Pop's Got Friends in Country Places
For the haters out there: yes, country is more than beers, trucks, and spitting tobacco no matter how many times Blake Shelton says “chew tobacc’a spit.”
Howdy from Texas!
Here, my days are filled with hot tea 2-3 times/day, working by the pool, and enjoying every minute of my mom’s perfect Persian cuisine.
Being home reminds me of how much I love music. Through years of choir, a cappella groups, (I’m talking Glee style, folks) and singing covers on YouTube, music helped shape my life growing up. In recent years, performing has taken a back seat. On Thanksgiving, Will encouraged me to change that.
In my hometown, we walked around my empty high school campus and stopped right outside the choir room where my a cappella group would occasionally perform concerts. He sat on a bench and asked me to sing him a song, then another, and another. After my concert, he gave me a standing ovation because that’s just who he is.
Whether I’m singing, writing about music, or listening to it, it makes me feel joy. And I’m determined to experience that feeling my whole life.
Pop’s Got Friends in Country Places
1989 changed the game of the music industry—and no, I’m not talking about the year.
Admit it: you shake shake shake shaked to Taylor Swift’s 1989. The album pivoted her career: a successful crossover from country to global pop superstardom. She flexed her songwriting with a completely new sound that worked. And the worlds of country and pop music now? In the words of Swift and Sheeran, everything has changed.
I jumped up and down cheering when Golden Hour won Album of the Year at the 2019 GRAMMYs. Alongside Post Malone and Cardi B, Kacey Musgraves was the underdog in the coveted category, but her win didn’t surprise me. In 2018, Musgraves released what I can only describe as the synth pop-country album of my dreams. Dancing around at the Greek Theatre, I felt every emotion from tears on “Merry Go Round” to the moment of bliss when the beat dropped on “Love Is A Wild Thing.” I belted every word because this album is a revolutionary piece of art that contributed to the new mold country music is quickly becoming.
For the haters out there: yes, country is more than beers, trucks, and spitting tobacco no matter how many times Blake Shelton says “chew tobacc’a spit.” What draws me to country music time and time again is its heart through honest, soulful storytelling. Nashville continues to be holy ground for songwriters to pursue that masterful art.
In form of today’s Lyrics on Loop, here are a few of my favorites from pop/country collaborations:
Almost ten years ago, Trannie Anderson and I sat next to each other during an Intro to Business class at Baylor University where we instantly became friends. Soon after graduation, Trannie moved to Nashville without a job and hustled hard. She booked coffee meetings with people in music, scheduled writing sessions with fellow songwriters, and even started her own business called Pup-Stars where she dog sat for artists while they toured. All working toward her goal of scoring a publishing deal. Only one year in, and she did it. Now, she’s a songwriter for Sony Music in Nashville.
I loved every minute of catching up and talking music with this sweet friend. Here’s my exclusive interview with Trannie.
Writing for rising country stars like Gabby Barrett and pop songs featured on shows like Riverdale must both be pinch-me experiences. As a songwriter who dabbles in both country and pop, what’s your favorite genre and why?
On a daily basis, it would be country because I just love all of the detail, all of the color, all of the specifics, and how story-based it is. Definitely reflects the way I was raised—being able to reflect on the kind of upbringing I had in Texas around cattle and around smaller town life and put that color in songs. It’s just way more natural than I ever knew it would be for me. But, I also get really bored and lack inspiration if I write the same thing all the time so my writing will suffer if I write only country, because then I start recycling. That’s why writing pop and having fun with melodies is really important to me. Even though I lyrically like writing country music better, I love writing pop melodies more than anything else.
That is starting to find a place in country more, and especially with all of these crossovers and collaborations between pop and country artists, it’s really fun to see. My dream is to write songs that do that. It's also fun to write for film and TV because I can be whoever I want to be for a day, like an actress in my own way. I'm a pretty happy sunshiny person, but it's really fun to like go be a dark Billie Eilish type for a minute just to try it on for fun.
Absolutely. We’re definitely seeing more artists write stories about people or experiences that fascinate them. To follow up on recycling lyrics: how do you avoid the burnout of writing the same story? Is it the diversity of the artists you work with, thinking in a specific mindset?
