The way that we culturally pretend there are no fat, rural white people on welfare is... telling! "Fat" is yet another insult to be deployed, when convenient, against the people we don't like, while people we do like "aren't fat, you're beautiful," or whatever.
But also I am curious: what does it even mean to have "the most popular song" …
The way that we culturally pretend there are no fat, rural white people on welfare is... telling! "Fat" is yet another insult to be deployed, when convenient, against the people we don't like, while people we do like "aren't fat, you're beautiful," or whatever.
But also I am curious: what does it even mean to have "the most popular song" anymore when the current trend cycle burns through everything in a matter of days? That's not to say this indicates nothing about the culture because of course it does, and 2 of these in a row is a trend, but these reactionary country songs are such a quick cash grab, and I'm annoyed at the idea that we will need to entertain one of these guys in the discourse every month as they briefly pop up in the algorithm to collect a check.
Re: your second paragraph: wait, you would like a robust cultural conversation about more than just about how two specific White guys are feelin’ grumpy? In this economy? Now let’s not get unrealistic here!
My FB timeline is suddenly filled with all these "authentic" country acts with outrageous songs following the time honored tradition of copying a hit pop song to cash in on its success. (Apparently despite all the data it collects on me, FB is still very confused about what I might like.)
As an aside, this is one of my small joys (when the algorithm very obviously is bad at its job and is like “Garrett, would you like to see content about something you’ve never expressed interest in?”). It gives me hope that the AI won’t ever replace us!
Thanks for this! I also really enjoyed this podcast interview with Tressie McMillan Cottom where they discuss this song and Morgan Wallen's trajectory.
The way that we culturally pretend there are no fat, rural white people on welfare is... telling! "Fat" is yet another insult to be deployed, when convenient, against the people we don't like, while people we do like "aren't fat, you're beautiful," or whatever.
But also I am curious: what does it even mean to have "the most popular song" anymore when the current trend cycle burns through everything in a matter of days? That's not to say this indicates nothing about the culture because of course it does, and 2 of these in a row is a trend, but these reactionary country songs are such a quick cash grab, and I'm annoyed at the idea that we will need to entertain one of these guys in the discourse every month as they briefly pop up in the algorithm to collect a check.
Re: your fat paragraph: such good points!
Re: your second paragraph: wait, you would like a robust cultural conversation about more than just about how two specific White guys are feelin’ grumpy? In this economy? Now let’s not get unrealistic here!
My FB timeline is suddenly filled with all these "authentic" country acts with outrageous songs following the time honored tradition of copying a hit pop song to cash in on its success. (Apparently despite all the data it collects on me, FB is still very confused about what I might like.)
Also check out Chris Molanphy's excellent article in Slate about how these country artists encourage their fans to buy their singles which are calculated into the charts differently than streaming, making them seem more popular than they are. https://slate.com/culture/2023/08/jason-aldean-try-that-in-a-small-town-billboard-country.html
As an aside, this is one of my small joys (when the algorithm very obviously is bad at its job and is like “Garrett, would you like to see content about something you’ve never expressed interest in?”). It gives me hope that the AI won’t ever replace us!
Thanks for this! I also really enjoyed this podcast interview with Tressie McMillan Cottom where they discuss this song and Morgan Wallen's trajectory.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/country-musics-race-problem/id1634687152?i=1000622627933
That’s an absolute all-timer episode. I think about it all the time now.