It’s summer in Ohio, and that means drinking fruity beer and listening to country music. For months now I’ve been tuning in to WGAR 99.5, Cleveland’s Hit Country Music Station, and recently I did a little experiment: I turned on the radio and decided to listen until one song, any song, was repeated. This gave me an entire hit cycle from which to draw conclusions about the fixations and inclinations of contemporary pop country. I jotted down the name, artist, keywords and major themes of each song and then combed my data for patterns. The experiment took three hours and twenty-eight minutes, during which time fifty-eight songs were played. The repeat song was “Springsteen” by Eric Church. Here are my findings:
1. Of the fifty-eight songs I heard, 9% of songs were by the band Rascal Flatts, 7% by Alan Jackson and 7% by Tim McGraw.
2. 67% of songs were sung by male solo artists. Another 19% were sung by all-male country bands, meaning 86% of songs were performed exclusively by male artists.
3. 12% of songs used the word “summer” or “summertime” in the chorus. Of these, 57% followed the word “summer” or “summertime” with the word “love,” “lovin’” or “blues.”
4. 26% of songs mentioned alcohol. Song titles include “Ten Rounds of Jose Cuervo,” “Beers Ago” and “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere.” Of this sample, 47% made an explicit connection between alcohol consumption and sexual intercourse, and 27% connected alcohol to emotional healing, particularly after a bad break-up. Brands of alcohol include Miller, Jack Daniels and Jim Beam.
5. 52% of songs mentioned cars. 70% of songs in which a male singer reminisced about his youth devoted one or more lines to speeding in a vehicle.
6. In 67% of cases where a song mentioned blue jeans, the wearer of the blue jeans was a dancing female.
7. 14% of songs were about or mentioned enjoying country and/or Southern music. Of these, 25% mentioned Hank Williams, and another 25% either mentioned or made an implicit reference to Lynyrd Skynyrd.
8. 19% of songs were rural anthems. Song titles included “Home Sweet Home,” “Water Tower Town,” “Hillbilly Bone,” “Where I Come From,” and a second song called “Where I Come From,” distinct from the first. 55% of rural anthems made explicit reference to Christianity, while 45% mentioned creeks and/or rivers and 27% mentioned the singer’s mother’s cooking.
9. 24% of songs made explicit reference to Christianity using keywords like “preacher,” “church,” and “Jesus.” These songs can be categorized as follows: songs about the pleasures and comforts of rural life (43%); songs about praying for emotional strength after a bad break-up and/or praying for a former lover’s return (22%); songs about men settling down/maturing with the help of Christ (21%); songs about bad boys seducing preachers’ daughters (14%).
10. New York City was the target of 100% of disparaging references to urban life.
Fascinating stuff. In conclusion, let’s all get drunk and go swimming in the creek.
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