Introduction
The song, Coward of the County, was written by Roger Bowling and Billy Wheeler, recorded by the American country music star Kenny Rodgers and released in 1979.
Music Elements
Coward of the County falls under the country music genre. The texture of the music is polyphony, as the singer’s tune and the melody are created by the two main instruments utilized, a chordophone guitar and a music box playing simultaneously. Throughout the song, the texture stays the same, as the melodies created by the instruments remain constant. Moreover, under polyphony music texture, the guitar begins creating the melody, and after some seconds, it is followed by the music box and then Rogers’ voice. The song follows a regular rhythm from the beginning, progressing till the end. In addition, the pitch of the song has a period tone differentiated simply from noise. The songs are also moderately loud, entailing a regular and even frequency. The elements of form entail ostinato, which is the term recurrent in the song: “Everyone considered him the coward of the county.” The other aspect of form is using a 12-bar blues chord progression throughout.
Main Audience
The primary audience of the country song is the cowboys and the cowgirls. Mostly, Rodger’s work features him in attires of a cowboy, including a hat, blue jeans, leather belts, and cowboy boots. Besides, some of the words used in the song depict country-side slang, such as folks. The song thus appears to cover the cowboy lifestyle. The people who have not heard the song are the current Generation Z, and the motive for this is that they value their music genre, pop music. Generation Z may love this song due to its slow and relaxing beats.
Conclusion
I like this song not only due to its beats but also the type of message that it puts across. The singer appears to be an older adult with experience, talking to the youth on how to live at peace with oneself, and this entails not engaging in battles or confrontations to prove their manliness.