Najera 1

Laura Najera

Professor Mooney

ENC 1102

27 October 2019

C.A.R.S Introduction

When I first moved to the United States at twelve years old, I decided I was going to

learn the American accent by constantly listening to English songs. Unbeknownst to me at the

time, my genre of choice had been Country music, and thus it marked the start of my love for the

genre. I became obsessed with country music, going as far as to writing plenty of songs in the

genre and wanting to make my songwriting my career one day. I moved to Nashville in 2017 and

as it is common with my career path of choice, I started playing my songs at bars and writers

rounds around town. Very quickly, I started to notice the abundance of female songwriters at

these writers rounds, writing sessions, cafes, as well as performing at other venues around town,

with only a few male songwriters making it to these events. The inequality of the genders was

even felt when observing the attendance of industry networking groups such as the Copyright

Society, CMA EDU, Grammy U, and many more. Interestingly enough, despite the relatively

small number of male songwriters around town in relation to their female counterparts, they

seemed to be getting signed to a record label or having their song cut by a major artist at a higher

rate. I started to wonder why that is. Are there fundamental differences between the lyrics of the

songs written by a woman versus those written by a man? I thought that if I figured out to this

fundamental question, I could figure out why there was a lack of female songwriters’ songs

making it on the radio.

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An article in my research by Stacy Smith specifically mentions the lack of female

songwriters making it to the top charts of the country and shows concrete data for this

assessment. Moreover, the article written by Lafrance also mentions the gender disparities in the

Billboard Top 40 and the lack of female representation throughout the recent years in the charts.

Although these studies were not geared specifically towards the genre of country music, instead

generalized through all the top songs in the country, the conclusions that these studies made can

be estimated to be translated to country music.

Despite country music being an under-researched music genre, I still found articles

addressing the rhetorical differences that are employed in the songs led by a female artist versus

those led by male artists, such as Densley’s article and Cenate Pruitt’s article. Both of these

articles mention the recurrence of gender roles in country music while also differentiating the

gender of the artists that enforced these more through their lyrics. Despite this, these articles fail

to mention the difference between the songwriters and the artists, and although this can be the

same person at times, the person behind the lyrics of the song can be of a completely different

gender than that who is singing the song. This is where I place my studies. In addition to this,

most of the articles that I found have research that does not go beyond the year 2014, and thus

neglects the rise of the mashup between the rap inspired songs popular today in country music. I

plan to address this as well, having my research come up to the current date. Additionally, due to

the fact that the rhetoric in the writing of genres can influence the specific group who consumes

the material, according to the articles by Dirk and Downs, I also examined the correlation

between the mentions of gender roles and/or objectifying language in the songs written by

female songwriters and those by male songwriters, since these might affect the perceptions of the
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genders in the country music industry and thus perpetuate the continuation of the gender

inequalities currently observed.

In this article, I effectively analyze the rhetoric of the texts of the current chart-topping

songs, separating between the songs written by predominantly male songwriters and those

written by female songwriters. Additionally, I conduct an archival analysis which depicts the

inequality between the frequency of appearances of female songwriters in the top charts and

those of male songwriters, while effectively transferring my finding into numerical data that is

more easily accessible to my audience. Lastly, I conduct an analysis of the rhetoric used in

these female written songs that do make it to the Billboard Top 10 and try and find any

connections or similarities between them. By doing so, I will supplement the ongoing research

that is thoroughly lacking in the genre of country music and raise awareness of the

inconsistencies in the representation of women in the genre.

Annotation Bibliography

Densley, Rebecca, and Eric Rasmussen. “Girl in a Country Song: Gender Roles

and Objectification of Women in Popular Country Music across 1990 to 2014.” ​Sex

Roles,​ vol. 76, no. 3–4, Feb. 2017, pp. 188–201. ​EBSCOhost,​

DOI:10.1007/s11199-016-0670-6. For this article, the authors conducted a study where

they analyzed the lyrics of 750 popular country songs from the year 1990 until the year

2014. By doing so, they answered their most pertinent questions, including how country

songs portray women and whether or not these songs seemed to depict them in specific

gender roles, as objectified, and then analyzing how this depiction had changed over
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time. They wanted to understand whether there were any differences in the portrayal of

women based on the gender of the singer and whether these have also changed over time.

Their study is extremely in-depth in defining what exactly constitutes a lyric that

objectifies women or that sets a gender role upon them and going as far as to separate the

data into various graphs showcasing their findings clearly and effectively.

