"American Ride" is the title of a country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 song written by Joe West and Dave Pahanish

Dave Pahanish

David "Dave" Pahanish is an American singer-songwriter. He co-wrote the No. 1 Billboard country music singles "Do You Believe Me Now” by Jimmy Wayne, "American Ride" by Toby Keith, and "Without You" by Keith Urban...

, and recorded by country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 artist Toby Keith

Toby Keith

Toby Keith Covel , best known as Toby Keith, is an American country music singer-songwriter, record producer and actor. Keith released his first four studio albums — 1993's Toby Keith, 1994's Boomtown, 1996's Blue Moon and 1997's Dream Walkin, plus a Greatest Hits package for various divisions of...

. It is the lead-off single and the title track for Keith's 13th studio album

American Ride

American Ride is the title of American country music singer Toby Keith's thirteenth studio album. It was released on October 6, 2009, under Keith's personal label, Show Dog Nashville. Its lead-off single is the title track, which became his 19th #1 single on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts...

, released in October 2009. Released in July 2009 as the 47th single of his career, it debuted at #38 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...

 chart. It became his 19th Number One hit on the chart dated October 10, 2009.

Content

The song is an up-tempo song in which the narrator lists off various politically-oriented issues in the USA, such as illegal immigration

Illegal immigration

Illegal immigration is the migration into a nation in violation of the immigration laws of that jurisdiction. Illegal immigration raises many political, economical and social issues and has become a source of major controversy in developed countries and the more successful developing countries.In...

 ("Tidal Wave comin' 'cross the Mexican

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 border"), political correctness

Political correctness

Political correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...

 ("Don't get busted singin' Christmas carol

Christmas carol

A Christmas carol is a carol whose lyrics are on the theme of Christmas or the winter season in general and which are traditionally sung in the period before Christmas.-History:...

s"), frivolous lawsuit

Lawsuit

A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...

s ("Spill a cup of coffee, make a million dollars"), rising gasoline prices ("Why buy a gallon, when it's cheaper by the barrel?") and the decreased importance of religion

Religion

Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...

 ("Plasma gettin' bigger, Jesus

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

 gettin' smaller"), but adds that he is still proud to live in America.

Dave Pahanish

Dave Pahanish

David "Dave" Pahanish is an American singer-songwriter. He co-wrote the No. 1 Billboard country music singles "Do You Believe Me Now” by Jimmy Wayne, "American Ride" by Toby Keith, and "Without You" by Keith Urban...

 and Joe West, the writers, had originally titled the song "American Life" when they submitted the demo

Demo (music)

A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...

 to Keith. Pahanish and West talked about "the funny, but irritating, things in life that really tick people off." Keith also had the song on his iPod

IPod

iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...

 a year before recording it.

Reception

The song has been met with mixed reception. Dan Milliken of Country Universe.net gave a mixed review. In his review, he says that the intro sounded like a "hamster dance

The Hampster Dance

The Hampster Dance or Hampsterdance is one of the earliest examples of an Internet meme. Created by Canadian art student Deidre LaCarte for a Geocities page, the dance features rows of animated hamsters and other rodents dancing in various ways to a sped-up sample from the song "Whistle Stop" by...

" version of Reba McEntire

Reba McEntire

Reba Nell McEntire is an American country music artist and actress. She began her career in the music industry as a high school student singing in the Kiowa High School band , on local radio shows with her siblings, and at rodeos. As a solo act, she was invited to perform at a rodeo in Oklahoma...

's "Strange

Strange (Reba McEntire song)

"Strange" is the title of a song written by Wendell Mobley, Jason Sellers and Neil Thrasher. It was recorded by American country music artist Reba McEntire as her first release for the Valory label, a sister label of Big Machine Records. McEntire debuted the song on the Academy of Country Music...

", and that the rest of it sounded like a car commercial. He also said that he could not tell if the song's lyric was an attempt to be serious or satirical

Satire

Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...

: "I can’t say I don’t find it all amusing on some strange level. There seems to have been a serious attempt to make social commentary here, and it was pretty hit-or-miss, or maybe more of one than the other, depending on your perspective." Jed Gottlieb of The Boston Globe

The Boston Globe

The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...

said that the song "lets him make fun of his status as a political punching bag while mocking both the right

Right-wing politics

In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...

 and left

Left-wing politics

In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...

." Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Stephen Thomas Erlewine is a senior editor for Allmusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for Allmusic, as well as a freelance writer, occasionally contributing liner notes. He is also frontman and guitarist for the Ann Arbor-based band Who Dat?Erlewine is the nephew...

 of Allmusic described it positively, saying that it was not "jingoistic

Jingoism

Jingoism is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as extreme patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy. In practice, it is a country's advocation of the use of threats or actual force against other countries in order to safeguard what it perceives as its national interests...

" and that it "casts a cynical eye[…]not celebrating down-home values but wondering where we're all headed[.]"

Music video

The song's music video

Music video

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...

 premiered on August 13, 2009 on CMT

Country Music Television

Country Music Television, or CMT, is an American country music-oriented cable television network. Programming includes music videos, taped concerts, movies, biographies of country music stars, game shows, and reality programs...

. Directed by Michael Salomon

Michael Salomon

Michael Salomon is a music video/film director, who has directed many music videos, including many of Toby Keith's music videos...

, it is animated

Animation

Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...

 (save the very beginning and ending) in a style inspired by JibJab

JibJab

JibJab is a digital entertainment studio based in Venice, California. Founded in 1999 by Evan and Gregg Spiridellis, it was noticed during the 2004 US presidential election when their video of George W. Bush and John Kerry singing "This Land is Your Land" became a hit. The company creates,...

 online cartoons, featuring Keith and three other men riding motorcycle

Motorcycle

A motorcycle is a single-track, two-wheeled motor vehicle. Motorcycles vary considerably depending on the task for which they are designed, such as long distance travel, navigating congested urban traffic, cruising, sport and racing, or off-road conditions.Motorcycles are one of the most...

s while passing scenes related to the song's lyrics. Other scenes include evangelist

Evangelism

Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....

 Pat Robertson

Pat Robertson

Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson is a media mogul, television evangelist, ex-Baptist minister and businessman who is politically aligned with the Christian Right in the United States....

 riding on former United States President George W. Bush

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

's back, current President Barack Obama

Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...

 being hoisted in the air by bankers, and foreign dictators portrayed as pirates. Keith told Country Weekly

Country Weekly

Country Weekly is an American tabloid style weekly magazine established in 1994. The magazine focuses on country music stars and events, and regularly features exclusive interviews with recording artists and country music news...

magazine that he was critizied by "blog

Blog

A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...

ger terrorists" the day that the video was released, adding, "But they really can't get a fire started in the direction they want to go because the video makes fun of everybody."

Chart performance

"American Ride" debuted at #38 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart for the chart week of July 18, 2009 and reached #1 on the chart week of October 10, 2009 becoming his 19th Number One hit. It also debuted at #60 on the Swedish Singles Chart chart for the week of December 19, 2010.

Chart (2009)	Peak position
Swedish Singles Chart Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association ....	60
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs	1
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	35