Country Music Spotlight: Lady Antebellum

In recent years, country music has really begun to break out into mainstream music in ways previously unheard of (unless you were named Garth Brooks of course) Namely, artists like Taylor Swift and Rascal Flatts really managed to break through onto light rock and pop music stations retaining their lyrics, but making some minor adjustments. You see, on non-Country stations, instruments that I suppose have more of a "Country" sound to them (which I notice is usually guitars) is usually dropped in order to appeal to the masses.
Interestingly, this phenomenon is becoming more and more prominent as more country music makes its way to mainstream radio, with the most recent tunes from Florida Georgia Line and Luke Bryan managing to become chart-toppers outside of country music. However, it may be Lady Antebellum that has had the biggest success on those non-country music stations. The band (which consists of three members; Charles Kelley, Dave Haywood and Hillary Scott) has never made purely country songs, with only one of their tunes even referencing a more country environment. And that one doesn't sing about booze and blue jeans, but rather is a wistful account of more simple days.

Back in 2007, the trio showed off how different they were with their first Top 5 song, Love Don't Live Here. I remember really enjoying the song upon first hearing, and I still do due to it's upbeatness nicely complimenting the liberating lyrics. That one peaked at Number 3, but huge success was just around the corner for the band. You see, the 2009 song I Run To You was a big hit . It wasn't just Number One on the Country Music charts, and it wasn't just the Number One Country Song of the year. It even managed to enter the Top 20 on both the Adult Contemporary and US Adult Top 40. I like the song well enough (it does feel a twinge generic to me though), but it was the next song they had up their sleeves that would take the band to the next level.

Country music usually deals with more upbeat melodies about parties, which are fun and terrific songs, but we've really had a drought of sadder songs that deal with real emotions in recent years. Lady Antebellums Need You Now exemplified a universal theme of yearning for romances lost, an idea that resonated not just with Country Music listeners (who made it a Number One Song for five straight weeks), but also put it on more charts than any other song in their career. US Adult Contemporary, US Hot Dance Club Singles, US Mainstream Top 40...you name it, Need You Now was on there. Hell, the song left such an impact on pop culture it made its way into my favorite movie of 2012, Zero Dark Thirty.

From there, the band used the momentum gained from Need You Now to launch numerous other No. 1 hits, such as American Honey and We Owned The Night. Some songs like the aforementioned Night and Just A Kiss didn't quite have the same quality success with me, but hey, they made a ton of cash regardless. I did love their bewilderingly underrated track Hello World (a melancholy song that has an unexpectedly powerful sense of retrospectiveness to it) Surprisingly, the band actually had their lowest charted single ever in 2012 with Wanted You More, which barely made its way into the Country Top 20. Luckily, a rebound was around the corner with middling tune Downtown that still became another No. 1 song. But even that song demonstrates Lady Antebellums best asset; make songs that utilize great vocals and thoughtful ideas to make chart-topping hits that transcend genre conventions.