This study is crucial to my research question since they investigated very similar

topics to my own, although their time frame ended in 2014 and I plan to extend my

research to cover the remaining years since. Additionally, they focus more on the

genders of the song’s singers and fail to address the writers behind those same songs,

although these might sometimes overlap, and thus is still helpful. By extending my

research to cover the next half of our current decade, I would be including the rap

inspired transition that the sound of popular country music is currently undergoing, and

thus I could use this article and it’s data to compare it to past years. The article relates to

the other articles in my research because it addresses its concern over the growth in

“bro-country” that is also mentioned in the article by Cenate Pruitt and it addresses the

historical background of gender roles in country music that can also be seen in the

article by Lesley Pruitt.

Dirk, Kerry. "Navigating Genres." Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, edited by Charles Iowe

and Pavel Zemliansky, vol. 1, Parlor Press, 2010, pp. 249-61. Here, Dirk breaks down

what genres really are defined as a word for a “category” of writing that is similar to each

other. He explains that each genre has specific characteristics that make them unique and

thus places pieces of writing into these categories. He explains that these categories are
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not a negative thing, that in reality, they help the author to find their audience and

distinguishing the best method to approaching how they will deliver the message that

they want to convey.

Dirk’s piece goes hand in hand with Down’s piece since he plays off how

important rhetoric is in the context of the genre. He mentions that it is important to know

how to write to a specific group of people of a genre, with the rhetoric that they are used

to understanding. That way there are no misunderstandings and the message is conveyed

effectively. By reading Dirk’s piece it helped me understand through my research the

importance of differentiating whether the songwriters were using sexualizing or

objectifying language, or whether the phrases mentioned in the lyrics were commonly

used in the genre. Despite this understanding, it also helped me realize that although these

might be important differentiations, they also matter depending on the context that they

were being said in.

Downs, Doug. ​"Rhetoric: Making Sense of Human Interaction and MeaningMaking."

Writing about Writing: A College Reader, by Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs,

UCF 3rd ed., Bedford/St. Martins, 2017, pp. 457-83. In this piece, the author defines the

different definitions of the word rhetoric and why it is so difficult to define. He goes

ahead and tries to explain to the reader by using examples as to how the rhetoric in

writing is extremely important as to how people interact with each other and all meaning

is created through writing. He does not just try and define rhetoric as a writing tool, but

he also extends it to let the reader understand that rhetoric is everywhere, from every

conversation they have to every piece of written communication they hold. Through this,
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he makes a compelling case as to why rhetoric is such a vague term, and thus he sections

its definition into several different categories. He mentions that the rhetorical elements

include the author’s motivation to write the piece, their context, their narrative, their

identification, and even their values and reasonings.

This is an incredibly valuable source for my research seeing as to how I am

dissecting the rhetoric used by female and male songwriters and how they differ. To do

this, I first have to know what rhetoric even means, and thus I must convey that same

definition to my target audience. Additionally, by knowing how rhetoric comes about, I

can fully deduce how the differences in their writing could connect to their personal lives

and their goals. This article serves as an aid for understanding all of my articles, not just

my primary data.

Lafrance, Marc, et al. “Race, Gender, and the Billboard Top 40 Charts between 1997 and 2007.”

Popular Music and Society,​ vol. 41, no. 5, pp. 522–538. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.1080/03007766.2017.1377588. In this article, it is analyzed trends both in the

writing and in the performance of the songs in the Billboard Hot 100 from the year 1997

to the year 2007 in relation to gender. This study finds out that throughout these years

both the songs on the top charts and the revenue made by music sales was widely

dominated by male artists, with a high disparity between the frequency of female artists

in these charts and male artist. It also analyzed how for female artists, they are more

prone to having their music not only not reach extreme heights in revenue, sales, or

airplay but are more likely to see that their men counterparts “worst showings” be closer

to their “best showings”.

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Due to this study, I was able to fully grasp the scope of inequality in the music

industry, not just in country music. Although this source does not talk much about the

content of the songs and their rhetorical relevance, it brings the reality of the matter into

perspective of how no matter how well or how cleverly a woman songwriter might have

conveyed her message, due to her gender or the gender of who cut her song, her song

would have not performed as well it would have if the same song had been written or

sung by a man; a connection also made in Lesley Pruitt’s article.

Pruitt, Cenate. “‘Boys ‘Round Here’: Masculine Life-Course Narratives in Contemporary

Country Music.” ​Social Sciences,​ no. 6, 2019, p. 176. ​EBSCOhost,​

DOI:10.3390/socsci8060176. Pruitt’s article tackles the male ideals that are constantly

depicted in country music and how these are categorized into three main “types” of men.

