Category Archives: Reflection

by | September 12, 2015 · 5:00 pm

What’s Your Weekend?

Up to this point, I have been going to school my entire life. From lower to middle to high school and now college, I have always tried to identify myself with the institution I am a part of at the time. There has been no school that I have been more connected to and now happy to be involved with besides UT. Since I can remember, I have dreamed of being a University of Texas student, wearing burnt orange on game-day at DKR, joining a sorority like my mom, learning more than I could ever imagine scholastically, and living in Austin, Texas. In every single one of those aspects of this new college life I am living, I have had close encounters with country music. At tailgates before games, country music is always on the loud speaker. When I am road tripping with my sorority sisters, the playlist we make is always an assortment of our country favorites. Walking from class to class, I can usually squeeze about three of my favorite Rascal Flatts songs in, and that is why I sometimes take the long route on purpose. And of course, Austin is known as a musical hub for artists of all kinds, but especially country.

My passion for UT and the Texas Longhorns started on the steps of my Aunt Pearl's house in Austin, Tx in 2000.

My passion for UT and the Texas Longhorns started on the steps of my Aunt Pearl’s house in Austin, Tx in 2000.

Despite all of these wonderful aspects of the college community I have entered, there are definitely times when I feel challenged. School work can pile up faster than I ever imagined, the stress of finding a real job one day always seems to be looming in the all too near future, and honestly some days are just plain hard. Weekdays can seem endless sometimes, and a weekend break is all I can think about to motivate me or at least remind me of why I do love this place so much.

The song “Crushin’ It” by Brad Paisley reminds me so much of how I feel sometimes while I am in college. The song starts with Paisley saying how nice it would be for some reassurance from others or overcoming a dry spell. For him, his weekend is his opportunity to kick back and enjoy the smaller things that he appreciates. Weekends are his comfortable constant in life. Despite the problems he deals with during the week, he knows that eventually his Friday night and beer will be there for him. In the same way, the comfort of country music and all the aspects that I love about the University of Texas community are “the weekend” in my life that make me feel like I am “crushin’ it” too. It’s about looking forward to what you know you love and embracing every aspect of those things.

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Filed under Blog Post 1, Country Pop, New Country, Reflection, Texas

by | September 11, 2015 · 11:00 am

Music to Helicopter Parents’ Ears

For me, the country music craze started around 6 or 7 years ago when I was in middle school. I attended a private Catholic school from age four to fourteen. Over the years, I came face to face with the definition of helicopter parenting. From monitoring their kids Facebook’s to their text messages, these parents knew and controlled every aspect of their child’s lives.

A huge thing that these parents were against was today’s rap and pop music. The constant cursing- these kids weren’t even allowed to say “fart”, mind you- and drug and sexual references led these parents to hide this kind of music from their children’s innocent little ears. Here’s where country music- a genre constantly referencing God and promoting Christianity- comes into play.

I really didn’t notice the growing popularity of country music in my friend group until I joined my private school’s basketball team in sixth grade. The team parents set up a carpool system to divide up who would take all of us to get an after school snack before practice or who would drive us to the away games. I ended up spending a lot of time in my friend’s parent’s cars through this and in turn, led me to spend a lot of time listening to country music. Who knew “She’s Country” by Jason Aldean could be considered a warm up song?!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AZLUohDCGo

Of course, even country music features songs that could be deemed inappropriate, but the drug and sex references are considerably less frequent in country music than in pop or rap songs. It also helped that these parents had the uncanny ability to filter the songs that came through their car speakers.

Personally, my parents never really controlled my life like some of my friend’s parents. My parents had me when they were older and just weren’t interested in spending all of their time monitoring my life. Granted, they still forced me to add them on Facebook and weren’t into me watching R rated movies, but they never looked at my phone or told me what music I could or couldn’t listen to. Because of this, I had no idea all parents weren’t the exact same way. In fact, I had never really heard country music before (outside of Robert Earl Keen or the Dixie Chicks) until my friends’ helicopter parents were constantly driving me to sport practices.

