So, over the weekend, there was a bit of a social media brouhaha over a Rolling Stone piece concerning the notion that people might be lying about whether or not they had heard the song “Choosin’ Texas” by Ella Langley. The song recently broke a record for nonconsecutive weeks as the number one song in the land with 23 weeks, beating out Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”
There are two distinct claims in that quote: whether people have “never heard of” the song or whether people have “never heard” the song.
Now, I had heard of the song because of politics. I forget who it was, but some far-right commentator (a Matt Walsh or Benny Johnson type) touted the song’s popularity as evidence of Real America’s resurgence, or somesuch. And it recently came up in a NYT piece that James Joyner wrote about two weeks ago.
I will note that said claims seem more than a bit overdetermined to me, but this is mostly not a post about politics, because my brain needs a palate cleanser.
At any rate, I had not actually heard the song (until yesterday).
Before I get into the song itself, let me respond to the Rolling Stone claim about “cultural cachet” because I think it remarkably misses the obvious: it isn’t 1990 anymore (or pick your year back when people consumed most of their music through the radio).
Speaking for myself, I haven’t tuned in to a radio for music in somewhere in the vicinity of two decades. I don’t even listen to NPR these days on the actual radio, and haven’t in some time. The last time I can remember radio-based music being a central feature of my life was in the 1990s when I was in graduate school and soon thereafter. I was also a satellite radio consumer in the early aughts and have occasionally dipped a toe into that realm since (although I used a recent three-month free trial precisely zero times), but that was pre-Spotify-on-my-phone. Who wants to hear commercials and DJs?
Still, I am a music guy. I listen to music constantly. And I am not just a “life in the past” kind of music consumer, as I am more than happy to try new things out.
But given my tastes and habits, it is simply unlikely I am going to hear Top 40 tunes, despite the fact that I can literally ask Siri to play pretty much any song I want via Spotify (which I did for “Choosin’ Texas” yesterday afternoon).
Sure, when I was 10, 20, and maybe even 30, I probably would have encountered the #1 song in the wild, but we don’t live in that world any longer.
And keep in mind: I am from Texas, live in Alabama, and reside in “the country.” I literally am hearing cows mooing as I write this from my front porch. And yet, I had to actively seek out the song to hear it. I did not avoid it actively, and I sought no “cultural cachet” by not hearing it.
Heck, while I don’t listen to new country music the way I did in my youth (lots of Willie and Waylon and the boys) or even early adulthood (back when George Strait and Garth Brooks ruled the roost), I am not opposed to it. The main problem, for me, is that most contemporary country music all sounds the same to me and seems overly focused on dudes and their trucks.
As such, I went into “Choosin’ Texas” with an open mind. My assessment: it’s fine. It sounds a bit like the 90s country I used to listen to driving around Austin. It comes across as a bit over-produced, but I liked it fine, although not enough to put in one of my playlists. I don’t understand why it is a #1 song, but if I knew how to produce #1 songs, I would have more money in the bank.
I will say that it is a bit of Gen X bait, as it references a number of songs from the old days (as defined by a Gen Xer), including “Amarillo by Morning” and “Smokey Mountain Rain.”
Here it is.
The setup (a geographical love dilemma involving Texas and Tennessee) kind of reminded me of Alan Jackson’s “Dallas.”
And, to a degree, it brought Lyle Lovett’s “That’s Right, You’re Not from Texas”
And, for kicks, George Strait’s “All My Exes Live in Texas.”