He goes into extreme detail as to what each category is defined by and even adds on

small subcategories of such. Pruitt continues his research by following what the ideal life

path these men take, what it entails, and how this path is a reoccurring theme in this

genre. He does this by reviewing 35 chart-topping country songs and analyzing their

word choice and overall tonality of the piece. Additionally, he makes a distinction as to

how women usually talk about men in their songs in comparison to how men talk about

themselves in their own songs. Finally, he addresses how the outside world might look at

these men and how these songs might influence their listeners, especially men, into

idolizing such a lifestyle.

This article is important to my study because it shows the other side of the coin; it

reveals the fact that there are also various gender roles that country music places on men
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and thus reveals the effects it might have on society. Additionally, this helps me

understand why there are so many songs sang by male country artists that depict women

in an objectifying way or in a way that pushes them into certain gender roles, according

to the article “Girl in a Country Song…” by Rebecca Densley and Eric Rasmussen.

Moreover, Pruitt brings up several points also talked about in Ryan’s piece. Ryan takes

these stereotypes a step further and compares them to the male stereotypes in the genera

of rap music.

Pruitt, Lesley. “Real Men Kill and a Lady Never Talks Back: Gender Goes to War in

Country Music.” ​International Journal on World Peace​, vol. 24, no. 4, 2007, pp. 85–106.

JSTOR​, DOI: 10.2307/20752803. In this article, Pruitt goes into detail into the idea of

how the same message spread in the music of a female singer can be reacted to very

differently if spread by a male singer. It shows the gender bias in society, especially in

the country music community, of what it says it not acceptable for a woman to say and

advocate even though it might be completely acceptable and welcomed from a man. To

do this, Pruitt prepared a discourse analysis for the band the Dixie Chicks, an all-female

trio, and the country singer-songwriter Willie Nelson and their stance against war and

how differently it was reviewed by society. Here it was seen that while their anti-war

messages were the same, the Dixie Chicks were perceived extremely negatively in the

media and by the public calling them “sluts”, “traitors”, and full of “adolescent remarks”

while Willie Nelson was instead revered for his “valient outcries” and having “moral

fiber”.
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I can use the discrepancies in the treatment of the gender’s lyrics and messages

showcased in this article to help me understand why it is generally more socially

acceptable for men to not analyze their lyrics to see whether or not they are imposing a

gender bias. This can explain why more men cut songs written by songwriters that

impose different gender roles, as it is explained by Densley’s article. This is also

important to my research because it analyzes what gender generally has more power to

affect society and has its beliefs listened to, valued, and understood. This also ties into

my research because it demonstrates that the lack of female representation on the radio

and of female songwriters’ songs can be driven by societies perception of the importance

of what women have to say, as explained by Dirk’s piece, genres have the power to help

or hurt human interaction and to make someone, in this case women, not say something

or stray from what has been done.

Ryan, John, et al. “Gender or Genre? Emotion Models in Commercial Rap and Country Music.”

Popular Music & Society,​ vol. 20, Summer 1996, pp. 121–154. ​EBSCOhost,​

DOI:10.1080/03007769608591624. Ryan’s article focuses on the similarities and

differences between commercial rap and contemporary country music, specifically to

bring the focus to radio stations and record labels and how they tend to choose songs to

release that use similar themes and rhetoric that are common in their genre. It goes even

further to try and examine how these themes bring about subcultures of people with

similar emotional experiences. In his article he mentioned how strong the connection is

between the gender of the singer and the song that gets selected to reach the masses

through the radio in both rap music and country music; even stating that when women
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make it into the top charts in these genres, it becomes national news. Throughout the

article, Ryan tries to develop an explanation for the development of these disparities in

these genres by drawing on the similarities of both to try and figure out the core reason to

the gender inequalities.

This article will be essential to my research since it focuses more on the reasoning

behind the inequality in representation between women and men on the radio. Since it

uses examples from both the rap genre and country music, this source will be very useful

to me when I am trying to paint a coherent picture in my paper. Additionally, this article

combines several topics explored in the article by Cénate Pruitt and Rebecca Densley,

both of which explore the gender roles and stereotypes continuously seen in country

music.

