In the first listening post I mentioned some songs that could have led to the response “Girl in a Country Song.” I have done more research and haver realized that degradation like this has been increasing since the 1980s. But it has become a more common problem in the 2010s. One song that I did mention last time is Luke Bryan’s “Country Girl (Shake it for Me). He has lines like “You know you’ve got everybody looking” and “Girl I can’t wait for you to do your thing” establishing that a woman’s worth is solely based on how good they look. During the chorus he keeps encouraging to shake it by saying “Shake it to the moon, shake it for me girl.” And the lyrics in “Girl in a Country Song” has a response to this by saying “There ain’t no sugar for you in this shaker of mine” saying that they will not be attracted or give a man the time of day if he tells a girl to shake it for him.
youtube.com/watch?v=7HX4SfnVIP4
Another song that they directly call out is Tyler Farr’s “Redneck Crazy.” With the lyric “You Know you broke the wrong heart baby, and drove me redneck crazy” which Maddie & Tae respond to that in the song about being fed up with the degradation of women by saying “It is driving me redneck crazy.” I know it seems like a reach but it has been confirmed as a song that they targeted. This enhances my understanding of the anger they are feeling. Farr uses it talk about how angry and dangerous he can be while angry, and Maddie & Tae are basically using the same threat by saying they are getting redneck crazy.
In Jason Aldean’s “Dirt Road Anthem” there are lyrics like “Them old dirt roads is what y’all missin” is what drive to the Maddie & Tae’s response “Get up in your truck keep our mouth shut and ride along down some old dirt rad we don’t even wanna be on.” Meaning that men have a different views on dirts roads. Men seem to think of it as a romantic place that causes fond memories but women do not see the appeal at all. I did not know of this song and did not understand that the dirt road was referencing another song. This enhanced the belief of how men just see women as objects because all they remember is getting women in the trucks and do not bother asking if they even want to get in the truck.
In Billy Currington’s “Hey Girl” there are certain lyrics like Hey girl, whats your name girl Ive been looking at you” and a direct response that Maddie & Tae use is “I hear you over there in your tailgate whistlin sayin hey girl but you know i ain’t listenin” to say that saying hey girl is not an attractive quality. It is dehumanizing and degrading to just say to someone hey girl. It enhances the understanding of how sexist a song can be in country because just saying girl is a little sexist.
October 10, 2022 at 10:12 am
Keira,
So great that you’ve dug into your song some more and found several of the songs that encouraged Maddie & Tae to compose their own rebuke of sexism and double standards in country music. This is one lineage, for sure, but the assignment asked for two, and it would have been interesting to see how you place Maddie & Tae’s song within a lineage of other women’s empowerment and.or rebuke of the male gaze songs. Though there may not be many in country (though I suspect there are; I can’t imagine Dolly Parton or Loretta Lynn have one) there are most certainly many in other genres. And, of course, we know that women are often depicted just as badly in other genre’s songs and videos. So, don’t feel like you need to limit yourself to country here, because what this song is doing is continuing a conversation that has been happening for many decades.
Also, please add links when appropriate (such as when you reference a prior post, that can be linked) and you are missing the required tags.
Bill