Kacey Musgraves, Radio, “Golden Hour,” & the 2018 CMA Awards
There was only one true point of intrigue when it came to the 2018 CMA Awards, and it was if Kacey Musgraves and Golden Hour would pull off the upset for Album of the Year. What started off feeling like a sweet gesture to include Musgraves among the nominees when they were first announced began to swell into what would feel like a travesty if the trophy ended up in the hands of anyone else.
No offense to any of the other nominees, but Kacey Musgraves was the only right choice. Dierks Bentley’s The Mountain is a valiant return to his roots, but doesn’t really go very far to help define our space and time in country music. Chris Stapleton’s From A Room Vol. 2 might be the best record of the lot, but it’s pretty unimaginative, and Stapleton just doesn’t appear to have any appetite left after Traveller made him and his children, and his grandchildren millionaires. Thomas Rhett’s Life Changes is pedestrian at best. And let’s not even get started on the monstrosity that is Keith Urban’s Grafitti U. Urban’s win for Entertainer of the Year due to vote splitting among much more worthy candidates will be a black eye on country music history for years to come.
But it wasn’t Keith Urban’s night, despite the big win. It was the night of Kacey Musgraves. It was she who played Cinderella, even if it was just due to one trophy. She was the underdog who prevailed, and deservedly so. Despite the media trying to make Golden Hour into a rebuke of her country roots and the culture around the genre, or some sort of political expression which it decidedly isn’t (and Musgraves has said so herself), the record has proven itself to be an inspired and well-received work, even if a little sedated as a whole. Individual moments on the record like “Space Cowboy,” “Rainbow,” and “Mother” make up for the sleepy nature of the project, or the country disco sidebar, “High Horse.” Golden Hour is not a masterpiece, and it’s not the best record released in 2018, at least not in this periodical’s estimation. But it is one of the best released by a major label artist, and has some of the best songs released to the genre.
So why isn’t country radio playing any of them? If you read the scores of think pieces proffered up over the last few days, you’ll find the answer to be radio consultant Keith Hill and Tomatogate, or a complete lack of any support for country women on radio, or if the writers are feeling especially bold and presumptive, it’s outright misogyny from the country genre. No doubt country radio’s insular environment has most certainly led to the lack of Kacey Musgraves tunes on the airwaves, as well as tunes from Kacey’s female contemporaries. But there is also an ugly finger of blame to point at what may be an unsuspecting culprit: Kacey Musgraves and her management team themselves.
The Washington Post said about Golden Hour in the wake of it’s big win at the CMAs, “…although it may not be traditional enough for radio, the album got near-universal critical acclaim.” But there’s absolutely nothing “traditional” about today’s country radio, no matter how you use of that word. If you think women have a hard time getting played on country radio, talk to a country traditionalist. There’s nothing that receives more prejudice from country radio in 2018 than actual country music. In that respect, Golden Hour actually has an advantage over more traditional material since it incorporates some pop and indie rock sensibilities that might have done well on country radio if given an opportunity. Even then, Golden Hour is still way more “traditional” than 90% of what you’ll find on country radio.
The reason there are no Kacey Musgraves singles on the radio is because Kacey Musgraves and her team did not make any concerted effort to get them there. The country radio business is not one where autonomous disc jockeys at stations across the country choose records off the shelf to play according to their personal tastes and the requests of fans. Singles must be serviced to country radio for program directors to then add them to playlists that are often partially or fully programmed from on high at large corporations such as iHeartMedia and Cumulus. Then those singles are promoted direct to radio via regional sales managers who work for record labels. Singles are also advertised in country radio trade periodicals such as Country Aircheck and Billboard Country Update.
But with Kacey Musgraves and Golden Hour, none of this happened, and at the behest of the Kacey Musgraves crew themselves. Instead, they sent “Space Cowboy” and “Butterflies” to radio simultaneously instead of one at a time, and with no promotion behind either of them them. According to Musgraves, it was intentional, sort of like, “Here, play them if you want, but we’re not flattering you, and definitely not playing your games.” Then they used the money that may have gone to a radio promotion campaign for song videos, and kept the rest as pocket change so they wouldn’t have to pony up to the label to compensate for a bloated promotional budget.
Avoiding radio was part of a concerted, and greater alternative strategy to promote Golden Hour. Instead of going on tour opening for Kenny Chesney (which Musgraves has done before), she went out opening for Harry Styles. Instead of starting her “Oh What A World” Tour in the United States, she started it in Europe. It was an anti-country approach, even if she still considers herself a country artist, as do many of her fans. And it has worked, at least to the point where Golden Hour won the 2018 CMA Album of the Year.
Radio was left out of the picture on purpose by Kacey Musgraves and her team. The argument could be made that if they had approached radio, or considered it when the record was being produced, or spent the budget to promote the record to radio, Golden Hour wouldn’t have achieved the same positive results. Failed radio singles would have given the false perception of poor reception by listeners and the industry. It would have put bad data behind a record that has been receiving positive reception, and has sold steadily well. Sure, you can blame radio of setting up the environment where perhaps Kacey’s best move was to avoid it altogether. But you can’t blame radio for not playing Kacey when Kacey and her team made no effort in that direction themselves.
The reason they call it a “radio single” is because it’s one song you ask radio, playlists, and the public to specifically pay attention to for a given period. Once that single has run it’s course, you move to the next one. With the incredible volume of entertainment options consumers are faced with, you have to put all your effort behind one song you hope busts through the din of noise to get people’s attention, and lead them to a greater exploration of your record, and your career.
