So, a slow-dance country-music ballad of jealousy in a long, long tradition…
… I want her long blond hair, I want her magic touch
Yeah cause maybe then, you’d want me just as much. . .
… turns into another battle in the culture wars, per the Washington Post:
Alana Lynn, a morning co-host on country music station 104.3 FM in Boise, Idaho, was excited to play Little Big Town’s latest single for her listeners. “Girl Crush,” a powerful ballad about a woman envious of her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend, seemed destined to be a hit…
But when 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…
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…
Although it does confirm my opinion that 95% of what “everyone says” about what goes out over the public airwaves is not about content (much less context), it’s about signalling one’s tribal allegiances. And it’s not even — despite what the talk radio mavens insist — about resisting the vile opposition; it’s about making sure one’s own tribal neighbors don’t start to suspect one isn’t sufficiently loyal to the proper shibboleths. Scared little gated community rabbits, eyeing each other nervously over the white picket fence.
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Apart from SMDH, what’s on the agenda for the day?
Thursday Morning Open Thread: People Are Stupid, Example #InfinityPost + Comments (121)