[Parlay44]

Kacey Musgraves’ Gay-Affirming Song “Follow Your Arrow” Wins Country Song of the Year

“Oh my goodness! Do y’all know what this means for country music?!”

That’s what the charming Kacey Musgraves said when she won the prize for Song of the Year for her controversial hit “Follow Your Arrow” at last night’s Country Music Awards. And she’s right—that the Country Music Association recognized a song with such a progressive (or at least libertarian) message is a big deal.

Since its release on the album Same Trailer Different Park back in March 2013, the song—which champions personal choice, including on conservative bugaboos like homosexuality, church-going, and marijuana use—has garnered both praise and condemnation. Which, with lyrics like “Make lots of noise/ kiss lots of boys/ or kiss lots of girls if that’s something you’re into,” is not surprising. Jillian Mapes has a great post over on Flavorwire digging further into the song’s reception:

“Follow Your Arrow” may have received a modest amount of radio airplay — peaking at No. 43 on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart — but it fared better on Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart (No. 10), which is determined by streaming and digital sales in addition to airplay. Clearly, these are stories people want to hear, even if commercial radio programmers were hesitant to offer them up. “I wish I could play that song on my station” was a sentiment echoed in various forms by country programming directors in a Billboard story from last year.
As Mapes goes on to point out, the “Arrow” win may signal the beginnings of a broader shift in country music’s approach to social issues that remain touchy in the genre’s red state homeland. But touchy or not, it’s a shift Musgraves is eager to see. When Pridesource.com asked her about the need for country to embrace the LGBTQ community, she was crystal clear:

It never happens and I'm sick of it. It's ridiculous. Whether or not you agree with gay marriage or the fact that people don't choose to be gay, we share the same emotions, needs and wants. I just think that everyone should be included in that. It's definitely time.

[ChrisPitts]

Personally, I think the sucks songs. And I even listen to country music.

WB her though. Those eyes are screaming for some dick.

[germanico]

Made it to 45 seconds. Incredibly dull and boring lyrics.

If that was song of the year I dont want to hear the rest of them.

[The Reactionary Tree]

That song was so poz that I think I am going to need an HIV test.

Meanwhile, I heard Garth Brooks was going to attempt to reinvigorate his career with this lovely diddle. Dont forget the amyl nitrate buckaroos!

[Beyond Borders]

Mainstream country music fell off about 20 years ago.

[SteveMcMahon]

Even though I'm British, I think I could be a Country and Western singer.

I like cussing and fighting and feuding and Momma, and big hats. My drinking days are over, but only because I retired after being crowned whisky drinker of the decade by Alcoholics Monthly magazine. The award ceremony was held on a bench in a public park. I don't remember much of it, but I still have the trophy, wrapped in a brown paper bag.

Country music seems to have been circling the drain for a while now, what with the likes of Shania Twain and Taylor Swift using it as an easy way to build up a fan base. It's like that time in South Park when Cartman started a Christian Rock band, because "this is gonna be so easy. All we have to do to make Christian songs is take regular old songs and add Jesus stuff to them."



All a cynical producer has to do is get a good looking girl who can sing, dress up a pop song with a bit of twangy guitar and maybe a fake southern accent, and - BOOM - Country Music awards! Once they get popular enough they can stop pretending to be Country artists.

This is the ultimate country and western song, in my opinion:

[HighSpeed_LowDrag]

So basically she pulled a Macklemore and got aboard the gay acceptance bandwagon.

Why am I shocked.

[monster]

She didnt' even write this song: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Follow_Your_Arrow

[Dr. Howard]

WB hard enough to tear the space time fabric.

As a tennessee resident, let me add the following insights:

1. This chick has got the 'look' for suburban girls around here, that 'girl next door' but will do do a threesome if drunk and on vacation. I love it.
2. Notice the gay hipster backup band, this is the new nashville; faggy hipsters outnumber 'country' music people. No surprise there
3. Being a slut, smoking weed is old news for country music. Kissing girls is new though.
4. This is tame compared to "Anaconda" for those who think country has lost its conservative roots.
5. Country music has always been, or supposed to have been 'rough edged' as thats what separated it from Gospel. Same style of music, one is for church, one is for honky tonks.

Note: I am not a fan of country music but i do enjoy the girls, the boots, daisy dukes, midriffs and feigned innocence.

[Days of Broken Arrows]

I don't care that she's stirring up controversy in country. That's part of the tradition and it's a good one that includes Johnny Cash's anti-Vietnam songs like "Man in Black."

What bothers me (as always) is the media's take on it. Their view is that Red State country fans' embrace of traditionalism is somehow backward and Musgrave's song is somehow "enlightened."

Reading the stories about this reminds me of being around Jesus Freaks who believe they're the ones that saw the light and everyone else is living in sin. You want to step back and say "Er...that's YOUR point of view, not everyone's reality."

So it is with this song. It's her point of view. She might be challenging tradition, but it doesn't mean she's necessarily progressive. It's just another idea. How do we know time won't tell she's wrong and the traditionalists were actually the ones who were progressive?

Society once considered male-female marriage and monogamy traditional and oppressive. Then changes came about, which caused people to look further back and see that a lot of male-female relationships throughout history were of the polygamous variety, where one Alpha male had lots of women, leaving other men to rot or die in war.