But Kacey Musgraves didn’t do that. After the halfhearted shipping of “Space Cowboy” and “Butterflies” to radio, she went on Saturday Night Live and performed neither, instead deciding to go with “High Horse” and “Slow Burn.” Kacey also performed “Slow Burn” on the CMA Awards, but since it wasn’t a single, it didn’t receive the similar bump other performed songs did that are currently being serviced to country radio, and are showing up on major playlists.
When Chris Stapleton released his record Traveller in 2015, they had no significant radio strategy either (both artists are signed to UMG Nashville). However Stapleton did have a single currently sitting at radio when he won big at the 2015 CMA Awards. In the aftermath, country radio started spinning his single “Nobody To Blame,” which before was buried on the charts. It was a slow and steady slog, but eventually “Nobody To Blame” hit #10 on country radio. In Stapleton’s case, country radio had a choice: Either play Stapleton, or risk becoming irrelevant. Eventually, they chose the former. In 2018, Stapleton’s single “Broken Halos” became his first #1 song. Stapleton had won. He’d done things his own way, and made radio bend to him, instead of vice versa. “Broken Halos” went on to win Single and Song of the Year in 2018 as well.
If Kacey Musgraves had an active single at radio when she won Album of the Year, and perhaps if she had performed that single, it would have received a big boost like the other performed singles did. Perhaps radio would have played it even more in the proceeding days and weeks to celebrate Kacey’s Album of the Year win, which is not unusual for stations to do after the CMAs. “Butterflies” and “Space Cowboy” had already charted at #32 and #30 respectively on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, which also takes into consideration streams and downloads, and this was without any significant radio play. Arguably one or both could have done decent at radio if the effort had been put out to promote them, as Saving Country Music and others requested.
But Kacey Musgraves didn’t fail because country radio ignored her. She succeeded because she ignored country radio. This is the lesson of Kacey Musgraves, Golden Hour, and the 2018 CMA Awards. Of course country radio sucks, and is inequitable when it comes to women. But what are you going to do about it? When it came to Kacey Musgraves, she decided to side step the entire operation. The lesson of the Kacey Musgraves win is not that radio is stupid for not playing her, it’s that people are stupid for thinking radio is the only path to success, and giving it legitimacy by constantly harping on its level of inclusion and quality. Of course radio still has some power and should be a concern for those who care about country music, but too much attention gives radio more agency and power than it deserves. Kacey Musgraves won without radio’s help. So did Chris Stapleton. And so can others.
Kacey Musgraves and her strategy at radio (or lack thereof) also illustrates the complex nature of the issue of women on country radio, despite a bevy of terse voices who want to boil down the issue to how radio hates women, and the solution is for radio to just decide to play more women. Of course country radio deserves most of the blame for where it stands in regards to inclusion. But Kacey Musgraves is a Top 5 country music female that was nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year by the CMAs in 2018, and instead of attempting to court radio, she ignored it. It’s hard to argue with that strategy now, but you can’t blame country radio for ignoring her, you have to blame Kacey Musgraves. Even if a modicum of effort had been expended by the Kacey Musgraves team in radio’s direction, perhaps it would be a different story.
Kacey Musgraves deciding to not pursue radio was one less woman for them to play, and one of the top earners, and biggest names to boot. Radio plays what the industry asks them to play, and commonly the industry is not asking them to play women. Men get huge full page spreads in the trade periodicals on consecutive weeks, and then follow-ups when the single is heading to #1. Often women get one 1/3rd page ad on the opening date for a single, and that’s it. Screaming at radio stations and specific DJs on Twitter to play more women is fool’s errand since stations and DJs don’t even set their own playlists. And in the case of Kacey Musgraves, they’re not even the culpable party because they were never serviced a legitimate single.
But Kacey Muasgraves succeeded anyway. There are many avenues for success for artists, including for women, independently-signed performers, and traditionalists who receive inequitable consideration from the country radio format. This has been proven by Musgraves, Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson and Jason Isbell who’ve topped sales charts and won Grammy Awards without radio’s help. As concerned individuals champion important causes facing country artists, it’s also important to share the positive stories, not just to highlight successful strategies, but to inspire other artists that they have a chance, instead of constantly harping on the negative side.
If you’re a young woman thinking about pursuing a career in country music, all you’ll hear about is how radio won’t play you, festivals won’t book you, you’ll face constant sexual harassment or worse, only to be spit out of the back end of the industry after wasting your youth trying to pursue a dream. This discouragement keeps some talented women from even trying, or makes them turn to pop where the prospects are more positive.
Of course country radio sucks and is slanted against women. We all know this. And as Kacey Musgraves said herself after the CMA Awards and at other times, the issue has become tired, partly because it’s become too focused on the problems. It has become a vehicle for underlying political agendas and for people to bolster their media personalities as opposed to crafting pragmatic solutions like the one Kacey Musgraves employed with Golden Hour.
Either radio can evolve and elevate its system to perhaps become more equitable for all parties, and begin to consider quality as well as commercial reception in its equations of what to play, or it can continue along its antiquated system as iHeartMedia and Cumulus struggle through Chapter 11 restructuring, and continue to be left behind for the streaming model. Either way, artists shouldn’t wait on it. They should find a different way if need be. Chris Stapleton did, and became the best-selling country artist in the last five years. Sturgill Simpson did, and saw himself nominated for the Grammy’s all-genre Album of the Year. And Kacey Musgraves did with Golden Hour, and defeated all comers in 2018 in the CMA’s estimation.
