We know how much you all love country music since Steve Grand came on the scene. Can’t get enough of the stuff, ourselves. There’s…that one band. Oh and the Dixie Chicks, love them. Um, Dolly?
So maybe we don’t know (or want to know) the first thing about the genre, but we can all agree that Kacey Musgrave winning “Country Song of the Year” at this year’s Country Music Awards is a great thing.
Why? Because the song — “Follow Your Arrow” — is a totally pro-gay, let your freak flag fly kind of anthem, and if that’s where country music is headed, things are going in the right direction.
As Kacey’s wisdom tells us:
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
“Damned if you do and damned if you don’t, so you might as well do whatever you want…Kiss lots of boys, or kiss lots of girls if that’s something you’re into.”
When she was asked about whether country music should embrace LGBT issues, she responded:
“It never happens and I’m sick of it. It’s ridiculous. Whether or not you agree with gay marriage or the fact that people don’t choose to be gay, we share the same emotions, needs and wants. I just think that everyone should be included in that. It’s definitely time.”
Here’s the video for “Follow Your Arrow”:
jason smeds
To me, it just seems that they gave Kacey a pass because she’s female. If it were a man singing the song, I doubt that he would have won Song Of The Year. There is a LOT of anti-gay male discrimination in both country and pop. These genres seem to like lesbians/bi women but not gay/bi men.
jjose712
@jason smeds: You are wrong jason, they didn’t gave her a pass, in fact the song was banned on a lot country radio stations. The song peaked at 43 at country airplay (the lowest airplay peak for a song of the year in a lot of time).
But there are other lectures of this, the song was top 10 on billboard country, so yes, radio stations didn’t play it, but the song sold well, so there was interest in the song.
There are some pro gay rights country singers, from Carrie Underwood to Dierks Bentley, the difference is Kacey is really progressive, too progressive for country music. Merry go round is not exactly complacent with small town mentallity, and that has a price.
In fact Merry go round which her biggest hits barely was top 10 on country airplay, and it lost last year’s song of the year.
She is very talented, with a few exceptions (like Eric Church) creativity on country music is in the hands of women, but the truth is Carrie and Miranda apart is quite rare to see women in the top 10 of airplay.
In fact there’s a song (curiously on top 10 right now) of newcommers Maddie and Tae which mocks the views of women in country songs.
Anyway, till this year it was very rare to see gay people on pop charts. Sam Smith got the first number one on pop airplay for an openly gay singer ever. There’s no openly gay mainstream singers having success in any other genre (apart of dance tracks),
And you are wrong on the lesbians. Maybe the faux lesbian is something the works on pop (real lesbians have not easier than openly male singers, in fact any lesbian i remeber had a hit of Stay with me dimensions, and i have to look back to Melissa Etheridge I’m not the only one to remember a top 10 for a lesbian on pop charts), but on country music a lesbian has as difficult or even more than an openly gay singer.
Anyway, the award means that establishment want to open the doors, and that’s a start
Alan down in Florida
I don’t know how any discussion of this song can omit the fact that while Kacy Musgraves had the record of Follow Your Arrow she was only one of three writers on the song. The other two are the openly lesbian Brandi Clark (who was an also-ran in the Best New Artist Category) and the openly gay Sean MacAnally who is currently one of the hottest go-to songwriters in Nashville who won Grammys as co-songwriter of a different Kacy Musgraves record and one for co-producing Kacy’s album which both songs came from.
jason smeds
Sam Smith comes across as an asexual. Even if he is gay, his handlers won’t allow him to market his sexuality in the way they allow women to market a female bisexuality.
There is MUCH greater tolerance and acceptance shown towards women than towards men in the music industry as far as marketing of sexuality. Women can get away with totally manufacturing it, too. Just look at how Katy Perry was able to have a monster hit with I Kissed A Girl. This was 6 years ago. Why hasn’t a male singer been able to do it with a male version?
Also, where are the American male singers? Adam Lambert faded long ago. Sam Smith is British. Why aren’t the American male singers stepping up to the commercial plate with a homosexual marketing scheme?
The truth is it will never happen. The music industry won’t allow it. Women won’t allow it. Liberals won’t allow it. Women want to protect their hallowed turf of the bisexual double standard.
demented
@jason smeds: Exactly where does this society-shaping power for women come from? Why do we live in a society that has been patriarchal for ages if women can control men so easily? It’s almost like they DON’T.
Seriously, the most anti-gay era in human history (the Victorian age) was also one of the most misogynistic ones, when women could be be imprisoned in madhouses and have their uteruses yanked out merely for being insufficiently meek and subservient.
jjose712
@jason smeds: Sam Smith is not asexual, he is simply smart enough to make his songs relatable to everyone. He doesn’t want to sell sex (he doesn’t have the looks to do it either). He is doing exactly what Adele did, and nobody blame her to be asexual.
Adam Lambert had several problems that prevented him of being bigger (on radio and sales because his tours are very successful and he won more money that other idols who sold more records). First, his looks are not exactly what work in america. You have some singers with similar looks in europe, but in USA there’s noone.
Second, they totally mess the beginning of his career. They release Time for miracles when they have no intention to push it to radio (the song sold really well for a non single) messing the buzz around his first release. For your entertainment was a big mistake, the song is good, but it’s too racy. It’s not only that it woulnd’t work for him for being gay, it’s that type of song won’t work for nobody from american idol, because their audience is quite conservative.
And it was obvious his label only wanted to profit on his popularity without really promoting him, and that’s what happened with his second album. But he is not an exception, you can see what happened with a lot of american idol males second albums and you will see the pattern.
