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" Say what you will about country music and the good-ol&amp;#039;-boy hillbilly stereotype it so often finds itself filed away under, but last night&amp;#039;s Country Music Awards proved you all wrong. While the edgier side of pop-culture award shows try to get edgier still, the CMAs oozed class, professionalism, fun, and, most of all, a solid sense of humor. Sure, there were moments where the whole evening felt like an entire industry was riding T Swift&amp;#039;s platinum-selling ego, but that doesn&amp;#039;t mean they weren&amp;#039;t doing work of their own. Right from the get-go it was clear that hosts Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood were intending to unleash both barrels at former country compatriot Miley Cyrus, and from the opening comments \u2014 likening twerking to mini-seizures \u2014 to thanking Taylor Swift for &amp;quot;never once humping a teddy bear or gyrating on Beetlejuice&amp;quot; to a full-on countrified &amp;quot;Blurred Lines&amp;quot; parody, complete with the cast of Duck Dynasty, which was both surprising and somehow oddly appropriate, they didn&amp;#039;t let up. It was amazing. And not in a &amp;quot;shield your eyes and pretend it&amp;#039;s not happening&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;sick to my stomach with secondhand embarrassment&amp;quot; sort of way, either. And that&amp;#039;s the beauty, I suspect, of a musical genre in which stars are rewarded for being just like everyone else. Minor cheeseball affectations and a propensity for shiny things aside, all in attendance just seemed like the kind of folks with whom you&amp;#039;d go up to the bar and toss back a few cold ones without worrying about how cool you seem. On more than one occassion I found myself thinking, &amp;quot;Oh, so this is America,&amp;quot; while watching a performance or a wall-to-wall-smiles crowd shot, and I&amp;#039;ll be honest, it made me breathe a sigh of relief. Sure, the parking lot may have been full of enough jacked-up pickup trucks to eradicate half a glacier when they all collectively fire up their engines, and I&amp;#039;m sure there were more than a few folks who uttered a &amp;quot;yee-haw&amp;quot; when the Tea Party derailed our government a few weeks back, but you have to hand it to the mainstream of music for manning up and doing something classy, smart, and damn funny. We, the people, needed that. Oh yeah, all that, and they rightfully gave OG (for Original Gambler, natch) Kenny Rogers a Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award. All in all, a perfect night. Follow The Culture Blog on RSS and on Twitter at @ESQCulture. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/music/a25772/the-cmas-were-smart-and-funny/>