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Post by lovedxc on Oct 21, 2008 5:09:38 GMT -8
the Country Aircheck Weekly Edition Found this at another forum and tought it was relevant to posts this because it talks about woman and countryradio, even tough the Dixie Chicks arent specifically mentioned. its just the lack of mentioning them that bothers me so much & their contribution to country music/radio., You can mail to give your opinions at news@countryaircheck.com and it could be that they do a follow up. imo, countryradio has itself to blaim for all of this. Just click to make it bigger if its small.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2008 11:04:01 GMT -8
The article raises the question of whether female country singers are singing the right songs for their audience, songs which connect with (for example) 25+ women.
This assumes that male country singers are singing the right songs, of course, not just that there are more male than female artists anyway. That requires some sort of analysis of the topics of the more successful songs in the country Top 10: what do they tend to be about? Having established that, would the same songs (or topics) sung by women be a) credible, and b) just as readily accepted by country audiences?
We know our resident expert, Bingo, isn't much into mainstream country, so he probably couldn't stream such an analysis out of his encyclopaedic mind - so is there anyone else on here who could?
If not (and I suspect that's the answer) I doubt if the article itself is very helpful as a piece of journalism without a follow-up addressing the issues it suggests. As an observation, it's fine, but it just leaves most readers wondering!
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Post by Bingo on Oct 22, 2008 14:03:41 GMT -8
Well, as Bob suggested, I don't listen to this radio format - so my observations might be a bit awry, but, for what it's worth, I'll give it a shot! First of all, I don't think it's very relevant to the Chicks' situation - not only did they say in interview that they didn't want to entrust their fate to the format, but SUAS and trade comments from Simon Renshaw confirm that they vetoed any promotion of their last album to Country Radio. They didn't give any interviews to the sector, or attend any media events associated with the sector, didn't allow their album to be submitted to most stations, and concentrated almost all their media exposure on just one song. Even if they'd wanted to be played in that format, it's unlikely they would be now, two and a half years later, without a steady stream of single releases, backed up by performances and videos. It may not always be done that way in future - but it does seem to me that nothing they did in and after 2006 has been targetted to the Country radio market - and that seems to have been a deliberate decision. Turning to the more general situation - I don't think this sector has a history of loyalty to female artists (perhaps not to any artists - but I especially like female artists and I could rattle off a long list, from Suzy Bogguss to Tanya Tucker, Wynnona Judd to Kathy Mattea, Nanci Griffith to Trisha Yearwood - and so on - who once had prominant top ten hits, but were soon shunned by mainstream radio. Only the most formulaic pop divas seem to survive in the format for long. The suggestion that it may be because they sing too many songs about broken affairs and two-timing men is interesting - but also surprising - partly because they always have ("most always was a man that was to blame" - Kitty Wells) - and partly because the men sing so much on this theme too! But perhaps, in tough times, audiences do want to hear songs about drinking your woes away, throwing your weight about, and boasting what a great guy you are (something the male pop-country singers seem to excell at LOL). It may be easier for the men to cry tears in their beer - and perhaps more mature female listeners are put off by songs like Kerosene or Before He Cheats? More realistically, I think it may be a changing market. Singers like Kristy Lee Cook and Julianne Hough appeal to an audience that is more likely to be on MySpace or I-Meem, and more likely to listen on a MP3 player than on conventional radio. They can break through to their market without a Top 10 radio hit.
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