So we get lots of flames and a model in her underwear. The music video for Jason Aldean’s “Burnin’ It Down” looks more like a bad 1980s heavy metal hair band video than anything to do with country music. Heavy metal flames, posh homes, disrobing models Aldean’s “Burnin’ It Down” is just another example of someone burning down the power of country music. So during hard times and a confusing era for the working class, mainstream country music and radio tells us to just party on, dude. In recent years there’s been a shift to escapist partying - a less explicit version of what’s going on in rap music. A step down but not bad compared to what we have now. Then post-Garth Brooks it turned into more about family and everyday life in rural America. At one time there was songs about outlaws and a search for something better, songs about found love and broken love. So where’s country music going? Which is supposed to be the voice of the common person? Wages are down, globalization has ravaged the job market, the political and cultural elite don’t care about common people. The reality for the white working class is far different from these songs.
The second problem is that in an era where country music should be making a social statement, it’s more escapist than ever. The lyrics sound like a high school freshmen sexting to his girlfriend. These songs are so generic that it’s nearly impossible to tell one country dude singer from another. One of the problems is that the songwriting is just bad. Rapper Ludacris appeared on Aldean’s song “Dirt Road Anthem.” Mainstream rap and mainstream country music are getting closer than ever with their hypermasculine cliches. You know that I love lovin’ up on you.” Searching for the soul of country music Pretty soon they’re “naked in my bed” and “we about to get a little tangled up right about now.” Then in what’s getting all too common in country songs there’s product placement for some whiskey and name check an old Alabama song - something this song sounds nothing like. “You stirrin’ up dirty in the back of my mind, You keep on flirtin’ cause you know that it’s workin'” The woman in the song sounds like a tease that’s become a sex object to him: So what does it take to make the generic country party song that will make it onto the pop charts? No irony, no realism, no depth.Īldean’s song is just one of several recent country party songs that have landed on the pop charts - such as “Day Drinking” by Little Big Town, Florida Georgia Line‘s “This Is How We Roll” and Cole Swindell‘s “Chillin’ It.” We’re a long way from those songs now with songs like Jason Aldean’s “Burnin’ It Down.” The partying and sexual encounters are all cliché. And that’s one thing that’s made country music succeed: the lyrics were stories.
There’s a back story behind the partying. She’s unfulfilled in a relationship and he’s probably just being used for a good time. Or his party anthem “Honky Tonkin'” which shows a couple trying to escape loneliness.
There’s some irony in the song about the price they’ll pay for their partying. Take for example, the Hank Williams song “Settin’ The Woods on Fire.” Instead of songs about real people, there are too many songs with cliches about partying and available women. Riding a lost highway away from Hankīecause of songs like “Burnin’ It Down,” country music is losing what’s made it special. Country music has always had its drinkin’ and hell-raisin’ songs - but there was a subtle depth to the best of them. The charts now are dominated by what’s becoming a cliche: Good old boys drinking them brews down by the river with some Daisy Duke hottie before it’s back to the bar again. The genre has veered way off the trail from the country superstars that created it.Ī few days ago I listened to a country music radio station on a trip out of town. Most popular country musicians these days sound like watered down 1970s classic rockers - with lyrics influenced more by bad rap music than Hank Williams. Jason Aldean‘s “Burnin’ It Down” shows how mainstream country music keeps getting worse and worse. The songs sound like bad watered down 1970s rock, the lyrics sound like they’re borrowed from bad rap songs. Jason Aldean’s ‘Burnin’ It Down” is one of several good old boy party songs that have crossed over to the Top 40.
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