Smith, Stacy L., et al. "Inclusion in the Recording Studio? Gender and Race/Ethnicity of Artists,

Songwriters & Producers across 600 Popular Songs from 2012-2017." USC Annenberg

Inclusion Initiative, Jan. 2018. EBSCOhost, assets.uscannenberg.org/docs/inclusion

-in-the-recording-studio.pdf. This article written on the study done by the University of

Southern California sheds light on the lack of inclusion of female artists, songwriters,

producers, and engineers in the music industry. It analyzes 1,239 current artists and 600

songs in our country’s popular music to understand just how big the gap in the

representation of female artists. It finds that on average throughout the years 2012 and

2017 on average, only 12.3% of the total songs analyzed were written by women and thus

87.7% of the songs were written by men. It even states that the top 9 male songwriters

were responsible for around 20% of all the 600 most popular songs between these years.
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On the same note, throughout these years only 83 credits went to the top 9 female

songwriters, while the top 9 male songwriters had over 100 more credits, coming at 185.

These numbers are all important to my research since they demonstrate the

numerical data of the discrepancies I personally noticed before starting my research. This

study made me even more motivated to find out if there were any real rhetorical

differences between the songs written by a female songwriter and those written by men. I

know that although this study was done looking over the top charts of all the combined

genres, these numbers can be estimated to be very similarly translated onto the specific

genre of country music. This source compares a lot to the article by Lafrance, since they

both speak of the representation of the genders in the music industry, although Smith’s

article goes in-depth in talking the representation of songwriters and the huge gender gap

observed throughout the years.

Primary Data:

“Love You Too Late” by Cole Swindell, Michael Carter, and Brandon Kinney (male
songwriters):

I wish this whisky

Would make her miss me
Like I wish she did
I wish she did
Pouring up another one
Won't change what I should've done
Before she left, now all that's left is
Mile by mile and city by city
She's getting over me and man
It ain't pretty, no
She's out there rolling down some old interstate
Wide open, wide open, couldn't make her stay
Probably cranking up some new freedom song
Wide open, wide open, won't pick up the phone
While I'm dying here tonight
Staring goodbye in the face
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Saying I love you too late

Too late
I can't take back what
I never said but
If I could, man I would
Try and make her see
That me and Tennessee want her back
I wish it worked like that, yeah
If I had half a clue
Where she was heading now
I'd do what I had to do
To make her turn her car around
She's out there rolling down some old interstate
Wide open, wide open, couldn't make her stay
Probably cranking up some new freedom song
Wide open, wide open, won't pick up the phone
While I'm dying here tonight
Staring goodbye in the face
Saying I love you too late
Too late
Yeah I shoulda held her close
I shoulda let her know
How I felt about 'er
'Bout a couple county lines ago
She's out there rolling down some old interstate
Wide open, wide open, I couldn't make her stay
Probably cranking up some new freedom song
Wide open, wide open, won't pick up the phone
While I'm dying here tonight
Staring goodbye in the face
Saying I love you too late
Too late, yeah
Yeah I love you too late
I can't take back what
I never said but
If I could, damn I would

“Beer Never Broke My Heart” by Luke Combs, Randy Montana, and Jonathan Singleton
(male songwriters):

I've had a largemouth bass bust my line

A couple beautiful girls tell me, "Goodbye"
Trucks break down, dogs run off
Politicians lie, been fired by the boss
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It takes one hand to count the things I can count on

No, there ain't much, man, that ain't ever let me down
Long-neck ice-cold beer never broke my heart
Like diamond rings and football teams have torn this boy apart
Like a neon dream, it just dawned on me, that bars and this guitar
And long-neck ice-cold beer never broke my heart

She was a Carolina blue-jean baby

Fire in her eyes that drove me crazy
It was red tail-lights when she left town
If I didn't know then, I sure know now
But long-neck ice-cold beer never broke my heart
Like diamond rings and football teams have torn this boy apart
Like a neon dream, it just dawned on me, that bars and this guitar
And long-neck ice-cold beer never broke my heart
It takes one hand to count the things I can count on
But I got one hand that's gripping down on a cold one
'Cause long-neck ice-cold beer never broke my heart
Like diamond rings and football teams have torn this boy apart
Like a neon dream, it just dawned on me, that bars and this guitar
And long-neck ice-cold beer never broke my heart, no
It never broke my heart

“Kinfolks” by Sam Hunt, Zack Crowell, Jerry Flowers, Josh Osborne (male songwriters):

I saw you going by, I had to say hello

I saw you going by, I had to say hello
I don't mean to pry, but girl, I gotta know
What is your name?
How come I ain't seen you around before? Tell me
Now you know I ain't ever had a type, having a type takes two
But I know what I like, and you're the only one of you
You're something else (damn)
And I know we just met, but
I wanna introduce you to my kinfolks, to my old friends
To the house in the pines where the road ends
Take you to my hometown, where I grew up
Where I thought I knew it all before I knew what love was
Gave up on it, but honey, you got my hopes up
And I'm thinking that I wanna introduce you to my kinfolks
I wanna take you home, not just take you home tonight
Get Joanie on the phone, she'll leave us on a light
I wanna see the way you look up under all those stars, yeah
You don't need to talk, word's gonna get around
They'll tell you how they thought I'd never settle down
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Out on the porch, ain't it funny the way things change?

