Women of Country on Women in Country: Miranda Lambert
On the voice of women on country radio:
“I don’t know what’s going on with all the other great female artists. I don’t know where the connection is off right now as far as the airplay….I champion the females. I’m a huge fan of female artists, and strong females in general. I’m proud of them, and I’m so thankful I’ve been able to follow in the footsteps of the ones before me, and I’m holding the door open for the ones that want to follow behind me. This is just one of those waves where females are struggling a little bit, but we’ll come back around and be a force to be reckoned with.”
Source: Billboard
I wonder if any women are meaningfully involved in the decisions as to what gets played on country radio.
As a woman and not trying to be bias, the best country music out there is by women. They have meaningful songs, emotional songs, songs that make you think. All I hear from the guys,and more are getting on the band wagon, is hip hop pop with a twang with subject matters of drinking, trucks, girls, mud, dirt roads etc. I’m so sick of it. BroCountry has to go!
Women indeed don’t get nearly enough credit for doing good work that deserves to get played on country radio.
But does anyone besides me find it a touch ironic that the woman who makes this observation is also married to one of the biggest propagators of “bro country”?
Erik,
They do admit that they often disagree on music and have music tastes that are quite different from each other.:)
Although female artists have it harder in this industry, I don’t place all the blame on radio for the lack of successful females in the genre.
The Country music audience is largely female, and they’re buying more from the male artists.
It’s harder for females to breakthrough, but there are countless examples of females that have done so and don’t continue to be successful because, for whatever reason, they’re not generating interest and thus not captivating the buying public.
Say what you will about the state of radio, but if the general public gets a taste of an artist and doesn’t like what they hear, the industry will most likely want to move on and find someone else.
Lastly, it seems like Taylor, Carrie, and Miranda have comprised the quality of their music which may have lead to them staying on top of the industry. You’re not going to hear about Ashley Monroe, Sunny Sweeney, Kacey Musgraves, etc compromising to fit in with mainstream trends, which is something the males (and a few females) were are too willing to do once they hit the top.
Quote by Karly:
The Country music audience is largely female, and they’re buying more from the male artists.
It’s harder for females to breakthrough, but there are countless examples of females that have done so and don’t continue to be successful because, for whatever reason, they’re not generating interest and thus not captivating the buying public.
Say what you will about the state of radio, but if the general public gets a taste of an artist and doesn’t like what they hear, the industry will most likely want to move on and find someone else.
This, then, brings up what I feel is a relevant question: What does the largely female country music audience see in the value of male singers doing songs that basically objectify them, usually on how they move their “booties” and how scantily they dress themselves? Maybe I’m reading a bit too much in this, but I think it’s kind of troublesome, and indicative of the very misogyny that gets so often attached to arena rock and rap, which much of “bro country” models itself off of.
I wouldn’t completely agree that the women are making the best country music these days. Although they won’t get played on radio, the new Ray Price and Gene Watson albums are both excellent and don’t contain an ounce of BroCountry
Erik wrote:
This, then, brings up what I feel is a relevant question: What does the largely female country music audience see in the value of male singers doing songs that basically objectify them, usually on how they move their “booties” and how scantily they dress themselves? Maybe I’m reading a bit too much in this, but I think it’s kind of troublesome, and indicative of the very misogyny that gets so often attached to arena rock and rap, which much of “bro country” models itself off of.
The largely female audience isn’t being given a choice and they aren’t speaking for themselves. It’s a long-standing assumption by radio programmers, rarely supported by sales numbers, that allows a format that’s listeners are majority female to still not give females a fair share on the radio dial. Your perception of misogyny is correct, but it isn’t coming from the listeners. Just the gatekeepers.
Remember when 2002 “conclusively proved” that listeners were sick of crossover female artists and wanted to hear the flag-waving male artists instead, even though the biggest-selling albums that year were by the Dixie Chicks, Shania Twain, and Faith Hill? I do.
Quote by Kevin John Coyne:
Remember when 2002 “conclusively proved” that listeners were sick of crossover female artists and wanted to hear the flag-waving male artists instead, even though the biggest-selling albums that year were by the Dixie Chicks, Shania Twain, and Faith Hill? I do.
So do I….unfortunately. I think it was right then and there, in 2002 with that post-9/11 flag-waving fervor, that the quality of country music, at least in the mainstream, started slowly going downhill. And you’re right Kevin, the gatekeepers at country radio are foisting all the misogynistic songs and artists on us.
But it only goes to show that women bring the most good to the world, and the macho men keep screwing it up (IMHO).