"Before He Cheats" Song Commentary

The song “Before He Cheats,” by Carrie Underwood is a song about a girl who has been cheated on by her boyfriend. She sings the song as if she was speaking to you and describing the kind of person that her ex is. The place this song uses is a conversation about destroying a truck. She sings about how she basically destroys his truck in order to get revenge. She gives the listener the idea that his truck is very nice. The whole time she is vandalizing his truck she imagines that he’s probably off hitting on some random girl at a bar. She is very angry about the whole situation and she takes out all her anger by destroying his property.
I really like this song because it is fun to sing along with and it has the potential to relieve stress. It is a way for someone in the same situation to live vicariously through the words of her song. Not many people would actually beat on someone else’s truck and slash the tires to show how disgusted they were with another person. By describing the action of destroying her ex boyfriend’s truck, she is relieving her anger and getting revenge. The tone she uses to begin her song starts out as, I don’t care who he’s with or what he’s doing attitude. She is singing softer and a little less concentrated during this part. She is trying to sound more separated and uncaring at this point. This mood changes when she starts to sing about vandalizing his truck. The music gets louder and her voice is a little more aggressive and cold. Carrie’s song starts at a lower tone, imagining what he’s doing. She sings with a certain attitude that sounds as if she’s fed up with him. As the song progresses she get a little louder, especially after the point where she tauntingly sings, “Oh but he don’t know….” Then she gets loudest and most aggressive when she starts describing what she does to his truck. Carrie finally makes the point that after she’s done all of this to his truck, which apparently means a lot to him, he’ll think twice before he cheats on someone. The last words of her song also assure listeners that she is completely done with their relationship. She sings, “the next time that he cheats, oh you know it won’t be on me.” This just gives the listener a sense of closure for their relationship. If he still thinks there could be something between them, he won’t think that after he sees his truck.

Song writer: Roman White
Some Hearts Artista Nashville
Singer: Carrie Underwood
Song title: “Before He Cheats”