Posted on 03/25/2002 9:19:56 AM PST by southern rock
The Country Music Country Radio Ignores
By NEIL STRAUSS
WHEN a dark horse, the roots-music soundtrack to the film "O Brother, Where Art Thou?," won the top honor at the Grammy Awards last month, there was a clamor in the press room. Country music might never be the same again, the critics and journalists said. After all, besides albums by Glen Campbell and Bonnie Raitt, no recording that had anything to do with country had ever won the top Grammy Album of the Year. And the competition, especially U2 and Bob Dylan, had been fierce. So as the performers who appear on the soundtrack a rag-tag winner's circle if ever there was one streamed backstage into the press area, they were all asked the same question: Will country radio start playing traditional country music now?
There have been reasons to think so. The Grammy success of "O Brother" (a total of five awards), the album's subsequent No. 1 ranking on the Billboard chart (above Brandy and Alanis Morissette) and its impressive sales of 4.4 million copies have all seemed to send a message to the country music industry.
Well, the album did send a message, and that message has been received and marked: Return to Sender.
"We operate in country within a box," said Luke Wood, the president of Lost Highway Records, which released the soundtrack. "And you can run up in the corners of the box, but if you get outside of it, the gatekeepers don't like it. A few radio programmers said to the record labels after the Grammys: `Don't get any ideas: we're not going to start playing Alison Krauss and Nickel Creek because of this.' "
For several years there have been growing tensions surrounding country radio, now the top format on the air. Roughly 19 percent of the stations in the United States play country - 2,100 broadcasters out of 11,000. That's nearly double the number dedicated to the second-most-popular format, talk radio. Yet most of country's classic artists and styles have been getting short shrift on the air and, consequently, from the Nashville music industry. As a result, Johnny Cash records for a rock label, Dolly Parton is recording bluegrass for an independent label and many other pioneers and talented newcomers can't get a decent record contract.
As it stands now, the success of "O Brother" may be the worst thing possible for the future of country music radio, and thus country music. Because despite the album's successes commercially and critically, many people in the industry say that its impact will be slight. And if "O Brother" won't change it, nothing will; if nothing will, then mainstream country radio is truly doomed.
"Sadly, radio did not embrace any of these people before the Grammys, and they're not embracing them now," said Eddie Stubbs, the announcer for the Grand Ole Opry and a D.J. on Nashville's WSM-AM, one of the few commercial stations playing a wide range of country. "It's a disgrace. The industry is deciding that it doesn't want to give the music a chance."
If there's one culprit in the current state of country music, it may be Crest Whitestrips. Yes, Crest Whitestrips, the new dental whitening system. Because when you point a finger at Crest Whitestrips, you're pointing at Procter & Gamble, the product's maker and one of the largest purchasers of radio advertising time. And the major advertisers are the people who really control what you hear on the radio, especially country radio.
"Contemporary country radio is targeting young adult females," said Paul Allen, the executive director of the Country Radio Broadcasters, a trade association. "Now, why would you want to target them? Because that's what advertisers want. The young female adult is oftentimes a mom. She influences 90 percent of all the buying decisions in the household; she's a generation X or Y consumer, and not brand loyal. That's a very influenceable and key demographic to go after."
Thus, because of Crest Whitestrips and the machine behind them, not just country radio has changed; country music has changed, too. More than any other genre, country is a fine-tuned jingle. Most songs are written by a cadre of writers - some geniuses, most hacks - many of whom excel at finding universal emotions and translating them into greeting-card poesy. When it comes time for most stars to record a new album, they go shopping with their managers and record-label executives for hits. Thus, such artists are better able to roll with changes in taste, style and national mood. Ten years ago, Travis Tritt's biggest hit was "Here's a Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares)." More recently, his comeback hit was "It's a Great Day to Be Alive." Only those who don't listen to country radio still think the music is about beer and heartbreak. Today, the men are singing love songs and apologies to women while sassy women are singing about dissing the men.
"They've relegated the country station to super-serving that one demographic," said Mr. Wood of Lost Highway, who describes that audience as women 35 and over. "It's exclusionary in a sense. It forces us in Nashville on the creative side to be conscious of how narrow that audience is, so it makes it tough to make a record that will appeal to men and not women."
His point is not that country should be a man's world, but that it should be for everybody. Most other styles of music - pop, urban, rock, easy listening - have split into multiple formats, each serving a different sliver of the musical pie. But this is not necessarily a good thing: listeners have much broader taste than radio programmers, advertisers and record-label executives tend to believe, or else there's no way to explain the success of "O Brother." But fragmenting the country format is better than leaving it as it is. As country itself has shifted from rural working-class music to a pop soundtrack for the suburbs ("town and country," as the former Capitol Records president Pat Quigley called it), a large audience is finding itself largely ignored by radio. Some hope that traditional country artists as well as songwriters like Ryan Adams, Lucinda Williams, Rodney Crowell and just about everybody on the "O Brother" soundtrack will find a place on air if a format called Americana takes off.
"If rock can have classic rock and hard rock and soft rock and alternative rock, why can't we have country and Americana?" said Steve Gardner, promotions manager at Sugar Hill Records, home to Dolly Parton, Nickel Creek and much bluegrass. "Surely there's room for that. I mean look at the Grammys, you have Lucinda Williams winning best rock song, Ryan Adams nominated all over the place, Dolly winning another Grammy. It's happening out there."
But others are skeptical. Mr. Allen of the Country Radio Broadcasters said it's unlikely that an alternative country radio format will be successful anytime soon. "The only hope I see for an additional country format developing is if advertisers can find that the demographic it would deliver would be attractive," he said.
