I'm a fan of "Southern Rock," but sometimes the lyrics make me wonder if i should drop it. Generally I listen more for music than message, but I don't want my kids hearing "be proud you're a rebel..."
“…cuz the South’s gonna to do it again.”
But man, that song rocks, especially the end. In a, you know, country way.
I sing R-kelly, MJ, and Garry Glitter songs all the time. I don’t support them financially though, since I’m a kid of the 90s and we grew up when music was freely shareable for the low low price of an internet connection to Kazaa
I’m a fan of Lucero. The lead singer definitely has a Southern accent, but I haven’t noticed any questionable lyrics or glorification of ignorant redneck bullshit. No “codes” or dogwhistles. Maybe you should check them out.
Lucero is pretty legit. Really nice guys too. My buddy made friends with the singer way back when he was in his previous band and subsequently Lucero is one of the few bands I’ve been following since basically day one.
Some of these are more country than southern rock, but you might also like Jason Isbell, 16 Horsepower, Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, Corb Lund, Wovenhand, Larkin Poe, Pink Williams (if you’re not turned off by leftist politics), and Hank Williams III (if you don’t mind a lot of drug references), and The Goddamn Gallows.
LOVE Tom Petty. I used to rent a room from his high school teacher at GHS. She said “Tommy Petty” wouldn’t write papers, but he would write and play songs instead, so she let him do that. They were “god-awful” according to her.
You gotta listen to what you like. Should I not listen to Matisyahu or Mos Def because they’re religious? Should I ditch Nas because of the homophobia or JayZ because of the capitalism?
Jesus Christ if I got strict about misogyny, I’d have to stick to instrumental.
Just listen to it when you’re alone. That’s what I do. Good point not to play some things to your (young) kids. But I sometimes like to listen to music which lyrics I don’t necessarily agree with. Or from artists that haven’t been exemplary humans. If I like the song and it touches me emotionally and I’m able to differentiate between that and real life, I don’t think it’s bad (for me).
Edit: I’m not sure how ‘controversial’ the song you mentioned is. It celebrates southern music. And country, bluegrass, rock etc had a good amount of impact on the world. Same with the bands they sing about who have influenced music as we know it today. I don’t see an issue with this song.
And if you ask me, let your kids be rebels against injustice and outdated and narrow perspectives on the world.
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