toby keith's 'american ride' video

the song is transparently pandering to those fans. you can pretend, in a vacuum, that hes not saying anything political with this, but he quite obviously is

anyone who agrees w/ him recognizes what hes flagrantly signifying

to be fair he didnt even write the song

im not saying its a 'bad song' and i guess at one level, no it is not 'clearly' xenophobic -- there's no INDICTMENT of the 'tidal wave from across the border' -- but its quite clear on the subtext of his politics, the politics of his audience & particularly the imagery in the video where he stands on the issue. he can play dumb to avoid getting kicked off the airwaves but its utterly clear that dude is politically a douche

well that's been utterly clear for years. which i guess is why i expected this song to be a lot more grating and offensive than i think it is. where really, it's not any kind of deep-felt anything, it's not really angry or vindictive, it's mostly a big blue-collar-comedy-tour type goof-off. yew might be a redneck if yew think america is screwed!

we need a knee-jerk, faux-populist defense of this song, with lots of ad hom personal attacks against people who don't like it. just for old times sake.

As with his last album, 2008's That Don't Make Me a Bad Guy, most of the songs on American Ride were cowritten by Keith and Bobby Pinson. The album's title track is the only song which Keith did not co-write;[2] it was written by Joe West and Dave Pahanish, who produce for Jimmy Wayne. They gave Keith this song because they considered him the "the only guy in the world that could get away with cutting it,"[5] and he had the demo on his iPod for nearly a year before recording it.[6] One of the few songs in Keith's career that he did not have a hand in writing, "American Ride" is the first single from the album, and on the Billboard Hot Country Songs dated for the week of October 10, 2009, it became his 19th #1.[7]

yeah exactly mothra

i dunno theres a lot of country that doesnt get so fox news talking points political like this & the video is pretty unique -- im not surprised by his politics but like ... since when do country dudes give a shit about having an opinion on global warming? & why would country fans 'inherently' take the side of the moronic "but it gets cold in the winter!!!" political cartoonists? i mean its obv because theres a propaganda machine invested in making pro-global warming industry dudes out of 'you might be a redneck if' types but here's, like, where the rubber hits the road you know

& i think thats 'notable' i wasnt shitting on the song at all tho, its pretty memorable & kinda fun outside of the noxious brainwashing haa

deej do you know anything about toby keith? his music has been super fox news political basically ever since 9/11

yes, im aware.

do u really think this video is "ho hum business as usual" & not worth discussing?

idk i just imagine keith latching onto it cuz it's got a good hook and he likes the stuff about kids watchin youtube, and with all the crazy fox news shit he's just like 'eh, whatever'

shit is hilarious

i thought only a handful of his songs were overtly political and mostly he's a dude who sings about partying

well i agree that it's a unique video... but toby keith has given a shit about having an opinion on every big ticket divisive l/r political issue since forever

this thread wasnt meant to be a "pro" vs "anti" argument ... its obv politically noxious & clearly entertaining, the video is 'interesting' outside of annoying regular ilx contrarian/popism debates

well i agree that it's a unique video... but toby keith has given a shit about having an opinion on every big ticket divisive l/r political issue since forever

― Mr. Yah (J0rdan S.), Sunday, November 22, 2009 3:45 PM (39 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

what does that have to do w/ anything

the video is pretty unique -- im not surprised by his politics but like ... since when do country dudes give a shit about having an opinion on global warming?

well i agree that it's a unique video... but toby keith has given a shit about having an opinion on every big ticket divisive l/r political issue since forever

― Mr. Yah (J0rdan S.), Sunday, November 22, 2009 4:45 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i feel like that's perception more than reality he seems like a pretty apolitical 'eh-whatever-i-dont-wanna-argue-about-it' kind of dude 2 me

basically i think tipsy's post is otm

xp not on immigration, def not

what's your source on that, besides this video, is he known as an outspoken anti illegals guy or something

during the comedy central roast of larry the cable guy every zing of toby keith was about how he hates mexican people

is basically my source

One of the new kids on my caseload at work is a 6'4" gay Puerto Rican guy who ocasionally cross dresses and carries a fabulous purse. He loves Toby Keith and won't stop signing/playing this song. It cracks me up.

