Skilled Bull Driving was meant for TikTok fame.
It’s brief, intense, and unattainable to look away. A rider adorned in thick gloves, a protecting vest, and a helmet hops onto a bull from the facet of the fence that surrounds the ring. A inventory contractor tightens a flank strap across the bull’s delicate abdomen, which makes the bull buck. The gate opens, and the bull instinctively jerks out into the world. As quickly because the bull’s shoulder or hips clear the gate, the timer begins. The rider’s objective is to remain on the bull for simply eight seconds — and it is as arduous because it appears, with the rider holding onto the beast with one hand (in the event that they contact the bull with the second hand, they’re disqualified) and two legs. Not solely have they got to hold on, riders additionally should show their very own private model and fluidity, which they will be judged on. Eight seconds later, generally sooner, the rider is usually bucked off and flees for security.
End recording and instantly add. It is not only a sport, it is a TikTok value thousands and thousands of views.
PBR — the game, not the beer — has made large waves on TikTok in 2025. Since January, Skilled Bull Driving has gained 650,000 followers throughout social media accounts, simply 200,000 in need of the expansion they noticed within the entirety of 2024. This current recognition has jettisoned them to the higher echelons of social media, with 2.9 million followers on TikTok. Mitch Ladner, the social media lead for PBR, advised Mashable that the majority of that progress is because of followers between 18 and 35 years previous.
“We have seen a large spike in our followership throughout all of our platforms, however positively extra so on TikTok and Instagram, and I positively attribute that to a youthful viewers,” Ladner stated.
As soon as a logo of conservative Americana, cowboy tradition — from rodeo-inspired style like Pinterest’s Western Gothic to the visceral thrill {of professional} bull driving — is being reimagined by Gen Z. On one finish of the spectrum is Beyoncé, whose Grammy-winning Cowboy Carter album and tour shine a highlight on a long-overlooked facet of the cowboy narrative. On the opposite are tradwife influencers in prairie clothes, reviving idealized visions of ranch life. Collectively, they sign a shift: cowboycore is not only a fleeting aesthetic; it is a full-blown way of life, and it defies political binaries. Nowhere is that this cultural collision extra vivid than at PBR occasions, the place Chappell Roan and Morgan Wallen tracks spin back-to-back; beginner influencers cozy as much as livestock whereas rodeo athletes put their our bodies on the road; and American id feels up for grabs. Instantly, cowboycore isn’t only a model — it’s an announcement, and everybody needs a bit.
Make no mistake: Cowboys usually are not strictly American. Their roots hint again to Spain and Portugal, and lots of the riders who joined the cattle drives of the late nineteenth century have been African, Mexican, and Indigenous. The vaquero traditions in northern Mexico doubtless spurred a lot of what we take into account cowboy tradition right now, and, through the late 1800s, 25 p.c of employees within the range-cattle business within the American West have been Black cowboys, a fact rewritten in lots of portrayals of the American West as a way to favor a settler-colonialist tilt. However the actuality of previous American life is commonly forgotten when aesthetics take over.
“Should you go around the globe and ask, ‘What’s your thought of an American?’ lots of people would say a cowboy,” Joshua Garrett-Davis, the H. Russell Smith Basis curator of Western American Historical past, advised Mashable. Whether or not or not it is based mostly in easy historic actuality, cowboy tradition “is a shorthand for what America is.”
Now, in a time of nationwide uncertainty, Millennials and Gen Z are reshaping cowboy aesthetics by way of a brand new lens, incorporating concepts about id, hazard, nostalgia, digital efficiency, and the influencer financial system, usually with very totally different outcomes. PBR is floor zero for that transformation.
Cowboycore’s difficult twin id
As extra younger individuals flock to a sport with conservative roots, you would possibly presume a right away political line has been drawn. And it’s true that Gen Z, as soon as seen as a progressive and digitally native era, has stunned pollsters by, in some circumstances, truly leaning conservative. In keeping with a brand new ballot out of Yale, whereas voters aged 22 to 29 years previous favored Democrats within the 2026 congressional elections by 6.4 factors, these aged 18 to 21 years previous leaned Republican by 11.7 factors — an 18-point swing inside a single generational bracket.
