Toby Keith



A prominent Country Music singer, Toby Keith Covel was born July 8, 1961. He started out rather strongly on the Mercury label, sending his debut single "Should've Been a Cowboy" to #1. This song went on to become the most-played country song of the entire 1990s, but Toby proved to be no One-Hit Wonder. For the rest of the decade, he stayed with Mercury, landing hit after hit with remarkable consistency.

Although he started to slip in the late 1990s, a change to DreamWorks Records brought him an even bigger hit in "How Do You Like Me Now?!", which started the second leg of his career. For the next five years, almost everything he released topped the charts and saw considerable crossover success. Along the way, he hit big with the controversial "Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue (The Angry American)" and the Willie Nelson duet "Beer for My Horses". Even the closure of DreamWorks' music division didn't harm his career too much, as he seamlessly moved to his own label, Show Dog Records (now part of Show Dog-Universal Music). Although the hits have slowed some, he's still a consistent presence on the country charts.

Tropes present in his work:
"Now, I'm fixin' the sink, and I'm mowin' the grass
 * Animated Music Video: The video for "American Ride" is done in a style similar to JibJab.
 * Anti-Christmas Song: "Jesus Gets Jealous of Santa Claus". Which was co-written by one Keith Urban well before he came famous in the US.
 * Bowdlerize: "And you, sir, do not have a pair of testicles / If you prefer drinkin' from glass" in "Red Solo Cup". The word becomes, of all things, "vegetables". Oddly, "ass" is also censored in the next line, even though radio was perfectly fine with him saying that same word in "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" 10 years ago.
 * Cool but Stupid: His reasoning behind recording "Red Solo Cup" (an ode to the plastic cup and its use in drinking, frat parties, etc.) was that it was both the stupidest and most awesome song he'd ever heard.
 * Country Rap: "Getcha Some" and "I Wanna Talk About Me" are both examples.
 * Distinct Double Album: His second Christmas album and the greatest hits package 35 Biggest Hits.
 * Doo Wop Progression: The verses to "Big Blue Note", despite being spoken, have this progression played by the backing instruments.
 * Drowning My Sorrows: "Get Drunk and Be Somebody" and "Get My Drink On".
 * Eagle Land: Some of his songs "Courtesy of the Red White and Blue", "American Ride", "Made in America", etc. after his Face Heel Turn (see below) fall straight into this category.
 * Face Heel Revolving Door: Toby Keith pulled the musical equivalent a few years back. His music used to be clean and family-friendly, but for the last several years he's taken on a "bad boy" image and run with it, starting with low-level Getting Crap Past the Radar ("Getcha Some") and gradually progressing to the point where just about any new song from him sounded like pure Straw Conservative propaganda, was a blatant exercise in Refuge in Audacity, or both. Somewhere around his departure from DreamWorks, he began to soften again, with occasional exceptions such as "American Ride," which at least had the decency to lampoon both ends of the political spectrum.
 * Fish Eye Lens: Used extensively in the video for "I Wanna Talk About Me", replete with Under Crank.
 * Future Loser: "How Do You Like Me Now?!" plays with this trope, as he's grown up to be a famous musician while the girl he idolized in high school who never gave him the time of day is unhappy with her adult life. The video drives it home even harder than the song alone.
 * Signature Song: "Should've Been a Cowboy", "How Do You Like Me Now?!", "Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue", "Beer for My Horses", etc.
 * Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion: "You Ain't Much Fun" uses this trope:

You even made me a list and I'm bustin' my…

Well, all broke down, tail's been draggin'…"


 * Unusual Euphemism: "American Ride" has both "gets her rocks off" and "the fit's gonna hit the shan". Also a great example of Getting Crap Past the Radar; anything that telegraphs more than a mild profanity is usually shunned.