Why Pre-9/11 Toby Keith Hits Different
The country music world recently lost one of its beloved singers, Toby Keith, after his tough battle with stomach cancer. Now if any of you knew me growing up, I was absolutely OBSESSED with Toby Keith. I am talking being in elementary school dreaming about marrying him, choreographing dances to his songs with my cousins, and my first email address literally being tobykeithfan12694@yahoo.com. That being said, the loss of Toby Keith is pretty personal for me and I think it would be a disservice to not write about him and his music. I figured if I was going to write about Toby Keith’s music, it makes the most sense for me to talk about the era of his music that started my obsession with him, the 90’s!
Country music’s first introduction to Toby Keith was when he put out his debut single, “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” and it turned out to be a huge success. Despite being a debut single, it reach the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot Country chart and was followed by his debut album, Toby Keith. His debut album was well received and featured other well loved singles such as “He Ain’t Worth Missing”, “A Little Less Talk and a Lot More Action”, and “Wish I Didn’t Know Now”.
After a well received debut, he turned around and released his second album, Boomtown in 1994. This second album was another hit, reaching certified platinum and a few top 10 singles. The most notable single from the album, “Who’s That Man”, ended up at #1 on the Billboard Hot Country chart. After putting out only two albums back to back, Toby Keith quickly became a staple within the country music world and made a huge name for himself. Throughout the rest of the late 1990s, he released two more albums and then had enough to put together a Greatest Hits album that was released in 1998. It really is such a testament to his success that despite debuting in 1993, he had a complete Greatest Hits Album by 1998.
Upon the turn of the millennium, Toby Keith was back on top with the release of his single and album of the same name, “How Do You Like Me Now?” where the single spent five weeks in the #1 spot of the country charts. This single also ended up being the top country song of 2000 based on the Billboard Year-End chart. This album also featured well loved songs such as “Country Comes to Town” and “You Shouldn’t Kiss Me Like This”. After winning the award of Top Male Vocalist at the 2001 Academy of Country Music Awards, he released another album, Pull My Chain, in August of 2001. This album gave us "I'm Just Talkin' About Tonight", "I Wanna Talk About Me", and "My List". All of after less than a decade at this point, Toby Keith had produced an impressive catalog of songs and had no plans of stopping there.
Shortly after the release of Pull My Chain, the nation experienced the historically tragic events of September 11, 2001. Obviously with a tragedy that large, there was a noticeable shift in society as a whole, including the music industry. With 9/11 making such an impact on our nation, it was almost like musicians were turned off from more lighthearted music, or any sort of carefree celebratory sounds, understandably. Specifically in the country music genre, there became a rise in patriotism, with an underlying feeling of anger. I think these feelings were absolutely justified, however, the direction of the genre shifted significantly. As artists were expressing their patriotism and anger at what happened, Toby Keith wrote one of the most recognized response songs to 9/11, “Courtesy of the Red, White, & Blue”. Initially he wrote this song for his recently passed father who was a veteran, but was encouraged to release it to the public due to the fitting nature of the tune.
With the constant political upheaval that followed the 9/11 attacks, the vibe was shifted enough in the country music genre to pretty much change the course of what folks wanted to listen to. There also continued to be the juxtaposition of Americans coming together during hard times, but also tension when any sort of criticism arose, namely the feud between Toby Keith and The Chicks. After all of that happened, it seemed that country music sort of lost its appeal to many people. To be clear, I am not saying the response to 9/11 was in any way unwarranted or anything, just simply changed the vibe of country music. Because of this, 90’s country music has been put on a pedestal of one of the best eras of country music, and I absolutely agree. In addition, Toby Keith’s music played a major part in making that 90’s country scene so great.
From his pre-9/11 catalog, his music represented a range of feelings and experiences. He had songs that touched on the ups and downs of relationships, of regrets, some lighthearted fun-poking, and even just reflections on life in general. His music represented the well rounded individual that many country music fans saw themselves as. This isn’t to say that his post-9/11 music wasn’t enjoyable, that couldn’t be further from the truth. He continued to have many well beloved hits, there was just something about the before that gave everything the country music fan needed during the 90’s era.
With the impressive catalog that Toby Keith produced, it is safe to say that his presence in the country music world will be missed. His music was such an integral part of my childhood and to have someone like him leave this earth so soon is definitely upsetting. I have been diving head first into nostalgia by listening to all of his songs over the last week or so and I encourage you to do the same. You may realize just how many of his hits accompanied your life! Thank you Toby Keith for all of the music!
