"A Different World" is a debut song recorded by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

artist

Bucky Covington William Joel "Bucky" Covington III (born November 8, 1977) is an American country music singer. He placed eighth on the 5th season of the Fox Network's talent competition series ''American Idol''. In December 2006, he signed a recording contrac ...

. It was released in January 2007 as the lead single from his album ''

''. It was written by

Jennifer Hanson Jennifer Kathleen Hanson (born August 10, 1973) is an American country music artist, songwriter and record producer. She made her artist debut in 2002 with the release of her single “ Beautiful Goodbye”. The song went on to become a top 20 hi ...

, Tony Martin, and

Mark Nesler Mark Nesler (born January 5, 1961 in Beaumont, Texas) is an American country music artist. Signed to Elektra Records as a recording artist in 1998, Nesler charted three singles on the U.S. ''Billboard'' country charts. In addition, he has writte ...

. The song is produced by Mark Miller of

Sawyer Brown Sawyer Brown is an American country music band. It was founded in 1981 in Apopka, Florida, by Mark Miller (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Gregg "Hobie" Hubbard (keyboards, vocals), Bobby Randall (lead guitar, vocals), Joe "Curly" Smyth (drums), and ...

, and was released by

Lyric Street Records Lyric Street Records was an American country music record label. It was owned by the Disney Music Group and founded in 1997 by Randy Goodman. The label had its first successes in 1998 with singles by Lari White and Aaron Tippin, both formerly of ...

, a country label of

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

Buena Vista Music Group Disney Music Group (DMG) is the music recording arm of Disney Platform Distribution, a division of The Walt Disney Company. It is located at the studio's headquarters in Burbank, California. The division's subsidiaries consist of two owned record ...

. It peaked at number 6 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot Country Songs chart.

Content

The song is a reminiscence of the narrator's formative years, its lyrics describing how much the world has changed since his childhood. Examples abound of how mothers "smoked and drank" during pregnancy, lead-based paint was available, children drank water out of garden hoses and rode bicycles without helmets or other safety equipment, parents physically disciplined their children when they misbehaved, towns had only one youth baseball team (per age group) and would-be players didn't always make the team ... and so on. Covington states during the chorus that it was "not just a different time / It was a different world".

Music video

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

was released in February 15, 2007, and was directed by

Trey Fanjoy Trey Fanjoy is an American music video director. Fanjoy has directed over 150 major label music videos. Her videos have appeared on CMT, VH1, GAC, The Nashville Network, CMT Canada, and MTV. She is the first woman to win the Country Music Asso ...

. It begins with Covington as a child (J.D. Ironfield), sitting in front of an old television. On the TV is the adult version of Covington, who is on the patio of a house. Throughout the video, the young Covington watches his older counterpart on the TV as the adult version of him walks around a small town, supposedly like the town he grew up in. Certain children in the town are shown leading a simpler life than most do today, as the song's lyrics describe. The video ends with the adult Covington entering the house where the young version of him is watching. It then shows him as an adult shutting off a modern-day television.

Chart performance

Year-end charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Different World, A 2007 songs 2007 debut singles Bucky Covington songs Songs written by Mark Nesler Music videos directed by Trey Fanjoy Songs written by Jennifer Hanson Songs written by Tony Martin (songwriter) Lyric Street Records singles Songs about nostalgia