This post was originally published on November 12, 2014.
According to a recent Huffington Post piece, country music and binge drinking are blossoming from a casual relationship to straight up until-death-do-us-part marriage. And this is significant since country music is more popular than ever: of the top 10 selling albums in America in 2013, three were country and only one was rock. Nashville mega star Luke Bryan was the number two best selling artist of 2013, behind only Justin Timberlake. Meanwhile Florida Georgia Line’s country song “Cruise” was the fourth most downloaded song, ahead of everything by Katy Perry and Lorde. Toby Keith raked in $65 million dollars, Taylor Swift $64 and Kenny Chesney $44.
It turns out that more than 10 percent of the top country songs contain drinking references in the titles alone—double 2012’s percentage—including Dierks Bentley’s “Drunk on a Plane,” Lady Antebellum’s “Bartender” and Brad Paisley’s “River Bank” (about some guy with a six-pack of beer literally dreaming about tequila shots). The list goes on: “Cold One” by Eric Church, “Sunshine & Whiskey” by Frankie Ballard and the rather simply titled “Rum” by Brothers Osborn.
Of course, the partnership between drinking and country music isn’t entirely new but in the 90s, some of these guys actually got sober. Chesney had a song about AA called “That’s Why I’m Here” and Diamond Rio sang about it in “You’re Gone.” But AA isn’t big money and Nashville is an expensive town.
Sure, a lot of music promotes illicit activity and a lot of that music is played on the radio across the US. But it seems like this is actually having an impact on people’s behavior. As The Washington Post recently reported, a 22-year-old guy was found dead in a landfill after being seen as “extremely intoxicated” at a Jason Aldean concert in Cleveland and a drunk 18-year-old guy was accused of raping a drunk 17-year-old girl at a Keith Urban concert in Mansfield, Massachusetts. That Keith Urban concert actually spawned local law enforcement and hospitals to declare a “mass casualty incident” after the show because of all the alcohol-related accidents brought into the ER that night. Officials don’t throw that term around lightly, either. Mass casualty incidents are usually terrorist attacks or natural disasters, not concerts with guys wearing bedazzled plaid.
One contributing factor: Taylor Swift has introduced country music to a younger generation, an audience that would normally turn their noses at it, thinking it was nothing more than something that weird kid listened to in school. With the rise of alcoholism promotion and the combination of young girls at these concerts, the results are awful. Pittsburgh’s mayor was pissed, too, when his Heinz Field football stadium was covered in trash mountains after a Kenny Chesney-Tim McGraw double headlining show that also caused numerous arrests and fights as well as hundreds of 911 calls.
Every news outlet from Billboard to Forbes says the same thing: the problem is tailgating. People do the same for sporting events of course but once inside, they’re exposed to athletes who are in perfect shape and displaying fitness and health to its finest and most inspirational potential. These concerts literally promote the opposite. These concerts are for bro’s. And no, I didn’t come up with that. Fox, The Washington Post and The New York Times, to name a few, have all cited “bro culture” as the issue with country music right now. Bro culture is huge money for record labels in a disastrous musical economy.
Some say that rap music causes the same issues as country music but I beg to differ. Snoop Dogg was a member of the Crips and rapped for his community about the violent things and parties they were throwing. It wasn’t for 14-year-old girls but 20-something gang bangers. There are a few arrests at a Beyonce/Jay Z concert, sure, but country music is promoting getting away with DUI’s as everyone dehydrates with alcohol and salty foods.
I’m concerned and not about the millionaires singing the lyrics. Give me a break and give them a permanent one; these guys make $30 million a year. I’m talking about how country music has swung from songs the mainstream made fun of to happy-go-lucky tunes about getting shitfaced. I say swing that pendulum back—before even more people get hurt.
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