It’s a story that has been playing out in the press regularly for the past four years. Female country artists do not get a lot of airplay on country radio. Yet, as Kacey Musgraves proved at the 2019 Grammy’s, fans love her music and buy her music. This week The Washington Post jumped into the fray and tried to figure out why she’s still being ignored by country radio.
The Post first tracked down Edison Research President Larry Rosin to get his take on why country programmers still, after all the Grammy wins, are not playing Musgraves. Here’s what he said. “The fact that country radio ignored what was album of the year, that’s embarrassing. But I doubt very many people in country radio are sitting around embarrassed about it.”
The paper then went on to report that radio industry insiders gave them several possible reasons for Musgraves’ hit “Rainbow” stalled on the charts. “It didn’t test well when stations did audience research. It’s a slow song that doesn’t resonate going into the summer season, when listeners crave upbeat hits. Others pointed out that the Grammy voters who lauded “Golden Hour” are a very different demographic from the radio programmers who construct playlists.”
Then it got a tad uglier. The Post reported that one reason Musgraves gets the cold shoulder from Country PD’s is because of her attitude toward them. “Some country radio programmers claim that Musgraves hasn’t been very friendly to them and didn’t seem to care much about airplay — and although they insist their priority is playing the best songs, personal bias can seep into decision-making. This triggered a debate at the annual Country Radio Seminar conference in Nashville in February, where a few programmers admitted that they can’t help but want to support singers who seem more enthusiastic about radio.”
To be continued....for sure.
Read the Washington Post story HERE
There is a lot of misinformation here. First of all, to say “Yet, as Kacey Musgraves proved at the 2019 Grammy’s, fans love her music and buy her music.” Fans don’t vote for Grammy awards or any other awards that Kacey has won. So to say the Grammy win is indicative of popularity is false. Second of all, Kacey herself will tell you that the record was not inherently country. She went outside the genre in making this album, using collaborators who were not from Nashville or country music. If anyone listens to this album, they can hear it’s more EDM than country. Nothing wrong with that, but to say country radio should play an EDM record either because the artist is female or because the record won a Grammy is crazy. Neither is a good reason. Music should be played on the radio because it’s great and gets results. That’s it.