In that light, good old Western monogamy looks pretty progressive. So is Musgraves' hit progressive or does it just seem that way in today's context? Time will tell.

[TravelerKai]

This doesn't surprise me. As the SJW crowd and their financiers own the recording industry as well as the awards.

Any legit or real old fashioned kinds of country will need to go underground and independent eventually, much like many hard rock/metal and electronica musicians do. Their fans will support them because the real fans chase down the good stuff. These industries won't tolerate much more "Jesus take the wheel" kinda songs after a while. That dysfunction will set in deeper and deeper and the music will get trashier and trashier. They control the play rotations and the awards.

[heavy]

Interesting. I didn't watch the CMAs, and had no idea what that album or song was about. This is disturbing, but expected.

Brad Paisley also caught a lot of grief for his hilarious joke:

Quote:

While co-hosting the CMA Awards with Carrie Underwood on Wednesday night, country music star Brad Paisley cracked a racial joke that some viewers are criticizing as “racist.”

The joke was partially a plug for ABC’s new comedy, “Black-ish,” which airs on the network Wednesday nights.

“If you were looking for Black-ish tonight, yeah, this ain’t it. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy White-ish,” Paisley joked.

I guess I understand the PC crowd hating on him, they aren't necessarily "country music fans".

I am glad I haven't seen him come out with an apology for nothing. It was a clean, funny joke.

[SteveMcMahon]

(11-07-2014 09:32 AM)heavy Wrote:  

Interesting. I didn't watch the CMAs, and had no idea what that album or song was about. This is disturbing, but expected.

Brad Paisley also caught a lot of grief for his hilarious joke:

Quote:

While co-hosting the CMA Awards with Carrie Underwood on Wednesday night, country music star Brad Paisley cracked a racial joke that some viewers are criticizing as “racist.”

The joke was partially a plug for ABC’s new comedy, “Black-ish,” which airs on the network Wednesday nights.

“If you were looking for Black-ish tonight, yeah, this ain’t it. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy White-ish,” Paisley joked.

I guess I understand the PC crowd hating on him, they aren't necessarily "country music fans".

I am glad I haven't seen him come out with an apology for nothing. It was a clean, funny joke.

Geez. It's the kind of harmless joke that nobody would bat an eyelid at if it had been on Chappelle's Show or In Living Color.

But a white man at a country music award show said it, so the SJW Pavlov's Hamsters go into overdrive.


The racism detector is beeping! To the Outragemobile!

Note that most of the people taking ostentatious offense are themselves white-ish.

[DChambers]

Heard the rave reviews of her awhile back and picked up her album. I don't care for mainstream country music but I decided to give it a chance. The music sucks. She is a part of the new wave of female country music stars that are being promoted by the mainstream media. As it stands, I tend to not go past 1990 in regards to the country I listen to, with the exception of a few artists in the alternative-country scene.

Outlaw music is where it is at. WB in the bed of my pickup though, on my way to pick up momma from the train in the rain.

[DJ-Matt]

Country Pussy Pass allows the death penalty for slapping.

[Dr. Howard]

(11-07-2014 12:21 PM)DJ-Matt Wrote:  

Country Pussy Pass allows the death penalty for slapping.

When this song first came out, I drove by a busted up car in a walmart parking lot with the lyrics painted on the windshield. I took a picture and asked "what kind of a poetic lunatic would do this" chicks of course were like "its from a song haha, guess he pissed off the wrong person!"

Its insanity. What if I trashed some chicks car and painted 'smack my bitch up' on the windshield.

[Brian Shima]

Mainstream country music is especially horrible but extremely popular right now because of shows like Dick Dynasty.

[They Call Me Mister Tony]

(11-08-2014 08:25 AM)Brian Shima Wrote:  

Mainstream country music is especially horrible but extremely popular right now because of shows like Dick Dynasty.

Oh dear God....a show about the male phallus is on the airwaves?

Just when TV couldn't get any stupider.

[Aliblahba]

We don't listen to this shit in Texas. Real talk. Propaganda from the mainstream. Go listen to some Johnny Cash to clear your head.

[AnonymousBosch]

(11-08-2014 06:18 PM)Aliblahba Wrote:  

We don't listen to this shit in Texas. Real talk. Propaganda from the mainstream. Go listen to some Johnny Cash to clear your head.

^ This. Music journalism fell to the SJW's circa 2010, which is why I barely read it any more because it's all 'rape culture' and 'cultural appropriation'. Look at the usual sources.

The Washington Post - Top Ten Albums Of The Year - #1.

Rolling Stone - 50 Best Albums Of The Year - #28.

Pop Matters (one of the worst SJW ones) - 75 Best Albums Of The Year - #13.

The Guardian - Best Albums Of 2013 - #16.

NPR - 50 Favourite Albums Of 2013 - #15.

I don't see the logic of trying to sell records to progressives, because they're masters at justifying their sins, so feel no shame illegally-downloading something, and, if they're in the tech industry, feel no shame profiting from enabling said legal downloading.

Hey, can any rap fans tell me if the critical appraisal for Frank Ocean's 'Channel Orange' was genuine-earnt? Of was it just because he was ultra-progressive / bisexual in a traditionally-masculine / misogynistic / homophobic field, which is what I suspected so never bothered listening to it.