Bobby Bones Draws Ire for Saying The Quiet Part Out Loud

Look, we all know that the country music mainstream radio carousel system of #1 hits is manipulated behind-the-scenes to ensure major label artists get their fair share of exposure through what’s nothing more than a promotional arm of the industry. And we also know that country music’s major awards shows like the CMAs and ACMs are addled with bloc voting and horse trading that doesn’t always nominate and award the artists, songs, and albums that are most deserving, but who labels are looking to push in a given season.
At this point, even saying all of this stuff feels so incredibly trite. These were the observations a site like Saving Country Music would harp on ad nauseum a decade ago. Now it’s just taken as a given by everyone. It goes without saying. In fact I can remember back in 2011 when long-time country music broadcaster Jimmy Cater (no, not the former President) caused a stir when he said Carrie Underwood was systemically getting screwed over by the ACMs.
“Miranda Lambert. Is she the most popular act in country music? I don’t think so. I think she has gotten the most publicity because the machine is behind her,” Jimmy Carter said at the time. “Is she more popular than Carrie Underwood, who didn’t get a nomination at all? It’s crazy political…”
So now the biggest radio personality in mainstream country—the grandiose and bespectacled Bobby Bones—who is always laboring to be the undivided center of attention, took to TikTok to say the quiet part out loud, and is now drawing the ire of many in the industry.
Now first, is there anything more Bobby Bones than addressing some issue through the medium of TikTok like a 14-year-old girl participating in a dance challenge? Either way, on August 29th, Bones posted a TikTok video with him saying:
Here’s the truth about No. 1 songs: It’s politics. They trade them out like baseball cards. A record label will talk to another record label and go, ‘OK, I’ll give you this No. 1 on this date; you give me that No. 1 on that date.’ Which really, it just should be the song that’s the most wanted, the most listened to, the song that people demand … and so when you hear someone talk about a No. 1 song, I would say half of them aren’t legitimate No. 1 songs. They have to be good to get to the top 10. There’s a lot of research done into these songs. But when it gets to being a No. 1 song, it’s people going, ‘OK, I’ll give you this; you give me that.’ And it’s everybody trying to create as many No. 1s as possible, because everything’s the same. Everybody gets a participation trophy at No. 1. For example, a Luke Combs song could be No. 1 for 10 weeks, but because of politics, the label will go, ‘Ah, let’s let somebody else get in that spot,’ and they’ll move Luke Combs to No. 2 and he’ll sit there for a few weeks. The same thing with like a Maren Morris.
Now again, what he said was basically true, and everybody knows it, and everyone who knows anything about country music knows it so inherently that if myself or someone else in the media had said something similar, people would roll their eyes and tune out because at this point it’s insanely exhausted. Granted, Bobby Bones probably isn’t 100% correct about this. He’s probably being a little hyperbolic for effect. There is still some public sentiment that does weighs at least a little into radio decisions. But the crux of what Bobby said is true.
Then in a separate TikTok that has since been deleted, Bobby Bones made the same basic and banal observations about country music’s awards shows.
Let’s say you work for Record Label A, which has 3,000 people that works there and they have an artist up for entertainer of the year, and Record Label B has 250 people that work there and they have an artist up for entertainer of the year. Well, what Record Label A does is they organize everyone to bloc vote, so those thousands of votes go to their artists, and then Record Label B, that doesn’t have near the number of workers or voters, are kind of screwed unless somehow they get votes from everybody else. But bloc voting is done in the awards shows, but not illegal actually.
Again, this is essentially true, and everybody knows it. Just like the radio observation, it is a bit boiled down though. For example, The CMAs have such a wide and diverse voting body, it’s harder for voters to vote in bloc to guarantee the outcomes they wish, and that’s one of the reasons we saw things like Chris Stapleton surprisingly win of many of the big awards in 2015, and acts like Jason Isbell and The Highwomen get nominated. The ACM Awards are really the ones where such voting shenanigans are pervasive. The ACMs were the awards the legendary Jimmy Carter was taking about above in 2011. Again though, Bobby Bones is pretty much right.
