Why stations are pulling 'Girl Crush' and what that says about country radio.

[Kingofalldems]

Beyond stupid:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2015/03/25/why-stations-are-pulling-little-big-towns-girl-crush-from-the-airwaves-and-what-that-says-about-country-radio-today/?tid=sm_tw

Alana Lynn, a morning co-host on country music station 104.3 in Boise, Idaho, was excited to play Little Big Town's latest single for her listeners. "Girl Crush", a powerful ballad about a woman envious of her ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend, seemed destined to be a hit........

Little Big Town now getting the Dixie Chick treatment.

Here's the song that fundies claim promotes 'gay agenda':

[BobSmith4152]

1. So it's the name, not the lyrics?

Little Big Town’s latest single for her listeners. “Girl Crush,” a powerful ballad about a woman envious of her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend,

It's like Springsteen's "Born in the USA" that (mostly Republican) politicians play, thinking it's "patriotic"

[Kingofalldems]

2. Stations getting fundies callers claiming they are promoting the gay agenda.

The lyrics are about envy, wanting to be like another woman.

[underpants]

3. Their market has spoken

And, well, this reflects the new country music market. First, they will buy anything - new country is really really bad pop music with self-stereotyping added in. Second, due to identity politics their listeners equate country music with being a Repub/Conservative so they must be against gays. Oh and also Christian which likewise has convinced many that gay means anti-God.

Basically they are caught up in a sh•t storm of fear and allowed themselves to be lead down a road of disinformation.

[Kingofalldems]

4. You are absolutely correct about modern country.

[underpants]

8. I've seen a lot of backlash against it on FB

A picture of Johnny Cash or Merle Haggard and then a picture of some new country guy (they and NASCAR drivers all look like 2nd basemen to me) usually with a cowboy hat on and it says basically that the new guys are poseurs.

Alt Country I personally like but the top hits are as condescending as they are bad.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

14. "they and NASCAR drivers all look like 2nd basemen to me"

AWESOME! thanks so much for that... i had never really considered it but, well, there it is.

sP

[Paladin]

16. About 30 pounds of excess weight, facial hair, a few tatoos....

....you're absolutely right: they look like 2nd basemen. And if they're wearing a cowboy hat, I just figure it's to cover up a bald spot.....

[arcane1]

17. I always feel pandered to when I visit family in VA and they have country on

Fake accents, constant references to "lifestyle" icons that are really just subtle conservative propaganda, and the same damn melody in every song.

And, it seems to me, much more sexism than it used to have.

[underpants]

18. What, like "Beer Time"

"Beer Time"

Bird dog just had her puppies that's a hundred dollars cash apiece
This old boy struck it country rich
At least for a couple of weeks
I owe my daddy that 50 spot
And the muffler shop the rest
But daddy and bubba's gonna have to waiibe got an empty ice chest

Boys it's beer time
This ol' town's dry
Headed to the county line
For something cold
I need a twelve pack in a brown paper sack
Ice it down in the back
Find a deep mud hole
I got my baby and some rowdy friends of mine
It's beer time

I heard bocephus was coming to town and I still had a little cash
I bought me a couple of nose bleed tickets
Way up in the back
It chilled me to the bone when he sang got
A shotgun rifle and a four wheel drive
Crowd went crazy and I told my baby
It was worth every dime

Now it's beer time
Hearin' Hank play live country boy can survive
I need something cold
When the show ends party with my rowdy friends
Hell of a weekend
I ain't ready to go
Crack another top beneath the parking lot lights
It's beer time

Boys it's beer time
This ol' town's dry
Headed to the county line
For something cold
I need a twelve pack in a brown paper sack
Ice it down in the back
Find a deep mud hole
I got my baby and some rowdy friends of mine
It's beer time

It's 5 o'clock Friday afternoon
And it's beer time
Yeah the fish are biting in a honey hole
It's beer time

[TreasonousBastard]

5. Grammy winning group still selling 25,000 of these a week...

but radio stations have been cowed by somebody's campaign.

Amazing how this can happen. I doubt many of the letter writers, phone callers and petitioners have heard the song.

