I wouldn't really say any of the stuff I listen to is "out of place" - I just have a taste that's all over the map in most cases. But, if we're talking not in the usual genres of music I listen to - some of the classical and piano based stuff, like Evgeny Kissin, is probably up there.
So one bad song can tell you that he can't have other music that's great? How the hell can you listen to Blink then? They have a good handful of really awful shit.
Blink do have a lot of really awful shit. Some "shit" I like, some I don't.
Thankfully Blink don't have a song about tractors.
'Cause songs about fucking dogs in the ass are better...?
One is meant to be joke, one is meant to be a single on the radio. I'll take the meant to be funny song, if I hafta choose, over the unintentionally hilarious one.
If someone won't make the effort to actually seek out more examples of a genre before instantly writing it off based on one or two songs, they don't deserve to have their opinion heard.
Guess that's where we disagree. We make instant decisions all day, and as Gladwell points out in Blink most of the time when we "spend more time seeking out other examples" it usually leads to just solidify our original decision in the first place. Not always, but most of the time. Even so, they still deserve to voice their personal opinion.
Do you really think Aldean was trying to write his opus there? Country has a long tradition of humor. It's not humor that appeals to me, but that's like shitting on pop-punk for talking about growing up. It's a traditional aspect of the genre. There's about a zero-percent chance that he wasn't trying to be silly with that song.
He disagrees with your zero-percent:
I live outside of Nashville. I spend a lot of time out on my farm and on my tractor. The night before [Jim and I] had gotten together to write, I was out bush-hogging. One of my favorite things to do is get out and bush-hog at night and play around with my tractor. I was out riding around one night, and I just got the idea for that song. I started singing the chorus in my head.
I was supposed to write with Jim [the writer of 'She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy' for Kenny Chesney] the next day. I walked into his office and I said, "Hey man, do you feel like writing another tractor song?" He just busted out laughing and said, "It's been about eight years since 'She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy' ... I think I'm through!" We sat down and wrote that song.
When you write songs sometimes, you just have a feeling that "this is going to be a hit song." I had that feeling with 'Party Crowd,' and I had that feeling with 'Dust on the Bottle.' When we wrote 'Big Green Tractor,' it just felt like, "Man, this song feels really great. It's special and it's different." You just feel fortunate to be around when something like that happens. Songwriters, we just sit around there and wait for the ideas to come. Some days it doesn't happen, and some days it does. That was just one of those days that I was lucky enough to be there when that one came up.
I don't buy public statements like that as any less performance than any other moment for a major-label artist. An assumption of sincerity is a prerequisite for music fans right now for some reason (i.e. Lana Del Rey), so of course he's not going to say "Yeah I wrote a goofy tractor song."
Might as well just ignore and "not buy" what the artist says when it destroys your previous statement. Whatever.
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