On Radio: Surprise! Radio Needs More Female Singers
Mickey Guyton (Image: KMLE/CBS Local)
I recently read a piece on All Access (a radio/music industry website) by R.J. Curtis, trumpeting 2015 as a possible “Year of the Woman” for country music and country music radio. As various country music programmers trumpeted the up-and-coming female country acts poised to break through this year, many of them scratched their heads as to why they have to try so hard to push female artists to the forefront. It’s a question I found myself asking when I was in their shoes in a similarly male-dominated music radio format.
The year was 2003, and I was the Program Director/Music Director at Revolution 103.7, an Alternative station in Chambersburg, PA. “Why Can’t I,” the lead single from Liz Phair’s self-titled album was going for adds, and remembering the important place Phair’s work held in 1990s indie rock, I added the song without hesitation. I immediately got pushback from my general manager and others whose opinion I trusted. Granted, many music critics decried Phair’s move toward “pop-rock” status, but it shouldn’t have mattered. Ask anyone who owns a copy of Exile in Guyville if Liz Phair could ever be considered a “Pop” artist. Still, it was a time when I was expected to play Godsmack or Slipknot instead. Concerned about losing the coveted Male 18-34 listeners to the newer, testosterone-heavy Active Rock format, we Alternative programmers were supposed to mimic them as much as possible.
In the R.J. Curtis piece, Lisa McKay, a Country program director in Raleigh, states that their sister Pop station has a rule about playing no more than three females in a row, while she works to force three females into an hour. My first reaction to this statement is that it shouldn’t need to be forced. Country is a radio format that appeals equally to males and females, and the sales data backs this up. Yet in research that I presented at last April’s Broadcast Education Association (BEA) conference, Country playlists skewed 83% male, and it is apparently getting worse. Curtis pointed out that just two of the 30 most played songs at the Country format right now are sung by women. Two. Thus making the current national Country playlist a staggering 93% male. These are numbers I would normally expect in the alpha-male-driven Rock formats, but in a climate where “bro-country” is considered the prevailing trend today, perhaps we should not be surprised.
My second reaction to McKay’s lament was, “Why do we even need a rule about how many consecutive female artists is too many?” Curtis compared the Top 30 Country songs to the Top 30 at Pop radio and found that nine of the top Pop songs were sung by women. Better than Country to be sure, but still producing a national current playlist that is over two-thirds male, and in a format whose target audience is women. Would women really change the station if they heard too many female voices in a row?
In this same article, Los Angeles Country program director Tonya Campos stated that people want success for female artists, “but only for the really good ones,” adding that she cannot add female singers just for the sake of having more female singers. Quality should of course be the rule, but there is also the possibility that a stigma exists about the quality of female country singers. During my dissertation research, I sat in with a Country DJ who took a call from a female listener, complaining that Taylor Swift cannot sing. After politely handling the call, he turned to me and said, “And yet, we never get a call saying Toby Keith or George Strait can’t sing… We only pick on our female artists.” Stories like this probably make Simon Frith and Angela McRobbie nod knowingly at the way radio and the music industry justifies the marginalization of women.
Author Eric Weisbard recently wrote a piece for NPR, collaborating with such music journalism titans as Maura Johnston and Jason King to note how the splintering of music radio formats has caused each to begin dictating the terms by which a song could be classified as Alternative, Country, and so on. So it is that we have come to a point where the two major rock awards at this year’s Grammys were won by artists who many immediately claimed were “not rock.” Beck’s Morning Phase won Rock Album of the Year – a win that was apparently just as controversial as his upset win for overall Album of the Year – and Paramore’s “Ain’t it Fun” won Rock Song of the Year. The band Trapt, a hard rock group best known for the raging 2003 hit “Headstrong,” immediately claimed that these two selections were part of a larger establishment conspiracy to prevent “anything too threatening or in your face” from dominating the rock scene.
Hayley Williams (Image: Neil Roberson)
This complaint could not be farther from the truth when it comes to radio airplay. Although Trapt has not had a hit in years, the “aggro” brand of rock has become so dominant on Rock radio for so long that Grantland music critic Steven Hyden recently described the state of mainstream rock as “ossified.” In other words, an entire generation has been raised on male singers pairing aggression with perceived alienation, entrenching the angry white male aesthetic into a dominant position from which it cannot be pushed aside by newer trends. Formerly an Alternative mainstay, Beck’s lighter fare was immediately ticketed for Adult Album Alternative, and Paramore – fronted by one of the heretofore few acceptable female rock singers, Hayley Williams – was sent directly to Pop radio despite far more critical praise than Liz Phair received a decade ago.
At least Country is trying to stop the same thing from happening with the “bro-country” movement. At times like this, I am reminded of Honna Veerkamp’s terrific piece, “Why Radio Needs Feminism.” Perhaps at least one male-dominated radio format will see the light this year and recognize that women listen too.
Wow, so academics’ paranoid fantasies about sexism in the industry are actually true? Thanks for the solid evidence we’re not all making this up!
