Nov 21, 2025 10:29 PM
(This post was last modified: Nov 21, 2025 10:39 PM by C C.)
RELATED (scivillage): Where the Kids Are
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AFTER PARTY
https://youtu.be/tBjgY59LA5I
INTRO: Emily Jashinsky uses Kelsea Ballerini’s new song “I Sit in Parks” -- which describes a woman in her early 30s wondering whether she chased career success at the expense of family -- to explore a broader cultural shift happening in country music. Jashinsky notes country music used to romanticize escaping small towns for big-city dreams, especially for women -- but today artists increasingly long for simpler lives, rooted in community, marriage, and kids.
VIDEO EXCERPTS: [...] the subject found herself in her early 30s wondering if she prioritized the wrong things, looking longingly at families with kids, thinking to herself -- did I miss out on that?
Now, maybe Kelsea Ballerini didn't miss out on that. You know, she's she's again in her early 30s, but it's reminiscent of the new Taylor Swift album, of course. Where Taylor is singing about wanting what -- like a basketball hoop in her front yard, and lots of kids? And actually kind of mocking the people who treat their pets as children, and prioritize these decadent elite experiences over family -- sort of the simple American dream type hallmarks of that kind of experience.
Tell me if I'm wrong, but when I was growing up -- especially the female country singers -- so much of it, not all of it, but so much of it was about kind of ditching your small town and going to the big city, right? And there's still some of that, of course.
[...] I'm not saying the extreme is true in either direction. I feel like there's been more a shift now away from pining to escape your hometown to a shift where there's more focus on pining to go back to your hometown.
Maybe the pandemic was the marker. Maybe that was the point when it shifted. But I think what you hear in Kelsey Baller, I mean, she's not specifically singing about her hometown, but she's kind of in and Taylor Swift too, singing about something much simpler, and having this longing for something much simpler than this remarkable career that she's been able to have, that Taylor Swift has been able to have.
And I don't even need to necessarily get into the feminist questions of it all because I think Sam Hunt is singing about something similar...
Why Kelsea Ballerini’s new song signals a shift? ... https://youtu.be/tBjgY59LA5I
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/tBjgY59LA5I
- - - - - - - - - -
AFTER PARTY
https://youtu.be/tBjgY59LA5I
INTRO: Emily Jashinsky uses Kelsea Ballerini’s new song “I Sit in Parks” -- which describes a woman in her early 30s wondering whether she chased career success at the expense of family -- to explore a broader cultural shift happening in country music. Jashinsky notes country music used to romanticize escaping small towns for big-city dreams, especially for women -- but today artists increasingly long for simpler lives, rooted in community, marriage, and kids.
VIDEO EXCERPTS: [...] the subject found herself in her early 30s wondering if she prioritized the wrong things, looking longingly at families with kids, thinking to herself -- did I miss out on that?
Now, maybe Kelsea Ballerini didn't miss out on that. You know, she's she's again in her early 30s, but it's reminiscent of the new Taylor Swift album, of course. Where Taylor is singing about wanting what -- like a basketball hoop in her front yard, and lots of kids? And actually kind of mocking the people who treat their pets as children, and prioritize these decadent elite experiences over family -- sort of the simple American dream type hallmarks of that kind of experience.
Tell me if I'm wrong, but when I was growing up -- especially the female country singers -- so much of it, not all of it, but so much of it was about kind of ditching your small town and going to the big city, right? And there's still some of that, of course.
[...] I'm not saying the extreme is true in either direction. I feel like there's been more a shift now away from pining to escape your hometown to a shift where there's more focus on pining to go back to your hometown.
Maybe the pandemic was the marker. Maybe that was the point when it shifted. But I think what you hear in Kelsey Baller, I mean, she's not specifically singing about her hometown, but she's kind of in and Taylor Swift too, singing about something much simpler, and having this longing for something much simpler than this remarkable career that she's been able to have, that Taylor Swift has been able to have.
And I don't even need to necessarily get into the feminist questions of it all because I think Sam Hunt is singing about something similar...
Why Kelsea Ballerini’s new song signals a shift? ... https://youtu.be/tBjgY59LA5I