“Glad You Exist”
Dan + Shay
Written by Ryan Lewis, Shay Mooney, Tayla Parx, Jordan Reynolds, and Dan Smyers
This has nothing to do with country music.
Perhaps I’m stating the obvious. Or perhaps I’m showing my age. Am I now one of those grizzly old traditionalists who complains “this isn’t country?”
Maybe. But I know late nineties boy band pop when I hear it. “Glad You Exist” owes its own existence to the harmonies and melodies of the Backstreet Boys.
They made good pop records, by the way. Better than this pop record, which starts off with a decent acoustic section before becoming cluttered in the chorus, as if they didn’t trust their ability to up the emotional ante with their vocals.
It’s all too much and not nearly enough.
Grade: D
I got the idea that late ’90s boy band pop (or something approximating it) was Dan + Shay’s thing from the beginning. Maybe I’m one of those grizzly old traditionalists who complains “this isn’t country.”
Or not, because I had the same low regard for Rascal Flatts 20 years ago, when I was barely old enough to drink, that I do for Dan + Shay now.
Your opening line pretty much sums it up for me. And as you say, it’s not even good pop. It’s boring pop, like so much of mainstream “country” is these days. These guys have bored me to tears since they arrived, and for the life of me, I just don’t get how they’ve become one of the biggest acts out there now. At least Rascal Flatts had a few good songs on their first few albums (imo), and had at least a little more country influence in their music than D+S have shown so far.
Don’t feel alone guys. I’ve felt like that grizzly old traditionalist for at least a decade and a half now (and I’m only in my 30’s), though I’ve always tried to keep an open mind at the same time. It just seems like since the mainstream part of the genre has changed so drastically (and not for the better, imo) in such a short time, I’ve ended up feeling a lot older than I really should.
Let’s remember Toby Keith’s advice: “Don’t let the old man in!!”