By Andrew Marini ’13
THE BRONCO BEAT
A music sensation is sweeping Brophy and it’s not hip-hop, rap or even rock; its country.
The works of those such as Keith Urban, Zac Brown Band, Lady Antebellum, Brad Paisley and Blake Shelton have slowly been gaining popularity on campus, especially since our country themed homecoming dance in 2009.
Even as recently as this year’s HoopComing, students were found two-step dancing throughout the dance floor.
According to Billboard.com, “42 percent of the population is a country music fan, which breaks down to 95 million country music fans in the United States.”
To give perspective to this number, U.S. country fans account for two and a half the population of Canada.
At Brophy with a student body of approximately 1,250 students, there are 525 country music fans walking the halls.
“I love country music probably more than anything or anyone,” said Hank Hay ’13. “I’ve noticed two things in my time as a country music fan. One, it is usually a love or hate relationship when it comes to country and two, country fans almost never match the stereotypes.”
Some typical stereotypes that have appeared over the years are that country fans are southern-born, poor, uneducated and only sing about bad relationships and farm equipment. The truth is country fans are not all lower class people and, in fact according to Billboard.com, one in two people with a salary of $100,000 or more are a country music fan.
“While I’ve noticed girls tend to be bigger fans then guys, you can still tell that it is growing fast at Brophy,” said Connor Tobin ’13. “I think we can attribute that to people finally coming to their senses and realizing that music is better when the lyrics make sense and the music comes from an instrument rather than a computer.”
Now the point is while country music is growing faster currently than other genres, it isn’t necessarily superior. It just seems to be currently gaining popularity at Brophy quite rapidly.
A handful of Brophy and Xavier students will show their country music dedication when they went to Country Thunder on April 12-15 in Florence, Ariz. The concert featured artists such as Blake Shelton, Band Perry, Dierks Bentley, Jake Owen and Big and Rich.
