According to my mother, from a very early age it was fairly obvious that I was going to grow up into a country music super-fan. As an infant my nursery had a radio in it and the only way my parents could get me to sleep was by playing Brooks and Dunn's hit preview album Brand New Man. Upon learning to talk I discovered CMT and every morning paraded around in my diaper and cowboy boots, sporting a wooden spoon as a microphone, and belted every word to B&D's single "Only in America" from the album Steers & Stripes. With that being said, you can only imagine my level of excitement when I caught wind in January 2019 of the fact that there was a new Brooks & Dunn project in the works; however, I couldn't help but wait for its release without a looming sense of curiosity as every song on the album was one I already knew. After listening to it, despite usually being a loyal fan to more traditional sounding country music, I couldn't help but loathe it for the masterpiece it was. To clarify, although I didn't want to enjoy the modern reinterpretations of these songs that I grew up loving, especially attributable to the amount of pop country music influence, I couldn't help but find myself driving way too fast with my truck windows down playing air guitar riffs along with Brothers Osbourne while listening to their collaboration on the sixth track of the album "Hard Workin' Man." As a result of these mixed emotions I spent a lot of time thinking, specifically on one broad idea: In the grand scheme of things, was this album beneficial for the evolution of country music?
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| Brooks & Dunn performing "Neon Moon" with Kacy Musgraves on March 1, 2019 at the Rhyman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee |
Growing up in a time that saw country music contract a disease-like subgenre referred to by its easily entertained fan base as "bro country," admittedly it was tough for me to decide how I felt about these Country Music Hall of Fame caliber artists willingly allowing less respected musicians come in and tamper with music that was already widely considered to be great. However, in coming to a final decision I had to venture back into the depths of my memories to a concert I attended my senior year of high school that featured Jessie Raub Jr., Mike Ryan, Cody Johnson, and iconic 90s and early 2000s singer Tracy Byrd. While seemingly normal, the obscure part about getting to see Tracy Byrd in concert was that he was the third act and Johnson was actually the headliner. Regardless of the lineup, the most memorable part of that concert was the way in which Byrd described why he chose to be an opening act for Johnson. To summarize, he basically said that he could have been headlining his own shows but chose to be Johnson's opening act so that he could expose younger audiences to his music, thus allowing his legacy to live on beyond his days of performing, metaphorically keeping himself young by having his music enjoyed by a younger generations. The significance of this is that the idea of remarketing music to younger crowds is the main idea of Reboot and Brooks & Dunn took it a step further by rebranding their songs with artists recognizable by younger country music fans ultimately leading to the initial commercial success the album has already received since its release on April 5, 2019. To elaborate, while the album has caught the attention of long time fans like myself looking for new interpretations and thematic changes based on the changes to their classic songs, it has received the majority of its appreciation from a younger audience most of whom unaware that the duo had more songs than "Boot Scootin' Boogie" and "Play Something Country."
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| Ronnie Dunn and Kix Brooks in the studio with Luke Combs working on their collaboration on Reboot''s opening track "Brand New Moon" |
Although certain tracks from the album lose some of the things that made them memorable to traditional country fans, like the sentimental acoustic guitar intro to "Neon Moon" being swapped in for an electronically produced beat for Kacy Musgraves' rendition, the album's symbolic meaning in terms of the evolution of country music as a genre is ignorable. In a country music world that is seeing its fans being polarized further and further apart as time passes similar to the division between the Republican and Democratic parties in congress, Reboot is Brooks & Dunn's way of conveying that there is somewhere to meet in the middle. By expanding their area of influence upon younger audiences Brooks & Dunn are stating the fact that country music can be both traditional and have influences from "bro country," but still be audibly pleasurable for both fan bases. More generally, by releasing Reboot Brooks & Dunn have created a means of connecting older and younger country music fans by coupling familiar songs with new sounds and techniques like the funky, modern saxophone outro on Brett Young's collaboration for a new "Nothin' Bout You" (which is pretty bad ass if you haven't gotten the chance to hear it). To tie it all together, while only time will be able to tell if Reboot is beneficial in the large-scale terms of the evolution of country music, what is definitive is that Brooks & Dunn have kickstarted a revival of uniting country music fans, despite years of tension and polarization between traditional and "bro " country fans.
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| Brooks & Dunn following a reunion performance at the 2015 ACM Awards Show |
For anyone looking for some good music I think understanding the qualities of what makes music "good" transcend genre. While the purpose of this blog is to discuss country music I also enjoy several different types of music, so check out my weekly playlists posted every Monday night on Apple Music and Spotify (links below).
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