The country song “Homegrown” by the Zac Brown Band is about the value of community. This is an anecdote to most Top 40 songs which glorify extreme individualism. (Photo courtesy Republic)
What stands out about Zac Brown Band‘s song “Homegrown” is that it’s about community.
That’s a rare subject for a Top 40 song. Most popular songs are so extremely individualistic you could categorize them as narcissistic. Too often they are about the pursuit of hedonism at their worst and a romantic partner at their best. Usually the only community in them is obtaining a romantic partner (although Top 40 songs are more often about casual sex than romantic love).
In “Homegrown,” the singer finds his identity through a community. He lives in a small Georgia town. Leaving his hometown? He won’t even consider it. Not when he’s got good friends, a romantic partner, and a relaxing and beautiful countryside. It “feels like home.”
Looking to your community for meaning
The most striking line in the song is: “I got everything I need and nothing that I don’t.”
This is pretty countercultural in a society that demands pursuit of fulfillment through achieving things and expansion instead of looking for the best of what’s around you. This song says you can be happy in your community. There’s a spirituality in being satisfied with what you have. It’s also defining happiness as friendship, love, community, and nature.
In its own way Zac Brown’s “Homegrown” is a spiritual and social statement. The sense of community and connection is continuing to vanish from contemporary America, but “Homegrown” is a celebration of community. (Photo courtesy Republic)
Is it a romanticized view of small town life? In some ways. And that’s a deeply American theme that’s been embedded in American literature, art, and music for decades: the threat to a way of life that a small town life represents. The kind of place where you have a sense of community, where things don’t move too fast and you aren’t consumed with ambition — which can distort your priorities in life.
But there’s something to it. I think the community that’s sung about it in this song is something more people are longing for in an era of social isolation because of: no work, lousy work, too much work, social media substituting for real relationships, people moving far away from their homes because of jobs, and the increasingly encroaching materialism that’s more and more invasive because of the Internet.
So Zac Brown is on to something here. In a way this is about as political a statement as mainstream country music is going to have these days. Since the Dixie Chicks debacle — speaking out against the Iraq War which ruined the band’s career — mainstream country music has set very clear boundaries about its subject matter. Acceptable topics are: love songs, party songs, county lifestyle songs — about what it’s like to live the life of a country boy/girl.
Celebrating community instead of extreme individualism
So the feeling of community sung about in this song is the opposite of what the culture’s telling us to do — which is to pursue individual goals at the expense of community. That’s a political and social statement. But because it can put under the umbrella of a country lifestyle song, it’s acceptable to mainstream country music radio. The band Alabama may have set up this genre of songs with celebrating small town community in songs like “Down Home,” and criticizing the encroaching fast-paced lifestyle that was threatening it (check with songs “I’m In a Hurry,” and “Keepin’ Up”).
And there’s a line in this song that has what some of the best country music has which is some wisdom: “It’s the weight that you carry for the things you think you want.” Think about it.
Here’s a live performance of the Zac Brown singing “Homegrown” on Saturday Night Live:
