We normally don't pay much attention to those who like to criticize country music, especially if they come from the a big city like Los Angeles (full disclosure: I live very close to Los Angeles), but we thought this article was a good read and had a few (somewhat obvious) insights about how to write a country-music hit today.
Interestingly enough, the author is David Horsey, a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist for the Los Angeles Times. The name Horsey seems like it would be a great tie-in with all things rural and country-oriented. But alas, he wants to simplify the state of today's country music with few well-worn cliches and gripes from some male and female country artists that make it sound like the music industry is heavily favoring the genre's young men. Although Horsey cites some evidence that more young men are being lured to country radio with all the pop-sounding songs sung about Southern girls, cold brews and tailgates, we're guessing it's more likely those same young men are interested in the large number of single females that like the style of Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean and Eric Church of the Nashville music scene.
Regardless of what is at the core of country music's staying power (we think it is clearly about the pickup trucks), we thought Horsey's editorial cartoon accompanying his article was pretty funny. Unfortunately, we don't have permission to reprint it, so you'll have click here to see it and read the article.
In the meantime, we've included what has become one of the best examples (or worst, depending on your perspective) of this "bro-country" phenomenon.
