For my own sanity, I think this week I want to take a look at a song that was written as a response to all the “bro-country”, namely a little tune by the name of Girl in a Country Song, written by two women named Maddie Marlow and Tae Dye. Their song is very clearly a sarcastic retort to all the sexist comments that have been made towards women in multitudes of country songs throughout history.

 

This is evident already with the first verse of the song, which starts off, “Well I wish I had some shoes on my two bare feet, and it’s gettin‘ kinda cold in these painted-on cut-off jeans. I hate the way this bikini top chafes, do I really have to wear it all day? (Yeah baby)”. If you’ve read any of my previous posts or listened to any country singer with a Y chromosome, then you’ll know that cut-off jeans, bare feet, and bikini-tops seem to be tropes that really get them going, like all the time without fail, but none of those things are particularly comfortable for any girl out there for all the reasons that Maddie & Tae list but those are never really mentioned since anything but the woman’s body is ever really taken into consideration in most country songs. 

The next verse goes, “I hear you over there on your tailgate whistlin‘ in, sayin‘ “Hey girl, ” but you know I ain’t listenin‘. Cause I got a name and to you it ain’t, “pretty little thing”, “honey” or “baby”. It’s drivin‘ me red red red red red red redneck crazy”. One thing to note is that at the end of this verse, Maddie & Tae pay homage to our buddy Tyler Farr and his Redneck Crazy that I talked about in a previous post. Moving on from that, however, Maddie & Tae mention how many male singers tend to often brag about catcalling women and how, surprisingly, this is something that is rather uncomfortable and not all that flattering, I know, surprising right.  

Next up is the chorus where Maddie & Tae question what exactly country girls did to get themselves landed in the unfortunate position that they’ve been forced into. It goes as follows, “Bein’ the girl in a country song, how in the world did it go so wrong? Like all we’re good for is lookin‘ good for you and your friends on the weekend, nothin‘ more. We used to get a little respect, now we’re lucky if we even get to climb up in your truck, keep our mouth shut and ride along and be the girl in a country song”. A very typical trope that plagues “bro-country” is that a woman is nothing but her body and that’s it, and that’s what Maddie & Tae are calling out in the lyric “like all we’re good for is lookin’ good for you and your friends on the weekend, nothin’ more”. 

The next verse of the song goes “Well, shakin‘ my moneymaker ain’t ever made me a dime, and there ain’t no sugar for you in this shaker of mine. Tell me one more time you gotta get you some of that, sure I’ll slide on over, but you’re gonna get slapped. Huh. These days it ain’t easy being that…”. Many times in country songs, singers will croon that “they need to get themselves some of that (that being a sexy girl)”, and most times, said sexy girl doesn’t want any of their (the country singer’s) that, but no matter how many times a girl makes that evident, the man can’t seem to get the message (side note, this isn’t exclusive to country music). 

The chorus plays again and then the bridge goes, “Conway and George Strait, never did it this way, back in the old days. Aw naw, we ain’t a cliché. That ain’t no way, to treat a lady”. “Conway” refers to the country singer Conway Twitty and George Strait is also an older country singer, who I’m assuming, based off the lyrics, both sang before the era of “bro-country” and Maddie and Tae are reminiscing back to the era where “bro-country” didn’t exist and women got respect in music.  

The chorus plays again and the song ends with Maddie & Tae saying “I ain’t your tan-legged Juliet”. I have to honest, it was truly refreshing to listen to a song that wasn’t about how sexy women were and nothing else because after weeks of that it gets thoroughly exhausting to say the least.  

 

 

Image 1 Source: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/A1PPtk2d2vL._SL1500_.jpg 

Image 2 Source: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/1eB2lJRDEiU/maxresdefault.jpg