But of course, you’re not supposed to say any of these things in the polite society decorum of mainstream country. The fact that Bobby Bones is the country radio industry’s primary dancing monkey and mouthpiece is why this situation is so scandalous, at least in the eyes of many who feel Mr. Bones just spewed acid in their faces.
Both the CMAs and ACMs have responded saying that they have checks and balances in place to ensure such things don’t happen, which is both true, and not. Yes, there are checks. No, they don’t keep the horse trading from happening, especially at the ACMs. How else do you think you get the last three Entertainer of the Year winners were Keith Urban, Thomas Rhett (who somehow “tied” with Carrie Underwood), and last year, the rapidly-declining Luke Bryan?
What Bobby Bones didn’t address is how actual politics now play a big role in these awards as well, as everyone tries to keep an extremely loud, but severe minority of Twitter larpers at bay. If nothing else, the statements of Bobby Bones should pilfer even more holes in the idea that what happens on country radio is in any way representative of the actual world of country music.
Country radio represents 5% or less of the artists that make country and roots music for a living. Yet think piece after think piece emanating from outside of the country music fold and often from academia complaining about the lack of diversity in country music uses radio data as the statistical basis for their conclusions about the entire genre.
Country radio isn’t diverse. It’s incredibly homogeneous and insular. But that’s only because it’s a dying medium that in the streaming era only appeals to a niche audience that continues to be attractive enough to corporate beer distillers and domestic full-size pickup manufacturers for them to still advertise on the airwaves despite sagging ratings and relevancy. Corporate country radio listeners are a small, but very reliable “work hard, play hard” super consumer.
The other thing Bobby Bones exposed as the ultimate country radio insider is how this is all being orchestrated by the major labels, not radio. The corporate radio stations go along with whatever the labels tell them, because the labels advertise and promote their big arena tours through those stations, because touring is where the true money is in country music thanks to artists signing 360 deals.
Twitter activists screaming at individual radio station handles or specific DJs to play more women or minorities are exposing their utter cluelessness of how the mainstream country industry works. As Bobby Bones just admitted, “A record label will talk to another record label and go, ‘OK, I’ll give you this No. 1 on this date; you give me that No. 1 on that date.’” The folks at radio are mostly just facilitators.
Meanwhile you have an artist like Tyler Childers minting now two Certified Platinum singles, and two Certified Gold singles, and a Certified Gold album, all with virtually no help from corporate country radio at all. It’s over. Radio is no longer the gate keeper of country music. And continuing to larp about how they won’t let so-and-so in is wasted breath. Sure, corporate radio still does have some power of exposure and lingering relevancy. But that dwindles more and more every day, while independent radio stations, podcasts, and playlists are the wave of the future. Artists obsessing over radio play as if it is the only avenue to popularity are living in the past just as much as country radio itself.
It’s also fair to point out that Bobby Bones has his own bones to pick here as well. On a few occasions when he’s been passed over for the radio awards for the CMAs and ACMs (yes, those exist, but are rarely televised), it’s his tendency to cry about it in some capacity since he thinks he’s owed them annually. Bones thinks he’s supposed to be Ryan Seacrest at this point in his career, while he’s still stuck in Nashville on a dying medium, and trying to draw attention to his media brand by competing on Dancing with the Stars and launching a lame reality show on the flailing National Geographic channel.
Even before this incident, Bobby Bones had been a very polarizing character both in the industry, and with artists. His feuds, and his incessant need for attention is the reason he’s often passed over for certain industry awards. He may have many loyal listeners, but many in the industry do not like him. Bobby’s comments might have an element of revenge to them.
But again, what Bobby Bones said here was fundamentally true, and he deserves respect for saying it. If the country music industry had any smarts, they would be looking to address the insular systems that props up hollow “country” stars through transparent and increasingly-outmoded radio manipulations, while reforming awards shows that don’t seem long for the post-pandemic world with ratings that are sagging even worse than country radio.
