"Real" is a song written by

Neal Coty Neal Lee Angleberger (born May 13, 1964), known professionally as Neal Coty, is an American country music singer and songwriter. He has released two albums for Mercury Records Nashville, and has written several singles for other artists. Biograp ...

and Jimmy Melton and recorded by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

artist

James Wesley James Wesley Prosser (born March 9, 1970) is an American country music singer. In 1999, Prosser released the album ''Life Goes On'' through Warner Bros. Records. Ten years later, he signed to Broken Bow Records under the name James Wesley. Wesley ...

. It was released in May 2010, and it peaked at number 22 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot Country Songs in 2011.

Background and writing

Wesley told Engine 145 that when he heard the song for the first time, he immediately related with its sentiments. "I know what it’s like to try to make a dollar and beat the check to the bank," Wesley said. "It hit me… that’s where I’ve been. I did that up until a year ago."

Content

The first verse discusses how so-called

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

shows such as '' The Bachelor'' or ''

The Bachelorette A bachelorette is an unmarried woman. Bachelorette may also refer to: Film, television, and related * ''The Bachelorette'', a reality television dating show part of ''The Bachelor'' franchise with numerous versions: ** ''The Bachelorette'' (Am ...

'' are pedaled as real examples of love when they’re anything but. The chorus then goes on to show off everything that is really real in life. The second verse and chorus, focused mostly on

farming Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

, compares popular reality show titles (''

The Real Housewives ''The Real Housewives'' is an American reality television franchise that began on March 21, 2006, with '' The Real Housewives of Orange County''. Each installment of the franchise documents the personal and professional lives of a group of afflu ...

'', ''

Survivor Survivor(s) may refer to: * one who survives Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Survivors, characters in the 1997 KKnD series#Armies, ''KKnD'' video-game series * ''The Survivors'', or the ''New Survivors Foundation'', a fictional ...

'' and ''

The Amazing Race ''The Amazing Race'' is an adventure reality competition franchise in which teams of two people race around the world in competition with other teams. ''The Amazing Race'' is split into legs, with teams tasked to deduce clues, navigate themselv ...

'') with real-life situations like a

drought A drought is a period of drier-than-normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, ...

flood A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant con ...

s and

check fraud Cheque fraud or check fraud (American English) refers to a category of criminal acts that involve making the unlawful use of cheques in order to illegally acquire or borrow funds that do not exist within the account balance or account-holder's l ...

. The

coda Coda or CODA may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * Movie coda, a post-credits scene * ''Coda'' (1987 film), an Australian horror film about a serial killer, made for television *''Coda'', a 2017 American experimental film from Na ...

continues with this theme as the real-life comparisons get increasingly more stark:

offshoring Offshoring is the relocation of a business process from one country to another—typically an operational process, such as manufacturing, or supporting processes, such as accounting. Usually this refers to a company business, although state gover ...

of jobs to

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, family

homelessness Homelessness, also known as houselessness or being unhoused or unsheltered, is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and functional housing. It includes living on the streets, moving between temporary accommodation with family or friends, liv ...

presumably stemming from

spousal abuse Domestic violence is violence that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. In a broader sense, abuse including nonphysical abuse in such settings is called domestic abuse. The term "domestic violence" is often use ...

, home

foreclosure Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has Default (finance), stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the Collateral (finance), coll ...

and finally the death of a military serviceman.

Critical reception

Matt Bjorke of Roughstock gave the song four stars out of five, saying that the song is "instantly relatable to anyone who takes a chance to really listen to the lyrics." He goes on to say that it "never feels pandering and instead sounds like something that everyone has thought about ‘reality TV’ shows since their mainstream arrival a decade ago."

Music video

The video was directed by

Chris Hicky Chris Hicky is a writer/director from Forrest City, Arkansas, United States, best known for directing many of Keith Urban's music videos. Hicky has also directed videos for many other artists in the country music genre, including Dierks Bentley ...

and premiered in September 2010.

Chart performance

Year-end charts

References

{{reflist 2010 singles James Wesley songs Songs written by Neal Coty BBR Music Group singles Music videos directed by Chris Hicky Songs about television 2010 songs