At first I absolutely hated this genre. I hated being forced to listen to it even more, especially since it wasn’t even my parents forcing me to listen to it. I went from hardly ever being told what I could or couldn’t do by my own parents to being forced to listen to a certain type of music by my friend’s parents. But I quickly got over this, mainly because the country music fad literally took over my private school. Our school dances featured country music more than any other genre. Imagine jamming out to “Big Green Tractor” at your eighth grade dance- I mean how much “jamming” can you actually do to a song about riding through a cornfield on some guys tractor. But we somehow found a way, and my love for country music grew quickly.

Today it’s pretty much all I listen to, and when I hear those old Jason Aldean songs I soft smile at the thought of middle school and my friends’ crazy parents. The parents have lightened up since then, but country music stayed with all of us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9jqNCAOisc

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Filed under Blog Post 1, New Country, Reflection

by | September 10, 2015 · 11:00 am

Young Country

Most people assume that being the youngest child of a family is synonymous with being a spoiled brat, but I think otherwise.  Has anyone ever thought that maybe a child is a spoiled brat because their parents allow that? I, for one, am the youngest of four children and work for everything in life. For me, this is easily relatable to classic country music. Many songs like Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5” express hardworking woman, without discriminating against age or what number child you are.  dolly-parton-press-2014-650-430

Sure, there will be spoiled brats that just so happen to be the youngest child, but that goes for all stereotypes.

There’s more to being the youngest than just getting people to see you for you. Some of the biggest issues of being the youngest child are “How will I get people to stop stereotyping me?” or “Will I ever be able to break out of the shadows of my older siblings?”

Frankly, I can’t help if my parents look at me as their “baby” because I am. I’ll admit that, but it doesn’t mean I had any control over the matter. As soon as people hear I’m the youngest of four kids, they automatically begin to assume I’m either a trouble maker (which in fact is my sister-number 3) or I get what I want. While “The Baby” by Blake Shelton tunes into the youngest child stereotype, it also does a great job of describing how my mother sees me.

635511422966331949-XXX-GARTH-BROOKS-MUS-jy-0170-The same concept could go for people who are only children or the middle child. No matter where you are in the pecking order, it seems like you have a stereotype. Truth be told, I did tattle when I was younger, but as far as I’m concerned everyone has at some point or another. It even seems like youngest children get the most grief from their older siblings when they get older about their past. However, I’ve always found comfort in country music growing up. No matter how much my siblings and I fought, when we turned on Garth Brooks or the Dixie Chicks, we put all matters aside.

Despite what others may think, I know many youngest children who actually end up baring the most responsibility of any of their siblings. Getting a job and paying for my own things came naturally to me, but when I’d treat myself to things, I still would get stereotypical thoughts that my parents paid for it. If there is one thing that country music has taught me, and that I’ve been able to relate to my situation, is that hard work won’t always go unnoticed. If I keep fighting against these stereotypes, people may see me for me, not as the youngest child.

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Filed under Blog Post 1, Reflection, Song Analysis, Women

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by | September 9, 2015 · 2:18 pm

We Are Home in Country Music

Home. Maybe it’s the place that built you, the place you run back to, or where your heart is. Wherever your home may be, in country music it can be a place that defines where you were, where you are, and where you’re going.

I grew up going from house to house every few years. For the longest time I considered my home to be the place I was born and lived for 8 years. Like Miranda Lambert’s song “The House That Built Me,” the house that built me was in a small town on a little street corner in the most peaceful neighborhood. It’s where I spent my time expanding my imagination and growing my innocence. It’s a house full of memories and pen stains of marked heights, similar to the handprints on the front steps that Lambert references in her song. Country acknowledges that, like a first love, you can’t forget your first home. But other songs dig a little deeper.