“As various country music programmers trumpeted the up-and-coming female country acts poised to break through this year, many of them scratched their heads as to why they have to try so hard to push female artists to the forefront.”
Are they really trying? Every year country radio people like to scratch their heads or declare it’s the year of the woman instead of backing those words up by playing more of the best female artists/songs to #1 and more to the top 20 (more than once) like they deserve. Lately they’ve gone from the years of regularly playing just 3 solo females to the year(s) of 2 (after Taylor left for pop) while shutting the rest out of the top 20 after just 1 single. We need at least 6 at the top and more in the top 20 at all times.
“In the R.J. Curtis piece, Lisa McKay, a Country program director in Raleigh, states that their sister Pop station has a rule about playing no more than three females in a row, while she works to force three females into an hour.”
So country radio has a terrible old sexist rule to NEVER play 2 female songs in a row, while pop radio has a rule to never play MORE THAN 3 in a row. HUGE difference. Pop radio is way better about playing more women to top 10-20 and #1. We recently saw 6 solo female songs in the pop (Top 40) radio top 10 and there’s always 0 or 1 in the country top 10. Country radio is way too unbalanced and I have to force myself to listen to radio not playing more country music women.
“Los Angeles Country program director Tonya Campos stated that people want success for female artists, “but only for the really good ones,”…”
In that case country radio should’ve kept Kellie Pickler at #1 starting with her first, second or so single like they did for all similarly and some less talented/proven men. Because she is one of the very best country music and radio artists, has 5 #8-15 radio hits, and has outperformed many men they’ve played to #1 in every possible way (vocals, songs, albums, sales, country radio listener callout polls, critical acclaim, popularity, bringing listeners to country radio from her great performances of country songs on TV shows with as many as 20-50 million viewers, and more). No other artist has multiple top 10-15 hits, over 1.5 million album sales, and great current radio material yet radio isn’t playing them. Obviously it’s because she’s female, country radio is sexist, keeps female spins very limited and doesn’t want more women at the top. I hope this changes soon.
The best/most proven country solo females with great current radio material are Carrie, Miranda, Kellie, and Kacey, yet radio plays only half of them, just a few groups with a woman, many solo males and all-male groups. Radio pushing out half of the four best/most proven country women while constantly playing weaker (mostly male) songs past all of their singles shows that they aren’t making a serious effort to play more country women. Ignoring/skipping the best women will not work for trying to play more women. And there are more newer women they should also be playing to top 20 more than once http://www.mjsbigblog.com/the-country-radio-climb-how-are-major-labels-serving-new-acts-male-female.htm
And of course country radio plays only the “really good” male artists with superior vocals and songs. 😉
“Quality should of course be the rule…”
Unless it’s a male with weaker auto-tuned vocals and songs and often lower album sales on country radio. 😉
“During my dissertation research, I sat in with a Country DJ who took a call from a female listener, complaining that Taylor Swift cannot sing. After politely handling the call, he turned to me and said, “And yet, we never get a call saying Toby Keith or George Strait can’t sing… We only pick on our female artists.””
A great song is a great song. There are more than 2 country solo female artists who are great singers with great songs yet radio isn’t playing them and they played many of Taylor’s singles to #1 or close so any “cannot sing” complaints didn’t stop them. And I’ve seen some country radio employees talk like only one female can sing. More bs excuses for not playing more deserving women to top 20 and #1. Toby and George don’t rely on auto-tune and are way better singers with better songs than some of the newer men radio plays. Radio never gets calls complaining about those singers or bro-country? I’ve seen many complaints about it on social media and from radio employees forced to play it.
I’ve also seen some country radio employees, all men including programmers, knock and bash great female artists who clearly deserve to be played to #1. Jimmy Carter (@askjimmycarter) called some and heard the same bs. I guess they think that justifies their sexist treatment even if it’s just in their own minds.
http://www.cmt.com/news/country-music/1696676/miranda-lambert-wants-more-women-in-country-music.jhtml
http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/the-615/5892801/carrie-underwood-women-in-country-music-fairness-kellie-pickler
http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/the-615/6113995/sara-evans-talks-frustrating-lack-of-women-on-country-radio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-K1qLtfZMs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPHuHkuAhJI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21fX9TddNb4
I just wrote an angry email to one of L.A.’s two country stations on this very subject. When I drive my daughter to school every morning, I’ve noticed they play no more than one female singer for every 7 males. And that they are increasingly skewing toward songs that are just what was described in the recent “Like a girl in a country song.” In other words: I see a woman across the bar who looks “hot,” I’m just going to talk about your looks in this song and how I want to “bring you home” tonight. But I had noticed when I was driving between Chicago and Bloomington, Indiana earlier this year, that there were dozens of country stations that had so many more songs by women than I had ever heard. How can the songs of women become popular if radio stations refuse to play songs by women? It’s an increasingly misogynistic industry. Perhaps influenced, in part, by politics: women singing in the industry often have something to say worth hearing that is more than just about how sexy some guy is. I turn to country, from pop, for the lyrics. They’re not delivering recently, and that’s not the fault of women, that’s the fault of those who control radio.