As an Applebee’s server I AM SO SICK OF THIS SONG they played it every 20 minutes in our store and every time you could just see the soul leave every worker’s body
I kinda relate. I worked at a movie rental place the same Christmas season when Elf came out on home video. That played on repeat every shift for _months._ It's been more than a decade since then, and I still can't watch that damn movie.
Walker Hayes' meticulously groomed look and the TikToks of people in all the nice houses makes me feel like this song is laughing at poor people rather than celebrating them.
Yeah. Walker and wife went to a ritzy private school. Jeff sessions son was in her class. They aren't country people from out on the farm or even a trailer. They were beach houses and tennis at the country club. I still can't believe his country music career.
@@profaneangel2556 In the old days this was called “slumming”-rich/privileged people cosplaying as the poor or working class. A famous example is Marie Antoinnette having a shepherd’s cottage built on the grounds of her castle, which she would use to pretend to be a shepherdess. This also is Hayes’ schtick.
The bass sounds in the background and vocal delivery make it very clear "new country music is just hip hop for people who are scared of black people" is a quite true statement
I'm shocked that this started out as an actual song and then got picked up by Applebees. I assumed this was a tie-in from the start, like how Jeep hired X-Ambassadors to do Renegades to promote the Jeep Renegade. But I guess it makes sense because a commissioned song would probably only focus on Applebees and not namedrop Wendy's and Natty Light
I'm actually kinda shocked that a song that was literally commissioned for a car commercial sounds a thousand times more like a real song than "Fancy Like". Also, ironically enough, X Ambassadors have never made a song better than their car ad jingle, either before or since.
@@hiimemily I honestly thought X Ambassadors' new album was surprisingly really good. Like, if it was your first exposure to the band you'd assume they've released music that was at least okay in the past, but no the quality just came completely out of nowhere. Am I alone thinking that?
It's even more impressive once you realize he's just a finely crafted marionette. Todd is, in reality, a master puppeteer in addition to his other talents.
The Vespa thing is because, in some states primarily in the south, if you get too many DUIs and have you drivers license revoked you can still drive a Vespa
Uh yeah, but don't the losers with the DUIs and suspended licenses get cheap Chinese scooters instead? Some of those two wheelers are so cheap you might not care if the cops confiscated it.
@@pacificostudios proprietary eponym means something that is the name of a business but is used to describe all items/products similar to it. Like how Band-Aid is the company but everyone calls bandage adhesives Band-Aids.
"vaguely trap bass, just enough to let you know that we're aware of hip hop, but not enough to be good at it" . Lines like these are why I love this channel.
It's not a song about actually being lower class and poking fun at how they can't afford "real" fancy things. It's rich people cosplaying that concept. Applebee's might not be "fancy" but if you don't live near a big city, it's still probably one of the places you go to have date night. My family is wealthy and from the south. I garuntee you my cousins are singing this.
Yeeeeep. And since this comes out at a time when there is a massive wealth gap, it feels like a rich person saying "look how fun it is to be poor. I don't get why you keep whining about 'student debt' and 'tax the rich', you have Applebee's."
@@dandelionwino this is true, but step 2 is “and then insecure people on the other side of the wealth gap adopt it as part of their spiteful identity.”
In Canada, Applebee's is seen as overpriced American food. At least that's how I saw it growing up. It was never that popular and we wondered why they're still around where there are similarly priced places you can go that are better. Like Boston Pizza, where I frequently go on dates which at least has a nicer environment to it and some nice drinks (including mocktails).
dropping that many restaurant names in one song has to have been a deliberate attempt to get picked up as a jingle by one of em. i'd sell out too if i couldn't get my career off the ground for ten years straight
@@jimmy3people0 idk if Reel Big Fish fit into a OHW format. Kind of like saying Wynonas Big Brown Beaver - Primus. Yeah it's technically one of their only "hits", but it doesnt really fit.
There's an old dirty blues song from the 1930s called "Please Warm My Weiner" by Bo Carter, so in the last 90 years we've gone from "please warm my weiner" to "please put my weiner in ice cream," that's the effect that climate change is having on us. Also I don't know much about sex and I don't judge what people are into but I can't imagine "stick it in something frigid until it goes numb" is among the more dam-bursting bits of poetry that the human race has ever discovered.
Country music in the past felt like it was just about real people going through the peaks and valleys in their lives; it felt genuine. Modern country feels like people internalizing stereotypes about the south and playing up to them for attention.
