Random Thoughts About Country Music and Small Town Life

[Anonymous]

I've really gotten into country music in the past couple of years, and having been raised in boring middle class suburbia, I'm a little intrigued by the small town country life portrayed in country songs...sounds like everyone just drives their jacked up truck out to a field every weekend, and drinks beer/falls in love. I know high school kids do this b/c they aren't old enough to go to a bar but do young adults do this also, or is it total fiction? If you believe the music, every small town has some big country field next to a picturesque stream where everyone drinks, plays music, makes out, goes skinny dipping, etc. Does this really happen?

Also, given the roots of country music (originated in the south from folk music), it seems hard to buy into an 'imposter' like Keith Urban who is from a completely different country and has to fake a country accent in his songs. Don't get me wrong, I think he's a talented musician and easy to look at, but it's almost like he's a poser. Part of what makes country music cool is you are led to believe these artists are singing about their upbringing and where they came from.

The above has no bearing on anything important, but just wondering what others think. I should be working, but instead, I'm sitting here thinking about country music.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in such a small town. These songs do not describe my high school experience.

That said, I left and live here now, so…I was a bit of an outlier!

[Anonymous]

As someone who grew up in a small southern town and spent many summer nights parked on a dirt road overlooking a cow pasture, sitting on the roof of the cars drinking crappy alcohol, the scenario you describe in country songs actually does happen. There were sometimes just parties in fields. I went to college two hours away from where I grew up and nobody bothered with fields because we had parent free houses and bars we could party in at that point.

[Anonymous]

Go easy on Keith Urban. You can't be mad at Iggy Azalea for her rapping, either, or Led Zeppelin for their blues music. Some people just have the ability to drop fat beats from unexpected upbringings.

To put the nationality in context, Canada makes a lot of good country music but it's not what a lot of people think of when they think country. But the musicians are from the fly-over provinces and yes, their lives are like this. Lots of farming, nice people, and natural beauty. It can be simple.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As someone who grew up in a small southern town and spent many summer nights parked on a dirt road overlooking a cow pasture, sitting on the roof of the cars drinking crappy alcohol, the scenario you describe in country songs actually does happen. There were sometimes just parties in fields. I went to college two hours away from where I grew up and nobody bothered with fields because we had parent free houses and bars we could party in at that point.

Under the powerlines, that was the MO of my country county high school parties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As someone who grew up in a small southern town and spent many summer nights parked on a dirt road overlooking a cow pasture, sitting on the roof of the cars drinking crappy alcohol, the scenario you describe in country songs actually does happen. There were sometimes just parties in fields. I went to college two hours away from where I grew up and nobody bothered with fields because we had parent free houses and bars we could party in at that point.

Under the powerlines, that was the MO of my country county high school parties.

Barns, dirt roads, and cow pastures. Music coming from the car radio. Bonfires. Honestly, not a ton of drinking. At least not in my circle of friends. Every once in a while we would have a beer or two. But mostly we just sat around talking. And there was a lot of sex. I actually married the guy that I dated for three years in high school and all through college. We've been married almost 30 years.

There are some stifling things about small town life. It's hard to live in a place where everyone knows everything about you. But there are also some wonderful things about that life. We are back and forth between DC and "home" every few years. I love the 18 months or so we spend in DC, but I am much happier living in our little town, especially now that we have children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Go easy on Keith Urban. You can't be mad at Iggy Azalea for her rapping, either, or Led Zeppelin for their blues music. Some people just have the ability to drop fat beats from unexpected upbringings.

To put the nationality in context, Canada makes a lot of good country music but it's not what a lot of people think of when they think country. But the musicians are from the fly-over provinces and yes, their lives are like this. Lots of farming, nice people, and natural beauty. It can be simple.

Blue Rodeo is a really good Canadian "country" band

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Go easy on Keith Urban. You can't be mad at Iggy Azalea for her rapping, either, or Led Zeppelin for their blues music. Some people just have the ability to drop fat beats from unexpected upbringings.

To put the nationality in context, Canada makes a lot of good country music but it's not what a lot of people think of when they think country. But the musicians are from the fly-over provinces and yes, their lives are like this. Lots of farming, nice people, and natural beauty. It can be simple.

Blue Rodeo is a really good Canadian "country" band

hells yeah.

[Anonymous]

"'Murika! Fuck yeah!"

[Anonymous]

Isn't much of Australia the outback? A somewhat undiscovered frontier? Sort of like the "country" in "country music" used to be?

To me, an Australian country artist makes a lot of sense. Canada has big expanses of wilderness too, so I can see a country artist coming from Canada.

From a big city in China? Not so much.

[Anonymous]

They're just songs, OP LOL

[Anonymous]

I grew up in a small town in Virginia, and yes, country songs describe my experience. Field parties were the norm, lots of drinking, trucks, etc. In my town, it wasn't just high school kids, either, it was people in their 20's, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isn't much of Australia the outback? A somewhat undiscovered frontier? Sort of like the "country" in "country music" used to be?

To me, an Australian country artist makes a lot of sense. Canada has big expanses of wilderness too, so I can see a country artist coming from Canada.

From a big city in China? Not so much.

Agree. I don't know what Keith Urban's background is but I think there's a fair bit of Australia that fits the country music model.

[Anonymous]

I like most country music, especially those songs which are evocative ballads. God bless rural life and the U.S. of A!

[Anonymous]

Sadly if country songs really reflected life there'd be more about school shootings and STD outbreaks.

To a certain degree marketing comes into play about how artists are portrayed. I wish life could be like Xavier Rudd's song, but I'm sure even his life isn't that idyllic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E1bNmyPWww

He's an Australian folksinger.