways. Urban says “When somebody laughs and implies that she asked for it just ‘cause she was wearing a skirt, oh is that how it works? When somebody talks about how it was Adam first, does that make you second best? Or did he save the best for last?”. These lyrics discuss today’s issue of rape and how no matter what a woman is wearing, her consent is needed. It also talks about how some men may think they’re superior to women which Urban believes is not right, having nothing but respect for females.