Older country music was geared towards people who genuinely lived the country lifestyle, with all the messiness that entails. But as the US becomes more urbanized, that market has shrunk. Modern country music is instead geared in large part to people who live in the suburbs/exurbs and small cities who have embraced the most superficial aspects of the "country" lifestyle, maybe because it gives them and the place they live some sort of identity.
We went through this in the '70s when it was called "countrypolitan." There were some crossover artists like Johnny Cash, who kept it real while still appealing to a wider audience, while you had Dolly Parton who went both ways ("Jolene" and "9 to 5"). Then you had a lot of country artists who strived for mainstream appeal by putting rock tropes into their songs. Now, they're doing hip-hop and rap (because it's popular), which opens them up to idiots calling them racists and appropriators. And Todd wonders why they feel defensive.
As a scooter person, Vespa is the Lamborghini/Ferrari of the scooter world. It is, indeed, the fancy brand of the scooter world. And a more expensive brand. A lot of this has to do with build quality. They use the heavier, more expensive steel for the body whereas other scooters use plastic. Buddy would be the Applebee’s of the scooter world and the no name Chinese brands are the Wendy’s.
I've been getting back into Cyberpunk lately and nothing strikes me as more Cyberpunk then turning on the radio and hearing a song that sounds like it was constructed by an algorithm about the dining options at a massively huge chain restaurant. In Demolition Man a future where all the radio played was brand jingles that people seemed to love was supposed to be a joke.
@@brockenglish7602 The opening and the closure, naturally. But I believe I watched parts 4 and 6 myself. Those were “What I didn’t like” and the part about analyzing cyberpunk as a genre. How about you?
I’m surprised Todd didn’t point out how this guy was clearly trying to rhyme “bangin’” with “maintenance”. Put all the southern twang on it you want dude, those words do not rhyme.
I first heard this song when I turned on the radio in my car and it was right at the part about ordering food at Wendy's. Naturally, I assumed it was a Wendy's commercial. But then it went right into an Applebee's order, and for a moment, I wondered if Wendy's and Applebee's were part of the same corporation and would be making combo restaurants, like the famed Pizza Hut/Taco Bell/KFC. But then... it kept going... and it slowly dawned on me that *this was an actual song.* I died inside that day.
Little did we know this was all just a pilot for his new show: “Todds Restaurant Reviews” “Yep, that’s a steak alright” “That is indeed a Lobster and it is in fact Red” “This sandwich definitely tastes like it was made with meat, vegetables, and _some_ bread”
I want to hate Tiktok but I love it. I like the dude that asks people what they are listening to. I’ve snagged some cool jams. I’m saying I’m starting to watch it more than RU-vid.
@@jadedheartsz it’s ok not to like it but let’s not bring crazy into the mix. Everyone is spying on you. The iPhone that you’re reading this on is basically a tracker. Both for your physical location and your browsing history. You should be just as worried about American companies. They don’t give af about you and your aversion to tiktok because racism.
@@Chudhole Not me! I'm posting this from my encrypted XP machine through multiple VPNs from my underground bunker in Colo--I mean HA! You wish you knew!
From a British perspective, I couldn't imagine anyone making a song about going to Nandos or Weatherspoons, I assume Applebee's is the equivalent of these.
In the US, Nandos is fancier than Applebee's, though that's mostly because they're considered "ethnic" and there are fewer Nando's restaurants than Applebee's.
Exactly. If I want a song about enjoying simple country life, I'll listen to John Denver's timeless "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" or "Poor Folks." Those make the simple life sound welcoming, or at least just as good as anyone else's. This song sounds tacky and low-class in the worst way-the obnoxious, smug, defensive way that makes poor people like me afraid we'll be seen as.
@@matthewkoch6937 Ooh, thanks for the song recommendations!! And yeah, ngl I feel embarrassed listening to Fancy Like too smh. I think it does the opposite of encouraging pride in having no taste, I can't agree more with you.
"Thrift Shop" truly gets it in a way these bro country songs don't. While the country songs love to play up the tired tropes of "we're just such small-town folk who don't even know what Morton's Steakhouse is! I swear!" Thrift Shop gets right to the point and says, "Hey, everyone else in my genre is fucking stupid for bragging about their $50 t-shirts." I can *believe* that Macklemore shops at thrift stores before I can believe this Walker Hayes guy takes his wife to Applebee's for date night, regardless of what's true.