The industry could get mad at Bobby Bones for exposing the truth that the rest of us already knew—and many passive music consumers are quickly waking up to—or they could answer the criticism by opening up radio playlists, by opening up the awards show process, and letting the best man or woman win, with the true appeal and critical acclaim choosing who prevails, as opposed to the outmoded, insular, and oligarchical system that is no longer relevant to the streaming world, and will ultimately do it in.
But we’ve been complaining about these things for well over a decade, and some have been complaining about it since the 70’s. And still, the antiquated Music Row system lumbers on. Bobby Bones may call attention to it, but he’s also still an integral part of it. He’s one of its primary spokesmen for it every morning, Monday through Friday.
Luckily though, there’s never been more avenues to circumvent Music Row. So keep crying and shaking your little balled-up fists at “the system,” or get busy working beyond it. That’s what Willie and Waylon did. And that’s what guys like Tyler Childers and Cody Jinks are doing today, and succeeding by doing it their own way.
September 1, 2021 @ 8:23 am
Bobby Bones filling the role of truth-teller. Who’d have thought?
I don’t hate the guy like some do. He hosts a perfectly acceptable (if not particularly exceptional) drive-time show, and his little draft segments are fun to watch on YouTube. But he’s a nothing, right? A frivolous figure.
People have been saying this stuff forever of course, but Bobby Bones is a guy on the inside with a mainstream audience. Will be fun to see what the response is.
September 1, 2021 @ 8:38 am
You can hate Bobby Bones, and appreciate he stood up and said this stuff.
You can also hate Bobby Bones, and still conclude he’s probably a decent human who got foisted into a position he didn’t belong in, and has since tried to make the best of it.
September 1, 2021 @ 8:37 am
For once, Bobby Bones isn’t the biggest tool after a Craftsman chest.
September 1, 2021 @ 10:58 am
Michael Ray? “Whiskey and rain” is a jam!
September 1, 2021 @ 8:16 pm
I’m sorry but I’m not him. I’m Michael ROy. Lol.
September 1, 2021 @ 9:39 pm
Please get back together with Carly.
September 2, 2021 @ 2:05 pm
I’m claiming Carly off of the waiver wire.
September 1, 2021 @ 8:49 am
“Twitter activists screaming at individual radio station handles or specific DJs to play more women or minorities are exposing their utter cluelessness of how the mainstream country industry works.”
A-freakin-men.
September 1, 2021 @ 8:50 am
As Sturgill said on Rogan a while back, “there’s more politics in the music business than in actual politics.” It’s all fake. We know this already but props to Bobby for saying it out loud at least
September 1, 2021 @ 8:55 am
“You can hate Bobby Bones, and appreciate he stood up and said this stuff.”
This may be true, but it’s also kind of like a press operator in a manufacturing plant telling his co-workers and his friends “hey, this machine isn’t running right. The arm seems to be a little rickety.” And he says it every couple of weeks, but he keeps operating the machine, letting the problem get bigger and bigger until the arm finally breaks and crushes someone’s hand.
Okay, maybe it’s not EXACTLY like that, but you see the metaphor. He may be saying what (one of) the problem(s) is, but he’s still a major contributor to it.
