
The boundaries of country music have been greatly stretched over the last few years, with the rise of Taylor Swift, Florida Georgia Line and Sam Hunt. But there is still a basic line that country music holds as a standard: country music is supposed to tell a story. Swift and Hunt have always managed to do that. Haley Georgia is similar to Florida Georgia Line in that sense: she isn't telling an appropriate story for country music. This song is Georgia's debut single, and although classified as country, this song is not even close to being country music at all.
As many YouTube comments have emphasized, Georgia is a country Iggy Azalea. Her rap-influnced delivery, lyrics, and look are all similar to the Australian rap superstar. The hook consists of: "You're redic-, you're redic-, you're redic-, you're redic-, you're ridiculous," with the 'you're redic' meant to sound like something else (if you listen to the song you will easily hear it.) That slightly crude part of the song is crude, but genius. This is a catchy, somewhat edgy pop-rap ear worm.
But the real problem is that Georgia defines herself as a country singer. The only things remotely country in this song are her accented vocals, and the over-edited mandolin throughout the track. But that does not make the song country. The track "Four Five Seconds" from Rihanna, Kanye West and Paul McCaurtney had acoustic guitar and some country influences in it, but that does not make it country. There are way too many artists that should be pop stars who are passing themselves off as country, and Georgia should not want to be one of them.
But Haley Georgia does have potential. But first she has to choose whether she wants to be a hip hop influenced pop singer, or whether she wants to go full country and stop using over processed instrumentals and go more raw and acoustic. She would do well with either one of those, but this pop-rap music she is calling country is not good at all.
Despite all the ups and downs of this track, one thing's for sure: you'd be ridiculous to call Haley Georgia country.
But the real problem is that Georgia defines herself as a country singer. The only things remotely country in this song are her accented vocals, and the over-edited mandolin throughout the track. But that does not make the song country. The track "Four Five Seconds" from Rihanna, Kanye West and Paul McCaurtney had acoustic guitar and some country influences in it, but that does not make it country. There are way too many artists that should be pop stars who are passing themselves off as country, and Georgia should not want to be one of them.
But Haley Georgia does have potential. But first she has to choose whether she wants to be a hip hop influenced pop singer, or whether she wants to go full country and stop using over processed instrumentals and go more raw and acoustic. She would do well with either one of those, but this pop-rap music she is calling country is not good at all.
Despite all the ups and downs of this track, one thing's for sure: you'd be ridiculous to call Haley Georgia country.