Girl in a Country Song (Arts and Culture)

Five years ago, the country singers Maddie and Tae released a music video for their song "Girl in a Country Song". In the song, Maddie and Tae talk about how almost all country songs portray the women as a girl in cowboy boots, booty shorts, and a bikini top. The lyrics in the song talk about how girls in country songs are typically portrayed. In the music video, the girls reverse roles with the men, so the guys in the video end up with the typical country girl fit. The guys are seen serving the girls lemonade and even having a sexy car washing episode. I think that the lyrics in this song show that the the portrayal of women in country songs wasn't always like this.

Some lyrics in "Girl in a Country Song" show that women weren't always portrayed as sexual figures in country music. The chorus says,

"Bein' the girl in a country song

How in the world did it go so wrong?

Like all we're good for

Is looking good for you and your friends on the weekend

Nothing more

We used to get a little respect

Now we're lucky if we even get

To climb up in your truck, keep our mouth shut and ride along

And be the girl in a country song"

They are saying that the stereotype of a women in country music has gone wrong because they seem to only be good for their looks and they "used to get a little respect". We can assume that women used to get respect from country music when they said,

"Aww no, Conway and George Strait

Never did it this way

Back in the old days

Aww y'all, we ain't a cliché

That ain't no way

To treat a lady..."

Conway and George Strait were/are (Conway passed away in the 1980's) very popular country singers in the 1950's to 1980's. I listened to their songs and when they sang about women, there was no women being sexualized. They still talked about love and sex, but they never mentioned them in skimpy clothes. For example, in Conway's song "I'd Love To Lay You Down" he says,

"There's so many ways your sweet love made this house into a home

You've got a way of doing little things that turn me on

Like standing in the kitchen in your faded cotton gown

With your hair still up in curlers I still love to lay you down"

Yes, he is talking about having sex with his wife, but the difference between this and other country songs is that his wife is in "a faded cotton gown" and "hair still up in curlers". He loves his wife for who she is whether or not she is in a bikini or not. This is what Maddie and Tae are talking about-- they want men of today to look at the music of Conway and George Strait and learn how to PROPERLY win a women over. Women of today shouldn't have to dress provocatively to get a man to love and respect her.

-HH :)