Kacey Musgraves’ win is a big deal not just for women, but for country music. The long, droning arguments about what country music is, and where should go will continue as they always have. Commercial forces will encroach too far on the creative side, and the creative side will push back. The music will stray too far from it’s roots, and then get roped back into line. This is the way of country music, and always has been. It’s the battle of evermore. But as long as albums like Golden Hour defeat albums like Keith Urban’s Graffiti U, we’ll be okay.
November 17, 2018 @ 11:07 am
These are some good insights. Well done.
November 17, 2018 @ 11:09 am
Thank you for writing this piece, Trig. As you know, I’ve been trying to have what would pass as a civilized conversation with Keith Hill on Twitter. I was dumb & I ain’t got a problem in saying so. Keith Hill hides behind metrics & numbers and I even got that sorry ass excuse of “Women don’t wanna hear women”, which is absolutely ridiculous. He plays the blame game & doesn’t take ownership of his own actions. The man is a sexist piece of rat shit that deserves all the ridicule & shame he can get. He has way too much influence in radio & that needs to stop NOW.
November 17, 2018 @ 1:28 pm
Keith is belligerent but he makes several valid points. Country PDs answer to corporate just like Pop/Top40/Hip Hop stations answer to corporate. IHeart is trying to make money that’s why you hear Ariana, Dua Lipa, Cardi, Nicki And a slew of other women all over their channels. If they could find female artists that would bring in the listeners like Taylor and the women of the 90’s early 2000’s could, they would play women all day long.
November 18, 2018 @ 7:59 pm
If country PDs answer to corporate, why are they hiring assholes like Hill?
November 19, 2018 @ 7:41 am
Because he’s an asshole but he’s an asshole that works off numbers and that’s all they care about.
November 19, 2018 @ 4:19 pm
“they would play women all day long”
They would play *pop* women all day long, and say FU to all the country women. With bean counters, there is no allegiance to genre or whatever. They don’t care about any long game, any tradition, any genre, any identity. That’s why for country music, or any genre she gets into, Kacey Mu$graves is sterile. And she’s just one example.
November 17, 2018 @ 11:10 am
Last week Golden hour had only sold 108,000- hopefully more people will give it a listen. For as much exposure(besides country radio) as Musgraves gets I’m really surprised by that number.
November 17, 2018 @ 11:42 am
I think 108K is a solid number, and it will go up with this CMA win, and the inevitable Grammy nominations/awards that are forthcoming for it. Since there isn’t any dedicated single from the record (though there are plenty of options), it has lagged somewhat commercially, though I still think the data behind the record is pretty strong. “Space Cowboy,” “Butterflies,” and “High Horse” all have over 10 millions streams on Spotify, for example. But I also think this album is not as exceptional as some critics are making it out to be. I continue to believe its sleepy nature is holding it back. It’s an album with some great songs, as opposed to a great album. I think the sales and streaming numbers reflect that.
November 17, 2018 @ 11:41 am
Bull crap. There was no right or good choice. Kacey sucks as bad as the rest of them. You’ve got to get off this feminism kick you’re on, Trigger. It’s become downright disgusting to watch.
She’s never going to date you, so stop it already.
November 17, 2018 @ 11:47 am
Not even a tiny chance?
November 17, 2018 @ 2:10 pm
There’s a better chance of her dating Bobby Bones than you.
November 19, 2018 @ 9:51 am
But you’re still saying there’s a chance!
November 17, 2018 @ 12:11 pm
King Honky,
I disagree. The first time I heard “Slow Burn” I was at a friend’s house. He was playing some kind of modern country playlist, which I was completely tuning out. When I heard that chorus melody, my ears perked up and I immediately engaged because there aren’t a lot of really great melodies like that being written right now. “Space Cowboy” is another great idea for a song. It’s original! I think that it is important to celebrate small victories like this. No, it’s not traditional, but that’s ok. There is craft in the project. Don’t be a grumpy pants!!
November 22, 2018 @ 3:15 pm
”When I heard that chorus melody, my ears perked up and I immediately engaged because there aren’t a lot of really great melodies like that being written right now. ”
and that is the story in a WORD …..MELODY ..MELODY MELODY !!!!
No one can write ’em ..or wants to try ……and no one in radio land cares .
Nohing memorable , nothing timeless , no ‘standards’ being written …no CREATIVITY in sight . Kacy delivers ALL of this ..
Is it ‘ country ‘ ? I wouldn’t call it and nor is anything else she was up against …..but it is CREATIVE , FRESH , BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN , PRODUCED , PERFORMED AND ARRANGED , AND HAS AN ORIGINAL VIBE THROUGHOUT WITHOUT CHASING TREND OR CARING WHAT IS OR ISN’T SELLING . ITS FUCKING ART !!!!!!!!!
And THAT alone is worth acknowledging , rewarding and celebrating . It delivers what nothing else on ‘ country ‘ radio is delivering while remaining authentic …not derivative ( Urban ) , vacuous or trendy. The lyrics have a narrative … a point to make , a purpose outside of marking 16th notes with a cut -time TR 808.
November 17, 2018 @ 1:44 pm
Your beta-male self consciousness disguised as uber-masculinity isn’t winning you any chicks, either, tiger.
November 17, 2018 @ 2:17 pm
I have a micro-penis, and I thought for sure that disagreeing with folks anonymously on the internet about C(c)ountry Music, would somehow help me overcome the shame.
