There is quite a bit of humor to be found in a piece of entertainment (be it a movie, a book, or a song) that has every serious intention, but fails. Whether discussing love, friendship, or finding meaning in every day life, when an artist completely misses the mark, it has the potential to be uproarious. I hope I've highlighted some examples of that here, with at least a modicum of success.
The same can not be said when the intention is to be funny. A failed attempt at humor is nothing short of incredibly awkward. Take, for example, every single movie that ever starred Rob Schneider. There isn't a single one of them that is funny (in the way it is supposed to be), and the viewer can't even hope to find them hilarious in an ironic way. They're simply terrible.
Brad Paisley's latest single, "Camouflage" is not unlike those aforementioned films. Now, I am not one of those types that is turned off by humor in music (as my They Might Be Giants and Dead Milkmen collections will attest). What I am turned off by is songs that attempt to be clever, cute, and/or cheeky and instead come off as annoying. "Camouflage" is just another lousy attempt by a Contemporary Popular Country artist to sell records by appealing to some piece of redneck culture.
I assume the desired reaction from a listener goes something like this: "Huh. I like to hunt, and when I do, I wear camouflage. In fact, a lot of my buddies also wear camouflage. Yeah, camouflage is pretty cool, huh? I think I'll buy this record, right after I finish my Budweiser." Unfortunately, after this song hit my east coast, city-dwelling, elitist ears, my reaction was: "Well, I guess I can't avoid writing about Brad Paisley on my blog anymore. His admittedly formidable guitar chops can't save him from this one."
No comments:
Post a Comment