This song just sounds really...cynical. I don't get the vibe that this is a fun laid back guy enjoying the little things, it more comes across as someone being CONDESCENDING about it. Very strong "How Do You Do, Fellow Country Artists?" energy coming off of this one. For as buttmad as people were about Old Town Road, this comes across as much more of an insincere goof than Lil Nas X ever did. [Edit] Oh Kesha, baby what is you doing 😶, why are you lending your cred to this nobody?
I don't think Kesha hopped on the remix for reasons of credibility. I think she did it for two reasons: because her early career was about being ironically trashy, and to get some cash because that sentient pile of garbage Dr. Luke has been withholding royalties from her songs, leaving her with no income.
That was my first thought. It doesn't feel like "oh look, we just enjoy the little things" but more like a "hahaha look how cheap and tacky I am I go to Applebee's like it's fancy". Almost as if it was making fun of people who really are like that.
@@ktownshutdown21 No, caps lock is just fine. And considering Kesha hasn't had a song anyone's cared about in like.... over a decade? It looks too me like she's just leaching into some one hit wonder for some quick relevance.
"Body Like a Back Road" was co-written by an openly gay man -- Shane McAnally, one of Nashville's most prolific songwriters. Shane didn't write "Fancy Like", but he did co-produce it. But I wonder what that co-production involved, other than sitting in the corner and trying not to laugh.
@@jooree7696 I can laugh at Body Like a Back Road. In fact, if you were to hear me laughing at Fancy Like, that's actually the sound of my soul leaving my body.
From age 5 to age 14, I lived in a shithole small town in Wyoming, and I can tell you you are absolutely correct about the insecurity of small town people. It was even worse in some of the small towns I visited in Texas. I think a lot of them are aware that their communities suck (I sure knew mine did, lol), but they, for whatever reason, want to stay, so they have to somehow justify that to others, but also to themselves. It's also a tactic to try and keep young people from leaving, by trying to convince them that that dumb old big city life isn't all it's cracked up to be. I fucking hated it, lol.
I seem to recall George Carlin having some commentary about the supposed superiority of small towns and their residents and their love of shit talking people from the city, something along the lines of how they stay in their puny towns because they'd never make it the city because they're too weak, so they say the cities and their people suck in order to overcompensate. Different lifestyles suit different people and that's okay, big cities, suburbs, rural areas all have their merits. Live wherever you feel you thrive and that's cool, but don't be self righteous about it. Small town dwellers aren't kinder or more moral or more "real" than people who live in larger towns. Urbanites can be patronizing towards those they perceive as less cultured because their town doesn't have an art gallery, but small town people have their own version of snobbery.
The first time i heard this song was in the ad for Applebee's and i assumed it was a jingle for the ad. It blew my god damn mind when I found out this was an actual song that someone genuinely wrote.
as someone tacky from the deep south who grew up poor (even used to actually think Applebees was fancy lol) i can't make myself like this song. something about it rubs me the wrong way and idk what it is
speaking as small town folk from Small Town, TX who begrudgingly attended Confederate General High School and never actually expected to go to college (and finally am as I approach 40), it feels like a slightly mean-spirited parody of country music. Like it's meant to be at the expense of the people it's describing. But like, it also wants them to buy the single. The bro country tier snap beat doesn't help.
Same, we used to only go to Applebee’s for “special occasions” like birthdays (partly because for a long time it WAS the closest thing we had to a fancy restaurant), and I love dipping fries in frostys (or dipping fries in dq blizzards). but this song always felt like it was very ingenuine pandering and I don’t like it for that
It feels like it was made to be picked up by an ad. It’s very hollow and artificial. He doesn’t sound sincere at all. It’s also kind of like “hey look, I have money but isn’t it fun being a poverty tourist. Isn’t the stuff that the poors do so fun and quaint..” Same vibe as the Greek girl in ‘Common People’ by Pulp.
Seriously. You don't have to go to a proper fancy restaurant to have a nice date night, but you can also do infinitely better than Applebee's. Even just a nice local joint would be more respectable.
Gonna be honest, I thought the Applebees marketing people hired someone to write that as a jingle. It never once crossed my mind that this was supposedly a song someone would put on the radio.
