Luke Bryan has once again been nominated for the CMA Awards Entertainer of the Year. The reigning Entertainer will go up against Eric Church, Garth Brooks, Kenny Chesney, and Miranda Lambert.
Despite his success as a singer/performer, some have dubbed him the father of “bro-country,” something he says is somewhat offensive.
For those of you who do not know what “bro-country” is, it is a term that has become so popular that Cambridge Dictionary gave it an official definition in 2014.
“Bro-country noun a sub-genre of country music sung by young white men, featuring songs with macho themes such as trucks, drinking, and partying.”
It is no secret that Luke Bryan pays reference to these topics in many of his songs. However, he says that is not what all of his songs are about, and he feels people came up with the term to degrade what is popular in country music.
“I take a little offense,” Bryan said, speaking to Cleveland.com by phone while he was outside Dutch John, Utah, on a fishing trip. “I feel the initial term ‘bro-country’ was created to be kind of a little degrading to what’s popular, to what country artists are doing right now.”
“It’s frustrating because whichever artists may or may not get labeled as that, they’re well beyond that,” he added. “For people to call me the father of it, well, whatever. It just seems like a term that was invented to cheapen me as an artist.”
Luke Bryan is also upset that his fans are labeled as “nothing but beer drinkers.”
“My fans are there because my version of music is what they love, and that’s what I’m all about,” Bryan said. “When people say ‘Luke Bryan fans are nothing but beer drinkers,’ that makes me mad because I know they’re more than that. They are the people who make this country go round and round.”
Luke Bryan isn’t the only country artist who has been tagged as “bro-country.” Country music superstar Jason Aldean also spoke about the term, also calling it offensive.
“It bothers me because I don’t feel like it’s a compliment,” Aldean said during a July interview with Penn Live . “To me, it’s sort of a backhanded thing that comes from a very narrow-minded listener, and I don’t know who came up with that ridiculous term.”
[Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images]