Jordan why were you watching Larry the Cable Guy's roast?

i've seen that ish like 3 times - all of the roasts are so funny

:D

i mean he self-identifies as a democrat, i think he sees himself as a fairly reasonable, centrist guy who would listen to persuasive arguments from a lefty point of view; or putting it another way, he probably vaguely agrees with the sentiments behind this stuff (in american ride) but also doesnt have any strong convictions about it either. it could've been a much angrier song but he makes it into more of a laid back observational-humor kind of thing

norm macdonald is probably more right wing than him

the only real p.o.v. i get out of it is, "we're crazy and we're fucked, but hey ya gotta love us. yee-haw!"

― hellzapoppa (tipsy mothra), Sunday, November 22, 2009 10:14 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i think this is playing dumb j0rdan s.

tob did write that song celebrating lynching, no?

And he made a movie based on it w/Mexican bad guys.

i think tipsy is essentially right. look at the sequence at the end of the video where the boat goes past the wall of tv screens, and the "KNN" anchor throws a piece of paper at the "Faux News" anchor.

i can't decide if the part
Momma gets her rocks off watchin' Desperate Housewives.
Daddy works his can off payin' for the good life.
is conservative or liberal or whatever but i quite like it

dude you're crazy -- this is clearly dog whistle politics shit

What's offensive about this song is it tries to have it both ways -- parrots a bunch of wingnut talking points as conventional wisdom and then gives a bs "I'm just sayin'" shrug.

Oh, and the word you're looking for Killah isn't conservative or liberal -- it's sexist.

Bitchez be watching crap TV while daddy works all day.

hey deej

http://i49.tinypic.com/10z3hxf.jpg

no

not sure why yr even talking to me abt this -- right wing / libertarianish framing for the whole vid is kinda undeniable -- i wasnt even saying i disliked the song just that its politixx are noxious, which is basically otm

you're just a patently unlikeable individual and i wish u ill

http://www.facepunch.com/fp/emoot/banjo.gif

Bitchez be watching crap TV while daddy works all day.
― uninspired girls rejoice!!! (Hoot Smalley), Sunday, November 22, 2009 10:55 PM (11 minutes ago)

i was reading it as a comment on "the good life." as in, daddy spends his 9 to 5s doing wage labor and their lives are completely empty, she living vicariously through sitcom characters.

in reality youre probably right, and i've just become way too invested in defending an absurd music video

fwiw (about the song not the video)

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=1196

or sort of what deej just said, except that if i squint my eyes i swear i can see some sort of socialist undertone

#
Jean, on August 20th, 2009 at 2:21 pm Said:

TOBY DIDN’T WRITE THIS SONG. Boy you guys are pathetic if you don’t like someone because you don’t agree with your politics, thank god there are more that AREN’T like you because this song tells the truth about our country.

GET READY BECAUSE AMERICAN RIDE IS RIDING UP THE CHARTS FAST.

Too bad you guys don’t listen to songs for fun and not have to analyze everything.

haha i love the seamlessness of the transition between the "you guys are pathetic if you don’t like someone because you don’t agree with your politics" angle and the "btw this song agrees with my politics exactly" part

video aside, song's politics aren't quite "noxious". hits a few fox news hot buttons (mexican border business) but the overall tone is consistent with the traditional social conservatism of country music - bemused by the absurdity of modern life, technology, hollywood, fat cats, moral collapse, etc. not my politics, mind, but hardly evil. otoh the chorus repeatedly hammers the ozone burning line, which muddies the water a little...

video ups the ante with obama on wall st and i'm not saying it isn't a conservative song/vid, but it's hardly remarkable in that

i also love how i was thinking 'who goes on youtube and gets so worked up that they have make these stupid posts about a toby keith song.' then i took a step back and remembered what ive been doing this last half hour

This is the one song that Keith didn't write on his new album. I say that because I think he's a pretty solid songwriter. His songs are ridiculous, but they are so catchy. There's a new song on this album I heard the other day-"Every dog has its day, Dog." Even though I don't agree with his politics (or more specifically, his fans' politics), I think he's the best thing in contemporary country.

Driving up the Grapevine in California I put on country radio, because that's all there is aside from Mexican stations up there, and I really rocked out to "Every Dog Has Its Day." When I found out it was Toby Keith I was kind of stunned. Nothing special but a nice solid tune.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/toby-keiths-latest-single-weirdly-sounds-a-lot-lik,58472/

So his new album's called "Sundown Heaven Town." I'm guessing he didn't Google "sundown town" before he called it that.

another autumn, another Keith album

and of course you meant Tim McGraw, right?

Yes. Yes I did. D'oh.