September 1, 2021 @ 8:55 am
I don’t listen to main stream country I like who I like and have found lots of great artists who release there own song’s you don’t need record label anymore charts have been fixed for year’s
September 1, 2021 @ 8:59 am
BOBBY U KEEEEP TELLING THE TRUTH U ARE A GUIDING LIGHT OF THE USA I LLLLLOV YOU BOBBY I LISTEN TOO YOURRR SHOW EVERYDAY I KNOW U ARE TOTALLLY FAIR N WHATT YOU PLAY B-CAUUSE ITS THE MUSCCS THAT MOVES PEOPLE’SS SOUL AND TELLLLS BOUT REAL LIFE KEEP YOU’RE FEET ON THE GROND N KEEEP REACHING THE STARS GODDD BLESS HAVE A GRT DAY
September 1, 2021 @ 9:22 am
I hope this is a joke…
September 1, 2021 @ 9:51 am
THANK YOU BOBBY BONES YOU VE BEEN A BREATH OF FRESHHHH AIR IN THE ERA OF CORPRATE COUNTRY RADIO IVE BEEN FAN OF THE RAGING IDIOTS FOR YEARS I EVEN LEARNED HOW TO SING IF I WAS YOUR BOYFREND AND PERFORMED IT TO MY CRUSH AND SHE LOVED IT SO MUCH SHE ASKED PERMISION FROM MY DAD FOR MY HAND IN MARRAGE OMGGGG AND I WANT YOU TO PLAYYY AT MY WEEDING BOBBY YOU ARE AMAZING I LOVE YOU WILL YOU PLAY AT MY WEDDING??????????? 🙂
September 1, 2021 @ 9:45 am
Were these rules temporarily suspended when “Meant to be” spent 50 weeks at number one? Who wasn’t trading their baseball cards?
September 1, 2021 @ 10:01 am
The guy that got his hand caught in the press.
September 1, 2021 @ 10:04 am
“Meant To Be” spent 50 weeks on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, which factors in streaming and sales along with radio play, while the Country Airplay chart measures plays on radio based off of reporting panels of sample radio stations. There it is rare to see a single at #1 for more than two, maybe three weeks. Bobby’s assertion (which is correct), is that if everything was equal, we would be seeing more 10-week #1’s, and a lot less #1’s overall, as sons pushed to #1 solely by labels as opposed to public sentiment would not exist.
September 1, 2021 @ 10:21 am
So BOTH spending 50 weeks at number one AND having them trade off more frequently so “everyone gets participation trophies” are proof that the system is rigged?
Nobody hates radio and the awards shows more than me, and I’d take any opportunity to laugh at them, but so far all I see is gaps in logic and zero hard proof. No offense.
September 1, 2021 @ 10:34 am
No, that’s not what I’m saying at all. These are two completely separate issues. The reason “Meant To Be” and other songs get stuck at the top of the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart is because they’re pop, and in 2012 when Billboard realigned the Hot Country Songs chart to count pop radio spins and streams, it gave an unfair advantage to songs that either cross over to pop, or feature pop artists, like Bebe Rexha on “Meant To Be.” The reason it was #1 in country for 50 weeks is because it was also supported in pop. Both instances are manipulation, but they’re from two different avenues.
September 1, 2021 @ 10:30 am
Actually sorry, I think I misunderstood your point, my bad. But none of this answers my question. If we’re so confident int this system, what happened with Meant to Be? Any whistleblowers at all come forward with a single shred of evidence that this happens, as described by Bobby Bones? It’s a pretty strong accusation for someone like him to make without it.
September 1, 2021 @ 11:14 am
I’m still not sure you’re separating the Airplay charts, and the Hot Country Songs chart accurately.
But no, there has never been a smoking gun espose (at least in modern times) proving how labels are conspiring to manipulate radio and assure #1 songs. And like I said in the article, the way Bobby Bones said it is sort of the hyperbolic take on the matter. At times labels push hard behind a single, and radio stations resists because it’s not testing well, and the single flounders. Sometimes there is a natural appeal behind a single and it gets to #1 under its own volition. It’s not a 100% foolproof system. But generally speaking, the radio reps for the major labels keep a close eye on the charts, project out in their minds who and what is likely to hit #1 on a given week, and request spins from radio accordingly so everyone gets their fair opportunity at #1. You see this overtly happen when labels take out ads in radio periodicals like Country Aircheck and Billboard Country Update requesting “Max Spins!” meaning “we’re going for #1 this week, everyone else get out of our way!”
September 3, 2021 @ 8:38 pm
“But no, there has never been a smoking gun espose (at least in modern times) proving how labels are conspiring to manipulate radio and assure #1 songs.“
So it’s speculation then. Or even perhaps…what’s that popular term everyone likes to throw around these days…..oh yeah, a conspiracy theory.
