In 2013 Bro country which is defined as a sub genre of country music that focuses on partying, women’s bodies drinking, and trucks had taken over country radio. Songs by Country artists like Luke Bryan are extremely popular. For example, his hit song Country Girl Shake It For Me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HX4SfnVlP4

Singer Songwriter duo Maddie Marlow and Tae Dye sat down discussing their favorite songs in the country music industry, and noticed a common theme among them. The objectification of women in the country music industry, and an article “Maddie and Tay gave Nashville a shake up with new single girl in a country song.”  Tae Dye said “we wanted to go at it from a girl’s perspective and we wanted to put ourselves in the shoes of this girl, you know, how does she feel wearing these cut off shorts in them the tailgate.” https://www.countrythangdaily.com/girl-in-a-country-song-maddie-and-tae/

The duo also explained that the direct references to songs like “Redneck Crazy” by Tyler Farr, and like Shelton’s “Boys Round Here” etc. were intentional and that they literally sit down with a checklist of what they wanted to incorporate in the song. The first word they wrote down of course, being girl. The song though did face a lot of backlash from the country singers that were called out in the song. According to The Washington Post article entitled  “Girl in a Country Song Hits Number One, by Mocking Bro Country the bros aren’t laughing” by Emily Yarr. One of the members of Florida Georgia Line when asked about the song got snippy and said, “all I’m gonna say is, I don’t know one girl who doesn’t want to be a girl in a country song” and Tay Dye shot back with “we love them and their music. But you see, he’s a dude. He doesn’t know what it’s like to be a woman.” Then several male country artists took to Twitter to tweet that bro country doesn’t even exist with Blake Shelton saying country music constantly changes and this is just the trend right now. And Tyler Farr saying he liked to smack who ever came up with the term broke country upside the head. And Luke Bryan chiming in saying he wants to be judged by his whole album, and not just one song that he has on the island but his truck and beer when other songs on the album have a deeper meaning. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2014/12/10/girl-in-a-country-song-hits-no-1-by-mocking-bro-country-the-bros-arent-laughing./

These men do have a point especially Brian but by saying bro country doesn’t exist that is adding to the problem because if they don’t see a problem in their country music, then it is likely that there isn’t going to be a change. It’s almost as if the song had the opposite effect on the country singers that were getting called out because instead of recognizing the issues they decided that they were going to be offended and tried to minimize the social issue That was being talked about in the song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MOavH-Eivw

But more recently, not just in country music but in all me but in all the music industry. Women are disrespected and objectified. But the reason why it’s so prominent in the country music realm is because it’s male dominated. There’s only an 8% of country billboard hits that were sung by women so this is statistics show that country music is actually the most popular music genre as it’s the most listened to for people between 18 to 49 years old. Second for 50 to 64 years old, and then the top three for teenagers. According to an article written in 2017. Since 2006, the audience of country music has risen by 17% and 15% of radio listening is controlled by country music. The majority of country fans are females. Which is interesting when the entire genre is dominated by males who disrespect women. But it kinda has always been this way. Female country artists attract a very different and smaller size crowd than male country singers do.

Dolly Parton, one of the most popular female country singers of all time, made a statement in a big way about her music being more than just her looks and her first song off her debut album, dumb blonde just beat or the legend that is popular female country singer Loretta Lynn who sadly passed away recently. She is known as the country music feminist with her most popular song being an empowering feminist anthem and titled The pill. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN_VQ8GWEos

And now more and more female country singers are fighting back against the objectification like African American female country singer Tierra with her song I’m not your girl. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-2DaJiU9zE

Or Brandi Carlisle, who has always been a huge advocate for women’s rights with just one example, her rewriting highway man as a tribute to depict women who died in protests. the point of that song was to show that even though strong women have been killed and died just protesting for what they believed in that they are still living because they made a change. They made a substantial change. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxfDnMhZFi4

I decided to pick girl in a country song because although it came out in 2014 it is still relevant today. I am a huge country music fan. My favorite singer is a male country singer. So this social issue has always been something I’ve struggled with sexism is still a major problem in the music industry. And now that women are getting louder, maybe finally their voices will be heard.