I really appreciate the fact that this video is very careful to criticize this garbage song while avoiding classist rhetoric. It was interesting watching this right after Dan Olson’s Jamie Oliver video
I appreciate how he distinguishes between different kinds of tackiness or trashiness, especially what works best in a song like this. Instead of making fun of country people for the country lifestyles they promote, he pointed out how they promoted them so aggressively that it came off as insecure. He shows nuance and respect without softening the blow of his actual opinions.
@@samueltitone5683 I think Todd made the right judgement for the exact reason you point out. I think Olson kind of avoided the issue, especially since he's more political.
Actually this song crossed over to the aria charts, some of my online friends have said it’s gotten played to shit on the radio I haven’t had to hear it in the wild but fucking hell I don’t want this to be a thing!
Not the worst thing about the song, but how is a Vespa not fancy? When I think of stylish, even European, luxury, a Vespa is one of the first things that comes to mind. Even Luca got this right.
true old school country music, from musicians who lived through actual struggles like the great depression, was not defensive about being country. modern country is SUPER defensive because 99% of the country singers have never stepped foot on a farm
@@quinnnewman9538 I think sit-down restaurant chains are generally much less of a thing in Europe. Generally chain restaurants would just be for fast food, though you do have places like Nando's or Wagamama's. I guess something like Pizza Express might be the closest equivalent?
@@vonhaig Sit-down restaurant chains are generally considered a step above fast food here. From a quick glance on Wiipedia, it looks like you have Tony Roma's? Applebee's is probably a step below that. Think of a kind of halfway point between fast food and a real restaurant. That's about what Applebee's is.
When I first heard this on the radio and saw the song title on the car dashboard, I thought the title was "Fancy Like Walker Hayes" and I was like "Who the hell is Walker Hayes?"
It sounds like an upscale store clothing brand from Sears. The Walker Hayes collection features many tasteful long sleeve t-shirts paired with a muted vest. Immaculately trimmed yet noncommittal facial hair style not included.
I just realized that "Sqeak-squeakin' in the truck bed all the way home" is him enjoying the sound of beer bottles rubbing up against Styrofoam, and that makes cringe so hard. The sound of things rubbing up against styrofome is my brown note, it's like nails on a chalkboard to me. I just find styrofome to be a viscerally unpleasant substance and I will actively avoid restaurants that put their takeout in a styrofome container. And that's not even getting into the environmental issues with styrofome, I just wish we could ban it for aesthetic reasons alone.
oh i thought it was them fucking in the backseat of the truck while someone was driving and them moving was like a squeak but yeah that’s probably more accurate
Well, that certainly makes more sense than my original thought: I was trying to figure out how they drove back home *and* fucked in the truck bed at the same time
SAME. People have always made fun of me for this, I’ve hated it my entire life. I have to have other people pull things packed in styrofoam out of boxes because it’s physically painful for me. I HATE it so much. Along with dry cornstarch.
Another insightful review from THE MAN! One thing to note; as a man from the south, the "Vespa" lyric refers to any scooter at all. In Alabama, we refer to many things by a colloquial term that is used by a major brand name. ERGO, Vespa are scooters, Cokes are soda and Jeeps are any 4wd vehicle. He's insufferable, but he's on brand.
When I first heard this, I was mostly just assuming he wrote it with the sole intention of getting it picked up as an Applebees' ad (or maybe a Wendy's as the backup). Like, it's precision crafted to fit into a 10 second ad and the blowing up as an actual song was genuinely accidental...
"You're not being cheap, you are being basic!" This. Any place that sells steak cannot be considered cheap. Try the Chinese place around the corner and their $5 fried rice with frozen vegetables.
Yeah, try concocting whatever is in your kitchen cabinet for a meal because you're broke and discovering a new favorite food before you brag about being cheap because you spent less that $20 on a steak at a restaurant chain.
no idea if this is worth mentioning, but your point about Wendy’s and Applebee’s and such being a sort of “basic” experience and less about being poor - I’d like to say that having grown up in a very rural area, it’s actually because those restaurants are really popular that they’re accessible way out in the “middle of nowhere” so to speak. Big towns next to the boonies really only have places to eat that are “the most popular in America” because those chains can afford to set up kind of remote franchises. there’s really not a lot of restaurants I can think of that kinda even existed in the area I grew up, but I do remember Applebee’s being the fancy place, and Wendy’s being a place to get easy and cheap ice cream. I guess there was also McDonald’s but that’s arguably even more basic than Wendy’s. And those existed there because slightly less expansive chains like ruby tuesdays or sonic couldn’t quite manage to stay open.
