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AJ Keenan

Adina Corke

English 103-05

16 November, 2018

The Country Music Othering Problem

Until recently, country music was the most popular genre of music in America.

Furthermore, its radio stations pull in millions of listeners per day. In fact, radio stations pull in

so many listeners that country radio has come to lead the industry and determine which songs are

popular and which ones get left behind. In doing so, country radio also determines which artists

get popular and which ones do not. It determines which artists are one-hit wonders, longtime

radio kings, or duds on arrival. Notice how the word kings is used here. When listening to

country radio, the artists on display are notoriously male, with very few females played in

between despite their popularity on other forms of country music consumption such as streaming

services. In addition to the lack of females playing on country radio, in the wake of the bro-

country movement that has been around since 2013, a sexist portrayal of women in the lyrics of

these popular country artists’ songs are at an all-time high. Nowhere were either of these two

issues more apparent than in 2015, when radio programmer Keith Hill spoke what has now

become an infamous comment on the makeup of what is played on country music: “The lettuce

is Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton, Keith Urban and artists like that. The tomatoes of our salad are

the females.” (qtd. In Smith) The comments drew outrage from many in the country music

community and were indicative of the issues regarding country music's systematic treatment of

women. Furthermore, these comments were seen as a source of proof that women in country

music are Othered by the industry in the eyes of the mainstream public, but more proof has come
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out in the wake of both Keith Hill’s comments and the “bro-country” movement. Years later, the

issues are still not fixed that were brought up by the controversy. Miranda Lambert, a female

country artist who used to receive tons of radio success and now receives none, said around the

52nd CMA Awards that she “had to sing with someone with a penis in order to get a number 1,”

(qtd in Whitaker) in reference to her only hit since 2014, “Drowns the Whiskey,” with Jason

Aldean (Whitaker). This just shows that the systemic issues Keith Hill presented have still not

even come close to being fixed. The sexist portrayal of women in the lyrics of songs during the

“bro-country” movement of recent years and the lack of females being played on the radio

despite success on other platforms demonstrate how women in country music are Othered by the

men of the industry.

When people listen to country radio, they will predominantly find songs sung by men.

Once in a while, a song by Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert, or some other female one-hit-

wonder will be played, but men predominately make up the format. No one made this more

apparent than radio consultant Keith Hill when he made his infamous claims regarding women’s

presence on country radio being unimportant and bad for ratings (Smith). As a result, Hill

revealed how little a role in the genre industry leaders and radio programmers believed women

played in the country music scene. Many women in country music took offense to that, speaking

out against Hill and calling for more women to be played on country radio (Smith). Despite all

the efforts of the women to increase female presence on country radio, little has been done with

the situation. The same popular artists who called out Hill were unable to bring more women to

the format while men continued to enjoy an absurd amount of success on the radio. Regardless of

what happens on the radio, however, female country artists are gaining popularity on other forms

of music consumption such as streaming and sales. Caitlyn Smith, a country artist who released
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her debut album in 2018, has been receiving huge numbers on Spotify for her songs “This Town

is Killing Me” and “Starfire.” (Coroneos, “Caitlyn Smith”). The numbers, which are over 5

million streams and 7.7 million streams respectively, are comparable to those of other radio-

beloved country stars yet Smith has received no airplay from country radio (Coroneos, “Caitlyn

Smith”). This demonstrates how despite the popularity of artists like Caitlyn Smith, country

radio continues to ignore them despite the numbers they pull in, showing how Hill's comments

regarding women on the radio being bad for ratings are moot. Instead, it demonstrates how the

industry is ignoring women in general, othering them from men in the process.