????How’d you know?
November 17, 2018 @ 5:04 pm
She sucks as bad as the rest of them? So you’re saying she’s no better or no more country than Thomas Rhett, Keith Urban, Kelsea Ballerini or Carrie Underwood?
Have you checked out Kacey’s cover of Roger Miller’s “Kansas City Star”? I sincerely doubt any of those other artists mentioned could pull that off, while making it sound as hardcore country as it did.
November 17, 2018 @ 5:30 pm
She might be slightly more country than the others nominated, but that’s like saying my wiener is slightly bigger than my pinkie toe.
Regardless of her level of countryness, she couldn’t sing her way out of a paper bag. She’s the weakest talent of the whole lot.
She’s being propped up by politics and pseudofeminism, plain and simple.
November 18, 2018 @ 12:26 am
Ok, I guess…
November 18, 2018 @ 7:28 am
I agree. If she had never had Follow Your Arrow and talked about doing drugs and if people had believed she was a right wing woman instead of a left, this album would never have been talked about. She would never be talked about anymore.
November 18, 2018 @ 3:43 pm
This article pretty much is saying what you are Honky. It’s mentioned a couple times that it is the view of SCM that Golden Hour was not the best album of 2018. If that’s true, then it’s an agenda pic by default.
November 18, 2018 @ 7:49 pm
“Golden Hour” got 5.5/10 rating in my review, and was heavily criticized for shaving off edges, being too sedated, and not country enough. I then wrote an article lambasting multiple media articles for making too much of the record with hyperbolic proclamations of it being the best all year when it was only March. I have been very critical of “Golden Hour,” while also making sure to give it credit for the quality songs it includes. I also said it would be forgotten in six months, and was wrong. It’s going to receive a second life now that awards show season and end-of-year list time is upon us. But to act like this is a puff piece for Kacey Musgraves is ridiculous. Some people like to use this site to channel all of their anger for the world and vent. All I said here was the record probably deserved to win more than the others, and that you can’t blame radio for not playing it because Kacey didn’t put the effort out for it. Period. You don’t like the record, and don’t think it’s very country? Generally, I would agree.
November 18, 2018 @ 8:37 pm
Maybe I phrased my statement wrong but I wasn’t criticizing SCM. I was suggesting it was an agenda pick by the cma’s in some way, which it seemed like you alluded to in this article. I dont this is a puff piece at all. And yeah it was either her or Stapleton that should have won depending on what parameters you use for judging best album.
November 18, 2018 @ 9:34 pm
I didn’t think you were Seth. I was echoing your opinion to Honky and others.
November 19, 2018 @ 5:36 am
#Classy
November 17, 2018 @ 12:17 pm
What you said about Keith Urban not deserving Enterainer of the Year, is ignorant thinking on your part and total bullcrap. Keith Urban is one of the hardest working and prolific artist in Country Music today. He earned this award!!! You, the writer of this weak article, deserve the black eye. Why do you go on and on about Kacey Musgrave? Her music is weird for the most part and she will improve with time, we hope. I agree with the other comment also, you won’t be able to date her either!!!
November 17, 2018 @ 1:52 pm
Wow, Keith’s mom reads this blog?
But to the article, does it take that many words to say so little? OK, Musgraves was not embraced by country music radio, shrugged her shoulders, and carried on. Good for her, but I don’t think we need this much to say that.
But I do agree with Keith’s mom – Kacey is not going to date you, Trigger.
November 17, 2018 @ 5:55 pm
The issue of trying to make sure women in country music are dealt with equitably is very complex, despite some who want to boil it down to simple misogyny. When you have people screaming for radio to play more women, yet one of country’s top women telling her label to avoid it, the only way to illustrate this complexity is to broach an involved discussion. I wish this article wasn’t as long as it was either. But everything here needed to be said. And even then, many of the commenters here think this article is praising Kacey Musgraves for winning and nothing else, which is a shame because this is a topic that deserves a deeper discussion.
November 18, 2018 @ 8:12 pm
You’re comparing Kacey, who has already had great success, avoiding country radio with women who will never have a chance because they aren’t getting played on country radio. I don’t think so.
November 18, 2018 @ 9:49 pm
If you’re a woman trying to make it in country and you’re waiting for radio to play you to launch your career, jokes on you. Kacey Musgraves hasn’t had any real success on radio. “Merry Go ‘Round” is her massive hit … and it stalled at #10. Aside from that, she hasn’t had another song crack the Top 20. Kacey Musgraves is a radio failure, but she succeeded because she had a good ground game. She created fans by touring and releasing sincere music that didn’t pander or rely on radio play.
Get in the van. Make some fans. If you’re waiting for anonymous Twitter accounts and public pressure to flip the script of country radio for your career to take off, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Even if it happens, radio is still a dying medium, and all the bellyaching has only made it worse. Ashley McBryde got stuffed by radio too. So did Brandy Clark. They’re still pulling $25K guarantees for live appearances. Why? Because they hit the road and didn’t wait for radio to make their careers. They did it themselves, like Kacey Musgraves did. She’s an album artist, not a radio artist.
November 21, 2018 @ 5:35 pm
So just shut up and sing?
November 17, 2018 @ 12:42 pm
I love when artists who don’t have a ton of radio or label support win major awards… like Miranda Lambert, Musgraves, Brothers Osborne, Stapleton (tired of him winning everything tho). It’s refreshing. Anything to help broaden their music on a broadcast tv program is awesome exposure.
November 17, 2018 @ 4:45 pm
Brothers Osborne should stay out of politics. So annoying.
November 18, 2018 @ 2:59 am
The Ain’t my Fault music video??
Lol. I don’t follow their personal lives nor do I seek out their music.
But considering they have had only 2 hit radio songs and their album sales suck… I bet we will see them being dropped from Capitol Records once their award show winning streak is over. “Thank U, Next!! ” – quote from Capitol Records to the Brothers O.
November 18, 2018 @ 9:18 am
People aren’t voting for Brothers Osborne. They’re voting against Florida Georgia Line.
November 17, 2018 @ 12:46 pm
Notice how many female country artists are opening up on Tour for pop acts…
Musgrave opens for Harry Styles. Marren Morris opened for Nial Horn. (Both from One Direction). Kelsea Ballerini will open for Kelly Clarkson.. CAM I believe is opening for Train?? Not 100% on that last one. It’s def sad and a new trend…
November 17, 2018 @ 1:13 pm
It’s a huge boost for them in having crossover success. That’s how Kacey got fans who couldn’t name you a single country radio station or George Strait song.
November 17, 2018 @ 2:18 pm
It’s fine for their career, but sad that male country headliners aren’t fighting for these gals to open up for them on tour. Keith urban is good at helping out the ladies of country. He’s toured with Maren Morris, Ballerini. Toured in Australia with Underwood. Collabed with Lambert years ago. Recorded a song with Lyndsay Ell. I think Musgraves opened up for him in 2013 too.
November 17, 2018 @ 4:55 pm
There are a lot of men who take women on tour. I know Blake Shelton does too. However touring with male country artists keeps women like Kacey and Maren in the same lane. Touring with pop acts gives them a far broader audience than just a country audience.
November 17, 2018 @ 7:00 pm
So you are telling me William Michael Morgan should open on tour for Post Malone or Drake?
I know what you mean by more exposure.. but I’m old school and country headliners should support other country artists etc. But artists like Ballerini and Morris are barely “country” so guess genres can easily blend now.
TxMusic, what’s the name of this website?
November 18, 2018 @ 12:36 pm
It’s not ignorance country even though a lot of it is displayed here.
Kacey and Maren are doing what’s best for them and their careers and so they should. It’s already a struggle for women in country so the last thing they should concern themselves about is what a small percentage of complainers who want the good old days back have to say.
November 17, 2018 @ 4:44 pm
Kacey opened for Katy Perry too.
November 17, 2018 @ 1:10 pm
Going by the type of people who interact with Kacey on social media and promoting her album I’m going to guess that a very small percentage of them even listen to country radio.
November 17, 2018 @ 2:13 pm
Gotta side with Honk on this one. Kacey is not now and has never been anything other than a political performer who wants attention and drama, who doesn’t actually make Country Music any more than Dr. Hook did.
Sure she can sing, but not well enough to make me wanna trade out my Jean Shepard albums, and yeah she can write, but not much better than Taylor Swift.
Is she better than Thomas Rhett?
Boatloads.
But a computer that doesn’t work, even though its useless, is better than a decaying skunk carcass, which is useless and gross.
Kacey Musgraves is the expensive version of the girl in traditional Yoruba dress and a sock hat who throws around made-up phrases that describe non-existent political issues performing in a smoothie shop that makes drinks you can’t pronounce and all of its vegan anyway,
November 18, 2018 @ 10:26 am
Have yet to hear a contemporary female singer (in any category) who can match Connie Smith as far as pure singing goes. And Dolly Parton would agree.
November 18, 2018 @ 10:50 am
I say the top tier of Country Music ladies looks about like this
Dolly Parton and Patsy Cline tied for first
Loretta Lynn, Jean Shepard, Bonnie Owens tied for second
Connie Smith in third. I say third because, by comparison, Connie Smith has some versatility issues. by which I mean, her repertoire is a bit more condensed to a specific type of Country song, whereas Dolly, Patsy and Loretta and the others can cover a wider array of material
Kitty Wells in 4th
Susan Raye in 5th
November 18, 2018 @ 11:16 am
In terms of material, Connie is definitely more limited (or “focused” to use a more positive term), but what she does with her voice amazes me each time I hear one of her songs. None of the artists you mention are homogenized like many of today’s singers (male or female), though.
November 18, 2018 @ 11:22 am
I like Skeeter Davis too, but compare these two takes:
https://youtu.be/VXB_3D4QE-0
https://youtu.be/ceY1EeGsFd4
There’s a Kitty Wells version too, but I haven’t heard it.
November 22, 2018 @ 3:25 pm
”political performer ”…?????
are you even listening to or reading the GOLDEN HOUR lyrics F2S ??
Its the furthest thing from political that it could be .
please …..have a listen to the album for its lyrics at least before you reply to my somewhat rhetorical question above , my friend . with all due respect, you’re more than a little off- mark with that observation .
November 17, 2018 @ 2:15 pm
Is she country though?
November 17, 2018 @ 2:18 pm
And saying this is a “win for Country Music” is sort of like saying a boost in sales at Best Buy is good for Target.
If I ran a taco place, and the burger shop next door made shitty burgers, them making better quality burgers doesn’t affect my tacos.
Similarly, better quality POP music doesn’t do a thing for Country Music.
You can call a dog’s tail its leg all you want, but it will never have 5 legs.
November 17, 2018 @ 3:23 pm
Today’s Country is crap and Merle Haggard said it best “It has no substance
November 17, 2018 @ 3:40 pm
You gotta give props to Bobby Bones to fighting country radio’s bias against women, starting his own show to exclusively feature women in country music and consistently calling out the industry for its issues in that area. Nobody else in radio is doing it today.
November 17, 2018 @ 4:55 pm
Totally. Listening to women who suck is so much better than listening to men who suck.
November 18, 2018 @ 3:54 pm
Well I suppose it could depend on one’s orientation.
November 17, 2018 @ 4:36 pm
I’m a little confused as to whose responsibility it is to promote singles. Kacey’s “management team” decided not to promote them, but it’s the “industry’s” fault that they weren’t promoted? I don’t get it, because I don’t have any knowledge of the music biz.
“Either radio can evolve and elevate its system to perhaps become more equitable for all parties, and begin to consider quality as well as commercial reception in its equations of what to play, or it can continue along its antiquated system as iHeartMedia and Cumulus struggle through Chapter 11 restructuring, and continue to be left behind for the streaming model.”
So, is radio beholden to corporate, and is corporate waiting for women’s management teams to pay them to promote? Aren’t radio and recording companies one and the same? I thought the current situation was that it’s a few monopolies controlling the Industry vertically; which has been the trend over the last 30 years for business in general. Anti-trust laws haven’t been enforced since the ’80’s with a few “exceptions” like Microsoft which largely was unaffected by those suits in the 90’s.
After reading the assessment in this article, it seems to me that the general public just doesn’t want to hear female singers in the traditional country format. Kacey is far from traditional country, and the only female “country” artist of note to receive the backing of the “industry” was Taylor Swift who was by no means traditional and not really even country by modern standards.
Bottom line: I’m super confused as to what’s going on with the female sector of country music. There are plenty of talented female tradition country artists who are evolving the genre, but none of them are even close to being household names. I don’t get it.
November 17, 2018 @ 5:40 pm
You have three separate entities here: 1) The artist and their direct management. 2) A record label. 3). Radio.
The artist and their direct management often make the big decisions on the way to go with their career. Depending on how much control a record label has via the contract (all of them are different), perhaps the label also gets to make some management decisions. But for Kacey, she clearly chose to go with not pursuing the promotion of radio singles.
The label’s job is to distribute the music. That includes distributing the music to stores, as well as to radio to try and get it played. The label doesn’t always do this work for free though. For example, if they take out large ads to promote a single, that may come out of the money the artist makes from the label. It also may make that artist more money if the single is successful. But it’s a risk. In the case of Kacey Musgraves, she said, “No, I’m cool. Please don’t spend any money promoting singles.”
Radio plays what the industry (a combination of artists, their management, and labels) asks them to play. They still have some editorial autonomy to decide what to play, and these days they lean very heavily on data that tells them what songs are hot. But they will never play something unless a label asks them to, and that song is directly promoted to them.
November 18, 2018 @ 3:52 pm
Sounds kinda like “backhanded payola”?
November 17, 2018 @ 4:50 pm
I think a woman was going to win this year regardless of the quality because of all the fuss about radio, etc. It was a decent album. Not great. Not as good as Stapleton’s weakest effort. She had good timing.
November 17, 2018 @ 5:24 pm
I wish the CMAs would have favored Ashley McBryde over Kacey. I found KC’s album boring and HATED the disco song. I do not know how she was able to win this award if radio will not play her. Aren’t radio people voting on the awards?
November 18, 2018 @ 6:20 am
I agree. Ashley is the best out of all of the females mentioned that night in my opinion.
November 19, 2018 @ 2:59 pm
Agreed. Ashley is awesome. Heard about her via Miranda Lambert promoting her. She is so damn good. Love her.
November 17, 2018 @ 6:19 pm
I’m no fan of Kacey…but when I read that Washington Post quote saying that Golden Hour “may not be traditional enough for radio,” I wanted to put my fist through my laptop screen. The utter lack of attention being paid to the country music industry by these MSM outlets is downright disgusting. These people probably think Shania Twain is on the same level as Merle Haggard.
November 17, 2018 @ 6:21 pm
The Washington Post has gone downhill in all sorts of ways in the last few years.
November 19, 2018 @ 3:04 pm
The Washington Post is garbage juice. Tabloid trash. Liberal shitshow of pseudo journalism.
November 17, 2018 @ 10:20 pm
Emily Yahr who wrote the article in the Washington Post is not that average fly-by-night reporter like the many who’ve decided to jump on the “play more women” bandwagon with a cursory knowledge of country, and no commitment to the genre. She’s written some great articles over the years. She has earned the right to speak on this matter as much as anyone, but I do question her use of the word “traditional” here. Perhaps she didn’t mean it in the sense of “traditional country,” and more that “Golden Hour” is too avant-garde for the radio format. Even then though, I don’t think it’s the proper word. I think there are multiple singles that could have done decently on radio from the record.
The way singles are released (or not), and how they’re handled is so essential to this issue. That is why I’ve been harping on it for years. “PLAY MORE WOMEN!” is not a strategy.
November 17, 2018 @ 6:19 pm
Food for thought, although I understand that video views can very much be manipulated…
If you look at the CMAVEVO Youtube page to see which performances have the most views, the two clear leaders are Carrie and Pistol Annies with 29k and 23k respectively. The next highest is Chris Stapleton and friends at 15k. Meanwhile Luke Combs, Thomas Rhett, and Midland are all in the 9-10k range while Brothers Osborne/Dierks Bentley and Brad Paisley are left in a pillow fight with Old Dominion at 2k-3k views.
As much as country radio refuses to admit it, there is a substantial audience out there for female country artists.
November 18, 2018 @ 11:24 am
Carrie and Miranda are the two “celebritirs” and online gossip rags linked to those two performances. I am not sure that relates to indicator of public demand.
November 17, 2018 @ 6:20 pm
I think she’s great and have been a fan for years now. I’m glad she’s doing so well and without the help of radio.
November 17, 2018 @ 11:46 pm
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again I love the album as an adult contemporary album but it’s not Country music. All her winning this award can possibly do is make more women think they can have success in the Country genre playing ____________ fill in the blank with anything that’s 99% not Country. I’d listen to her singing me the fuckin phone book but she shouldn’t win a COUNTRY award for it while Sarah bar tends and Sunny sells 3000 copies with a Country masterpiece like Trophy leading both and many others thinking WTF??!! This album winning is part of the problem NOT part of the solution.
November 22, 2018 @ 3:31 pm
can’t argue with your perspective JB ….some REALLY good points
November 18, 2018 @ 10:13 am
“Country” radio needs “country” artists.
Country artists don’t need “country” radio.
Bri Bagwell (“If You Were A Cowboy”) is the new #1 in Texas (Texas Top 100 Charts / Texas Regional Radio Report).
Other female artists: Natalie Rose (“My South” – #7), Sarah Hobbs (“I Got Me – #11), Kenna Danielle (“I-35 Reasons” – #28), Calamity Janes (“Light It Up” – #35), Lauren Corzine (“If This Is Love – #58), Beth Noble – (“All I Need” – #59)
Jenni Dale Lord (Band) (“I Think He Still Loves Me” – #66), Morgan Ashley (“Bad Boy Chaser” – #67), Season Ammons (“Jim Beam & Nicotine” – #71), Kendall Beard (“Rock This City” – #80), Robynn Shayne (“Two Words One Finger” – #95 / New) & Annie Rost (“Wrong Kinda Love” – #97 / New)
The best songs (my opinion) are “I-35 Reasons”, “I Think He Still Loves Me”, “Two Words One Finger” & “Jim Beam & Nicotine”.
Randall King (“Mirror, Mirror” – great song) is #3.
The Black Lillies (“Ten Years”) are new on #96. The new album is out (Stranger To Me). Great Album!
November 18, 2018 @ 11:01 am
Contemporary radio music (in most genres today) relies on passive listening. It’s basically background music for people who don’t want to stop and think about what they’re hearing. The reason current radio doesn’t play more women isn’t unrelated to the reason they don’t play more Cody Jinks or Ray Wiley Hubbard. Merle Haggard in his heyday couldn’t have gotten much airplay in today’s environment.
Golden Hour is very well-crafted pop but I don’t know if it would get much country airplay even if Musgraves and her management promoted it there. It’s too sedate even for background music. More airplay for music like this wouldn’t help female country singers anyway. It would probably just eat away a little at feel-good pop country by male artists.
November 22, 2018 @ 3:34 pm
some VERY good observations above alta ……it IS sedate for the insane volume and sonic din ‘ country’ radio has become . but its probably more in line with where COUNTRY radio should be .
November 18, 2018 @ 11:14 am
Maybe Kacey just wants to follow her muse and do it her way, and couldn’t give a rat’s ass what the SCM crowd or her record company wishes she would do. I’m not crazy about Golden Hour as an album, but it has some good songs on it. She had an absolutely killer song on the Roger Miller tribute album. Willie Nelson’s last album was Frank Sinatra songs! If you don’t like her music, voice, looks, etc., listen to/follow someone else. Apparently she looks to Lee Ann Womack, Bobbie Gentry and Glen Campbell as role models rather than Colter Wall, Tyler Childers, Sturgill Simpson, etc., and I’m happy she doesn’t want to pigeonhole herself in one camp (at least right now).
November 18, 2018 @ 5:01 pm
Add in John Prine. His wife Fiona wrote her a lovely message about how impressed they were when Kacey shared Golden Hour with them and how much they love her. Kacey might not sound country enough to some but she sure impressed those who know Country well.
November 18, 2018 @ 12:28 pm
The situation now with country radio reminds me of rock radio in the mid ’80s. There were hundreds of talented, creative and original bands like the Replacements, Black Flag, Husker Du, X, the Minutemen, etc. that commercial radio wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. With no internet, these bands relied on college radio stations, fanzines and extensive touring for exposure. By the end of the decade, this underground scene had gained enough of a following for a handful of commercial stations to try their hands at an “alternative rock” format. When Nirvana released their second album into this market, they exploded, crossing over to regular rock stations and changing the face of rock radio forever.
Chris Stapleton should have been country radio’s Nirvana – but it didn’t quite happen. Probably because, unlike the underground rock bands of the ’80s, non-commercial country music is quite easy to find for the average consumer with the help of streaming sites, digital downloads and satellite radio. So country radio is able to happily program the most disposable commercial swill, while, as Trigger rightly points out, artists like Musgraves, Simpson, Tami Neilson, etc. do just fine without bothering to even court airplay.
And that’s probably for the best. When Nirvana hit big, radio responded by filling the airwaves with a deluge of craptacular “grunge-lite” acts for a decade and a half at least. And ass much as I love Stapleton, I don’t need to hear dozens of bad Stapleton imitators.