That's a really good question. I think both. Diversity of artists is definitely part of it. It's also getting better because there are more females starting to be represented at record labels. My job is to write with a lot of artists who just signed their first record deal, which is fun. I was forced to write mostly male country for the first four years I was here and this year, I've seen a huge shift. Huge shift, I mean I'm writing 50/50, maybe even a little more female right now, which is a refreshing break. So that's been really inspiring for me and kept me from feeling like I'm burning out because I've gotten to write from new perspectives and a more natural perspective.
There is a lot of overlap between artists on types of country songs you want to have represented on your record: you want to have a few love songs, a few break up songs, and then a few lifestyle songs. Then you want to have a couple left-field songs. There are enough boxes for me to work with, as long as I'm not writing in the same box every single day. And it's fun to be creative within the box, in a way. Yeah, so I do get refreshed by listening to a lot of other people's music, and this year I've really tried to un-filter myself because I felt like I was telling myself “no” on ideas. A lot of times in the past I’ve thought, “that won't work,” or “that isn't commercial enough,” but I just wrote this weird song called “kitchen sink,” and it's Sony's favorite song I've ever written. So that makes me feel more inspired to write weird stuff.
You wrote a song called “Hall of Fame,” which ended up being a single on Gabby Barrett’s debut album. Can you describe how you felt the moment you first heard your song on the radio?
I knew it had been playing on Sirius XM for probably about six weeks. I just didn't have a subscription to it yet so that morning a week or two before the pandemic, Patrick (Trannie’s husband) and I were driving to church, I signed up for XM, we got to church and I turned it off as we went inside for the service. I got back in the car and as soon as we turn on the car my song was playing it was just a really cool timing thing, and I just was able to close my eyes and feel the weight of the work I had put in for that moment. I guess at that at that point I’d been in Nashville for almost five years, but I've been writing songs since I was a little little child. I wrote my first song when I was five or six; I couldn't even write my lyrics, somebody else had to write them down for me. It's been my obsession since I can remember. So it was the culmination of all of all of those things that flashed through my mind real quick as I was sitting there listening because this was a milestone for sure. I just felt joy. I think I'll have that same moment, and maybe even a more intense way when I hear it as I hear a song as an FM single. That’s the Holy Grail.
Why do you think country and pop are playing so well together these days?
I think part of it is that there are pop artists that are a little more in the singer-songwriter lane. Ed Sheeran has been around for a long time, but he’s been coming to Nashville to write a lot—he's written with a couple people that I know here, and he’s writing country songs. I think country's really good at writing hooks in different ways like, “I Hope” for instance, is a story but it’s also just a really good use of a lyrical hook where the words “I hope” are in every single line but making it hit differently lyrically…I think country is amazing at that.
I don't know what's causing country and pop to come together more: I don’t know if it's because of streaming, because there are more playlists that are curated where listeners can find pop and country songs on the same playlist and maybe the listeners are hearing the two different genres becoming more like one. Which couldn’t make me happier as a songwriter because I hate being stuck in a genre. So like for my creativity sake, it's really fun to have more avenues.
I do think it'll be interesting to see what happens to genre definitions in the years to come. You get enough streaming services find algorithms that say, “you like this song, well it’s country but it has hints of pop—here’s another song that’s just like it", and we get more and more cross-collaboration based on listener demand to the point where we may have genre-less music at one point.
I honestly hope so because I think genres can be limiting sometimes. And it would give songwriters a better chance in my opinion. You aren't stuck over here in this one genre that this one demographic of people like, I mean that's very limiting to your song’s success.
You had experience writing music before moving to Nashville. What was it like first starting to write alongside Nashville writers?
I mean it's a gift to write with other people because it makes me a better writer. I’m obsessed with self-improvement, growing and getting better at my craft and so to get to write with other people who have been doing it longer than I have or have a really cool unique perspective on things lyrically or great people that have had more life experience than me. It just sharpens me as a person and as a songwriter.
With the recent GRAMMY nominations released, Song of the Year is a famous staple award. Taylor Swift, Emily Warren, Billie Eilish, and Beyoncé among this year’s nominees. Who are the songwriters that inspired you to pursue songwriting and continue to inspire you to this day?