Nonetheless, it’s difficult, and the very fact is, individuals of all political stripes are discovering resonance in cowboy Americana. Take Chappell Roan’s queer anthem “The Giver,” which debuted at no. 1 on Billboard’s Sizzling Nation Songs Chart, and Stud Nation, a line dancing and two-stepping occasion particularly for queer those who has taken off in large cities. Palestinian supermodel and activist Bella Hadid is a literal cowgirl. Pharrell Williams, who showcased embroidered fits, cowboy hats, and bolo ties for Louis Vuitton’s 2024 menswear presentation, advised GQ that “it was an honor” to create a group “across the West and Western workwear vibes” as a result of cowboys “appear to be us, they appear to be me, they give the impression of being Black, they give the impression of being Native American.” And naturally, there’s Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, together with films like The Tougher They Fall, Concrete Cowboy, and Queen & Slim, which all push in opposition to the narrative that cowboy tradition is inherently white.
However there’s additionally a extra conservative (and extremely widespread) romanticization of cowboy tradition. As an illustration, tradwife influencer Hannah Neeleman, aka Ballerina Farm, whose Instagram bio reads, “metropolis folks turned ranchers,” has 10 million followers.
PBR officers, for his or her half, hope to maintain their model of Americana apolitical as a lot as attainable. “If loving your nation and honoring your veterans and the heroes and people who sacrifice earlier than us is a political challenge, then you could possibly paint us with a political brush, as a result of we have performed that from day one,” PBR CEO and Commissioner Sean Gleason advised Mashable.
PBR would not have a political arm or any official donations to candidates, although it has inspired its viewers to vote. And though its management has emphasised conserving the group apolitical, the cultural and financial realities round rodeo usually place it at odds with liberal politics. For instance, some Democratic politicians have launched payments that will ban rodeo and PBR of their states due to the impact it might probably have on the animals concerned. On the similar time, affiliations and moments in PBR’s current historical past lean extra conservative — the Border Patrol has been a sponsor since 2016, and that very same 12 months, when Colin Kaepernick kneeled to protest racial injustice, PBR athletes countered with a public pledge to face through the nationwide anthem.
“Our mantra is: Be cowboy,” Gleason stated. “It would not matter the place you reside, what you drive, the way you gown, the colour of your pores and skin, or your gender. Should you dwell truthfully with integrity, arduous work, and an appreciation for the historical past and heritage of America, you are a cowboy.”
Mashable High Tales
In the meantime, the “American” sport will not be truly that American — simply 10 of PBR’s high 25 bull riders hail from the U.S. Fourteen are from Brazil, and one is from Australia; a Brazilian rider received the sold-out MSG sequence.
In unsure instances, People attain for ‘Americana’
Traditionally, Western nostalgia tends to attain new heights throughout instances of nationwide uncertainty. Contemplate the presidency of “California cowboy” Ronald Reagan within the Nineteen Eighties, when the nation was experiencing its worst recession because the Nice Melancholy, IBM launched the primary private laptop, greater than 100,000 individuals died from the AIDS epidemic, the Chilly Conflict was ending, and conservatism was on the rise. Reagan did not have any pink hats, however his slogan was “Let’s Make America Nice Once more,” which sounds awfully acquainted. The American Cowboy Tradition Affiliation was created within the Nineteen Eighties, and, after all, there was a resurgence of nation music and Westerns — albeit utterly whitewashed variations of the true Wild West.
Garrett-Davis stated the resurgence of cowboycore is “nearly all the time making a declare about America or the US as a nation, even when it is in a enjoyable, playful, ironic, or satirical manner. There’s each this appropriation of cowboy imagery and an appropriation of Native American imagery,” Garrett-Davis stated. “I am psychoanalyzing right here, however when issues really feel so unmoored, it is smart that you’d seize onto one thing that feels ‘genuine.'”
It looks like that is taking place. In January, for the primary time in practically twenty years, a PBR occasion bought out three days at Madison Sq. Backyard, attracting a record-breaking 42,257 followers.
‘We have been making eight-second content material for 30-plus years’
PBR’s huge uptick in social media followers didn’t occur accidentally. A couple of years in the past, their largest viewers was on Fb, however the sport, with every trip lasting for a most of eight seconds, was constructed for short-form video content material. It’s a spectacle, with thrilling, fast-paced content material good for capturing brief consideration spans and TikTok virality.
The scoring is straightforward. Every trip is value as much as 100 factors — 50 for the rider and 50 for the bull. Two judges rating the rider, two judges rating the bull, and every choose can award as much as 25 factors, with the rating then tallied collectively. On the finish of every occasion, the highest 12 riders compete within the championship spherical; the rider with the very best level whole from the complete occasion turns into the champion.
“We have been making eight-second content material for 30-plus years,” Ladner advised Mashable. “It simply took TikTok to meet up with us.”