Adam became big on idol due to his ballads, yes his over the top performances had a lot of fans, but it were his ballads what made a lot of people care for him. Instead he release more danceable tracks, not a good idea. If you are a talent show contestant, you should go for what did good for you on the show at first, and then introduce new sounds to your fans.
There are a lot of gay singers who made explicit gay videos, but they are not mainstream.
And frankly, saying that liberals are the problem, when everybody knows how conservative are radio stations is ridiculous
petensfo
The song is cute enough but they really couldn’t teach her to dance at all?!
Desert Boy
I hope the Dixie Chicks get back together, release new music and tour again.
Oli1023
@jason smeds: First of all, how does Sam Smith come off as asexual? Are you making that judgment with any stereotypical views?
Secondly, you’re one of the few people who think that having that bisexual double standard is supported by women. Maybe start talking to the countless women who are intellectual and aware of social norms instead of 2 dollar prostitutes?
SteveDenver
@jjose712: You seem to really know this stuff. After reading your comment it seems as if young fans have embraced her music and the old farts who run radio stations still bow to cranky old conservative audiences.
Sammy Schlipshit
Country music and Nashville have become accepting?????
Try telling that to Chely Wright. She came out in a big way, had popular and hit songs while also starring in a wonderful documentary….Wish Me Away.
Ask her how her career took a nose dive after all that.
….and she is very talented with a great gift for performing.
Maude
So how come there’s so many Gay Cowboys?
Sammy Schlipshit
@Maude:
Gay cowboys and girls???? Why, they’re at the rodeo.
Check out this Lisa Ling documentary Sunday night on CNN.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/08/lisa-ling-gay-rodeo_n_6121250.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices
Alan down in Florida
@SteveDenver: Exactly. That’s why she pointed out how important the song was to country music. It managed to get widespread exposure in spite of country radio stations finding the song too controversial to play. In it’s own way it’s kind of like Maclemore & Ryan’s “The Same Love” which became a legitimate hit thanks to the fans dragging pop radio into the 21st Century.
@Sammy Schlipshit – Chely Wright’s career took a nosedive well before she came out. Admittedly the more popular she got the closer attention to her personal life became and people behind the scenes figured out her “secret” and she might have been discriminated against for that. She is still alive and happy and has recently reached her kickstarter (or one of the websites) campaign to finance a new CD which is due in 2015. Besides solo female vocalists (except for Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood) are an endangered species on country radio, the primary audience of which is housewives more interested in how hot the male singer is than the actual talent and lives and dies by the pretty boy flavor of the month who look and sound similar to each other.
dannysax
First off, Adam Lambert is a gay man, though maybe a little flamboyant at times, and his dance tracks were targeted to his main audience, gay people. Of course no self-respecting str8 person would shake their booty on the dance floor to a gay singer. Ha! And he does do ballads well but the high energy ones are exceptional too. If you check out his albums, he has both types of songs on them. He has not faded away, either, he’s the new singer for QUEEN! No one else I can think of could replace Freddie Mercury. Check out his videos with them. And he has tailored his appearance to be a little more conservative as well.
As far as country singers, it’s only a matter of time before the “old farts running country stations” die and more progressive managers come to the helm. More and more people (even in country music) are opening up to the fact that gay people are a lot like them except for who they love. Garth Brooks did a song with George Michael at the March on Washington in 2000, then they hugged; i saw it, i was there. Kacy, Chely, Steve Grand, and others will slowly be able to rid us of the oldfashioned intolerance in this country. And don’t forget K.D. Laing.
OzJosh
A cute little ditty… but Song of the Year?! Must have been a really lame year.
Curtispsf
Let’s face it…there will always be intolerant narrow minded folks who get their panties up in a bunch around LGBTQ folks and issues. And sadly, a lot of them live in the southern part of the USA and listen to country music. Music helps break down barriers and eventually being LGBTQ won’t be that big a deal in the country music industry, but there will always be a double standard. Being a lesbian will always be more acceptable than being a gay male to heterosexual guys.. Straight men think it’s kind of hot when two girls are together and they delude themselves into thinking that they could be part of a 3 way. But dicks are a lot harder to swallow (so to speak….but not for me). /|\
jjose712
@SteveDenver: Unfortunately is more the audiences that radio owners. A lot of djs liked the song but they know they can’t play it at their stations of they will be flooded with complaints.
Obviously there’s and audience for her songs. Her songs sell well (a lot better than their airplay indicates) and her album did well too.
dannysax: You are totally wrong, Adams albums are totally mainstream, and he had a good bunch of straight fans (in fact straight women are the biggest part of his fandom).
Followers are not a problem for him, his tours were a success, in fact he won more money than Scotty McCreary or Phillip Phillips (when they had way more success of radio that year).
The problem with Adam is till now, people behind his career only want to profit on his popularity without really promoting him.
Hopefully his new label promote him the right way to radio, because there’s no reason for him not translating his tour success into albums sales
LadyL
It’s maddening. This is stating the obvious I realize, but there are plenty of LGBT people living in Southern states who love and support country music. How many of them are out and proud may be open to question, but they’re there. And of course there are gay and lesbian country music artists; but for the few noted exceptions they’re all just keeping their heads down and their mouths shut to avoid any controversy and protect their chances for success.
The exact same problem exists in rap and hip hop; in their hypocrisy and denial the genres and their audiences are mirror images of each other.
LiamCregg
@jjose712:
Culture Club hit #1 in 1984
JackStorm
Is it only me that had big brown eyes welling with tears for yesterday today and tomorrow?