I think the first person that I really latched onto from a songwriting perspective was Sara Bareilles. I definitely started developing, especially vocally without even really realizing I was kind of copying what she did. And I think that has stuck with me too. Melodically, I think some of my melodies are very moving and emotional like hers are, so I definitely give her the credit for that. I've always loved Norah Jones, I don't know if her style has really influenced me as much as I just love listening to her, but I just adore her. Growing up, I was obsessed with a lot of Christian artists like Chris Rice, Steven Curtis Chapman, and Zoe Girl, mostly contemporary Christian artists. I really didn't get into country until late high school because my ex-boyfriend loved country, and I didn't like country at that time or, I thought I didn't like country, I didn't understand country. And as soon as we broke up I started listening to a lot of country music. So that changed the course of my life. The first country song that I really loved, and it's funny because it was a crossover, was “Need You Now” by Lady A. That one really was my gateway drug into country.
Albums | Listen to these in their entirety from front to back, the only way to do it.
The most introspective, honest Shawn Mendes album yet. In his interview with Zane Lowe from Apple Music, he shares the creative process behind Wonder and how finalizing the record in quarantine allowed him to understand the gravity of his art, capabilities as a musician, and compelled him to create while breaking major social constructs of expectation and judgement. The hauntingly gorgeous piano ballad introduces us to Shawn’s world of Wonder, letting us into his heart full of songs about life’s biggest questions, falling in love, and missing his friends. This album is filled with clear lyrical inspiration from his relationship with Camila Cabello and musical inspiration from the big band era of the 1960s.
I first heard Dagny when they toured with LANY in 2017. Three years later, and this debut album is the epitome of pop. Dagny sounds like a mix of Ellie Goulding and Dua Lipa, and the track list is filled with stand out tracks with perfect pop-synth beats like “Somebody,” “Let Me Cry,” and “Coulda Woulda Shoulda”.
Taylor Swift really said “drop everything now” with a double album drop in 2020, becoming the first female artist to debut eight albums at #1 on the Billboard 200. evermore shocked fans who felt they were still internalizing folklore especially with the long pond studio sessions (where she, Aaron Dessner, and Jack Antonoff unpacked song by song) on Disney+ just a few weeks earlier.
Coining evermore the sister album to folklore, the parallels are clear and hints of country and folk are very much alive. This may be her most lyrically advanced album yet. If you’re into album conspiracy theories: notice how she sprinkles hints of re-recording her masters throughout a few select tracks. ‘Tis the damn season, write this down: listen to “cowboy like me” and “no body, no crime” closely, and you’ll hear instrumentals reminiscent of “Tim McGraw” and “Should’ve Said No.”
RN | Songs I’m Loving…right now.
Everyone’s favorite duo since Troye Sivan’s feature on “Glittery” for The Kacey Musgraves Christmas Show is back with this Mark Ronson collaboration that turns a sad love song into an upbeat, 80s vibe, absolute pop-synth tuuuuune of all tunes.
Pop is obsessed with country storytelling, and this song proves it. “Palace” is one of Sam Smith’s most heart wrenching, beautiful songs. Cam is one of the songwriters on the record, and she sings her beautiful rendition of the record here. “Sometimes I wish we never built this palace, but real love is never a waste of time.” Phew, I mean. Come on.
Because I’m not gonna not share the latest Ed Sheeran song. Ed encapsulates a form of country storytelling through pop music; every song he’s ever written sounds like a stream of conscious in the best way. He’s reassured fans this is not the first single off a new album, just a song he loves and hopes we love too. I’m a big believer that if you love something enough, put it out into the world; I think that’s something we can all get on board with. This one is sweet, acoustic gem.
Performance of the Week
Since I featured Lyrics on Loop on this week’s piece: one of my absolute favorite collaborations of all time is from the 2015 Country Music Awards featuring Chris Stapleton and Justin Timberlake. The raw talent is unbelievable. Five years later, and I still get chills.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year!
Until next time,
Donya
Loved the newsletter and the interview with Trannie. Tell her to revive the song ‘Cheap Coffee’— that one was always my favorite.