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I’ve posted the tabs for the solo and the mp3 at my Patreon:
Skip to 11:48 to just hear the full track

In this video, I show you how to make a modern pop country song, aka BRO COUNTRY. I walk through the arrangement and writing techniques used, from a heavy reliance on pentatonic minor and cookie-cutter song structure to more obscure harmonies and techniques.

I hate to be negative, and I don’t want to dismiss this genre outright. But you can’t like everything, and this genre just rubs me the wrong way for reasons that may become obvious in the video. That doesn’t mean it’s bad music though- you like what you like. There’s lots of “good music” in the jazz realm that I can not stand listening to, that doesn’t negate it. Similarly, there’s lots of simple pop that I enjoy regardless of its basic nature.

But even though I don’t believe in good music or bad music, I still believe in good natured criticism, and hopefully this video gets the point across- the genre is very easy to write. I believed that before going into this video and wasn’t sure how successful I’d be at recreating this genre, but now that it’s done I give myself a B+

I must say this isn’t my first crack at a writing a country song. A little while back, I produced and wrote a song with a local artist named Cara Jeanne, and we were aiming for a more mature version of a Taylor Swift song before she went full pop mode. If you’d like to hear that song, you can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMzxAc554D0

I actually encourage you to do this sort of thing. It is a great way to build your skills and experience. As a modern professional composer, you don’t always have the luxury of writing in genres you like, so going way outside of your tastes like this is a surefire way to grow and evolve.

To expand on what happened with my harmonies- when It was only a parallel third, I liked it. But when I added in 6ths, it worked, but I felt it could be more interesting. Instead, I had the harmonies during the 2nd and 3rd choruses outline little bits of each chord tone as they tried their best to maintain a parallel motion. It didn’t always work and I still don’t like how they’re mixed but it does add an incredible amount of interest to an otherwise simple pentatonic melody.

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Table of Contents:
00:00 Intro
02:02 Writing A Chorus
05:59 Writing A Verse
07:26 Writing A Second Verse
07:53 Writing A Second Chorus
09:32 Writing A Guitar Solo
10:11 Adding A Quiet Pseudo-Chorus
10:54 The Final Chorus
11:48 “TRUK BFF”
13:57 Wrapping Up

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By: wildsPosted on Categories : Categories : UncategorizedTags:

28 Replies to “Recreating the Genre I Hate Most – Bro Country [Songwriting + Structure + Arrangement]”

  16. It's certainly a lot better than a lot of the songs I've heard in the Pop Country Genre…just listen to Shania Twain's three different mixes of Still the One. There's a Country, Pop and extended dance mix of the same song. In the Country mix there's a pedal steel guitar, pedal steel replaced by keyboard and in the dance mix you have a disco extravaganza. I have to admit if I had to choose between pop and disco, pop would win haha!

  18. it's an improvement on a largely non-melodic, rhytmically retarded musical genre. Try listening to "I want to kiss a girl" by keith urban, that riding on a horse, horse shits all over it.

  20. Most songs are politically motivated now days. To keep the poor poor, the dumb dumb, the self conscious self conscious, and to make your daughters into WHORES. Lol people shouldn't be buying this garbage. Make the ones who work their asses off and true dedication like THIS guy. We used to look up to Albert fucking EINSTEIN and now we look up to lady Gaga and lil Yachty. Pathetic. We will never progress if we keep letting elite asshokes run every aspect of all of our lives. Think about it, by now they own not only every bank across the world, to ONE or THREE family bloodlines, but they also own the education system, (through ties not directly obviously) they own TV shows, movies, Hollywood, what we eat, what we sleep on, where we get food, everything. And it's ALL conveniently owned by about twelve of the same companies who's own a million other companies and sub companies. For example, Proctor and gamble, they own everything from cereals, candy, hair products, many many more companies who represent themselves as DIFFERENT separate companies. Because they have to have it be a monopoly, can't have us minions succeeding over them and taking business away from them.

    This is literally how it works, people better open their damn eyes and fight back or we are all REALLY screwed. Even more.

  26. I loved the ‘intermittent-ness’ of the muted power chord buried deep in reverb but it won’t ever go into a real ‘Nashville’ song – there they hire 6 pickers at double scale and god-damn-it they paid them well and so they each has got to play throughout the entire song. restraint isn’t a virtue in modern country music..

  27. I heard a joke recently about self driving vehicles getting to the stage where it was only a matter of time before a country singer had a song about how their pick up truck had driven itself off and left them…

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