While women struggle to get their songs on the radio, men usually have nothing to worry

about. After the Keith Hill incident, these same men seemed to turn a blind eye and avoid

speaking on the subject. Industry observer Sean Ross believes that there are two possible

reasons. One of which is that men are afraid to challenge country radio. Not only could the men

speaking out and succeeding in giving more women radio space hurt their own ability to get

songs played on radio due to a more crowded field of songs to pick from, but the men going

against country radio beliefs and policies could lead to them being blacklisted and shunned by

the very people giving them careers. Without radio, many artists falter and lose their ability to

grow (Yahr). As a result, men are forced to stay silent to avoid damaging their careers. Being

able to keep the men quiet also shows how country radio has the ability to force their lack of

belief in female-driven music on others, further demonstrating how women are treated

differently, and othered, from men. The other potential reason, Sean Ross also suggested, is that

men are afraid of opening themselves up to the “bro-country” debate (Yahr). From the release of

Florida Georgia Line’s “Cruise” in 2013, many songs on country radio can be considered “bro-

country,” or a form of country that contains several hip-hop tropes and includes themes of
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females, drinking, and partying (“Bro-Country”). In addition to these characteristics, these “bro-

country” songs have been notoriously known for objectifying women. In a recent study, more

than 44% of all country songs on the radio during the 2010’s objectify women by appearance or

by using slang to describe them (Rasmussen and Densley, 188-201). Critics of the study can

explain how the terms for how the objectification of females in these lyrics is subjective and

there is no inherent way of determining whether or not the words counted by the study are indeed

objectifying women. However, regardless of whether or not the study properly determines which

phrases and words objectify women, it is widely accepted among experts and observers that

“bro-country” objectifies women (Yahr). The “bro-country” subgenre of country music, due to

its objectifying nature, can be seen as yet another way country radio views women as the Other

to men as they are seen as objects rather than people in the songs they play.

In the years following the Keith Hill incident, very little has changed on country radio to

give women more space. Of the 60 songs on the Billboard Year-End Country Airplay chart for

2017, which measures the most popular songs on country radio for a year, only 11 have women

on them (“Airplay Songs”). Of those 11, 6 also feature a male (“Airplay Songs”). This shows an

absurdly large difference between the amount of female-driven songs being featured versus those

by men. However, industry insiders continue to deny an issue (Peoples). "I don't think there's an

issue. I think it's a non-issue. If you come forward with a great song and happen to be female,

singer -- that song will get played, streamed, sold and listened to,” an anonymous country

manager for both male and female country artists said when questioned regarding female airplay.

(qtd in Peoples). Other industry insiders have also agreed with this manager, seeing the gender

disparity as a non-issue (Peoples). However, they did say such a disparity is caused by radio

choosing to play more men due to their belief that women who listen to country radio prefer to
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hear men (Peoples). On the other hand, radio programmers point to data showing that labels,

especially major labels, are barely sending any female-driven songs to radio in the first place

(Peoples). Regardless, both sides demonstrate a lack of care on the issue by not working to fix it

and instead are putting the blame on each other. With this in mind, it is easy to realize that the

industry is far less concerned with the plight of the females on country radio than they should be.

It is also easy to realize that the idea that women do not wish to hear other women is absurd,

given the streaming numbers for Caitlyn Smith (Coroneos, “Caitlyn Smith”). Besides her

streaming numbers, there is also the fact that female-driven singles do better on Billboard Hot

Country Songs, which measures not only airplay but also sales and streaming numbers for a

given week, then they do on Country Airplay (Peoples). With this lack of care in mind, it can be

easy to see that country insiders do not hold women to the same level as men, causing them to be

othered.

As previously mentioned, there is a major discrepancy between the popularity of female-

driven songs on airplay-only charts and all-encompassing popularity charts. Nowhere is this

more apparent than the situation regarding Carrie Underwood's "Cry Pretty" single. In September

of 2018, Carrie Underwood went on record explaining how women have it so much harder than

men to get a number one single on the country airplay charts (Smith and Underwood). A few

days later, it was revealed that her single, “Cry Pretty,” tanked on country radio after her label

pulled their support for it (Coroneos, “Cry Pretty”). The tanking of the single was shocking,

given that Carrie Underwood songs almost always hit the top two on the country airplay chart,

the single was doing well on the Hot Country Songs chart, and her new album was to be released

only two weeks later and singles part of new albums by major country stars normally hit number

