Follow Your Arrow
| Follow Your Arrow | |
|---|---|
| Kacey Musgraves | |
| publication | March 19, 2013 (album), October 21, 2013 (single) |
| length | 3:21 |
| Genre (s) | Country |
| Author (s) | Brandy Clark , Shane McAnally , Kacey Musgraves |
| Producer (s) | Shane McAnally, Luke Laird , Kacey Musgraves |
| Label | Mercury Nashville Records |
| album | Same Trailer Different Park |
Follow Your Arrow is a 2013 song by US singer Kacey Musgraves . The third single from her debut album Same Trailer Different Park was written by the artist with Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally and produced by the latter with her and Luke Laird .
background
Follow Your Arrow has its origins in a poem that Musgraves wrote for a friend who traveled to Paris for four months to study and left everything behind without understanding the local language. The singer gave her a necklace with an arrow on it and handed her the poem, which contained the later lines of text “Follow your arrow” and “Kiss lots of boys”. When a full-fledged song later developed from this basic idea, Musgraves offered it to the well-known pop singer Katy Perry . This suggested to the songwriter to record it herself, as it sounds like a genre contribution that could tear down walls.
Music and lyrics
Follow Your Arrow is a country music song characterized by a continuous guitar rhythm and pounding bass drums . A tambourine also starts in the chorus , and whistles can be heard in several places . The basic message of the text is “no matter what you do, there will always be someone who gets upset about it. So go your own way and make your decisions only for yourself. ”The musician also names specific examples in the verses: waiting until the wedding, drinking alcohol, gaining or losing weight, and going to church are all topics that can be considered negative Reactions will be faced, no matter which direction you act. In the chorus, she sings about how it doesn't matter what gender you are attracted to and that you can smoke marijuana if you want .
Music video
The video clip to Follow Your Arrow was in Joshua Tree filmed and set in a deserted, desert-like area. At the beginning you can see Musgraves pulling an arrow stuck there out of the ground. In the course of the action she passes several scenes and objects ( huts , neon signs , churches , bee hotels ...) with arrow symbols attached. In between scenes are faded in in which she - sometimes accompanied by a pony - sings surrounded by palm trees , and others in which she makes music with a band and wears a cowgirl outfit.
Criticism and Impact
Follow Your Arrow received extremely positive reviews from the music press and was featured in several leaderboards, especially towards the end of its decade. The refrain's statement was unanimously praised that you are allowed to love whoever you want and that you can shape your life according to your own ideas; especially in combination with the genre in which the work is located. Due to its text, which takes up several social discussion topics, but above all because of its positive attitudes towards same-sex relationships and marijuana consumption, the song was sometimes controversial within the country scene and originally received little airplay on genre-related radio stations. Despite all adversities, the song nevertheless achieved a respectable status among the following of the musical style, made Kacey Musgraves a household name in this target group and launched a successful career. This fact makes the title to this day a basis for discussion and analysis of the extent to which the traditionally rather conservative country listeners can be presented with left-wing political issues and messages in modern times without viewing them as “no-go”. Because of this effect, the song was retrospectively referred to as "revolutionary". Billboard dedicated an essay to the song as part of the Songs That Defined the Decade series of articles about the 100 songs that they believe most shaped and reflected the 2010s ; they previously named it the second best song of 2013. Good Housekeeping recorded it in no particular order among the 28 best songs of the decade; Village Voice and Spin included 17th and 21st place respectively among the best songs of the year. In the list of Rolling Stone's 100 best songs from 2013 , it originally only appeared at number 53, but in its decade review published in 2019, the magazine listed the title significantly higher than the eighth best piece of music of the 2010s. The magazine also voted it 39th on their list of the best country songs of all time in 2014.
success
| Charts | Top ranking | Weeks |
|---|---|---|
| Chart placements | ||
 United States (Billboard)
|
60 (1 week) | 1 |
| Country / Region | Award | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales) |
||
|
United States (RIAA)
|
 platinum
|
1,000,000 |
| All in all |
1 × platinum |
1,000,000 |
Individual evidence
- ↑ credits. Retrieved July 18, 2020 .
- ^ The Boot Article. Retrieved July 18, 2020 .
- ^ People Magazine article. Retrieved July 18, 2020 .
- ↑ Lyrics. Retrieved July 18, 2020 .
- ↑ music video. Retrieved July 18, 2020 .
- ↑ Location. Retrieved July 18, 2020 .
- ↑ Wide Open Country Article. Retrieved July 18, 2020 .
- ^ Billboard essay. Retrieved July 18, 2020 .
- ↑ Billboard's "20 Best Songs of 2013". Retrieved July 18, 2020 .
- ^ Good Housekeeping's "Songs That Define the 2010s". Retrieved July 18, 2020 .
- ^ Village Voice's "2013 Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll". Retrieved July 18, 2020 .
- ↑ Spin's "Best Songs of 2013". Retrieved July 18, 2020 .
- ↑ Rolling Stone's "100 Best Songs of 2013". Retrieved July 18, 2020 .
- ^ Rolling Stone's "The 100 Best Songs of the 2010s". Retrieved July 18, 2020 .
- ↑ Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Country Songs of All Time. Retrieved July 18, 2020 (English).
- ↑ Chart sources: US
- ^ RIAA. Retrieved July 18, 2020 .