“What Makes You Country” by Luke Bryan
In “What Makes You Country”, singer Luke Bryan sets out to define to the audience what exactly it means to be “country”. He goes about this in two ways. First he gives examples of the general types of people who would fit this description, such as a Texas cowboy or a young man working on a farm. Second is that he uses his own past experiences, such as working on a peanut farm and hunting game birds with his dogs, as a standard by which to define this metric.
His final conclusion is that “country” is not something a person can manufacture using an appearance based on a popular, mainstream understanding of “country”. Rather it is ultimately up to the individual to define and exemplify what country means to him or her.
Facts about “What Makes You Country”
- Luke Bryan collaborated with songwriters Ashley Gorley and Dallas Davidson to write this song. Both Gorley and Davidson had worked with Bryan multiple times before this song.
- American country music songwriter and record producer Jeff Stevens and his son Jody produced this anthem.
- “What Makes You Country” was formally dropped on October 22, 2018. It was released through Capitol Records Nashville.
- This was the fourth and final single from Bryan’s sixth studio album of the same title.
- This track was Bryan’s last single for 2018.
- The album on which this song appears produced 4 singles. Of all the four singles, this particular track performed worst, from a commercial standpoint.
- Despite not reaching the success of its predecessors, this song did fairly well on the charts. It made it into the US Hot 100.
- Bryan performed this track live at the 52nd Annual Country Music Association Awards on November 15, 2018. He performed it live along with six other acts, including Luke Combs.
Who are the six other acts that Luke Bryan performed this song with at the 2018 Country Music Association Awards?
Bryan performed the track live with the following artists:
- Luke Combs
- Cole Swindell
- Lindsay Ell
- Chris Janson
- Jon Pardi
- Ashley McBryde
Below is that performance in question:
What musical genre is this anthem?
This is country music (aka hillbilly music).
Were any samples used in the creation process of this song?
No.