1 or 2 the week of album release (Coroneos, “Cry Pretty”). This shows that something unusual
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was occurring with Carrie Underwood, possibly due to her comments regarding females on

country radio, since they do have the power to blacklist those who go against the system as

previously mentioned. While many could say that the single peaked because people were finally

getting sick of Carrie Underwood or that she is no longer popular, the sales of the album proved

otherwise. In its first week, Carrie Underwood’s Cry Pretty album, which included the “Cry

Pretty” song, debuted at Number 1 on the Billboard 200 with approximately 266,000 equivalent

album units, which was the biggest week for a country album since Luke Bryan’s Kill The Lights

in 2015 (Caufield). These sales disprove that Carrie Underwood was losing popularity, leaving

major suspicion regarding why Carrie Underwood’s single flopped. With all this in mind, it can

be shown that Carrie Underwood was blacklisted by radio, as they have the power to do so as

previously mentioned, for her comments against women, demonstrating how country radio has

no intentions of fixing the problem nor do they want any press brought to it. This once again

demonstrates the amount of care country radio has for women compared to men, showing how

they other women from men.

Country radio's aptitude for playing far more men than women and allowing for sexist

lyrics on radio singles demonstrates a lack of care for females compared to the men they play

daily and how they see women as the Other to men. There are many women in country music

who produce great songs that receive critical acclaim, such as Caitlyn Smith and Kacey

Musgraves. However, neither of them are ever able to receive the airplay they deserve due to a

system that inherently prevents women from receiving their dues. Instead, songs with lyrics that

inherently objectify women are rampant and are all sung by men. There have been many calls to

action to try to fix the problem, but none have been quite successful. In fact, there are so few

female country stars in the mainstream that male country singers must look to pop to find female
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duet partners, with Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line’s “Meant To Be” being the ultimate

epitome of this trend. There are many issues with country radio these days, such as pop songs

becoming country radio hits and country stars trying to cross over into pop more and more, but

no problem is as big as the Othering of women by the men of the industry. Since calls to action

have been worthless in the fight for better female representation on the radio, the next step

should be to go to the source and replace the sexist leaders who do not care about this issue with

new leaders with ideas that will ensure that the representation of women on country radio can be

expanded for years to come until they finally achieve equivalence with men on country radio.
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Works Cited

“Bro-Country.” Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford University Press.

“Carrie Underwood On the Lack of Women on Country Radio.” Performance by Elaina D Smith,

and Carrie Underwood, Women Want To Hear Women Podcast, Nash Country Daily, 3

Sept. 2018.

Caulfield, Keith. “Carrie Underwood Makes Country History on the Billboard 200 Chart As 'Cry

Pretty' Debuts at No. 1.” Billboard, Billboard-Hollywood Reporter Media Group, 24

Sept. 2018.

Coroneos, Kyle. “Carrie Underwood's ‘Cry Pretty’ Tanks at Country Radio.” Saving Country

Music, Saving Country Music, 5 Sept. 2018.

Coroneos, Kyle. “We’Re Not Paying Nearly Enough Attention to Caitlyn Smith.” Saving

Country Music, Saving Country Music, 14 Sept. 2018.

“Country Airplay Songs - Year-End.” Billboard, Billboard-Hollywood Reporter Media Group,

2017.

Peoples, Glenn. “Are Women Finally Getting a Fair Shake on Country Radio? A Billboard

Analysis.” Billboard, Billboard-Hollywood Reporter Media Group, 5 Feb. 2016.

Rasmussen, Eric E., and Rebecca L. Densley. “Girl in a Country Song: Gender Roles and

Objectification of Women in Popular Country Music across 1990 to 2014.” Sex Roles,

vol. 76, no. 3–4, Feb. 2017, pp. 188–201. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s11199-016-0670-6.

Smith, Grady. “#SaladGate: Expert Draws Ire Comparing Country Music's Women to

Tomatoes.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 27 May 2015.

Whitaker, Sterling. “Lambert 'Had to Sing With Someone With a Penis' to Hit No. 1.” Taste of

Country, Townsquare Media, Inc, 13 Nov. 2018.

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Yahr, Emily. “#SaladGate Saga Continues: Why Aren't Nashville's Male Superstars Speaking up

about Lack of Women on Country Radio?” The Washington Post, WP Company, 4 June

2015.