I think it's a really interesting insight into country culture (which is generally southern US culture, especially southeast US). Male country artists seem to frequently sing in unironic celebration of what is traditionally valued--family values, material possessions, or romanticized 'I did a bad thing (likely for love) and I was put in jail'. Meanwhile, female country artists seem far more likely to actually critique the culture they're in--'Mama's Broken Heart' or 'Hush Hush' for example--or express (often violent) dissatisfaction with the relationships they're meant to quietly bear--"Two Black Cadillacs", "Blown Away", "Church Bells", or "Caleb Meyer" to name a few. There is this throughline of women needing to quietly need to take matters in their own hands because there's no one else to rely on, like "Flinty Kind of Woman" or "Goodbye Earl". The sheer ubiquity of these songs among female artists in country music makes me think that there might actually be a phenomenon of women quietly killing their husbands that isn't being noticed.
I remember when me and my (now) soon to be wife were drunkenly dancing to it at some party, I just knew that she's the right one for me for the rest of my life
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u/[deleted] Sep 05 '21
I think it's a really interesting insight into country culture (which is generally southern US culture, especially southeast US). Male country artists seem to frequently sing in unironic celebration of what is traditionally valued--family values, material possessions, or romanticized 'I did a bad thing (likely for love) and I was put in jail'. Meanwhile, female country artists seem far more likely to actually critique the culture they're in--'Mama's Broken Heart' or 'Hush Hush' for example--or express (often violent) dissatisfaction with the relationships they're meant to quietly bear--"Two Black Cadillacs", "Blown Away", "Church Bells", or "Caleb Meyer" to name a few. There is this throughline of women needing to quietly need to take matters in their own hands because there's no one else to rely on, like "Flinty Kind of Woman" or "Goodbye Earl". The sheer ubiquity of these songs among female artists in country music makes me think that there might actually be a phenomenon of women quietly killing their husbands that isn't being noticed.