If you search for the term Grease on the internet, you will find a long list of entries for the 1978 movie by the same name with John Travolta and Olivia-Newton John. It was released only a year after its predecessor Saturday Night Fever, for which John Travolta had received an Oscar-nomination. The eponymic term Grease stood not only for the greased back hair-style of the 1950s, but was also as a reference to a youth culture, that identified by that look (Greasers).
On May 11, 2023
Lainey Wilson received 4 awards at the 58th Academy of
Country Music (ACM) Awards in Dallas (Frisco), Texas. As many as no one else did that night. Aside from the awards for Visual Media of the Year and Music Event of the Year, both for 'Wait In The Truck' with Hardy, she also received the awards for Female Artist of the Year and Album of the Year. The latter was only her second studio-album and got released in the fall of 2022 by the title of "Bell Bottom Country". It kicked off a winning streak for the 31-year old artist, which reached its current pinnacle at this year's ACM Awards.
Madeleine O' Connell of
countrynow.com said about the album: "The country star served as a co-writer on each of the 14 tracks, except
for one cover [Alternative Rock song 'What's Up?' (1992)], allowing her to incorporate her authentic country sound
with the addition of some elements of ‘70s Rock, Funk, and Soul." In fact, the album does contain predominantly country music, but it allows for a feisty and engaging soundscape, along which the artist and her team added a clever design, which consequently runs from the album cover through the outfit all the way to the title of the project.
And these hippie-era elements not only give Lainey Wilson a unique selling point, but also a chance to market them as popular fan merchandise. That way one can purchase bell bottom pants in the design of the album cover for some 80 dollars on her homepage. And of course the album also has a musical theme reference with the song 'Hillbilly Hippie, which lets her sing about Rollin' Stone and Peace and Love.
At the beginning of April of this year, the first single from the album ('Heart Like A Truck') had reached number 2 on the radio (Billboard Country Airplay) chart. So the ACM Awards came along at the perfect time to make a buzzworthy presentation of a potential follow-up single. "It’s going to be hot, it’s going to be spicy, it’s going to be sexy", she announced before the show. "I’m showing you a side that I don’t get to show a whole lot."
And she didn't promise too much, with media and fans both alike cheering for the fiery performance, that she gave in order to introduce her new song 'Grease'. Only a few days earlier the video for the song had been released and it anticipated some of the dynamics shown at the awards show.
For Lainey Wilson had invited a breakdance group to perform on the video, after she had by chance seen them in the audience at one of her shows. "I thought it was the coolest thing", she said on youtube. "They were breakdancing to country music, so I tracked them down on socials and asked them if they’d want to be a part of this official video...now, here we are!" No sooner said than done - the respective video for 'Grease' was released on May 8 of this year.
Eventually the only question left to be answered is, does the song 'Grease', written by Lainey Wilson, Jessi Alexander and Andrew Petroff, have anything to do with the legendary movie from the 1970s by the same name?
The answer is: no, it does not! As Lainey Wilson explained in November of 2022 via musicmayhemmagazine.com: "It’s a saying that my mama used to say all the time, like, ‘Now we’re cooking with grease. Now we’re getting somewhere."
Comments
Post a Comment