The 2000s File Feature
What Do Ya Think About That
History of "What Do Ya Think About That" by Montgomery Gentry Montgomery Gentry was a country music duo formed in the late 1990s, comprising Eddie Montgomery…
01 The Story
History of "What Do Ya Think About That" by Montgomery Gentry
Montgomery Gentry was a country music duo formed in the late 1990s, comprising Eddie Montgomery and Troy Gentry, both of whom had roots in Kentucky. The pair signed with Columbia Nashville and developed a reputation for energetic, rough-edged country that drew on Southern rock influences as well as traditional country values. Their music often addressed themes of working-class identity, regional pride, and the textures of everyday life in small-town America, giving them a devoted audience that responded to their authenticity and physical presence as a live act.
The duo built a consistent recording career through the first decade of the 2000s, releasing a series of albums that generated multiple country radio singles. Their position within country music was that of representatives of a particular tradition, one that valued directness, attitude, and a connection to the physical realities of life outside urban centers. Their image and musical approach drew on the Southern rock tradition of bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers Band while remaining grounded in country songwriting conventions and country radio formats.
"What Do Ya Think About That" was released from their sixth studio album Back When I Knew It All, which came out in 2008 through Columbia Nashville. The album continued their established approach, delivering a collection of songs that ranged from uptempo celebrations of rural life to more reflective examinations of identity and belonging. The album's production balanced contemporary country sonic elements with the more rawboned aesthetic that had defined Montgomery Gentry's sound from their earliest recordings.
The single entered the Billboard Hot 100 on October 20, 2007, at position 99. The song spent 20 weeks on the chart, moving gradually through the lower chart positions before achieving its peak of number 57 during the week of January 26, 2008. This extended chart trajectory reflected the way country singles often built audience through sustained radio exposure rather than the rapid initial spikes more common in pop and R&B formats.
On the Hot Country Songs chart, the song performed more prominently, reflecting the primary market for Montgomery Gentry's music. Country radio stations across the United States provided the airplay foundation that supported the single's extended Hot 100 presence, and the song became one of the recognized singles from the album cycle. The country chart performance reinforced their standing among country radio programmers and confirmed that their particular approach to country music retained strong commercial viability.
The music video for "What Do Ya Think About That" reinforced the song's themes through imagery associated with Southern and country identity. Eddie Montgomery and Troy Gentry appeared in settings consistent with the lifestyle their music addressed, performing in environments that communicated an authentic connection to the subjects of their songs rather than presenting a commercially constructed version of rural identity. This authenticity was central to their appeal and to the credibility they maintained with country music audiences.
Country music in 2007 and 2008 was in a period of significant change, with Nashville pop production reaching unprecedented levels of commercial slickness while artists like Montgomery Gentry represented a countervailing impulse toward rawer, more traditionally grounded sound. The commercial success of "What Do Ya Think About That" during this period reflected a genuine market for the kind of music they made, demonstrating that the audience for harder-edged, Southern-inflected country remained substantial even as the genre's mainstream moved toward smoother production aesthetics.
Montgomery Gentry continued to record and tour through the mid-2010s, maintaining their audience and releasing additional albums. Troy Gentry passed away in a helicopter accident in September 2017, ending the duo's partnership. His death prompted an outpouring of tributes from within the country music community that reflected both his personal qualities and the genuine affection that performers and audiences felt for the music he had made with Eddie Montgomery. The duo's catalog, including "What Do Ya Think About That," took on additional significance as part of his musical legacy.
The YouTube presence of the song, accumulating approximately 49 million views, reflects both the ongoing appetite for the kind of country music Montgomery Gentry specialized in and a renewed interest in their catalog following Troy Gentry's passing. Their music continues to represent an important strand of country music history from the 2000s, characterized by energy, attitude, and an uncompromising connection to Southern identity.
02 Song Meaning
Meaning of "What Do Ya Think About That" by Montgomery Gentry
"What Do Ya Think About That" by Montgomery Gentry is a song rooted in the celebration of a particular way of life and a defiant assertion of regional and cultural identity. The song addresses an implicit audience that might look down on or fail to understand the speaker's values, habits, and choices, and responds with an attitude of cheerful indifference to outside judgment. The question posed by the title functions as a rhetorical challenge, inviting criticism while simultaneously demonstrating that the speaker does not particularly care what the answer might be.
The thematic content draws extensively on the iconography of Southern American rural life, including references to trucks, outdoor activities, physical work, and the social customs associated with small-town and country communities. These details are not incidental but are the specific language through which the song's identity argument is made. By naming specific elements of a particular way of life and refusing to be embarrassed by them, the speaker constructs an affirmation of identity that is directly addressed to anyone who might find those elements provincial or unsophisticated.
This posture of unapologetic regional pride connects "What Do Ya Think About That" to a long tradition of country and Southern rock music in which the assertion of an unfashionable identity becomes itself an act of cultural resistance. Montgomery Gentry's version of this tradition is particularly direct and energetic, reflecting the duo's overall approach to country music, which consistently preferred straightforward assertion to irony or understatement. The song does not aspire to sophistication; it actively celebrates its own lack of pretension as a virtue.
The rhetorical structure of the song, which repeatedly returns to the central question directed at an imagined critic or skeptic, creates a cumulative effect of confidence and solidarity. Listeners who share the values and experiences the song describes feel recognized and validated, while the pointed question directed at outsiders reinforces the in-group solidarity that makes the song function as a community anthem as much as a personal statement. This dual function, addressing both the in-group with affirmation and an implicit out-group with a challenge, is characteristic of songs that achieve anthemic status within particular communities.
Reception of the song among country radio audiences and country music fans reflected strong identification with its themes. Montgomery Gentry were known for their ability to speak directly to the experiences and values of a specific audience, and "What Do Ya Think About That" exemplified that quality. The song did not attempt to appeal to audiences outside its intended community but instead directed its energy entirely toward those who would recognize themselves in its descriptions.
The broader cultural significance of songs like "What Do Ya Think About That" lies in their function as markers of identity in a popular culture that often treats rural, Southern, or working-class identities as subjects for outside observation rather than as positions from which to speak. Montgomery Gentry's work consistently refused this framing, insisting instead on the validity and the voice of the communities their music addressed. This insistence gave the song a political dimension, in the broad sense of representing a community and asserting its right to cultural self-representation, that went beyond its immediate entertainment value.
→ More from the 2000s File
View all 2000s hits →
Keep digging