The odd thing about country radio is that it is not even doing that well under its existing rules. At its peak in the mid-90's, according to Mr. Allen's estimates, 12 percent to 13 percent of the radio audience listened to country; now it's around 7 percent, despite being the dominant format in terms of the number of stations. And, detrimental as the process of consolidation has been to the quality of radio programming, it's actually been the corporate bosses who have been telling the programmers and consultants to loosen up. At a recent seminar on country radio in Nashville, Larry Wilson, the president of the radio conglomerate Citadel Communications, told broadcasters to take more chances with the music and pay more attention to the needs of the local audience. And a top executive at the radio monolith Clear Channel Communications recently told programmers to re-examine "Man of Constant Sorrow," a song from "O Brother," to see if there is some way to take advantage of its popularity.
TWO weeks ago, Lost Highway re-released "Man of Constant Sorrow" as a single. The response from radio, said Michael Powers, the vice president of promotions at the label, has been encouraging. Seventy-four stations are now playing it, though some as infrequently as once a day. But, it appears to be an exception, a fluke, to many in the country music business.
Arbitron, not long ago, issued a report on what women want from country radio. And, according to the ratings service, most women do not what to hear radio programming that is not family-friendly. In addition, it continues, "even though women are heavily pressured for time and responsibility, they remain optimists. So, don't play to the negatives." Compare those findings with the most popular songs from "O Brother" - "Man of Constant Sorrow" and "O Death" - and ask, Who is country radio going to listen to: Arbitron or the Grammys?
"The recording academy recognizes the work of its artists and their music, from the standpoint of art, which is considerably different from what country radio is about," said Mr. Allen of the Country Radio Broadcasters Association. "Country radio is purely about mass appeal music, and it has some very defined limits because there are some very defined demographics that the owners are tying to find through that music. Where the Grammys are about art, country radio is about the Benjamins."
In this sense, country radio is a microcosm of the entertainment industry, in which art is controlled by commerce and corporate committee. But if "O Brother," which far outsold Garth Brooks's latest, doesn't bring in enough $100 bills to nudge the business to expand its scope or take chances (besides, say, putting the occasional old-timey music break in a country pop song), it seems that nothing will. Several years ago, Larry Cordle, a bluegrass musician, released a song called "Murder on Music Row," criticizing just this. "The almighty dollar/ And the lust for worldwide fame/ Slowly killed tradition/ And for that, someone should hang," he sings. In a reference to Hank Williams, he continues, "Ol' Hank wouldn't have a chance/ on today's radio/ since they committed murder down on Music Row." George Strait and Alan Jackson agreed with him enough to record the song, which, like "O Brother," was applauded but ultimately changed little in the industry. "My worst fear is that this `O Brother' thing is going to turn into just a fad," Mr. Cordle said. "Without the support of mainstream radio at some point, I just don't know where we're at."
I agree. You make good points.
I go for the "exceptions" from any genre and any time.
Well, this article brought back to my mind the idea, or better said, the illusion of free choice that we think we have in this country. What better evidence for my argument that there is really no free choice in many areas, and that the choice between Faith Hill and Garth Brooks or between Burger King and McDonalds is no choice at all. Things are reallly in a pathetic state though when it comes to country radio and this well researched article illuminates the culprit: marketing!
His onstage demeanor is quite memorable too - he drank constantly through the show, audience members were passing up shots of whiskey, it seemed to be all he drank. Near the end of the show, he looked like he was having trouble standing, but it didn't seem to affect his singing and playing.
Also, he does this country speed metal stuff which is very interesting and definitely no going to get played on country radio. I'm very interested in seeing where his career goes, but if he's not careful he won't outlive his grandfather.
Finally a breath of fresh air in this debate! "Country music" just figured out how to make more money. I remember in the early 1990's having conversations with my guitar teacher about this. We both agreed that you can't sell Willie Nelson or Mearl Haggard to tennagers these days, who are the main buying sector. Country music had to be made more "attractive" to get this audience. Is the music that much different than commercial country music of the 70's and 80's? Not that much. It does sound more "popish", but music is always going to progress.
I also think it is a mistake to link bluegrass so directly with "country" music. It's rural, and has some similar themes, but bluegrass music is traditional music, with ties to celtic ballads, fiddle tunes--reels and hornpipes--and to folk songs at least as much as it has ties to country.
THANK YOU!! Too many people do not really understand that "traditional country" and "bluegrass" are different types of music. Within "country & western" you have all sorts of different types including texas swing and bluegrass.
Bluegrass puts a much greater stress on instrumentalism than country, which is primarily vocal. Bluegrass stresses 3 and 4 part harmonization whereas country typically features a lone vocalist. Bluegrass is acoustic music, wheras country is typified by electric sounds--reverbed vocals and pedal steel guitar. Bluegrass lives on standards. Country lives on hits.
Very good explanation for the uneducated.
Seems to me the comparison makes sense to an urban person, but to a music fan, I don't think the comparison is so apt. They both come from Nashville, but that is a recording and distribution matter, not a creative one. Just my opinion. I could be wrong.
No, you are not wrong.
I think people just need to get over it and realize that "country music" has changed. Just like so many hated(and still do) when "New Rock" or "Alternative Rock" came out and destroyed the 70's and 80's arena rock sound, "new country" has changed the face of "popular country music". Just like so many posters here say "I'll stick with Hank, Willie, Buck and Conway", I said the same about Rock - "I'll stick with Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Van Halen and Guns N' Roses". Do "old" country and rock performers put out new material? Yep? Does mainstream radio play much of it? Nope. Does this piss people off? Yes. Should we learn to live with it? Yes.
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