I never thought anything positive could come out of being stuck in a van for eight hours with a bunch of country music fans. After numerous bathroom breaks, driver changes and state borders though, I had gained a new appreciation for country music.
Country music is not Beef Jerky and beat up pick-up trucks, like many people think. It can be patriotic, religious, motivational, soulful, funny, satirical, depressing or even a love song. It can bring you to your feet and get you dancing, make you think or pump you up.
I’ll admit it took quite a few of those eight hours to get me hooked, but now I love it. Country music seems to have a song for every occasion. Whether you are down in the dumps or on top of the world, someone wrote a country song about it. The music is so real. It has such honest lyrics that I couldn’t help but to relate. It has the ability to bring me to tears, like Gary Allen’s song for his daughter “Tough Little Boys.” Or the ability to bring a smile to my face, like Kenny Chesney’s “No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problems.”
Country music has become available to places other than Nashville. Names like the Dixie Chicks and Garth Brookes are household names all over the country and even internationally. Fans no longer have to go down south to hear their favorite musicians live. Brookes and Dunn, Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney, among others have all headlined tours that have visited New England. Toby Keith is scheduled to appear at the Mullins Center this week, and the summer is sure to bring plenty more country concerts to the region.
We northerners think of country as “hick” music. In its modern music scene though, you won’t be finding any mullets or trailer parks. Current country stars like Martina McBride or Leanne Rimes own million dollar homes and luxury cars galore. Look at Shania Twain and Faith Hill; they have as much bling-bling as Ludacris or JayZ. Like any other form of music, the big names of country pay for the most expensive stylists just to look their best.
This isn’t the same music your parents’ generation. Country music is edgy and sexy. Who wouldn’t want to get crazy to “Loving all Night” by Patty Loveless or “Hot Mama” by Trace Adkins. Forget the conservative days of early country music; current artists are hot, and they know it. They use everything they have to entertain a crowd, including showing off well-tuned bodies in tiny little tank tops or jeans that look painted on. Keith Urban with that smooth Australian accent is hot. Tim McGraw in those tight jeans is all this suburban cowgirl needs for entertainment. And as country music gets bigger, the women’s outfits are getting smaller. Shania Twain has even become an international sex symbol from her “Man, I feel like a woman” video.
Country Music is growing in popularity faster than any other genre. It has evolved from what many people believed to be annoying and lower class to music for whatever you’re feeling. It’s great to party and drink to. With songs like “Beer for my Horses” by Toby Keith and music legend Willie Nelson or the duet of Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffet “It’s five o’clock somewhere,” people can’t help but party to it.
Country music has had to overcome a stigma more than any other type of music. It has overcome bad reputations of being overly patriotic, of lacking musical integrity and of being only for “rednecks.” There is a reason it has grown in popularity. Country music artists are just as talented as those of any other genre and deserve the new-found national popularity. Millions of people all over the world are giving country a chance and liking it. Maybe you will too.
I never wanted to give country a chance but being stuck as the only freshman in a van full of honky-tonk loving upper classmen, I wasn’t given the choice, but I’m glad I got to know Garth, Kenny, Faith, Tim, Martina, and the rest of the country music crew.
Molly Eggleston is a Collegian columnist.
