'bro trend' in country music

[the Scribe]

Reba McEntire calls out the 'bro trend' in country music
Lauren Tyler 15 hours ago
www.yahoo.com/entertainment/reba-mcentires-problem-bro-trend-country-music-054946377.html

Reba McEntire sat down for an interview with Amna Nawaz on PBS NewsHour Tuesday night, and while talking about her career, the singer wasn’t shy about calling out “bro culture” in country music.

“Well, it’s the bro trend,” McEntire said. “Bro, let’s go down to the river and catch some fish. And everybody’s a good ol’ boy. And that’s the bro music.”

McEntire has been outspoken about the challenges women face while pursuing careers in country music. In February, McEntire was a guest on CBS This Morning, where she expressed frustration that all of the 54th Academy of Country Music Awards nominees for Entertainer of the Year were men. The lack of women nominees also angered many fans who took to Twitter to vent.

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While McEntire said the lack of women nominees was “disappointing,” she thinks it’s a sign women should strengthen their resolve to pursue country music.

“But when anything like that happens, I just know us gals got to work harder,” McEntire explained. “We got to support each other. We’ve got to get in there next year. It’s got to change.”

Fans tweeted their support for McEntire’s push for more inclusion in country music, as many hope to see more women nominees included in the ACMs next year.


The country music star believes it takes a lot of drive and sacrifice for women to succeed in such a male-dominated industry; however, she is hopeful that the tide for women is finally beginning to shift.

“I think it’s kind of going away from that a little bit. I would really like it to get back to the real strong country, the country of Merle Haggard, Conway Twitty, Ronnie Milsap, Mel Tillis,” McEntire told Nawaz. “I miss that kind of country.”

[erik]

For those who may have missed it, this "bro trend" in country music has been going on since at least 2012, via such "poseurs" as Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, the two chucklenuts that call themselves Florida-Georgia Line, and many others whom I'd rather not name (since why name morons??). These are guys that objectify women in the same way that gangsta-rappers have done for years. But instead of calling them "b****es" and "Ho's", the "bros" in country music seem to think that women should be hood ornaments on their pickup trucks and look like jailbait so that they can...and I can't put this in a G-rated way...f**k them.

This really reached its apex back in 2015, when the topic of women having so little time on country radio exploded out in the open, and a so-called "radio consultant" in Nashville by the name of Keith Hill said something to the effect that women are the "tomatoes" of the country music salad, and that the men, primarily the aforementioned "bros", are the "lettuce". Such is the sexist, misogynistic attitude that exists in country music (though all music formats are somewhat guilty of the same thing), and has for generations, even with Dolly, Loretta, Tammy, and others. It has gotten to the point now where the only two women that get any airplay on country radio are Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood; and it's mostly bread crumbs in comparison to The Bros. Even Kacey Musgraves, who seven weeks ago won the coveted Album Of The Year at the Grammys for Golden Hour, only the third time in the last fifty years that a country act got that award, is getting shafted.

You do have a number of newer female artists coming into the genre like Margo Price, Kelsey Waldon, and Lindi Ortega who seem to be shaking things up with individual approaches that are in the Linda/Emmylou tradition But good luck in hearing them on terrestrial or even satellite radio, folks.