Country Consultant Stirs Debate About Female Artists

Country music world is a flutter about this topic which has been debated for years. See what has stirred the pot of conversation this time.

In the radio business, the job of a consultant is to help radio station programmers pick and choose songs to play and when to play them, In an interview with Lon Helton of Country Aircheck for their weekly PDF sent out to trade partners, consultant Keith Hill said this about the relative lack of female artists on radio:

...Hill cautions against playing too many females. And playing them back to back, he says, is a no-no. “If you want to make ratings in Country radio, take females out,” he asserts. “The reason is mainstream Country radio generates more quarter hours from female listeners at the rate of 70 to 75%, and women like male artists. I’m basing that not only on music tests from over the years, but more than 300 client radio stations. The expectation is we’re principally a male format with a smaller female component. I’ve got about 40 music databases in front of me and the percentage of females in the one with the most is 19%. Trust me, I play great female records and we’ve got some right now; they’re just not the lettuce in our salad. The lettuce is Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton, Keith Urban and artists like that. The tomatoes of our salad are the females.”

 


So, if you were ever wondering how radio works and why so many great female artists cannot get airplay, well, here's one reason why. Another, which is an offshoot of that, is that for many of the average female country radio listeners, they don't want overly pretty women to take the attention of their men from the female fan's life, even if it's at a concert (though it's very fine for a female fan to love the 'sexiness' of a male singer and that double standard isn't lost on us).

This from Martina McBride on the subject:

Wow.....just wow. Just read this from a major country radio publication. How do you feel about this statement? I especially want to hear from the females. Do you not like to hear other women singing about what you are going through as women? I'm really curious. Because to me, country music is about relating. Someone relating to what you are really going through on a day to day basis in your life. Did you girls (core female listeners) know you were being "assessed" in this way? Is this how you really feel? Hmmm....

What these theories (not Martina's) give us is very few female stars at the top of the charts (at least as solo artists). It might explain why someone like Sugarland's Jennifer Nettles barely scrapes the Top 40 with her debut single "That Girl" while Kristian Bush, her partner in Sugarland, had a Top 20 hit in "Trailer Hitch" even though his voice was far less familiar with audiences.

Really, though, we're posting this news to hear what you (especially female fans) think in the comment section.

6 Comments

  • Leigh

    I have a question-why don't most male tours have any female openers this year? Luke, Jason, FGL, Eric Church, Kenny ( Miranda plays 1 stadium but that is it), and many others. Brad Paisley just added a gal to this leg of his tour but besides that it is SHOCKING that so many tours have no female presence.

  • Larry

    How does he explain little big towns Girl Crush being NO 1 on Country billboard singles chart for 5 straight weeks. Or is he only talking female solo artists.

  • Chrissy

    I stopped listening to country music as much as I used to because they stopped playing female artists. I started listening for Martina McBride, Sugarland, Carrie Underwood, etc. They still play Carrie, but they hardly ever play Martina or Sugarland/Jennifer Nettles nowadays. I didn't willingly leave country music. Country music left me.

  • chris godfrey

    The only reason i listen to country radio is Carrie, Miranda, Little big town, and Lady A. Why? Because every male singer in country sounds the same and all their music and lyrics pretty much the same as well. It's my humble opinion that when these 4 artists i mentioned and maybe a few others come on, its a breath of fresh air. It's because of this that people like me do not listen much anymore.

  • Natalie

    I find this ridiculous. Carrie and Miranda for example usually have good selling singles, many of which out sell male artists whose singles go to radio #1. Just last week Urban/Church got to # 1 w/ low selling song. Radio basically stopped playing Little Red Wagon which had sales and video streams ( so people are buying it which Radio says they need for rotation). It is a boys club no matter shat anyone says. DJs can play females more they just choose not to. But for a national radio publication to PUBLISH "play less females" is what these artists are up against. I my self can't remember hearing a female in like 45 minutes on radio - much less 2 female artists back to back.