As I grew older, I don’t find myself yearning to go back to the house where I spent my childhood. “Home” took on a different meaning when I entered the college bubble. Now I relate this term to the way Blake Shelton describes it in his song “Home.” It’s a place I can always go back to whenever I’m lost and need to find myself again. “May be surrounded by a million people. I still feel all alone. I want to go home.” It’s the place my parents reside. It’s a place full of irrevocable love. Country’s description of home is the idea of safety and peace; a place that can’t be tarnished by outside forces. Country’s deeper meaning of home is really felt in this song. It describes home as more of a relationship than an object.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJXFakzZLXk

As I transition into adulthood, I know the meaning and feelings I have toward the term “home” will change again like it has before. “Home Is Where The Heart Is” by Lady Antebellum is the best way to describe an adult searching for her new home. Lady A describes packing up and leaving behind her small town to find her dreams elsewhere. I know someday in the near future I’ll be the one packing up once again and heading out of the great state of Texas to chase my dreams and find a home. At the end of this song, there is a realization that stresses the underlying meaning of establishing a home: love. Home is where the heart is and home is where the love is.

Whether it is your first home, where your parents are, or where you’re going to end up, you find your home through love. Country music interprets home differently through several songs, but it doesn’t escape this recurring theme in country music altogether. To me, country music in itself is home; it’s safe, peaceful, emotional. It’s my past, my present, and my future.

Elissa Killebrew

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Filed under Blog Post 1, Country Pop, Country Symbols, New Country, Reflection

by | May 9, 2015 · 8:00 am

Home Sweet Country Home

Listening to Brad Paisley’s “This is Country Music” gives anyone a great overview of what country music is to a lot of people and clues the clueless into the values that it speaks to. However, there’s one line in the song that I think is majorly overlooked. In the second bridge, Paisley sings “This is real, this is your life in a song / Just like a road that takes you home / This is country music.”

I hadn’t thought about it much until I really started reading the lyrics, but that line characterizes the feeling I get when I listen to country. I think we all know it too—the comfort of turning down familiar roads and all the memories that start to flash across your mind’s eye. Your body moves almost as if on auto pilot because your mind is elsewhere. A pleasant, almost nostalgic feeling pervades my thoughts. It’s comfortable. It’s what I know.

Country music has been the soundtrack to my entire life. From the time I was born, it was engrained in my brain that George Strait is the King and that Alan Jackson is his right hand man. In fact, Alan Jackson’s “Livin’ on Love” was probably the first song I knew word-for-word since we played it coming home from church every Sunday. It’s like my family’s song, you know how boyfriends and girlfriends have “their song” or whatever, my family has one, too.

As I grew up, I learned that I could like things that weren’t just what my dad listened to—though raising me on the greats definitely influenced my taste. I became interested in different kinds of country especially female singers like Taylor Swift, Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood and others. Admittedly, they’re more pop country and it wasn’t a real shock to anyone when Taylor Swift left the scene to explore new avenues and a larger audience.

But something struck me about what she had to say at the CMA’s this year talking about when she left. She said that country music would always be her home and where she got her start. I think giving the genre that kind of recognition was important to fans everywhere because while we no longer lay claim to her as a community, we would welcome her back if she wanted to make a return. For me that speaks volumes about the community and sense of home country creates. Like Lynden’s mom said, country music is one of the most forgiving communities—from exploring new genres to problems in your private life, if you admit you’re wrong country will welcome you home. (Start at 3:52)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIDa-A8ZPH0

So whether country means literal home to you or just mimics the feeling of home, I think the community as a whole is, as Mrs. Orr said, like a family. We’re all connected by the common ideals that country promotes and a cohesive fan base that will support you no matter what which is something a lot of genres don’t have.

What’s your country story? Are there any songs or moments in country music that define your life? Do you agree that country music is like a home? Or do you think I’m crazy? Let me know in the comments! (Except that last one, I don’t need to know about that one).

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Filed under Reflection, Song Analysis