By Neve Wilkinson
Throughout history, men and women have regrettably been given different roles in life. Music is no different. This article answers the question of whether female artists have been able to change a historically male-dominated genre – country music.
Best-selling country music artist Shania Twain said in a CNBC interview in early 2023: “The music industry going back 20 years ago, 30 years ago, was primarily more dominated by men.
“You know, male executives, most of the studio musicians were men, most of the managers were men, it was just more male-dominated in every sense. So being taken seriously as a woman was a challenge.”
Country Music Radio Gender Gap
If we think back to 2015 and the ‘Tomato-gate’ incident, which arose when radio consultant Keith Hill advocated that country radio stations should not play songs by women artists back-to-back and told Country Radio Aircheck: “If you want to make ratings in country radio, take females out.”
Hill went on to compare male artists to the lettuce of a salad, whilst female artists were just the tomato garnish. This sparked a social media outcry from several female country artists, including Kacey Musgraves and Kelsea Ballerini, and others in the music industry.
However, despite the attention it garnered, as recently as 2020, 98 KCQ – a radio station in Saginaw, Michigan – admitted they weren’t allowed to play songs by women back to back. The now-deleted Tweet read: “We cannot play two females back to back. Not even Lady Antebellum or Little Big Town against another female. I applaud their courage.”
In 2019, author Jada Watson was the principal investigator of the SongData project, which found that female artists received just 10% of all airplay on the 156 country radio stations that reported their data to Mediabase.
In addition, Watson found that of the few female tracks played on air, most were played during the evening or overnight.
She said: “Depending on the time of day a listener tunes in to their station, (10% is) barely enough to be heard. It’s certainly not enough exposure to become known, to build a fan base, to climb charts, to gain enough recognition to have access to opportunities and resources within the industry.”
Fast forward to 2022, when journalist and author Marissa R. Moss released her debut book, ‘Her Country: How the Women of Country Music Became the Success They Were Never Supposed to Be’, which was an eye-opening account of the gender bias within country music told through the eyes of Maren Morris, Kacey Musgraves and Mickey Guyton.
All three female country artists had the same antagonist: country radio. But are stations right to play fewer female artists? Let’s think about what country listeners actually want to hear.
A 2020 study by Coleman Insights found that 84% of country music listeners want equal play for female artists on radio stations, and 28% would listen to country radio more if they featured more female artists.
Meanwhile, 44% of country music listeners would be interested in a radio station that specifically spotlights women in the industry.
These statistics should drive some change for country radio stations.
Have Females Been Able To Dominate Any Of The Genre?
Thanks to CMT’s 2018 Artists Of The Year Celebration, we saw a much-needed turning point for females in the country music industry. Whilst on stage, Carrie Underwood told her fellow honorees: “You’re not here because you’re women, you’re here because you’re dang good.”
Following the annual event, which honored only women for the first time, female country artists were in the spotlight a lot throughout 2019:
- Underwood’s ‘Cry Pretty’ album debuted at number one on the all-genre Billboard 200 and received the highest sales for a country album in three years.
- Musgraves won four awards at the Grammys, tying with Childish Gambino for the most wins of the night, and Music Video of the Year at the Country Music Association (CMA) Awards.
- Maren Morris’ album, ‘Girl’, broke the record for the largest streaming week for a country album and debuted at number one on the Billboard Country Albums chart.
- Tanya Tucker, who hadn’t released an album for ten years, returned to the scene and won Best Country Album at the Grammy Awards for ‘While I’m Living’.
57th Annual Country Music Association (CMA) Awards
Fast forward to more recent times. Lainey Wilson won Entertainer of the Year at the 2023 CMA’s, beating the likes of Luke Combs, Morgan Wallen, Christ Stapleton, and fellow female artist Underwood.
Wilson’s feat was the first time a female artist won Entertainer of the Year since Taylor Swift in 2011. Unfortunately, no female artists were even nominated for this award in 2017 or 2018, despite nominees and winners being picked by more than 6,200 industry professionals.
Also at the 2023 CMA’s, Wilson won Album of the Year, Female Vocalist of the Year, and co-won Musical Event of the Year and Music Video of the Year for featuring in ‘wait in the truck’ by HARDY.
Meanwhile, fiddle player Jenee Fleenor won Musician of the Year, beating four male musicians, and Tracy Chapman won Song of the Year.
Let’s compare these results to just five years ago, in 2018, when female artists won just two out of 16 categories, with Underwood winning Female Vocalist of the Year and Musgraves winning Album of the Year.
Spotify Wrapped 2023
2023’s Spotify Wrapped came at the end of November when millions of people got that long-awaited smartphone notification to see their top five most-listened-to artists and songs.
In addition, artists from across the world got some promising numbers which tell them how many streams they got in the past year and other facts about how much their music has been streamed.
Thinking only about the top 20 artists on the Mediabase country chart who posted their Spotify Wrapped results, Jelly Roll came in at number one. Despite the debate about whether he is a country singer, he currently has the number one country song, and in this past year, he has gotten 668.3 million Spotify streams.
However, he was followed by previously mentioned female superstar Lainey Wilson, who had 402.2 million Spotify streams. She beat the likes of Mitchell Tenpenny, Parker McCollum, and Nate Smith, who got 194.1 million, 282.4 million, and 228.7 million streams, respectively.
In addition, Taylor Swift was awarded Spotify’s number one global artist of 2023, with more than 26 billion streams. She beat the likes of Morgan Wallen, Luke Combs, and Zach Bryan.
Changing the Status quo?
So, the answer is yes – female artists are changing the country genre (finally!), rising to the top, and defying all odds. However, unfortunately, there is still a long way to go.
In 2023, Watson said: “It’s disheartening. The system has to change. That’s why I can’t be a part of applauding this moment when people are excited that there are three women on the Top 10 [of the Mediabase Country Chart right now] because I see what’s coming up behind them, and that is the status quo. It’s not changing.”
Neve is a content writer at Solvid Digital who is passionate about researching and writing. She is proud to have work published on The Sun, Yorkshire Evening Post, HackerNoon, and Future of Commerce. Feel free to check out her Gravatar and Twitter.
