You
love country music. Who wouldn't? Sure, it may be simple and
repetitive, but some people say there's brilliance in simplicity. Well,
maybe not some people, but I just did. Heartbreak, Jesus, a cold one,
and a suspiciously lavish, jacked-up truck that isn't reflective of the
town's median income. Rinse. Repeat. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
No, but do fix it, though. And with your bare hands; this is country music for Christ's sake.
Or Christ for country music's sake.
Once
the twang of that third and final chord hits your ears, it wraps around
your heart like fishing line and pulls you away from that pretentious
uptown apartment in the city that everyone outside of farming
communities are presumed to have, and back down to Earth so that you can
see that the key to life truly is simplicity. And an expensive tool
set. And a barn full of pesticides and other biological agents
engendered by the miracle of modern chemistry. And an advanced knowledge
of contemporary agricultural science.
Okay maybe not so simple, but who hasn't asked themselves what white people in Kentucky are doing on Saturday nights?
The only state where "Gettin' Lucky" is one of the most unlucky things that could happen.
There's
just one problem with country music: it glorifies breaking both the
laws of God and men. Here are a few of the worst offenses.
STALKINGPunishment: Up to 1 year in prison and $1,000 fine for first offense (Louisiana) |
At first glance, you may think country singer Tyler Farr's song "Redneck Crazy" is just another Texas Chainsaw Massacre
installment. But it's really about a man who wants to "park this
Silverado on your front lawn," also known as trespassing and destruction
of property, "get my pissed off on" (very different than getting off by
getting pissed on), and "lean my headlights into your bedroom windows"
because his girlfriend was getting a little action on the side from a
man with a smaller truck. I'm not kidding, though: "he can't amount to
much, by the look of that little truck."
If all of that wasn't egregious enough, he also intends on throwing "empty beer cans at both of your shadows" from his truck.
Which brings us to the next moral infraction...
DRINKING AND DRIVINGPunishment: Up to $1,200 fine and 90-day license suspension for first offense (Alabama) |
The worst part is that car was a Transformer.
While
country crooner Jason Aldean is "swervin' like I'm George Jones" down a
country road, he admits that he's got "an ice cold beer sittin' in the
console" in his song, "Dirt Road Anthem."
Country's newest heartthrobs Florida Georgia Line
mention that "a little something bumping, thump, thumping on the wheel
ride, the mix in our drink's a little stronger than you think" in their
new single "This Is How We Roll." That bump, thump, thumping may just be
a fine member of the Florida and/or Georgia State Patrol knocking on
your window ready to "roll" you right back to the station.
CRIMINAL HOMICIDE Punishment: Death or life without parole for capital offense (Texas) |
RIP Buzz Lightyear.
Well,
we've got women chronicling pre-meditated murder in both The Dixie
Chicks' "Goodbye Earl" and Miranda Lambert's "Gunpowder and Lead," but
because both of those are women responding to domestic violence, thus
possibly considered morally defensible to some people (but not the
State), we'll ignore them.
However, in "Ol' Red," Blake Shelton
laments: "Well, I caught my wife with another man and it cost me 99."
You may think that this was merely another prison blues ballad, but we
learn that the entire song narrates a tale of the protagonist playing
wingman for a blue-tick hound that was "pretty as she could be" so that
he can escape, and we can rally around him. Considering he talks about
everyone and their dog's sexual exploits except his own, it's not hard
to imagine what prison was like.
THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS OF TAYLOR SWIFTPunishment: Eternal damnation (Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Creed) |
It's
universally known that Taylor Swift is above reproach. Common knowledge
says that this phenomenon is propagated by everyone's fear that she'll
put them in a song. But what if it's because she's a demon forged from
gnashing teeth in the deepest sulfur lakes of hell that feeds off of the
tears and money of our children?
1. Lust
In
"22," Taylor Swift exclaims in an outburst of ardor: "You look like bad
news, I gotta have you." And again for emphasis, "I gotta have you."
2. Gluttony
Taylor
talks about a bitchin' party in "Love Story" with ball gowns and
dancing and gardens and balconies. Could be a little much? Sure, she
does use two analogies that are totally novel and have never ever been
done before in referencing The Scarlet Letter, as well as Romeo and Juliet. Giving her that creatively is still overshadowed
by the fact that the song and video are loosely based upon a story
about two families that were so excessively wealthy, the most menacing trouble plaguing them was what their last names were.
3. Greed
Taylor
Swift does critically examine the fame, fortune, and flashing lights in
"The Lucky One," but she made $55 million last year, bringing her net
worth to $200 million. You don't get that sort of money by climbing down
from a sycamore tree and giving half of what you own to the poor.
4. Sloth
Taylor
Swift seems to be working pretty hard for all of that money. Yet in
"Mine" she talks about her significant other waiting tables while she
was busy...being a flight risk? She also mentions "SITTING there by the
water" with her boyfriend and also "LYING on the couch." Doesn't sound
like she's got a whole lot going on, now does it? Jesus WALKED on the
water and JUMPED onto the couch on Oprah to profess his love for Katie Holmes. Don't think about it, just move on.
5. Wrath
We
all remember Kanye interrupting Taylor Swift. Well, maybe all of us
except for Kanye, who still thinks he's part of an elaborate Truman
Show. In Taylor's song "Mean," she doesn't forgive and forget, but
clearly expresses that her rage lives on as she reduces her anger muse
to a "liar" and "pathetic." After threatening to tell her ex's friends
that he's gay (which she clearly intends condescendingly), she commits
arson to fuel the fire of her vengeance in "Picture to Burn."
6. Envy
In
high school, everyone had that bitchy girl in homeroom named Ashley who
had perfect blonde hair, perfect skin, no freckles, and twirled her
hair and bobbed side to side gracefully as she laughed and reported you
to the principal for stealing her toe nail clippings. We get it. But
when Taylor Swift's "Ashley" starts a relationship with her guy friend,
she isn't exactly happy for them in the song "You Belong With Me."
7. Pride
Pride is often seen as the deadliest of the Seven Deadly Sins.
It's the Bruce Lee riding atop a predator drone after an 8-ball of
deadly sins. Taylor Swift's self-righteousness is thinly-veiled in the
songs "Dear John" and again in "Mean." Her pride is most clearly
demonstrated by "We Are Never Getting Back Together," in which she
explains why she's done with her ex and she's such a catch (but not
enough of a catch for her guy friend in "You Belong With Me"
apparently).
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