This, and most of the modern hit country song-writers aren’t even “country.” It’s the same sort of formulaic stuff you get from the Dr Lukes (and going back a bit, teams like “The matrix”) and such in pop music with their teams of writers and producers. They are going for the cash.
I’d call it a condescending streak, more than I’d call it a mean streak.
Generally, the feeling is that city people are effete, concerned with frivolous stuff, and haven’t experienced hardship, unlike the “good” country people that the song is aimed at who have their priorities right, love mama, apple pie and the USA, and take pride in their hardscrabble lives.
But in general, it’s more of damning by omission; most of them talk about how great the country life is, and imply that city life sucks because it lacks these things, rather than deliberately call out city life.
This isn’t anything new exactly- I recall old “classic” country songs from the 1970s having this sort of streak in them, although generally back then it wasn’t quite as chest-thumpingly prideful - just more of a statement that the country life was what they preferred, travails and all. I mean, “A Country Boy Can Survive” has that bit about his buddy who calls him Hillbilly- it doesn’t cast any aspersions on his buddy or his lifestyle, just about the conditions in the city that got his buddy killed for 43 dollars. And “Luckenbach, TX” is all about giving up the city/suburban life for a less stressful one in the country. “Tulsa Time” is about leaving S. California and going back to a simpler life in Oklahoma.
I think it’s actually kind of instructive, insofar as you can get a window into the mindset of a group by listening to and analyzing the music they listen to.
If urban musicians want to mock country bumpkins, all they have to do is play a country song. Strum a few notes from “Dixie” or “Dueling Banjos”, or sing with a southern drawl, and you can get a laugh from your audience.
Pop music may ignore country folk, but pop culture loves to mock the stereotypes. Ma & Pa Kettle, L’il Abner, The Beverly Hillbillies, Deliverance, The Dukes of Hazzard.
Mea culpa: I’m kin to some “country” figures and was raised next to grandpa’s farm. But I don’t have cowboy lips.
“Country” music since Chet Atkins twisted Nashville hasn’t had much to do with country folk. Just as prominent Xmas songs are the product of New York Jews, so is much of “country” culture created by cynical urban pros knowing which cultural buttons to push. Follow the money; see what sells. Garth Brooks was an advertising major.
The Beverly Hillbillies are just the opposite, country folks who outsmart and out-moral the urban devils. Flatt & Scruggs only agreed to do the music (their only #1 hit!) when assured the Clampetts would be treated respectfully. Then there’s the best headline ever written, in Variety: STIX NIX HIX PIX i.e. country folk didn’t like condescending representations. OTOH I’ve heard folks claim Hee-Haw documents their lives. Wow.
Were I motivated, I could cite examples of media in many genres that mock their own culture as well as any other handy targets. But I’m just a lazy git, so assume they’re common. Self-mockery is easy because we KNOW our flaws (unless self-deluded). To turn it into a hate song, just relabel the target.
(1940s, 1930s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s). So they’re striking back against pop culture that’s 40+ years old (and to be clear, older than many of the artists themselves). That’s some massive insecurity there. It’s very weird how many country songs are about being “country.”
Well there are two examples from rock acts parodying country ways I can think of
Gram Parsons - Drug Store Truck Driving Man (written by Gram, better known by the Byrds and Joan Baez who sang it in Woodstock)
about a C&W DJ who has no sympathy for countryfied rock’n’roll.
The Rolling Stones - Far Aways Eyes
I think this fits even better, makes fun of everything country folk in the American South are stereotyped for.
ETA: I’m aware that musically, they are both deeply country songs, but by acts that were OTOH deeply influenced by country music, but OTOH definitely rock acts.
The Beverly Hillbillies ??? Weren’t they cousins of the folks in Hooterville?
I live in Atlanta. To this day when I talk about North Georgia, people love to make the comment “run if you hear banjos”. So the references may be 40+ years old, but people still like to make them.
As a North Carolinian by extraction (I extracted myself) I had a long discussion with a Georgian about that. We ended up agreeing it must have happened in South Carolina.