September 4, 2021 @ 3:27 pm
Bobby Bones is the ultimate country radio insider. He is the biggest personality on the airwaves. If he says it, and it’s what people have been saying for years, and what we can all see by watching the behavior of the charts, and the way labels directly and publicly lobby for “Max spins,” it’s a lot more than speculation, or a conspiracy theory.
September 5, 2021 @ 1:40 pm
Speculation: “The forming of a theory or conjecture without firm evidence.” Unless he or they can point to the “firm evidence,” it seems to be the precise word for it.
And then there’s Conspiracy theory: “A theory that explains an event or set of circumstances as the result of a secret plot by usually powerful conspirators.” Whatever though, wouldn’t shock me if it’s true. I just think, as others have said, there MIGHT be something else behind whatever Bobby Bones is throwing around (admittedly speculation on my part), and it’s best not to talk about thinks as if they are true, without evidence. Maybe I’m a little old fashioned that way.
September 1, 2021 @ 2:44 pm
Why does it matter whether one crappy song stays at number one, or multiple crappy songs take turns at number one? Unless Bones is advocating that C(c)ountry music be played, I don’t see how what he did here is noteworthy, or deserving of a pat on the back.
September 1, 2021 @ 10:10 am
Did it spend 50 weeks on the Country Airplay Chart or the Hot Country Song Chart? I thought it spent 50 weeks on the Hot Country Charts, which includes more than just radio spins, but I can’t remember.
September 1, 2021 @ 9:50 am
I’m curious as to why he did this…I’m from the same small town in Arkansas Bobby is. My brother worked at the same radio station he started at. He’s always had a HUGE ego. There’s got to be some reason for this ???? I have noticed him being a little less douchey than usual over the past couple years, I thought perhaps the wife had truly changed him. But we have seen artists say things like this and it’s been career suicide. They never get played again. So now he’s saying it? Somethings up.
September 1, 2021 @ 10:07 am
As I said in the article, there may be a little sour grapes here, especially with his comments on the awards shows, which he’s publicly complained about in the past for passing him over.
It will be very interesting to see if this is “career suicide” for Bobby Bones. I just think he’s probably too secure in his position to take him out. If he somehow gets removed after these comments, it would just certify to many in the public how what he said was true. Plus Bobby Bones has a lot of loyal listeners. They would lose that fight.
September 2, 2021 @ 10:38 am
Thought same thing. Seems a little fishy coming from Bobby Bones. Something not quite right. Somebody told him to say this for some yet to be revealed purpose.
September 1, 2021 @ 9:55 am
Here’s the part I’m really not clear about: to what extent is country radio actually a minority? Like I would love to be corrected but while country radio artists are a tiny part of country artists overall don’t they still dominate country fans? Like do most people who like country music to some degree not even know who Tyler Childers is?
I wish that wasn’t true but isn’t it? As artistically bankrupt as Luke Bryan or Sam hunt are aren’t they far more well known that Childers or sturgill or mike and the moonpies?
Or has that changed?
September 1, 2021 @ 10:16 am
Most certainly radio country stars make up the majority of name recognition and most popular stars in the “country” genre. But every year independent artists continue to gain market share on mainstream ones.
As for Tyler Childers, he is currently, and has been for over a year now, one of the top names in all of country music. “Purgatory” is perennially in the Top 20 of the Billboard Country Albums chart, beating newer titles from Luke Bryan, Florida Georgia Line, Jason Aldean, Blake Shelton, etc. He is one of the biggest 20 stars in country. And this is all without radio play. If he did have radio play, he might be as big as Luke Combs.
I think a lot of people know who Tyler Childers is. A bit less know who Sturgill Simpson is. Not many know about Mike and the Moonpies at all. But Mike and the Moonpies still make a fine living recording and performing country music. They are part of country music. But they would never show up in a country radio chart.
September 1, 2021 @ 9:57 am
Trigger is my Bobby Bones. Seriously, I don’t even consider people who listen to corporate country radio as country music fans. They’re pop/rock fans who want to hear that music without the influence of hiphop on mainstream pop. Autotune, electronic beats and electric hair metal guitar solos are a feature, not a bug, of their version of country. They may call themselves country fans, bless their little hearts, but they’re as different from me as are the distantly-related people in Europe are who share my last name.
September 1, 2021 @ 10:57 am
Kyle Coroneos needs a podcast asap
September 1, 2021 @ 12:23 pm
I’d rather have another new Boomswagglers album before that
September 4, 2021 @ 1:01 am
Amen to that!! ????????????????
September 3, 2021 @ 8:37 am
What if, here me out, you just let people enjoy what they want to enjoy without considering them “less” of a fan of the genre than you are.
September 1, 2021 @ 10:12 am
Funny watching the ACMs and CMAs trying to cover their asses. No such thing as bloc voting! We have an accounting firm to keep it above board! It’s just a coincidence that we award the same artists year after year. Watch our amazing line up of performers on Amazon streaming. It’s the same as last years!
September 1, 2021 @ 10:35 am
This is precisely why I roll my eyes every time someone comes up to me at a gig and asks me “what is it going to take to get your music on country radio and make it big”
September 1, 2021 @ 11:18 am
Yep, some sort of favor, if you’re willing and able to perform it.
September 1, 2021 @ 10:56 am
Guessing he has access to the CMA official nominations (to be announced next week) and Bones was probably upset about who the nominations went to?
September 1, 2021 @ 11:07 am
Very well could be.
September 1, 2021 @ 11:14 am
Yeah, IDK about all this sturm & drang regarding who places 1 – 10. The slots in the starting gate are all for sale, so everything you get on your Top 40 (or 20) station is beyond your control.
Streaming numbers aren’t immune, either. Something like Apple’s New Releases list will implicitly obscure albums which don’t make their list. And who knows to what degree an algorithm based service like Pandora is subject to fortifications from the industry? And even if Pandora’s data is totally grassroots, their users have already been shepherded by the industry to a degree.
September 1, 2021 @ 11:47 am
I wonder what his motivation was for sharing this? He doesn’t strike me as one who doesn’t calculate every move…
September 3, 2021 @ 10:01 am
That’s an excellent point. You have to wonder if he has an ownership interest in another media company (Circle TV / Opry Entertainment Group??) which would benefit from his casting shade on existing mainstream “country” radio stations and awards shows. Maybe there’s plans for an alternative in the works?
September 1, 2021 @ 2:20 pm
Ole Bonehead does make valid and acurate points. However, I still can’t stand him. OI’m sure he has some type of hidden agenda other than the preservation of real country music.
September 1, 2021 @ 2:38 pm
What is a Twitter larper?
September 2, 2021 @ 4:17 am
People who pretend to be fighting the good fight by defending disadvantaged people and groups but who seem to spend most of their time attacking individuals over petty, personal grievances, loudly demonstrating their profound insecurities, using an imagined position of moral authority to condemn whole groups or trying to extract money and other benefits from people that agree with them.
This model seems applicable to people of all political persuasions, the groups and values they claim to be defending just change. They’re Live Action Role Playing as social activists when people who actually do that sort of thing spend their time informing people about their issues, organizing groups devoted to their beliefs, advocating to politicians and other people in power, that sort of thing. Generally the real deal isn’t found being a social media troll or pitching their merch on YouTube.
September 2, 2021 @ 7:29 am
Boom!
September 2, 2021 @ 8:27 am
Thanks Ryan.
September 1, 2021 @ 3:34 pm
Honestly as much as I was almost going to write a word wall on these “awards”, I’ll just sum it up to who cares??? They are fast losing relevancy. Good luck to them though salvaging whatever is left of their brand.
