Rascal Flatts - Why Wait?

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Rascal Flatts
Why Wait
Values Porn
#66 (LoMid)
Nov 4, 2010
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And I thought anything would sound good after Chris Brown...

I actually didn't realize this was supposed to be country until the fiddle snuck in under the music-- with the guitar sound and the big, reverby 80's drums I thought an “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” kind of song had somehow ended up on the charts. Have Tears for Fears or INXS come back into vogue? Oh, wait: violin and a southern accent. This must be what gets played on the country stations.

Trying not to be a hypocrite, I'll admit right now that I have exactly two Johnny Cash albums, one Willie Nelson record, and two out of the three were released after 1990, so I am not a massive authority on country music. I will claim some bluegrass acumen; I've seen John Prine and love Gillian Welch's stuff with David Rawlings (one of my all-time favorite guitarists), but I fully admit: I am not a country boy.

That really shouldn't even figure in, because this is just a pop song. I will give it points for featuring a band (hey! musicians!) and a singer who hasn't been digitized into oblivion, but... somehow that makes it worse for me. I know, I know: I'm a fickle bastard, but it's almost depressing thinking about a group of players physically churning out product. This song isn't better than Nelly's in any measurable way.

From a certain angle, it's worse, because of its Values Porn implications. This fits a niche I've heard in the genre before: it's usually aimed at a very Christian Coalition, Morning in America sort of listener-- church going “old fashioned” folk who believe everything was simpler way back when, and don't believe in pre-marital sex or divorce. Personally, I think it's funny to advertise nostalgia for the Reagan 80's, whose defining feature was nostalgia for the Eisenhower 50's.  This song isn't as overt as some, but it's definitely preaching to a choir... and I've had my fill of this preacher and this choir, and I really want them to go away.  

So “Why Wait” is basically a marriage proposal, most likely an anthem to many highschool sweethearts who are finding themselves in a family way this year, but it manages to work in not just church, but even the fact that he loves your mamma (how can you not marry this guy?) It's as impersonal a song as any other generic pop tune I've found so far: this isn't a song written by a guy in love, it's a commercial for marriage written by an ad agency.

RUN!

Stay with the song, walk away, or run like hell: