Day 19 -- Your Guiltiest Guilty Pleasure Song
"Redneck Woman" -- Gretchen Wilson, Here For the Party (2004)
Even though I grew up in a teensy tiny farming community, I am proud to say that I am not a redneck. For the record, dictionary.com defines redneck as "an uneducated white farm worker especially from the south" or "a bigot or reactionary, especially from the working class". I am none of these things. (Well, I guess I'm from the working class? What does working class mean these days?) But the point is, I am educated and not bigoted. So what gives?
"Redneck Woman" came out when I was in high school. Two of my classmates went nuts over it because I guess they thought it applied to them (although it didn't really). They loved it and played it all the time and by the time my sophomore year ended, I knew all the words. I found myself singing along. Then I found myself listening to the country station where it played nonstop.
"Redneck Woman" is the first in a long line of Hick Pride songs from the mid 2000s. The tune is catchy, the specific details are neat, and Gretchen Wilson is completely underrated as a vocalist. The whole song is just fun. (And stupid.) When I hear it, I just throw up my hands. I surrender. I like this song even though it glorifies a lifestyle that often goes hand in hand with ignorance and inbreeding. Those are the breaks. That is the nature of the guilty pleasure song.
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