Besides, Bobby Bones is one to talk after that radio hall of fame voting fiasco from a few years back. He had zero business being in that hall of fame before Ryan Seacrest. I’ve always thought of him as fake anyway, he’s just being true to himself.
September 1, 2021 @ 4:29 pm
This guy is all about promoting and showing his friends and their music down his listeners’ throats. He interviews the same people over and over again.
He also manipulates his ratings. He has his fans do everything they can to make sure whatever tv show he’s on gets high ratings. He is just as bad as everyone else. Actually, he’s way worse and hypocritical.
September 1, 2021 @ 5:17 pm
Country music has been decline for several years, but it really came to light with “bro country” a decade or so ago. The days of being able to recognize an artist by their voices, like Cash, Hag, Buck, are long gone. Most everybody on contemporary country radio sounds alike. How do we distinguish one artist from another. A few years ago, all songs seemed to be about riding the back roads, drinking a cold one, having a bonfire, etc. Now every artist has to have a song about whiskey and cigarettes. If your label doesn’t have a Maren Morris sound alike, you have to go find one. If your artist does a song with a rap artist, then we have to do the same. It’s all filler. I find I listen to Americana and classic country now and don’t bother with current country. Don’t get me started on the ACM and CMA shows. It can’t just be country anymore, we have to have pop and rap star perform so the networks think they will get better ratings. Country music has gone to hell in a handbasket. We truly do need another “1989” class!
September 1, 2021 @ 6:31 pm
87 paragraphs repeatedly repeating the same lines over and over again. Nashville country music today is just failed pop and hip hop stars and bimbos who laid down for the right exec. All the female “stars” sing all the same songs about men doing them wrong. The men have to sing about how much they love and want to sleep with a woman or they get blacklisted. Tyler Farr for example. But then you hear Carrie,Miranda,Kimberly Perry and they’re huge names singing about murdering a man and hiding his body. Hypocrisy of country music is disgusting. Especially in Nashville.
September 2, 2021 @ 3:29 am
No more meaty bones for Bobby.
No (possible future) HoF for lil Bobby.
No more iHeart love for good ol’ Bobby.
He was already on the graveyard of the stars…also known as Dancing with the has beens.
Last resort: Dr. Phil.
The manipulation…well…let’s call it creativity…is not a surprise & widely known.
Back in the mid to late 80’s it was the same situation. The #1 singles changed every week with a handful of excpetions to the rule (Randy Travis, Ronnie Milsap, Keith Whitley with multi-week #1 hits).
Reading Billboard (Country Update) & the sky-high-hooray articles for acts like LoTrash reaching #1 on the airplay charts while the song can’t sell…but is promoted for 50+ weeks…Billboard is a part of the problem too.
Makes you wonder how the Texas Top 100 are working…every week a new #1…for years (except for frozen weeks).
Australias Country Songs Top 40…well…Jayne Denham is on #1 for the 3rd straight week right now (“Wanted”).
We’ve seen a couple of songs on #1 for 4+ weeks every year (Amber Lawrence, Carter & Carter, Warren Kearney, Aly Cook, The Silverline, Gina Jeffries, Destiny Band OZ, Lee Kernaghan, Emma Jene, Alan & Trace, Troy Cassar-Daley, Lloyd Back…) & songs returned to the Top 10 or #1. It’s a constant up & down.
The CMAA Golden Guitars hand out an award for best selling album of the year & for the best albums (trad-album, alt-country & contemporary album) + a vote for the best album overall (AotY 2021 Fanny Lumsden & Matt Fell as producer for Fallow).
September 3, 2021 @ 2:24 am
“Makes you wonder how the Texas Top 100 are working…every week a new #1…for years (except for frozen weeks).”
Money greases the system. As there are not that many major labels involved, it’s often the artist and its environment that pay off the promoter, who then “deals” with the radio station. A Top-Ten starts at about $ 8000. The basic business model is not that different than that of aspiring Nashville stars – you need a team of investors behind you for a chance to really compete, but it does come at a lower price. And yes it’s just a good ole boys network.
