Before we go any further, I feel a confession is in order: my name is Steve, and I am a liberal,
and a fan of country music. I say that mostly in jest, because there are actually a ton of us around the country. But it is moments like this where such fandom becomes markedly more difficult.
Little Big Town is an Alabama-based quartet that has been a fairly consistent hit maker in country music for around a decade now. The band has six top-ten songs since 2005, most recently late last year, when their ode to tying one on before sunset (appropriately titled "Day Drinking") was certified gold and peaked at #2.
For their follow-up to "Day Drinking," the band elected to shift gears away from the irreverent tone of their big hit, and turn to a wistful ballad. The song is called "Girl Crush," and explores the pain of a woman who lost her love to another woman. The title is meant to reflect that pain, as the protagonist explains that she wants to understand everything about the woman, so that she might understand why her love has moved on to this new paramour.
On paper, it was a masterful move, and the song is inspired and beautiful. It is also incredibly controversial, for a reason that should infuriate anyone who ... well ... is capable of basic reading comprehension.
Follow me below the fold for the controversy, and why it manages to reinforce every negative stereotype about country music and its supporters.
The lyrics of "Girl Crush" reflect a familiar and exquisite pain, delivered in a somewhat ironic bent, one that was evident by the title:
I want to taste her lips
Yeah, 'cause they taste like you
I want to drown myself
In a bottle of her perfume
I want her long blonde hair
I want her magic touch
Yeah, 'cause maybe then
You'd want me just as much
I got a girl crush
It's a moving song, and about a million times more intelligent than the median song currently playing on country radio, which is (given the recent zeitgeist) a 20-something male singer referencing the ass-hugging shorts of some potential conquest.
Which might explain why a subset of country radio's audience, which apparently suffers from both homophobia and a lack of basic understanding of the English language, is shitting themselves blind over the song:
Sure, it’s a provocative way to describe jealousy. But when [Boise radio DJ Alana] Lynn played the song on the air, she didn’t anticipate that she would get furious phone calls and e-mails accusing “Girl Crush” of “promoting the gay agenda” and threats to boycott the station. The last time she heard this much outrage from listeners? “The Dixie Chicks’ President Bush comments,” Lynn recalls, referring to when the trio’s career imploded in 2003 after making critical statements about the president.
This takes "not getting it" to an absolutely spectacular level. The song is not promoting the gay agenda—the entire premise of the song is that the woman is trying to understand the appeal of another woman,
in the hopes of winning her very heterosexual mate back. That the band is being accused of "promoting the gay agenda" is a touch odd, given that (a) they didn't actually write the song, and (b) all four members of the group are married, including two members of the group who are married to each other.
Worse yet, it is having a marked effect on the success of the song, according to Washington Post reporter Emily Yahr (emphasis mine):
There’s a deep chasm these days between what’s popular on country radio — still the genre’s most powerful platform — and what fans are actually buying: “Girl Crush” is No. 4 on iTunes, but lags at No. 33 in radio rankings. And while country music is seen as more progressive now — with explicit lyrics about sex and casual marijuana use — significant portions of the traditional audience will not tolerate a song that they even wrongly assume is about a same-sex relationship.
In a just world, radio program directors would ask irate callers to revisit their ninth grade English Lit classes, for a little remedial assistance. Alas, this is not a just world, and program directors at stations are running scared.
That irrational fright has led to the indignity of the band having to cut a pre-recorded introduction to the song, where singer Karen Fairchild helpfully (and mournfully) has to dumb down the message so that the persistent critics of the song can better understand the concept: "It’s about a girl saying, you know, ‘Why do you love her and not me?'"
That her band felt compelled to cut a promo of that kind for the song is not an indictment on them—they recorded the song knowing that the "kiss" lyric might raise eyebrows. It is, however, a huge indictment of country radio, a genre that desperately needs to understand that just because a vocal minority in their listenership is bigoted (and, of course, mind-numbingly stupid), it does not mean that the majority of their clientele shares their lack of humanity.
(Via)