In a story that tries to tie the tea party to the economy of Lima, Ohio — the string it used wasn’t quite long enough — a Rolling Stone author implied that listening to Brad Paisley is a hobby of the unstylish.
Case in point: Rep. Jim Jordan, Republican, Ohio, who despite being described in the story as dutiful and responsive to his constituents, is still attacked personally. After all, no writing is better, more elegant and more convincing than that which is spiteful.
“Jordan has been described to me by a number of Ohioans as ‘Tea Party before Tea Party was cool,’ ” the piece goes. “He is decidedly uncool – his favorite musician is Brad Paisley – which makes him the ideal specimen of what the Tea Party purports to be.”
(It would’ve been just as easy to write something like, “For a movement whose roots are in America’s countryside, it’s fitting that Jordan’s favorite musician is Brad Paisley” — still dumb, but not ad hominem. Whatever.)
There could be a couple of things at work here.
One, the author genuinely believes that Brad Paisley fandom is a telltale sign of plainness. That would be snobbery, made ironic by the fact that despite the unforgivable product of his partnership with LL Cool J, Paisley has been one of the more original artists in country music for years.
Two, Jim Jordan — and, by extension, tea partiers or other right-of-center folk who listen to Brad Paisley — makes Brad Paisley “uncool.” This would be juvenile “I’m boycotting Sean Penn because he’s a lefty wacko” stuff if it weren’t for one thing: Paisley is hardly a right-wing country music caricature. He wrote a song inspired by Obama’s first election victory. He’s been identified in stories and by the masses as liberal-leaning — and he has not resisted the label. From The Guardian:
Although a left-leaning country star is about as rare as a rapper who gives props to Sarah Palin, Paisley reckons his views are far from unique. “It’s a very smart, progressive bunch, these people that make country music,” he says. “They’re not country hicks sitting behind a desk with a big cigar giving out record deals and driving round in Cadillacs with cattle horns on the front grille: it’s a bunch of really wonderful, open-minded, great people down on Music Row that make this music.”
Whatever the case, Brad Paisley is not unhip. He performed one of the finest and subtlest social media punks ever. He’s candid enough to call a spade a spade, like he did when he and Carrie Underwood mocked Obamacare’s rollout. If you’re trying to use country music as a means to cartoon the Right — which is idiotic, by the way — Brad Paisley is not the best candidate.
(h/t Paul Bedard)