So yeah, fuck radio. Country artists of substance should follow Musgraves’ and others’ lead and just ignore it.
November 18, 2018 @ 1:00 pm
Good for Kacey!
Screw country radio.
And yes, women do want to hear other women; at least grown up women who actually know what good music is. I’ve spent my morning listening to Ashley Monroe and think I’ll listen to Kacey this afternoon. Country radio will become obsolete at this rate. It already is for me, and radio will have only themselves to blame.
November 18, 2018 @ 2:02 pm
“The lesson of the Kacey Musgraves win is not that radio is stupid for not playing her, it’s that people are stupid for thinking radio is the only path to success, and giving it legitimacy by constantly harping on its level of inclusion and quality. Of course radio still has some power and should be a concern for those who care about country music, but too much attention gives radio more agency and power than it deserves. Kacey Musgraves won without radio’s help. So did Chris Stapleton. And so can others”.
Well said, Trig. If radio keeps marginalizing women on country radio as they are right now, radio will go the way of 8-tracks, cassette tapes and vinyl. They will become obsolete because the fans will look for an avenue where the music is readily available (Spotify, for example) & radio won’t matter in the end.
November 18, 2018 @ 5:44 pm
I’m not disagreeing (except that vinyl and cassettes are making a sort of comeback), but unfortunately the streaming services don’t pay much except for mega-download artists like Justin Bieber or Taylor Swift. So we’re back to the age-old problem of how to make sure that unique musicians are fairly compensated.
November 18, 2018 @ 5:46 pm
“mega-load” should be “mega-streaming.” Nobody downloads much anymore.
November 19, 2018 @ 12:52 pm
Untrue. I download if I like the album enough to warrant a purchase.
November 22, 2018 @ 3:38 pm
no one in my LARGE extended family downloads or buys CD’s…all streaming
November 19, 2018 @ 2:59 pm
Terrestrial radio- Sirius is an alternative to that and many new cars/trucks come with it so all you need is the subscription.
November 19, 2018 @ 6:59 am
I wish I liked Golden Hour as much as her first two albums, but each time I put it on I end up switching to something else after four or five songs. For me the album shifts back and forth between being too pop or too sleepy.
It’s still light years better than Urban, Rhett, Ballerinnie, or any of the other pop artists that performed at the CMAs this year, but it’s just not for me.
Kudos to her for beating the system, though. That’s pretty impressive.
November 19, 2018 @ 7:29 am
“Nobody downloads much anymore”
Unless they enjoy high quality uncompressed music like the WAV & FLAC files provide. I know I’m in the minority as I’ve never streamed anything in my life. If an album makes my rotation I do whatever it takes to find the quality copy. I can’t be the only on here that thinks like this. Golden Hour sounds sonically incredible uncompressed as I’m listening to it right now.
November 19, 2018 @ 12:53 pm
You’re not in the minority, JB. I stream the song or album to see if i like it. If I do, then I download it.
November 19, 2018 @ 2:18 pm
You’re not alone, JB. But whatever the sonic quality of Golden Hour may be, the autotuning takes all the humanity out of it. Kinda like other things.
Everything I’ve heard of it reminds me of all the things I disliked about disco.
November 20, 2018 @ 3:52 pm
For me, she’s producing excellent clever songs, tunes – in my case, that what matters a whole more than if it is, or isn’t, country. In the UK i’m not sure the debate is quite seen that way. I really like Golden Hour – although I don’t think there is anything as strong as Merry-Go-Round on it. I’ve been a huge fan of Costello, Dylan, Springsteen and others over the years – the singer/songwriter genre (if such a thing really exists) – she seems to me to fit right in there, as do people like Rosanne Cash, Rhiannon Giddens and others – is there a problem with a songwriter having a political position? I amn’t much bothered by which gender they artists are (although Musgraves presents a female package of music and look which has a chance of crossover appeal). Shouldn’t country be glad of people who can find and charm new ears – even if not strictly country the non-hardcore fan will see them as being so (as i do) and open up to the whole potential market (although I don’t quite get all the male bonding over beer and cars I see on Country music TV). Some of those women have brought me to the country tributary of music and seen me buy albums by Dixie Chicks, Stapleton, Margo Price, Colter Wall, Sturgill Simpson and more. I love this ‘country’ music – KM winning, is likely to mean more people like me will get turned on to a musical form they largely overlook.
November 22, 2018 @ 3:44 pm
VERY astute comments IMO Kenny .
” she’s producing excellent clever songs, tunes – in my case, that what matters a whole more than if it is, or isn’t, country. ”
we should be thankful of someone who respects the craft /art /creativity of songwriting enough to raise the bar as high as this and not simple regurgitate what the last 100 ‘ artists’ have regurgitated .
November 27, 2018 @ 5:22 pm
Country radio was probably the only medium Musgraves didn’t target in promoting Golden Hour. She was all over late night and daytime television (between Colbert, Fallon, Kimmel, SNL, DeGeneres, Corden and Meyers, she has performed nearly every song on Golden Hour, some multiple times) and streaming platforms (the Buzzfeed video where she’s answering questions while playing with puppies is so silly it’s refreshing), and she did the tour with Harry Styles before embarking on her own tour. Given that Golden Hour has remained in the public consciousness eight months after its release, and may well end up with a Grammy nomination one would have to say her trying to create an audience beyond country radio was a winning strategy.