DCX Hit Top 10 on Country Chart, 1st time since Landslide

[DCXMMXVI]

Taylor's "Soon You'll Get Better" feat. DCX reached the top 10 on Billboard's Country chart, and #63 on the Top 100. "Everybody Knows" was their last song to enter the top 100 Billboard Chart.

EW article

Although it's a Taylor Swift song, and she's so freakin popular, it makes me think that the Chicks could possibly pull out a #1 hit with their solo album. It's no longer just about radio play to determine a #1 hit, it's also about digital downloads and internet views. Who knows, maybe they could end up with 10 #1 hits before they retire. And y'all know how Sony is, they would surely release a Hits album. And knowing how I am, I would certainly buy it.

BTW I could've posted this in the Taylor thread, but I wanted to dust the spider webs off of another section of the forum lol.

[DCXMMXVI]

Apparently country radio stations are getting angry phone calls over the Taylor Swift/DCX song. You'd think that, considering what the song is about, people would just let it go. 16 years later and some people are still NRTMN. 

I've been lucky enough to hear the Chicks on country radio a few times over the years. I heard a preview of Soon You'll Get Better, but haven't heard the whole thing yet. Bobby Bones has probably played it. He isn't a DCX hater.

Rolling Stone Article

[erik]

Quote by DCXMMXVI:

Apparently country radio stations are getting angry phone calls over the Taylor Swift/DCX song. You'd think that, considering what the song is about, people would just let it go. 16 years later and some people are still NRTMN.

Well, it's stupid behavior on their part whichever way you look at it; but I think they are emboldened by that mango-headed white supremacist moron from Manhattan who occupies the White House right now.

[Bingo]

Some of Swift's songs on her "Red" album could still qualify as Alt Country (the best track, in my opinion, "All Too Well" was a co-write with Liz Rose, and she also collaborated on a couple of tracks with Dan Wilson, who co-wrote half of the Chicks last album). However, since then, she has, by choice, identified as full on Pop, and I wouldn't really expect her recent work to be played more than a sprinkling on Mainstream Country radio, regardless of whether or not there were phone calls.

The Billboard data for the new song refers to their Hot Country Songs chart, which includes both streaming, and radio play from formats outside Country - and I would suspect that the high chart position comes mainly from those areas. (The collaboration peaked there at 10, and is now 32 and falling). The separate Country Airplay chart (where I don't see it in the current top 50) would be expected to be much less receptive (but I would attribute that mainly to stylistic and genre identification reasons, rather than to a resurgence of public hostility.) Things like the angry phone calls happen quite frequently, including, unfortunately, when the younger generation of female performers do anything that touches a nerve with some social conservatives - but the scale and permanence of the reaction is usually nothing comparable to 2003).

Rather than radio, I would look to the award shows for possible recognition of the collaboration, and possible invitations for a showcase performance. I'm not saying that either would be a strong bet (and we don't know if the artists themselves would be interested in going down that route again), but I do think there might be interest in that area.