The Editorials

Returning to Their Roots

Written by Jeff Krasky

There was a day when male artists dominated country radio. This was also the time when female artists sold a miserably low amount of records and were rarely given a chance to have big hits on the radio. You could see evidence of this still remained in the industry when this web site launched three years ago. Since then we’ve seen female artists explode onto the scene with huge hit singles and impressive album sales. I doubt the radio industry expected to see acts like the Dixie Chicks and Shania Twain accounting for most of the record sales in the genre. The fact is country music is failing miserably and the female artists have been the saving grace. Now it seems that radio wants to screw over the female artists.

It’s become obvious that over the past year the country music industry has desperately been trying to break the next big “hat act”. They haven’t had much luck. Tim McGraw was their last major success story. You could argue that Mark Wills has broke through as well, but his success pales in comparison to Tim’s. With the announcement of Garth Brooks retirement (I personally don’t believe that one for a second) the industry is more desperate than ever. They seem to be on a crash course with destruction. Sales are still dropping like a rock, no male artists are seriously breaking through and in the process they’re ruining the careers of countless female artists.

You’ll notice that female artists are almost completely missing from the singles chart. Radio is playing just about everything that a male artist puts out regardless of how horrid it may be and has pretty much stopped playing new music from the other gender. This is a shame when you think that songs like Trisha Yearwood’s incredible “Real Live Woman” topped out without even breaking the top 10. Not to mention the countless new artists who are quickly dropped from their record labels due to the fact that they can’t sell any records. You need airplay to achieve acceptable sales levels and the industry is refusing to give these artists a chance. It could easily be considered career assassination. These artists are labeled as commercial failures and have a hard time getting resigned.

You also can’t help but notice the countless album release delays. It seems like male artists are releasing albums daily. Including people who you’d never even have thought would be making an album. Then once these albums are out radio is throwing their music onto the air as much as possible. Even if the songs are totally unworthy of top 10 airplay. Female artists on the other hand keep having their albums delayed (you can’t help but wonder if this is done purposely to allow the male artists pushes to be uncontested) and their songs aren’t given any chance to survive on the radio. They should be ashamed of themselves.

Country radio seems determined to drive the final nails in the genres coffin. The fans have spoken over the past few years, they want to hear female artists and most of the time they seem to prefer them over their male counterparts. If they don’t lift the ban on female artists they will continue to loose listeners at a more alarming rate then they already are. But rest assured, regardless of what country radio does you can turn to Women Of Country to keep you up-to-date with the latest happening relating to your favorite female country artists.

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