While you raise a good point about food deserts, I do think that there are far better ways to convey the theme of "romance on a budget" than Applebee's. Making some venison steaks or grilling some trout for your girl would not only be something that millions of people already do but would be far less basic than taking her out to a Michelin star restaurant you booked a month in advance. The thing in my opinion that makes the song feel tacky and basic is not the quality of the corporate plugs but the fact that they're there in the first place. A song about how his wife likes going mudding with him would unironically be a far better song because at least then it wouldn't sound like a commercial. (As an aside: I don't care that much about Applebee's. Growing up my family thought Olive Garden was fancy so I get it. What do find inexcusable however is the Natty Lite name drop. I don't care how remote a gas station is: if it sells alcohol, it has to sell better beer than Natty Lite. If you really favor cost over taste that much you might as well just get Steel Reserve. It's far more cost-effective at least.)
@@sacrecharlemagne2262 I think I'm a little more forgiving towards product placement in music because I grew up during the MySpace indie scene. Everyone was trying to be relatable, and part of relatability is brand loyalty, apparently. So, you'd have all cool kids listening to a song about how cute the singer's girlfriend looks when she has a bit of ketchup on her lip from a McDonald's cheeseburger. Or, you'd have a random brand namedrop like "All I wanted was a Pepsi, just one Pepsi," or a verse dedicated to how much they love Captain America movies. I guess being really specific about a brand is the quickest way for an indie artist to be more relatable to a teenager figuring out their identity. Oh yeah, and indie movies were filled with product placement. One of the characters from Juno was literally defined by how much he liked a specific brand of candy.
@@sacrecharlemagne2262 that’s a completely fair point about natty lite haha. I was actually unfamiliar with that brand before hearing this song as it’s not even commonly sold around where I grew up (there were more popular beers.) I had to web search the lyric to figure out what the singer meant.
"one of the guys from Florida-Georgia Line wrote a song about how we all need to come together, and he sang it at Biden's inauguration, and the other guy *refused to join him*." lmao if you tried to put this in a comedy movie script the other writers would say it was too on the nose.
@@Thomasmemoryscentral Biden's doing fine. Right wing hates him cuz he's a leftie, left wing hates him cuz he's not extreme enough. Sounds about right tbh
@@Thomasmemoryscentral meh? Most people don't like biden, but can I really say he's that bad of a president? Not really. He's about what I expected. I will still tske him over trump and I don't regret my vote. So no, I wouldn't say that it's a universal opinion.
It's so odd how little confidence country has in itself that it's gotta steal hip hop's delivery and cadence. And that's no even counting the songs that have drum machines in them
I think that the I’m From The ‘Country’ As It Were trend in country music is part of country’s not very successful attempts to bring on hip hop ideas. The same way Outkast represents Atlanta or Wu Tang represents Shaolin Land, country music will represent The ‘Country’. The obvious problem is that - despite its rhetoric - country music is for atomized suburban consumers with no meaningful local pride. Even this guy can’t drop the name of a mid-tier local restaurant because anything local would break the illusion that he is at the abstract locationless The ‘Country’.
I think there’s local pride. Just not in the mainstream. You ask an indie or a Red Dirt country fan who you think reps Oklahoma best and they’re gonna tell you Turnpike Troubadors.
You put your finger on it. Like yeah, the best part about living in "The Country" for real is knowing where all the NON-brand places are. Like that restaurant in Sandstone, MN where everything on the menu is a "Burger" -- from Hamburger to Fish Burger to Pizza Burger to Turkey Burger -- they got it all, between two halves of a bun.
I just looked up that song once this review was done, and with one listen I'm already humming the melody in my head. I already forget how Fancy Like goes. Yeah, I think it's safe to reserve two spots on the respective Year End lists, LOL.
I mean I am also thinking about Keli Uchis as well, though for a different yet related reason....(pauses music video while she is on the bike for long time)
It’s by the same singer who was featured on Tyler the Creator’s See You Again. And Tyler himself was featured in her well-received 2018 album, Isolation
Driving through east Texas I notice the country stations near the cities are very vocal about being country and lay the commentary on thick. While the more rural you get the stations just play the music. Suburban people tend to have more time and disposable income that the music industry caters too.