And yes what started out to be a quite interesting format has changed into “Nashville Southwest” with dumb cookie-cutter songs, repetitive arrangements, and (To-Do)-list lyrics.
September 2, 2021 @ 6:15 am
I worked in country radio in the late 70s, seems like the Talking Heads had a lyric for what this feels like “Same as it ever was”. While there were great artists and records then as now, it was very much a factory with strict controls on who and what could be played, controls that appeared to have little to do with the music but everything to do with the image being sold. My experience in country radio was that it was a very insular business model. Having worked in other genres on-air I noticed that pop radio could and would play country artists from time to time but it never worked the other way. Why was that? Take a song like Neil Young’s cover of Four Strong Winds – that’s about as country as you’ll find anywhere and at the time it was an oasis of pedal steel and fiddles while country radio was playing disco by certified country artists. The model of country radio has been one of playing a group of certified, approved artists and promoting whatever they put out. It hasn’t had anything to do with what most would recognize as the genre of country music, otherwise you’d have been hearing artists like John Prine, Nanci Griffith, or The Seldom Scene during the last few decades. No, this shouldn’t come as any surprise, the business model is one of an exclusive set of artists and labels operating in a vacuum. And why should they change? They seem to be doing alright as far as the bottom line goes. For those of us who love the old country sound there are plenty of artists doing that, just have to look for them.
September 2, 2021 @ 7:31 am
“In fact I can remember back in 2011 when long-time country music broadcaster Jimmy Cater (no, not the former President)”
“I think she has gotten the most publicity because the machine is behind her,” Jimmy Carter said at the time
Is the second reference actually the former president? lol (Cater/Carter)
September 2, 2021 @ 1:14 pm
If there was a level playing field for radio personalities, Bobby B wouldn’t have a job. He has the interview skills of an average midwestern 10th grader who desperately wants to sit at the cool kids table.
September 2, 2021 @ 7:30 pm
Apparently China just banned Bobby Bones types from being in movies, on tv and in basic media.
September 3, 2021 @ 6:56 am
He’s definitely right about the award shows. I remember back in 2019. In a perfect world, the Album of the Year nominees for the CMAs would have included Reba, George Strait, and Cody Johnson’s albums from that year. None were nominated. I’m willing to bet when the CMA nominations are announced next week, Alan Jackson’s “Where Have You Gone” won’t be among the Album of the Year nominees, even though it deserves to be.
September 4, 2021 @ 3:21 pm
It’s not even so much about the “trading number ones” thing (although that definitely seems to happen – labels definitely seem to ‘play nice’ with their final promo efforts to allow each other to get number one). It’s just the very idea of the revolving door of number ones at the format.
This whole “push week” thing, where a song will have a huge airplay gain to hit #1 and then crash immediately after, is as inorganic as it gets.
The lack of multi-week number ones is also a shame. The only songs that seem to get lengthy reigns are the occasional massive Luke Combs song, or whatever song hits #1 right before New Year’s when the radio industry goes on its annual “freeze” thus leaving the playlists locked.
September 5, 2021 @ 10:20 am
Who cares about corporate country music our of Nashville,,,IT SUCKS
September 21, 2021 @ 10:38 pm
“Rapidly declining Luke Bryan”? Sorry I know you don’t like him, but he isn’t declining. at all. He just got his 27th number one, which is more than a lot of country legends including Hank Jr, Alan Jackson, Johnny Cash, Reba, Dolly Parton, etc. He has sold over 75million records (passing the king, George Strait), making him one of the most successful singers of all time. He’s the reigning ACM entertainer of the year and continues to sell out everywhere he goes. He’s a judge on the popular show American Idol. The list goes on and he’s done all of this in a short period of time, so don’t say he is declining. He is a great person and has been through hell to get where he is now. Watch his documentary and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Yes some songs are country pop, but a lot are definitely country and you can’t deny it.
October 29, 2021 @ 10:37 am
Luke Bryan isn’t fit to lick the boots of such legends.