In August 2013, New York Magazine published Jody Rosen’s article about the rise of “Bro-Country.” If you’re like me, you haven’t heard of Bro-Country, but you probably have a pretty good guess as to what it is. Rosen defines Bro-Country as “Music by and of the tatted, gym-toned, party-hearty young American white dude.” Shots fired. He wastes no time in condemning the lucky artist who topped the Billboard’s Hot Country Songs for 22 weeks in a row (breaking a record that has been in place since 1955): Florida Georgia Line with their song “Cruise.”
Rosen describes the song as an average-looking guy in a bar talking to the hottest blonde girl in the room, loudly laughing at his own jokes, and after crashing-and-burning with lame pick-up lines, pulls out his iPhone, asking “Have you heard this awesome song?” while simultaneously “dial[ing] up the video for Florida Georgia Line’s ‘Cruise.’” Are you laughing yet? This guy is pretty harsh, but I think he feels the way a lot of traditional country fans do when they see that auto-tuned sounds like those of Florida Georgia Line top the charts and ring in the big bucks.
Okay, here’s the part you’re going to hate…. This phenomenon isn’t news, nor is it shocking. Throughout music history, we have seen different genres and subgenres arise that some people have labeled “crap,” while others really find to their liking. It was only a matter of time before we had a new reason to complain, honestly.
Much like many young millennials enjoy the sounds of Florida Georgia Line and Luke Bryan, so the youth of the 1980’s enjoyed the beginnings of Grunge. Just as this new “Bro-Country” tends to err on the riskier side with lyrics and themes, Grunge challenged the norms of fashion, responsibility, and acceptable topics. Many people thought that Grunge was a blemish on the face of alternative rock, but that didn’t prevent it from sky-rocketing in popularity—even MTV picked it up and was exposing its viewers to the new sounds. Even my dad (the music snob I wrote about in my first blog post, “The Conflicting-Interest Blues”) said that popular Grunge band, Nirvana, “redefined everything.” (Does this count as a primary source?)
Some of you might be thinking, “But Grunge isn’t nearly as bad as Bro-Country” or “Hey! I like Grunge.” Well, I agree with you (I can’t stand to listen to songs like Cruise and I love Pearl Jam). But, it’s time to recognize that our tastes in music and what we can relate to is different than people younger than us that the country music industry is now catering to. And apparently it sells, so why wouldn’t they keep doing it?