#MY GOD DARIUS RUCKER MY BELOVED ??????

[badolmen]

I understand that a lot of different factors influenced the tonal shift of country music post 9/11 toward strong nationalist and misogynistic themes, but as someone who listens to/actually likes a lot of the music from that era, I’m personally blaming Toby Keith. He’s my Ronald Reagan of 2000s country music.

[borrowedfeathers]

Then again, here is a short list of songs you will hear incessantly if you find yourself in the Triangle (especially if you move here) that actually are about NC and/or are by NC artists.

-"Wagon Wheel" by Old Crow Medicine Show. Oh dear god, this fucking song...you hear the original more than the Darius Rucker cover but any version of this song is ubiquitous here. You can and will be subjected to people yelling along to the line "AND IF I DIE IN RALEIGH, AT LEAST I WILL DIE FREEEEE!" and mediocre musicians in bars and on street corners with acoustic guitars covering it. It will haunt you in your sleep.

-"Carolina On My Mind" by James Taylor. If I heard the title before I moved here I'd probably think it was a weird knockoff of "Georgia On My Mind." Nope, it's a totally separate song, a sappy soft rock song beloved of classic rock stations. This is almost certainly a perfect example of "songs that get heavy airplay here and literally nowhere else."

-"Raise Up" by Petey Pablo. He was the biggest thing in NC hip-hop until J. Cole came around, so of course this one is going to be milked hard. If you don't recognize the title, it's just a matter of time before you become familiar with the whole chorus ("NORTH CAROLINAAAAA, C'MON AND RAISE UP! TAKE YOUR SHIRT OFF AND SPIN IT ROUND YOUR HEAD JUST LIKE A HELICOPTER!") And unfortunately, such familiarity is very likely to be courtesy of a gang of white douchebros doing karaoke.

-"Carolina Girls" by Chairmen of the Board. Again, I probably would've assumed this was a copy of "California Girls" at some point but nope, it's a rather repetitive and awkwardly rhyming 70s soul song. It's really weird how radio stations here will usually play the same stuff that's echoed all over the country but then they sometimes feel a compulsion to drag out some songs that feel compelled to state very obviously where they're based.