He is selling out arenas on his current My Kinda Party tour, he has hits on the radio, and he performed on this year’s Grammy Awards telecast, but Jason Aldean says it’s still an uphill battle to get some respect in some circles as a country artist. Really? He’s echoing a complaint that has been made by many young country musicians over the years. But what does he really have to complain about? Seriously.
“Country music still kind of fights the stereotypes a lot of times,” the singer told CMT. But he says he hopes big, glitzy shows like the upcoming ACM Awards in Las Vegas changes some perceptions. “We’re having a country music show, and it’s in one of the glitziest cities in the world, so it just shows you that we’re not still sitting on hay bales passing out awards at these shows,” the entertainer points out. “It’s a big deal.”
Hey Jason, it’s the 47th Annual ACM Awards, it’s been a ‘big deal’ for a while now. It’s an awards show that was created for TV by a television personality, Dick Clark. A superficial awards show is not going to do anything to change people’s perception of a musical genre. In fact, the people who you think stereotype country music, will not be tuning in at all. They’ll be watching, or listening to, something else.
And do you really believe most intelligent music fans in 2012 think country music is about hay bales? And even if they do, many of the stereotypes you may be referring to are perpetuated by, guess who, country artists just like you. Hey, you’re the guy wearing a cowboy hat. Is that because you’re a cowboy? Did you grow up on a ranch, riding horses, herdin’ cattle? No. You grew up in Macon, Georgia and attended a private school, Windsor Academy. You wear the hat because its an image, a stereotype if you will, that you want to portray. All musical genres are full of carefully crafted stereotypes. Why? Because they sell! They help you sell your music and your tickets. So really, stereotyping doesn’t hurt you, you use it to your benefit.
Your first Top Ten single is a song called ‘Hicktown’ that portrays country music lovers as booze swillin’, Pall Mall smokin’, bingo playin’, truck pull attendees. This is the song you close a lot of your concerts with, and it includes a verse where you stereotype people who live in a city and those who live in small towns…
We hear folks in the city party in Martini Bars
And they like to show off in their fancy foreign cars
Out here in the boondocks we buy beer at Amoco
And crank our Kraco speakers with that country radio
So Jason Aldean, why does country music have to fight those stereotypes? Next time you listen to (or sing) a song about trucks, rednecks, dirt roads, drinkin beer,’ big green tractors, four-wheelers, and fishin’ holes, you’ll have your answer. Here’s Jason in all his stereotypin’ glory…
