Watch Little Big Town Break Down Gender Roles in ‘The Daughters’ Video

Little Big Town’s newly released official music video for “The Daughters” represents three distinct time periods — the Fifties, Eighties and present day — and a young woman’s perceived place in them. Incorporating the young dancers seen in the previously released “Dancer’s Cut” version of the clip, this version renders the tune’s already potent message even stronger, presenting the lead character’s evident-yet-unspoken conflict as she dares to challenge gender roles and expectations in a high-school environment.

Both this video and the previous version, which focused solely on the dancers and the band’s performance, were directed by Dano Cerny (the Chainsmokers, Wrabel, Elle King) over a two-day period in Portland, Tennessee. The emotional centerpiece shared by two clips is the incisive and devastating lead vocal by Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild, who wrote “The Daughters” with Sean McConnell and Ashley Ray.

Fairchild and her LBT bandmates offered a stunning performance of “The Daughters” at Sunday’s ACM Awards, surrounded by a troupe of 26 female dancers representing a variety of ages, races, sizes and body types. As they have done in the past, with songs including the award-winning “Girl Crush,” the foursome defy convention with “The Daughters,” with lyrics like “Girl, don’t be weak and don’t be strong, say what you want just as long as you nod your head with your lipstick on/And pose like a trophy on a shelf and dream for everyone but not yourself.”

“The Daughters” is the first new music from Little Big Town’s forthcoming ninth studio album.