A lot of these honky tonk hard country songs are in a similar vein - melodramatic, sad, usually sung by men, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, sometimes not, and oh so sad. But the music…
I keep thinking of hbomberguy on YouTube talking about The Room⬩ the famously bad film about writer and lead star Tommy Wiseau’s break up with his girlfriend, Lisa. In the film she’s depicted as breaking up with him for no reason - she cheats on him, she’s crazy and malicious. Hbomb points out that it’s very unlikely she was actually like this in real life, but Tommy didn’t understand why the relationship fell apart and so in his perception she just acts irrationally, breaking his heart for no reason and therefore she’s characterised as crazy, malicious etc. Hbomberguy’s point is that the film isn’t necessarily accurate about Lisa, but it does tell us a lot of truth about the dynamic of the relationship, at least how Tommy saw it. Precisely because it depicts the relationship inaccurately is it a revealing picture. I feel like that’s why we watch Married At First Sight isn’t it - it feels enlightening precisely because the relationships are horrible. It made me think of these songs and anytime you hear about women and honky tonks, you can probably bet it’s a fictionalisation of a relationship that the singer didn’t fully understand. I wonder, stretching hbomb’s point, if this inaccuracy also somewhere provides some truth. Perhaps in the music itself is some un-articulated and un-understood feeling.
⬩hbomberguy - CTRL+ALT+DEL | SLA:3 (from 19:09)
