This Country Song About Date Rape Was Inspired by Steubenville

By Erin Gloria Ryan  |  August 2, 2014 | 6:15pm
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Earlier this year, country artist Kira Isabella released “Quarterback,” a radio friendly country song that takes some tired modern tropes of pop country — a nerdy freshman girl who plays trumpet in the marching band pining after the quarterback she never thought would notice her — and turns them on their head when the quarterback encourages the girl to drink until she’s intoxicated, and then rapes her and posts pictures on the internet. If it sounds like it’s ripped from the headlines about Steubenville, it’s because it is.

According to Charles Aaron at Wondering Sound, “Quarterback” was originally more lighthearted, and told from a first person perspective. In the original version, the song’s protagonist was caught in a love triangle between the Quarterback and the Linebacker and had to choose.

But while the song’s writers were working on the track in 2013, their discussions kept returning to the prevalence of date rape involving athletes, alcohol, and girls who were later humiliated via social media in the news cycle. And the song went from being a fun ditty about the pratfalls of young love to a dark exploration of events like those that happened in Steubenville, Ohio, and at universities across the country.

Carrie Underwood passed on the darker version of the song, understandably, because it could have started some ugly unearned rumors about her history with her ex Tony Romo, who plays quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys. But Canadian Kira Isabella opted to take it on, despite the fact that one man in the industry reportedly told one of the songwriters that the world of country didn’t need “another date rape song” (there… aren’t that many).

Commercially, the song hasn’t exactly been burning up the charts; it peaked at #10 in Canada and has yet to really make a splash on country radio stateside. But Kira Isabella’s full album hasn’t been released yet (it’s due out later this year), and there’s still plenty of time for it to generate the buzz it deserves. The existence of “Quarterback” in conjunction with the touted release of the spunky, no-bullshit “Girl In A Country Song” speaks to what could be a nascent trend
in a genre that, for all its historical girl power, has been especially piggish and male in recent years.

Look out, bro country.

 
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