Ladner’s technique for audience-building and engagement focuses on riders themselves, not simply highlights, and it really works properly. In one in every of PBR’s most viral TikTok movies, the cowboys are doing seemingly common issues—leaning over a pole, standing with their arms crossed, laughing—to the tune of “Breakin’ Dishes” by Rihanna. One other widespread video reveals one of many cowboys stretching out for his activate a bull with the track “Bounce When She Stroll” by BeatKing and Oh Boy Prince within the background.
“We type of flipped round our social technique to ‘let’s simply have enjoyable with this’ and ‘let ‘er rip,’ truthfully,” Ladner says of the technique he applied in November. Now, the TikTok account leans into the information that the cowboys are, for lack of a greater phrase, actually scorching.
Whereas Ladner says “our largest influencers are our riders,” not all cowboys are stoked about being on digital camera — they wish to be driving bulls and taking part in on a ranch with their buddies. So Ladner provides that involving influencers exterior the Western area of interest has been crucial to progress and increasing attain. And most of the time, Ladner says, these influencers are reaching out to him.
“We get a ton of inbound DMs saying, ‘Hey, I might love to return to the occasion, and I’ve 1,000,000 TikTok followers,'” Ladner stated. “If I can get a mommy blogger or a fashionista or a chef to return to our occasion, that is an viewers that our paid media adverts cannot essentially goal with advertising messages that come off genuine.”
Whereas some may be frightened in regards to the co-opting of the nation way of life, PBR isn’t. And so they argue their followers, who they are saying aren’t conservative or progressive however merely American, aren’t both.
“I’ve seen no measurable gatekeeping from our followers in any respect,” Ladner stated. “We have been doing this since 1992, and we have had a really loyal, diehard base because the soar. [The fans are] simply glad these riders are getting their due.”
The politics of authenticity, gender, and efficiency
Bull driving looks like an ultra-masculine spectacle. It appeals to this cathartic fantasy of toughness and threat as its polar reverse, tradwife content material, continues to flourish on-line, taking part in out gendered performances of unattainable beliefs for the digital camera. However, on the similar time, cowboy aesthetics have all the time performed with gender. Look no additional than Ryan Rash, a inventory present choose who famously slaps cattle with glitter, wears fabulously flamboyant outfits and pretend eyelashes, and posts a variety of pro-President Trump memes on his Fb web page.
These seemingly conflicting ideologies could also be a part of the purpose. Cowboy tradition has by no means really been a actuality.
“Most of us are working workplace jobs, are working at a restaurant or no matter, and so there’s some catharsis in imagining the lifetime of selecting up eggs and milking the goats and driving a bull and being in so, a lot hazard,” Garrett-Davis stated. “It completely is smart that now, on this fast-paced time of actually speedy change, we’d yearn for a slower tempo, an easier life, and due to all of the ways in which the West is related to this nationwide id, it is one thing that feels genuine to seize onto, though its authenticity may be very uncertain the nearer you have a look at it.”
The American insistence on being born a nation on the backs of courageous, ragged individuals of the Wild Wild West is itself a fantasy. The white man was not the hero of the story, and cowboy boots look simply as nice on the New York Metropolis subway as they do mucking a stall. Regardless of its lack of authenticity, there’s a sure je ne sais quoi about our imagined Wild Wild West. A less complicated life is interesting for those who refuse to look any deeper at it. And possibly that escapism is nice sufficient, a minimum of for proper now.
Whether or not for the needs of making a brand new id, discovering escape, or leaning into both the irony or sincerity of all of it, the cowboy endures — extra mediated than ever on-line, however simply as mythic. For the growing variety of Gen Zers who’re scrolling TikTok for the newest PBR clip or boot advice, cowboycore doesn’t should be a relic or a remix: It may be each.
Gleason says that we’re in a “renaissance” and “resurgence” of “curiosity in cowboy and nation music and these genuine contact factors with the historical past and heritage of America,” describing it as the alternative facet of the pendulum of “this ultra-woke tradition sweeping the nation.”
But one way or the other, adherents to each teams discover solace within the cowboycore aesthetic. So the cowboycore aesthetic endures, pushed on by one other season of political uncertainty and polarization. Whether or not it should grasp on longer than eight seconds stays to be seen. “One factor I do know for sure is that the pendulum swings,” Gleason stated. “The pendulum of politics, the pendulum of tradition, they swing.”
For now, it endures, pushed on by the seemingly perpetual push and pull of who will get to outline Americana — and who belongs within the annals of its historical past.