Dixie Chicks actually said something that the assholes didn't like-- this is more like Nappy Hair where a few assholes managed to whip up a storm.

[KamaAina]

6. My favorite country fan is a bi woman

in Toronto, believe it or not!

We actually met* here at DU. Some of you oldtimers may remember lightningandsnow, p/k/a AspieGrrl. Hopefully she can start chipping away at the blandness that has infected today's country, as expressed upthread.

[hifiguy]

7. The idiocy in this country is multiplying with

the mindless ferocity of a swarm of locusts.

[msongs]

9. this would be the same "country" music industry that positively worships adultery??? nt

[Wella]

10. Here are the actual lyrics:

"Girl Crush"

I gotta girl crush, hate to admit it but
I gotta heart rush, ain’t slowin’ down
I got it real bad, want everything she has
That smile and the midnight laugh she’s givin’ you now

I wanna taste her lips, yeah, ‘cause they taste like you
I wanna drown myself in a bottle of her perfume
I want her long blonde hair, I want her magic touch
Yeah, ‘cause maybe then, you’d want me just as much
I gotta girl crush, I gotta girl crush

I don’t get no sleep, I don’t get no peace
Thinkin’ about her under your bed sheets
The way that she’s whisperin’, the way that she’s pullin’ you in
Lord knows I’ve tried, I can’t get her off my mind

I wanna taste her lips, yeah, ‘cause they taste like you
I wanna drown myself in a bottle of her perfume
I want her long blonde hair, I want her magic touch
Yeah, ‘cause maybe then, you’d want me just as much
I gotta girl crush, I gotta girl crush

I gotta girl crush, hate to admit it but
I gotta heart rush, it ain’t slowin’ down

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/littlebigtown/girlcrush.html

While it's clear when you read the lyrics what is going on, there's enough auditory ambiguity that I can understand why some folks think the song might be a "camel nose under the tent."

[Kingofalldems]

11. I wonder why no one is upset about the girl sleeping

with the guy while not married.

[Wella]

12. You don't know that either. :)

[Kingofalldems]

13. I read the article that was linked.

Protests were about the 'gay agenda'.

[Wella]

15. You don't know if anyone was upset about the young woman being single or if she, in fact, was

That was my point.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

19. One of my friends could tell you everything you need to know about country radio

The radio company he works for got stuck with a bunch of "Hot Country" stations in a transaction and they have been trying to figure out what to do with them ever since.

One look at the advertising says everything, PSA's about meth and bad checks, ads for prepaid cellphones and "no credit, no problem" car dealerships, ads for personal injury and social security disability lawyers, "train for a new career in six weeks" career colleges and bail bonds.

Even though they were working on format changes, they put their best sales people on the job and they did no better in finding quality advertisers.

The market research was even bleaker, their average listener was a 27 year old woman without a high school diploma earning $18,500 a year.

[hifiguy]

20. Even before I got to the last line of your post.

I was thinking "holy cow, the absolute bottom-of-the-barrel worst demographic." Bail bondsmen advertise on country stations. That says it all. Well, that and the meth PSAs. Wow.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

23. Yeah, they're planning a summer relaunch as "EDM" and college sports stations

So I guess they will be switching to PSA's about MDMA and steroids.

They couldn't even comprehend what they were getting into.

The guy was more blown away than anything that in this instance every single stereotype seemed to be true.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

21. Handy rule of thumb for country music

If it's not prefaced with "alt" (as in Todd Snider, Lucinda Williams, Neko Case, or Wilco) or or if it's not performed by someone named Willie, Johnny, Emmylou, or Waylon, tread very carefully.

I assume that Little Big Town is part of the alt-country genre. More power to them.

[alarimer]

22. Wow, so they go outside the usual "bro country" formula and the idiots lose their shit.

This is not generally a genre for freethinkers or anyone different. Just ask the Dixie Chicks, especially for the last 15 years or so.

Garth Brooks was a notable exception with "We Shall Be Free" which was (and still is) pretty progressive.

Good on them for trying at least.