{"id":1619,"date":"2014-10-21T10:41:37","date_gmt":"2014-10-21T15:41:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/?page_id=1619"},"modified":"2014-11-20T20:44:41","modified_gmt":"2014-11-21T02:44:41","slug":"me-and-my-gang-2006","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/music\/me-and-my-gang-2006\/","title":{"rendered":"Me and My Gang (2006)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Written by Zane Gurwitz. 21 October 2014.<\/em><\/div>\n

\"images\"<\/a>In 2006, the country band Rascal Flatts<\/a> released a game-changing album. This\u00a0<\/span><\/span>album gave the band more credit as country artists as opposed to the typical boy\u00a0band they had been regarded as for most of their career. During this time of county\u00a0music, other popular artists were those seen as manly men such as Toby Keith,\u00a0Blake Shelton, and Jason Aldean. So for Rascal Flatts to be treated with less respect in\u00a0the country community is understandable. However, their album, <\/span>Me and My Gang<\/em>,\u00a0<\/span><\/span>changed the womanizing boy band perspective of Rascal Flatts from many critics\u2019\u00a0point of view. This album includes their most successful song \u201cWhat Hurts the Most\u201d \u00a0as well as popular songs \u201cStand\u201d and \u201cMy Wish\u201d.<\/div>\n

After the Rascal Flatts came together in 1999, they soon signed a record deal\u00a0<\/span><\/span>and came out with their first album in 2000 called Rascal Flatts<\/em>. <\/span>With so much\u00a0<\/span>success at the beginning of their career, they were bound to hear from many critics\u00a0as well. Their biggest complaint from most critics was \u201cthey were the country\u00a0equivalent of a boy band\u201d which is expressed in Erick Trickey\u2019s article \u201cRascal\u00a0Flatts\u201d (1). This was mainly due to the lead singer, Gary LeVox, who has a higher\u00a0pitch and toned voice. While still having an attractive singing voice, the higher\u00a0<\/span><\/span>pitched voice, along with their emotional love songs, and their particular style of fashion gave them the sense of a boy band.<\/div>\n

Due to all these negative reviews from\u00a0the country world, the timing and purpose of the album <\/span>Me and My Gang<\/span><\/em> could not <\/span>have been more perfect. This album has a more country feel while still applying\u00a0their typical love and heart warming lyrics. This is why I believe they released this\u00a0album at the time they did. It took some of the pressure off their back while being\u00a0slightly more accepted by their country music peers.<\/div>\n

While being part of the audience group intended for <\/span>Me and My Gang<\/span><\/em>, I<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
believe another intended audience was the country music critics and peers.At the\u00a0<\/span><\/span>surface, the song \u201cWhat Hurts the Most\u201d is about a man that loves a girl but watches\u00a0her walk away and has so much to say to her but she will not listen. They were so\u00a0close to being in love and happy but he could not quite get her to love him back. I\u00a0believe this song has a deeper meaning such as that the Rascal Flatts are speaking to\u00a0the congregation of country music. They just want to be accepted and loved by the\u00a0<\/span><\/span>country community and they are so close, but they cannot quite get the respect they\u00a0deserve from them.<\/div>\n

However, country music fans, for the most part, love this album.\u00a0On Amazon out of 207 customer reviews, the average score was a 4.3 on a 5 star\u00a0scale. Only 11.5% of reviews rated the album 2 stars or less. One customer, Tracey\u00a0B. even states \u201cI am using the song \u2018My Wish\u2019 for the mother\/son dance at my son\u2019s\u00a0<\/span><\/span>wedding.\u201d So although a majority of country fans were extremely pleased, the\u00a0intended audience, the community of country music and their music peers, were\u00a0slightly less enthusiastic about the release of this album but were more accepting of\u00a0Rascal Flatts.<\/div>\n

Now that we explored many of the reasons behind the creation of the album\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Me and My Gang<\/em>, <\/span>I hope you have developed a greater understanding of the Rascal\u00a0<\/span>Flatts\u2019 situation in country music during their career. Thanks for reading I hope you\u00a0enjoyed it!<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Tracks<\/u><\/p>\n

1. “Stand” (B. Daly)<\/div>\n
2. “What Hurts the Most”<\/a> (S. Robson)<\/div>\n
3. “Backwards” (T. Mullins)<\/div>\n
4. “I Feel Bad” (W. Mobley)<\/div>\n
5. “My Wish” (S. Robson)<\/div>\n
6. “Pieces” (J. DeMarcus\/ G. LeVox)<\/div>\n
7. “Yes I Do” (W. Wilson)<\/div>\n
8. “To Make Her Love Me” (J. DeMarcus)<\/div>\n
9. “Words I Couldn’t Say” (G. Becker)<\/div>\n
10. “Me and My Gang” (T. Mullins)<\/div>\n
11. “Cool Thing” (W. Mobley\/ J.D Rooney)<\/div>\n
12. “Ellsworth” (M. Dulaney)<\/div>\n
13. “He Ain’t the Leavin’ Kind” (M. Dulaney)<\/div>\n
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Works Cited<\/u><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“Rascal Flatts.” <\/span>Amazon.com<\/span>. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Trickey, Erick. “Flatts, Rascal.” <\/span>Newsmakers 2007 Cumulation<\/span>. Ed. Laura Avery.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Detroit: Gale, 2008. 367-370. <\/span>Gale Virtual Reference Library<\/span>. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Zane Gurwitz. 21 October 2014. In 2006, the country band Rascal Flatts released a game-changing album. This\u00a0album gave the band more credit as country artists as opposed to the typical boy\u00a0band they had been regarded as for most … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"parent":18,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1619","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1619"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2681,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1619\/revisions\/2681"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}