I wanna introduce you to my kinfolks, to my old friends
To the house in the pines where the road ends
Take you to my hometown, where I grew up
Where I thought I knew it all before I knew what love was
Gave up on it, but honey, you got my hopes up
And I'm thinking that I wanna introduce you to my kinfolks
I want you tonight
I don't ever wanna be without
I don't wanna wait around for the right time
I wanna introduce you to my kinfolks, to my old friends
To the house in the pines where the road ends
Take you to my hometown, where I grew up
Where I thought I knew it all before I knew what love was
Gave up on it, but honey, you got my hopes up
And I'm thinking that I wanna introduce you to my kinfolks

“The Bones” by Marren Morris, Laura Veltz, and Jimmy Robbins ( two female
songwriters and one male songwriter):
We're in the homestretch of the hard times
We took a hard left, but we're alright
Yeah, life sure can try to put love through it, but
We built this right, so nothing's ever gonna move it
When the bones are good, the rest don't matter
Yeah, the paint could peel, the glass could shatter
Let it rain 'cause you and I remain the same
When there ain't a crack in the foundation
Baby, I know any storm we're facing
Will blow right over while we stay put
The house don't fall when the bones are good
Call it dumb luck, but baby, you and I
Can't even mess it up, although we both try
No, it don't always go the way we planned it
But the wolves came and went and we're still standing
When the bones are good, the rest don't matter
Yeah, the paint could peel, the glass could shatter
Let it rain 'cause you and I remain the same
When there ain't a crack in the foundation
Baby, I know any storm we're facing
Will blow right over while we stay put
The house don't fall when the bones are good
When the bones are good
Bones are good, the rest, the rest don't matter (baby, it don't really matter)
Paint could peel, the glass could shatter (oh, the glass, oh, the glass could shatter)
Bones are good, the rest, the rest don't matter (ooh)
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Paint could peel, the glass, the glass could shatter (yeah)
When the bones are good, the rest don't matter
Yeah, the paint could peel, the glass could shatter
Let it rain (let it rain, let it rain)
'Cause you and I remain the same (woo)
When there ain't a crack in the foundation (woo)
Baby, I know any storm we're facing
Will blow right over while we stay put
The house don't fall when the bones are good

“It All Comes Out in the Wash” by Miranda Lambert, Hillary Lindsey, Lori McKenna,
and Liz Rose (all female songwriters):
If you wear a white shirt to a crawfish boil
Stonewashed jeans while you're changing the oil
When you find yourself dating the bridesmaid's ex
You accidentally bring him to the wedding, whoops
If you pour yourself a Merlot to go
You dip your fries in your ketchup on a bumpy road
You spill the beans to your mama, sister got knocked up
In a truck at the 7-Eleven, don't sweat it
'Cause it'll all come out, all come out in the wash
It'll all come out, all come out in the wash
Every little stain, every little heartbreak, no matter how messy it got
You take the sin and the men and you throw 'em all in
And you put that sucker on spin
You got frisky with your boss at the copy machine
You drunk-dialed your ex-husband, don't remember a thing
Had a fancy dinner at your mother-in-law's
Spilled A1 Sauce on her table cloth, don't sweat it
Tide stick will get it
It'll all come out, all come out in the wash (all come out in the wash)
It'll all come out, all come out in the wash (all come out in the wash)
Every little stain, every little heartbreak, no matter how messy it got
You take the sin and the men and you throw 'em all in
And you put that sucker on spin
Put that sucker on spin
You gotta put that sucker on spin
And the laundry list goes like this
Every teardrop, every white lie
Every dirty cotton sheet, let it line-dry
All the mistakes, all the wild streaks
That's why the good Lord made bleach
Oh-oh!
It'll all come out, all come out in the wash (all come out in the wash)
It'll all come out, all come out in the wash (all come out in the wash)
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Every little stain, every little heartbreak, no matter how messy it got
You take the sin and the men and you throw 'em all in
And you put that sucker on spin
Put that sucker on spin
Yeah, put that sucker on spin
Yeah, you put that sucker on spin
And around and around and around and around we go
'Round and around and around and around we go