Yeeeeeeeeeehaw
What if I move to Oklahoma...
Here’s the scene:
It’s raining. I have my big Splenda coffee. I had my first two calls of the day. I’m scrolling for some news to make my beautiful readers sated. I’m listening to the new Zach Bryan album. I see a headline on Styles about how “we’re having a cowboy moment.” I check on my Tweet from March that read “I think we’re on the precipice of an Lana Americana-Morgan Wallen- Wyoming in august- western aesthetic summer.” 31k views. I know there’s a typo in it.
Zach and Kacey Musgraves are singing about pawning rings, and '88 Fords, and whiskey, and heartbreaks and closing time, and barefoot summers and I realize this music and this aesthetic isn’t necessarily tied to America or John Wayne but an idealized world that has big backyards, big cars, is less plugged in, and filled with Shakesperian-level heartbreak and drunk nights on porch swings.
Emma Goldberg’s story for the Times draws a line from cowboy boots and western aesthetics to Barbie and Beyonce. I think the real lines are drawn to: