I stumbled upon an area radio station’s website the other day, as I sometimes do, just checking around to see what everybody else is doing. Our own radio station’s websites are scheduled for a relaunch with brand new graphics and styles within the next month, so I’m well aware how ugly ours currently are.
But I got a chuckle out of one thing I saw, on an otherwise very strong website, where a poll that asks: Who is your favorite NEW female country singer?
The possible answers are Miranda Lambert (first chart hit 2004), Carrie Underwood (first chart hit 2005), Kellie Pickler (2006) and Taylor Swift (2006).
I’m sorry to my friends at the station in question, but that ain’t “new”. What does someone have to do (Lambert, for instance, has multiple top 10 hits and is just releasing album #3) to be considered “established” in the world of country radio anymore?
Underwood, although undeservedly so, has won the “Female Artist of the Year” three years in a row. Swift was the “Horizon Award” winner, given the best “new” artist, in 2007. Pickler was nominated for that award in 2008 (two years AFTER her first hit, so you can see the CMA is just as behind the times here).
Country radio – I know, I was in it as recently as 2006 – treats TRUE “new” artists like crap right now. Why? Because consultants – most of them former Top 40 consultants who are now too old to be relevant in that format – are squeezing the life and size out of country radio playlists to the point where it’s down to about 7-10 artists that you will hear repeatedly, over and over again, on country radio.
If this keeps up, country radio will die. Period.
Country has to re-embrace what made it huge: It’s the SONGS, not the ARTISTS, that made country what it is. No matter who sings it, if it’s a hit country song, it’s a hit country song. The current path of destruction these consultants are taking is devastating to true fans of country.
Go ahead, bash away, but I’ve never been more right about anything in my life. Time will tell.
5 responses so far ↓
1
Ramble On
// Aug 15, 2009 at 11:40 am
I might have to continue after the three free months of satellite radio just to keep getting The Roadhouse. Most of the new stuff is crap.
2
BJ Stone
// Aug 15, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Most of the new stuff you’re HEARING is crap. There is some great new stuff…by unknown or little known artists…that you’re NOT hearing. That’s my point.
3
BJ Stone
// Aug 15, 2009 at 12:59 pm
And you’re right, The Roadhouse is awesome. Unfortunately, it’s on satellite, and I will not pay for radio when I don’t have to. My solution when I want my country fix? My personal CD’s.
4
Ramble On
// Aug 16, 2009 at 9:04 am
OK, how about a list of good country that we don’t hear much of on “commercial radio”? The last new CD I bought was Darius Rucker.
5
BJ Stone
// Aug 16, 2009 at 10:33 am
Top of my head on a Sunday morning, here are 10…EDIT: 20…singles that should have been huge national hits in the last 10 years and weren’t because they were not recorded by a “core artist” (consultant speak for “ultra-conservative playlist”):
Hank Williams, Jr. – “I’m One of You”
Willie Nelson and Lee Ann Womack – “Mendicino County Line”
Jeffrey Steele – “20 Years Ago”
Jeffrey Steele – “Good Year For The Outlaw” (see title of this blog)
Anthony Smith – “If That Ain’t Country” (co-written with Jeffrey Steele)
Van Zant – “Goes Down Easy” (produced by Jeffrey Steele)
Charlie Robison – “My Hometown”
Carolyn Dawn Johnson – “Georgia”
Mark Chesnutt – “Somebody Save The Honky Tonks”
Cross Canadian Ragweed – “Sick and Tired” (w/Lee Ann Womack on duet vocals)
Raul Malo (former lead singer of The Mavericks in the 90’s) – “Feels Like Home”
Rick Trevino – “In My Dreams” (written and produced by Raul Malo)
Trent Willmon – “Dixie Rose Deluxe’s Honky-Tonk, Feed Store, Gun Shop,
Used Car, Beer, Bait, BBQ, Barber Shop, Laundromat” (yep, that’s the title)
Jamie Johnson – “The Cost of Living High”
Deana Carter – “There’s No Limit”
Trent Summar and New Row Mob – “Paint Your Name In Purple” (Summar’s lead guitarist is Dan Baird, the former lead man of The Georgia Satellites, and Summar also wrote the fabulous “Love You” for Jack Ingram, which somehow broke through and became a hit)
Rachel Proctor – “Me And Emily”
Shooter Jennings – “4th of July”
Jill King – “One Mississippi”
Dwight Yoakam – “Intentional Heartache”
I know, it’s weird to think guys like Hank, Jr., Mark Chesnutt, and Dwight Yoakam are on this list, but they’ve made some KILLER music this decade that simply gets ignored by consultants because it doesn’t say “Toby” or “Kenny” on the label)
On this list, it’s not all country-rock or southern-rock, it’s not all up-tempo like I prefer, it’s a mixture of songs, mainstream and otherwise, fast and slow, that WOULD have been monster hits if recorded by one of the so-called “safe” artists. Like I said before, when country rules it’s because of the songs getting on the air, not the artists. These are all great songs, doesn’t matter who sings ‘em.
I’ll come up with another 20 later.
Leave a Comment