In his new music video, out country music artist Hayden Joseph totally embraces being “Backwoods Bougie” while reimagining country stereotypes to better align with his authentic self.
Armed with White Claw seltzers and unicorn water pistols, Joseph and friends hang out at a backyard party complete with inflatable floats and rainbow-colored summer attire.
The North Carolina native says he and his collaborators specifically chose to sing about White Claw and not beer because “we wanted a summer party song, but we wanted it to be something relatable to us — two gay men who don’t love beer.”
Joseph also knew he wanted to veer away from a “bro-country” approach. In 2015, Rolling Stone wrote described the sub-genre of country music as the “explosion of songs about trucks, beer and women.”
“For obvious reasons, I am never going to be able to write to that template and feel remotely authentic,” Joseph recently told HuffPost’s Curtis Wong.
“As a form of subtle protest, we crafted a song that plays into country music stereotypes, but also stays true to me,” he added. “And the result is a ton of fun.”
While the song is all upbeat summer sunshine, Joseph shared an awkward moment that occurred during the shooting of the music video with his TikTok followers a few weeks ago.
It seems the director of the project asked another artist they work with if they’d make a cameo in the video. Apparently, the fact that it was with an out gay artist wasn’t passed on to this unnamed artist.
After shooting was done, the artist approached Joseph saying, “Hey, please don’t feature me prominently in this. I know this is a big part of your brand, but it doesn’t align with mine.”
Joseph says he’s sloughed off “veiled remarks” about his appearance, musical style, and the content of his lyrics for years. But part of what surprised him in this situation was “this came from an artist several years younger than me, rather than an old-school exec.”
The 27-year-old added that he chose to move past the incident and focus on the positive. “I love how the video turned out, and we were able to edit him out of the final cut seamlessly.”
“Backwoods Bougie” is available on all streaming/download sites. Follow Hayden Joseph on Instagram here.s
He’s adorable , there are so many cute gay boys gee 🙂