I've noticed that much of the country listener base is made up of "new money." Like, families that live in those really far-out gated subdivisions with a new car every two years because the father got some decent-paying white collar job in the city. I get the vibe that the people who listen to this music do so to feel down-to-earth, when they're actually not. People really from rural America do not listen to this type of country much, if at all. What is a lot more prevalent is CCM, but I can tolerate that over this terrible faux-country anyday.
Yeah, as someone from the actual "country", we do not listen to this bs. Some people do, but most don't. It's more classic country or folk music that gets played.
Its the difference between the "I like country music" people and the "I like country music, not the shit they often call country these days" people. Its a reflection of a weird, long-standing musical war in North America and its not really a suburbs vs rural thing and never was (people move around the periphery and metropolis). This fact makes a lot of this stuff really funny, like the Van Halen debate. I hope this Walker Levis dude makes bank.
I'd slightly modify this to include that it's also people who happen to have vacation homes in rural places, or in actual cities that just happen to be tourist traps centered around purveying the 'southern' aesthetic (The two I know off the top of my head are Myrtle Beach and Pigeon Forge, the selling point is that they are trashy but in a 'treat yourself' way). Those are people who feel inclined to affirm that the lifestyle they essentially bought is, in fact, valid, and will play this music to reinforce that idea. At least where I'm from, the tourist circuit is absolutely stifling on the few people who actually live in a rural locale full time. 2020 was fun for that, too, seeing a bunch of rich people flood into these gated communities, thinking they could just not do covid if they just stayed at the vacation house for the year instead. Not like anyone lives out there, anyways.
*correction: "why so many dipshits who only hear bro country think it's still cool to shit on country music, as if The Highwomen and Yola don't exist."
Yeah that is pretty insightful. I haven't listened to bluegrass in a long time, but when I went through a phase, it seemed like a lot about "creeks and dogs and mountains are cool" but without much at all of the "suck it, city slickers" in mainstream country.
That country insecurity is one of the ways that people with more wealth and privelage than a feudal lord justify their own victim mentality and persecution complex.
@@MelMelodyWerner maybe some people just hate the music itself. I don't like the instrumentals, I don't like their accents, and I don't relate to the music because I was born and raised in a city on the upper east coast. I hate country because it makes me feel nothing because I can't relate to it. Doesn't make it bad, I don't hate people who enjoy it, just isn't for me, because it wasn't made for me. 🤷♂️
Todd should release an album of piano covers of his favorite (or least favorite but improved by a new arrangement perhaps) tracks he's reviewed. They always sound so good. Plus in the streaming era, it could totally be 25 tracks, each like 2 minutes long and it'd be fine.
I can't believe Todd made it through this whole review without mentioning Weird Al's parody of "Whatever You Like" (a song that takes the same premise and makes it actually funny and tbh kinda cathartic to listen to as a poor person) even once.
John Prine and Iris Dement did it better with (We're Not) The Jet Set. A cute romantic song about enjoying the lower class aspects, and not being bitter or corporate about it.
I dunno about that, honestly. It's like how I can't take a person who claims to be NotLikeOtherGirls seriously no matter how sincere they sound. If it sounds too low-key it paradoxically sounds like they're trying too hard (like that Lauryn Hill unplugged thing with her 'normal' outfit), if it's obnoxiously on-the-nose to try to convince you that they're totally an average person, it sounds like they're trying to hard. All those songs talking about how a person is totally not jealous of the rich and famous just always feel really insincere to me. If you don't care, why did you feel the need to write a full essay explaining why you don't care?
Yeh it does to, i heard that song and i was like “………………….. that has the same tone as the hokey pokey 🤨 it’s really swingy aswell like was he singing that song while swinging at the swing or something”
I think it’s kind of like what you said in your video, Todd: “Fancy Like” wants you to criticize it because it only makes it stronger. Case in point: seven hours ago I was unaware that the song existed, and now I’m stuck with it running through my head like a damn jingle.
This song has been the bane of every college football fan this season. Every games, someone scores, and there’s a commercial and suddenly it “YEAH WE FANCY LIKE APPLEBEES ON A DATE NIGHT”. I hope all my friends at r/cfb find this video.
Nashville self-parodying its own weird list format is…an interesting direction. I think this song would work a lot better with less irony and, like Todd says, insecurity. (Also fries are good dipped in shakes)
Heard this song by chance on the radio and once the lyrics became clear to me, I knew instantly: Todd's going to review this someday. Thanks for proving me right ayyy
Let it be known that the two biggest songs in country right now are: A washed up has been nu-metal singer screaming at his TV about liberals and A tribute to Applebee's. What a fucking depressing year for country music.
