Rejoice! Bro-country Is Dying Out As New Ideas Push Genre Into Bolder Territory Coffin Dance In Which Country
At this point in 2015, any country music fan that even casually reads about the genre is undoubtedly tired of hearing about bro–country, the modern brand of derivative party anthems sung by men in trucks that has dominated country’s radio airplay and digital sales in recent years. Bro-country was by critic Jody Rosen in a 2013 New York magazine piece about the duo Florida Georgia Line that defined their musical stylings as “music by and of the tatted, gym-toned, party-hearty young American white dude”. Put in crasser terms: douchebag music.
The descriptor elicited sincere chuckles from readers, and it quickly spread throughout the country blogosphere – and eventually the mainstream media – as it developed derogatory connotations. Jason Aldean when asked about being considered a bro-country artist recently, responding, “It bothers me because I don’t feel like it’s a compliment.” Well, he’s not wrong about that. Bro-country has become the pervasive, clickbait-compatible moniker for all country music by men that is unconcerned with tradition and very concerned with drinking and hooking up, and it’s understandable how that happened. For a couple years at least, it has seemed like it’s encompassed the whole of country radio.
Stars like Aldean, Luke Bryan, Cole Swindell, Chase Rice, Randy Houser, Jerrod Neimann and Thomas Rhett have sold a lot of digital singles, and subsequently taken a lot of heat for releasing imitative music with – but it’s also provided the impetus for an overhaul of the genre in a more holistic sense. Because here’s the thing: bro-country appears to be on its last legs.
Lately, country music’s most intriguing hits and powerful sellers have not fitted nicely into the bro-country mold. Little Big Town’s , which sounds primed for a Cam’ron remix, are both racing up the chart.
Sure, Luke Bryan’s got another hit with isn’t subtle at all, but it contains real storytelling in place of anti-urban platitudes and trailer park machismo.
Country insiders can feel the shift. Joe Nichols, who has dabbled in bro-country with songs like Yeah, recently that its diversity, not sameness, that helps the industry thrive. “Our next big artists live at the edge of the mainstream,” he said. “When you get it really right, they become the mainstream.”
He’s right, and at the moment, there is a remarkable amount of variety in the upper echelons of the country chart. There are shades of folk, R&B, disco, rock, blues and more than a little bit of pop. On the one hand, that’s a very bad thing for country music. When the format tries to serve fans of every genre all under the guise of country (as the on their latest album), there’s a very real danger that it will dilute itself to the point of long-term identity damage.
But there’s a silver lining here, too – and that’s that country music isn’t sounding like a broken record, playing the same song over and over again. There are so many textures and perspectives coming to the surface that are keeping the format from devolving into a stereotypeable punchline – even as they evoke legitimate, “This is country now?” howls. It’s reminiscent of what occurred in pop a few years ago, when the homogeneousness of sugary dance pop songs like Party Rock Anthem and We Found Love, which sounded like mixes from the same club in Ibiza, gave way to funky oddities like Miley Cyrus’s We Can’t Stop, Lorde’s Royals, Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines, and Beyoncé’s Drunk in Love, all of which pushed pop radio into bold new territory. Pop listeners were ready for a new sound, and now it appears that country fans are as well.
So rejoice! Truck songs are losing their appeal. Drinking in a cornfield is officially becoming passé. Women and newcomers are actually getting recognised by radio. After half a decade of the bros sucking all the air out of the industry, they’re being forced to broaden their scope in order to maintain the public’s imagination. It’s a small victory, sure. But the devil we don’t know is pulling up to the party, and I, for one, am ready for a new dance.
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