Format Digital download Genre Pop punk
country pop Label RCA Nashville | Recorded 2015 Length 2:47 | |
Released May 26, 2015 (2015-05-26) | ||
"Real Life" is a song written by Shane McAnally, Josh Osborne, Ashley Gorley, and Ross Copperman, and recorded by American country music artist Jake Owen. It was originally released as the lead single to his upcoming fifth studio album American Love, but was scrapped in a restructuring of the album after it stalled at number 17 on Country Airplay for several weeks.
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Content
Owen told Billboard and Rolling Stone that the idea for the song came when he discussed his favorite artists with songwriter-producers Shane McAnally and Ross Copperman, mentioning Sublime and Sugar Ray in particular. He also said that he wanted to record a song that differed from his usual beach-related themes, such as "Beachin'" or "The One That Got Away", and that he wanted McAnally and Copperman to give him a song about "real-life situations".
McAnally and Copperman, who produced the song, wrote it with Ashley Gorley and Josh Osborne. It features "relentless acoustic rhythm" and "strange gang vocals and a series of odd-but-familiar images from small-town America: prom queens in plastic crowns, amateurish bar bands and rude Waffle House waitresses." According to Owen, the song is thematically about how "In a world of materialistic things, everybody is constantly looking for what they don't have, as opposed to looking for what's real and what you have right in front of you. That's what 'What We Ain't Got' touched on…'Real Life' is about what we've got and what's real to us."
Critical reception
Billy Dukes of Taste of Country gave the song a positive review, saying that "Sonically, the arrangement complements the languid, kind of adolescent nature of his lyric and delivery. Owen’s brand of nostalgia isn’t poignant. He’s more recalling the rebellious nature of youth in a way that’s more specific to suburbian kids that country kids. That’s not to say his songwriting team is lazy with the lyrics — they make clever references throughout “Real Life” and rely on specific, yet somehow universal stories."
Commercial performance
The song debuted on the Hot Country Songs at number 27 and Country Airplay at number 29 on its released. It also debuted on the Country Digital Songs chart at number 6, selling 29,000 copies in the week. It peaked at number 17 on both Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay for charts of August 15, 2015. The song had sold 274,000 copies in the US as of October 2015.
Music video
The music video was directed by Jeff Venable and premiered in June 2015.