"A Country Boy Can Survive" was my first exposure to this unironically bitter and defensive country music trend. Sure, there were songs like "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" which celebrated the simple life in a more wholesome and less confrontational way, or "Okie From Muskogee" which was supposedly intended as parody, but that's the earliest example of a song that made me think "man, he's got a chip on his shoulder about being from the country. Why's that? I don't feel bad about living here and visiting the city." Of course that song would probably take a pretty dim view on both Wendy's *and* Applebee's (which don't tend to be located in rural communities, especially the latter), so clearly *something* about country music's knee-jerk defensiveness has changed over the decades.
I think a major reason why country music has gotten so defense is that over the past few decades the US has gotten a lot more urbanized, and the centers of economic growth have become concentrated in a handful of major metropolitan areas. Tons of young people move to the big city to get jobs out of college, and I think that makes their friends and relatives back home feel more resentful and defensive. And this divide is not just between urban and rural areas but between big cities and small cities, the kind of places that would actually have an Applebee's. Here in Georgia cities like Columbus, Macon, Augusta, and Savannah are definitely not rural but they are still way overshadowed by Atlanta, and plenty of people from those cities move to Atlanta for jobs (including my mom). I think the disparities between big and small cities has led a lot of small city types to think of themselves as "country".
@@zandithshloper2005 whoa, anoher Michander. Yeah, it's pretty weird. An ex considered herself country even though she was from a pretty urban area. The identity thing is spot-on especially in SE Michigan. People either consider themselves from "Detroit" even if they're nowhere near the place or consider themselves "country" even if they're from the city.
@@Thedjbj2 the strange thing about it is that metal and punk is born from the same roots. Just different mentality. Instead of vigorously defending their small town or rural life, they lash out against the boredom without the embrace of the material. It’s amazing how one genre gets popular and the other gets forced under despite coming from similar situations
@@skinWalkman I think punk and metal were more of a specific product of the post-industrial urban decay of the 1970s (like how Tony Iommi's origin story is losing fingertips in an industrial accident) while the older genre of country music acts more as a defense of the "country" lifestyle in the face of long-term urbanization trends. I heard an episode of the show Radiolab that explained that "country music" as a genre came about in the late 1920s right at the time the US population become more urban than rural. Country music is more about lifestyle and culture than about economics or material conditions (as shown by the number of bougie suburbanites that like to think they're "country"), I was just showing how economic and cultural trends are interrelated (that's something of an interest of mine).
@@Thedjbj2 well put. I hadn’t considered that. I was more referring to the modern state of the genres from about 1990 to the present, but you make excellent points. I’m gonna look more into it. Thanks
net worth is not how much money you have, it's how much value your assets are worth - debts. so yeah, if he for no reason sold everything he owns (including his house, which is probably where a lot of that net worth comes from if he owns it and isn't currently paying off the mortgage of it, which'd obviously be debts) and paid off every cent of his debts, he would have 1.5 million dollars in liquid cash. for comparison, someone like Kacey Musgraves has an estimated $10 million in net worth, Miranda Lambert has around $60 million, Tyler Hubbard of Florida Georgia Line has a net worth of approximately $25 million. contrast these household names with Luke Bryan, whose net worth is evaluated at around $160 million. 1.5 million in net worth (not liquid cash) is nowhere near the A-list of country musicians, and there are complete nobodies I know who could save $1.5 million in liquid cash (boomers of course, who had years of cushy jobs that afforded them that privilege). I'm not saying this to defend Walker per se, but net worth is a crock of shit that doesn't really tell you as much as people pretend it does. very tired of people bringing it up like it means this random dude is well off, when he likely is not--seeing how the music industry writ large is so much more likely to chew him up and spit him out like so many others.
That's really not that much, especially since it's net worth and not real liquid money, so a big paid-off house could be half of it. If you want to retire at 65, you'll need about that amount in your 401K.
Country music deserves this. It deserves every little bit of this. It's been so far up it's ass for the longest time and I'm so happy country fans have to hear this all the time
This is not a country song. This is an ad. This was designed to be picked up and used in ads. That's why it's about things that aren't particularly country - ads don't zero in on narrow demographics. It may not have been an ad Applebee's commissioned, but it still is what it is.
Oh shit I was just thinking to myself "you know Todd hasn't uploaded a new 'Pop Song Review" episode in a while. Wonder when he's gonna put another one out?" And lo and behold, you have delivered us one today. Fantastic work, Todd! I always loved this series.
