Guilty pleasure, a sort of a shame that we all have, comes in many different forms and manifests in many different ways.
It also doesn’t escape country music. As country music fans, many of us have our picks of favorite songs, artists, bands, music styles, and many more. However, there are times when the fandom we belong in generally accepts that something is bad, has a distaste for certain songs, or just don’t like something at all.
Individually, we don’t always agree with the general fandom and we tend to sometimes unironically like something considered “bad.” Or we sometimes end up liking something from an artist we don’t really like or listen to all that often.
A guilty pleasure manifests itself in many ways in our fandom, and though we may not admit it, there are certain songs out there that we secretly love but refuse to tell others.
Today, let’s take a look at some guilty pleasure songs that we country fans may secretly love. Also, just because a song is on this list, doesn’t mean it is necessarily bad or that you liking it is bad, but again it is called a guilty pleasure for a reason.
10 Guilty Pleasure Country Songs
10. Tim McGraw, “Truck Yeah”
Part of the country music genre talks about the outlaw life, the blue-collar life, hard work and such. We also love singing about the many aspects that make these lives possible but it isn’t usually the sole focus or a shallow song. However, “Truck Yeah” just feels all around shallow.
Is it a bad song? Not really, in fact, it is technically a hit but many of us would like to believe that country music isn’t just “TRUCK YEAH!”
9. Taylor Swift, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”
Don’t invoke her name among classic country fans or they may go off on ya! While it wasn’t a huge radio hit for country, it’s undeniably catchy. Taylor Swift‘s lead single from ‘Red’ is built on a huge hook that digs in and never leaves.
8. Oak Ridge Boys, “Elvira”
It’s a great goofy hit song. Honestly, who hasn’t tried matching Richard Sterban’s “ba-oom papa oom papa mow mow”? ‘Elvira,’ the Oak Ridge Boys’ 1981 chart-topper, sounds silly by today’s standards, and frankly, it was a little goofy then as well. But it’s such a lovable performance one can’t help but smile while listening to these four men sing.
7. Trace Adkins, “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk”
What even? I don’t really know. Perhaps more than any song on this list of guilty pleasure songs, fans in and out of country music got the joke and embraced this rowdy country-rocker with the outrageous video.
6. Shania Twain, “Man! I Feel Like a Woman”
Perhaps the one song on this list that has many men secretly chanting this song, or, maybe shouting it out loud “Man! I feel like a woman” while driving 70 in a 55 mph zone. It’s OK… Shania Twain’s infectious hit from 1997 is somehow empowering to men as well. Watch the music video and just enjoy the empowerment and the song.
5. Kenny Chesney, “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy”
This wasn’t Kenny Chesney’s first hit — in fact, it didn’t even get to the Top 10. But, ‘She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy’ became his first concert anthem, one he still includes in today’s live shows. It’s unlike any of his other songs, but still one of his most cherished by fans. We country fans love our tractors!
With self-driving cars now being a thing, I wonder how long it would be before we get a song about a truck or tractor leaving their man.
4. Cowboy Troy, “I Play Chicken With The Train”
With lyrics like
For You
Now, big and black, clickety clack
And I make the train jump the track like that,
Cowboy Troy’s 2005 single was essentially his autobiography, wrapped in thick, guitar-driven, John Rich production. Country radio wasn’t quite ready for the hick-hopper, but fans of the Big and Rich sound loved what he brought to the genre.
3. Big & Rich, “Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)”
Big and Rich began a movement when they released ‘Save a Horse …’ in 2004. The duo embraced loud and ugly in a way that was shocking. Rock guitars, a rap breakdown, and more-than-suggestive lyrics make this song the purest OMG moment on this list of guilty pleasure songs. It was far more influential than its Top 20 chart ranking would suggest.
2. Toby Keith, “Red Solo Cup”
Even Toby Keith himself admits this song is stupid, but “stupid” sold over two million singles and gathered nearly 20 million clicks on YouTube.
It’s a silly, tongue-in-cheek tribute to a receptacle that every country fan has relied on at least once. It tops this Guilty Pleasure Songs list for being the most ridiculous and most successful hit of the 10. Turn it up loud now:
Red solo cup I fill you up
Let’s have a party Let’s have a party.
1. Billy Ray Cyrus, “Achy Breaky Heart”
Remember “Gangnam Style?” “Happy?” and “Soulja Boy?” these songs started off innocently enough with people liking them and that was just that. Then suddenly we couldn’t escape these songs, they were played everywhere and people were forced to listen to them driving many insane. Well, country music fans had to suffer something like that way before these songs came to us with “Achy Beaky Heart”.
No song takes more criticism than the one that made Billy Ray Cyrus famous in 1992. ‘Achy Breaky Heart’ is a punching bag for everything people regret about the era: the mullet, tight jeans on men, line dancing and the shift in country music to a more sexualized format. Is it really that bad? We say no way!
Everybody now!
But don’t tell my heart
My achy breaky heart
I just don’t think he’d understand
And if you tell my heart
My achy breaky heart
He might blow up and kill this man!
Of course, once again, there is nothing wrong with liking these songs. To each their own after all, right?
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