This isn’t a country song. This is hip hop for an audience that’s scared of black people. A way to capitalize on trendy and innovative genre conventions from black musicians, repackage and sanitize them for the “all live matter” crowd. You know it- I know it- there’s no reason to tip toe around it. That is exactly what this is
"This is hip hop for an audience that’s scared of black people." I think thats an unbelievably cynical and shallow thought while being completely untrue. There are lots of valid criticisms of this song, but that is not one.
@@jirky015 it’s hip hop by people who don’t know a damn thing about hip hop but figure ‘that weird new-fangled black people music can’t be that hard to make, right?’
@@thatkidwiththehoodie Ok, sure. It's one reason the song is lame as fuck. But this isn't a racial thing; it's a class thing. This is not white people rapping about black culture. This white people rapping about white people culture. As someone pointed out very intuitively, what this really is, is upper class people larping as middle and lower class people.
The part of the song that really gets under my skin is that it feels like he's laughing at poor people? I know the lyrics indicate the opposite, but like. We all know that this guy has money. And the dorkiness of the music, the weird lyrics that don't seem to understand the actual beauty in a working class life, all of it combined really feels like he made a joke at someone for being poor "haha you probably go to Wendy's for your dates, and then to upgrade you go to applebees! hahaha" but then put himself in the joke and tried to play it off sincerely. All with this undercurrent of "I COULD go somewhere more expensive if I wanted to, but I live modestly, for fun! :)"
This! I was trying to put into words what bothers me about this song, and it’s this! This song feels like a mean-spirited joke, and I just can’t like it because of that.
Yeah, I felt the same way; there's something about the production and his delivery that makes it seem like he's taking the piss out of the more sincere type of working class music that's normally made in this genre. I can't believe I'm gonna say this, but even AARON LEWIS came across as more genuine as this guy. Genuinely pathetic and sad, but genuine nonetheless. This guy, though, comes across as a total poser.
@@ktownshutdown21 Right? Aaron Lewis was actually drawing upon some kind of emotion, this is just smug. You might be onto something with the production... you know those jokes about la croix being flavored things like "whispers of lime"? The production is kinda like that except the lime is hip hop.
7:02 I literally did that exact experiment with interchangeable country names with my mom once, even dropping Bryson Tiller's name in the middle, and she didn't bat an eye until I said he was a rapper.
I first heard it on TikTok and I thought it was… slightly amusing? Until I found out it was a real song and it began playing in real commercials and I couldn’t escape it
I used to work for a Vespa dealer. Yeah, they're the high-end scoots. Brand new Vespa with all the options can reach $7k. A year-old Moto Guzzi was the same price.
Just listen to Golden Hour two days ago and I absolutely love it! Country Pop/Chill Pop perfection! Anyway as for Todd he put High Horse as an honorable mention for his 2018(?) best list so it’s safe to say he likes her, or at least that song.
Now to see what other restaurant chains we can make Todd sample food from by mentioning them in pop songs. Any artists out there wanna talk about how their love is like a Happy Meal?
As someone who's not from the US, I'd just like to say that I barely understood a word of this. It's like listening to something from a different planet. I love it.
Orville Peck is great. there's also stuff like The Highwomen and Brandi Carlile, Yola (my personal favorite rn), and to a lesser extent Kacey Musgraves (nothing wrong with her, she's just more pop country). there's lots of great country acts right now that aren't bro-y or Sam Hunt-y. it fucking sucks that so many dweebs write the genre off entirely.
@@MelMelodyWerner it’s interesting to me how Kacey Musgraves hasn’t really had a big pop breakthrough hit yet. I’m not saying she needs to pull a Maren Morris and go full pop or something, but it’d be cool if she has at least one song really cross over. Although, given how she just released her new album, there may be a chance it could happen. Also, funny how you mention YOLA on here. When I saw Kacey live, YOLA was the opening act.
Reminds me how me and my friends realized that most Kesha songs could easily sound just like a country song with a different backtrack. Can't unhear it.
Kesha loves country. I think she might have even grown up in Nashville. She did a song with Dolly Parton on Rainbow. It makes total sense that her music would work in a country setting.
I’d like it if Todd reviewed more songs he likes (I always like it on one hit wonder). I am from Europe so most country music is alien to me and Fancy Like continues the trend.
