Platinum Status for Miranda Lambert’s “Vice” Underscores Problem for Women on Radio
Another week, and another accolade rung up for Miranda Lambert.
After Miranda’s most recent album The Weight of These Wings was certified Platinum in early July, the album’s lead single “Vice” has also now been certified Platinum by the RIAA. Originally released on July 18th, 2016, it shot up the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart to #2 upon its debut and is a favorite of many Miranda fans, even if the track exhibits a bit more pop sensibility (and was co-written by Josh Osborne and Shane McAnally with Lambert) than the rest of the singer/songwriter material that mostly defines The Weight of These Wings.
The fact that “Vice” has now gone platinum is not entirely surprising as a lead single from a mainstream country star, but what is surprising is the song never cracked the Top 10 on country radio during its ascent. “Vice” stalled out at #11 before being moved to recurrent, even though on the much broader and consumer-based Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, it made it to #2.
This underscores an issue that is common for country music women when it comes to radio. Despite strong consumer reception in certain cases, radio doesn’t follow suit, while it’s vice versa for the men. For example, Miranda Lambert’s “Tin Man” currently sits at #33 on the Country Airplay charts—it’s highest placing so far. Yet on the Hot Country Songs chart, which factors in streams and downloads, it’s already hit #15.
Reverse that trend for many male country artists. For example Cole Swindell’s latest single “Flatliner” made it all the way to #2 on the Country Airplay charts, which you may assume would parallel a rise to the top on the Hot Country Songs chart as listeners hear the song on the radio, and decided to download or stream it later. But “Flatliner” stalled at #10 on the Hot Country Songs chart—inverted from the experience many singles from women see.
The current #1 song on country radio at the moment is Billy Currington’s “Do I Make You Wanna,” but on the Hot Country Songs chart, it topped out at #5. Justin Moore’s “Somebody Else Will” is #2 on the radio charts at the moment, but topped out at #12 on the Hot Country Songs chart.
Simply put, when measuring actual consumer sentiment, the singles from country music’s women generally outpace their performance on radio, especially compared to the ratios of male stars, even as the male stars benefit from more exposure via radio play. The males do better on radio because the placing of songs on radio is virtually preordained by the industry, while women are often systematically ignored.
That is why the theory that men are doing better in mainstream country because the women would rather listen to men does not always hold water. And Miranda Lambert isn’t the only example. Kacey Musgraves’ “Follow Your Arrow” could only manage #43 on country radio, while hitting #10 on the Hot Country Songs chart. What was basically her final radio single, “Biscuits,” stalled outside of the Top 40 on radio, but made it to #28 on the Hot Country Songs chart.
Of course when you have a song such as Sam Hunt’s “Body Like a Backroad,” which has now logged it’s 27th record-shattering week at #1 on the Hot Country Songs chart, all theories go out the window. But it is interesting to witness the discrepancy between country music’s two songs charts—Country Radio and Hot Country Songs—and see that country fans do want to hear the women. They’re just not hearing them on the radio. That’s how a song can go Platinum according to the RIAA, and not even make it into the Top 10 on the radio charts.
August 16, 2017 @ 11:51 am
dislike Kacey Musgraves.
Used to dislike Miranda. getting more comfortable now that she’s stopped churning out angry woman songs and started actually being artistic.
The thing is, is that the people who go out of their way to hear music, generally take time appreciating it.
By which I mean, the radio crowd have a radio for music and that’s the be all end all of their shallow universe.
the people who actually invest in music a bit more generally demonstrate better decisions.
do I believe Miranda deserves all her awards?
no.
Do I believe she deserves them more than the rest of the losers in the music business today?
Yeah, why not.
Cole Swindell is a loser and most of the people who take music seriously realize this. and Flatliner was a really dumb song written by dumb people for dumb people to listen to.
whereas Miranda is at least marginally talented and for the people who haven’t figured out yet that there are alternative music scenes with more talented people she’s their golden girl because even a lot of the clowns who listen to her know that the bros are morons with their hats on backwards.
but if we keep crying about female representation we’ll just get another Dixie Chicks and Sugarland thrown in our faces and we’ll have ourselves to blame.
“Biscuits” was dumb.
Just… grr that song got me worked up.
And I never say “women don’t like to listen to women” but I do say “if a song is too specific to women then it has an uphill climb.”
most of my favorite women singers sing songs I can appreciate. when I song is very geared towards women I turn it off. because I am a 20-something fursuiter who makes his money in the music industry and lost his retail job because of a bad relationship. what do I know about how women feel? not a lot. I can’t relate to “woman specific” songs and that’s fine they aren’t geared at me.
but a lot of those songs are facing an uphill climb.
“Tin Man” was universal and not too oriented towards women specifically, and it’s also the first Miranda song I ever admitted to liking and in fact it’s such a great song that I suspend a lot of my criticisms of her music.
And I will end this comment by saying that it doesn’t affect me who is played on radio, because I wouldn’t listen to radio if they played Sturgill Simpson and Jason Isbell alongside Hank Thompson and David Frizzell.
I don’t like not being in control of my own listening choices.
But I do care that Country Music’s identity is preserved. i would rather know that other people are learning about the Louvin Brothers.
maybe that makes me a bad person for insisting my opinions into a format I wouldn’t use even if it did exactly what I wanted.
What do you think?
August 18, 2017 @ 7:04 am
All that angry woman nonsense is what turned me offwwith her, how many whiny songs about being bitchy can you sing.
I’m not impressed with her singing ability or her stage performance , I saw her as part of a concert and it was so wonderful I used the opportunity to go to the bathroom.
She was awarded titles because of who she was married to, another useful idiot, and it was the corporate thing to do.
I don’t listen to radio either, nothing but crap on it anyway
August 20, 2017 @ 10:10 am
Man I really disagree. I’ve watched since she was young coming up the circuits and she can flat out write and play. I personally like her “girl next door” vocals and that natural twang she has. Of course that’s personal preference but one can’t say she’s not artistic or that Blake won her titles.
August 16, 2017 @ 11:56 am
Hunt’s ” Body Like A …” is a classic case , I believe , of people not caring how good or bad something is but being more interested in being part of the ‘ following ‘ and being SEEN to be part of the following ( Kardashian Kulture ). The song is weak lyrically and melodically , the vocal mediocre with little character and the title just titillating enough to tap into a kiddie’s mindset which , of course , means that any adults within earshot of that kiddie will not escape it and be sucked along by the undercurrent . And so it goes ….
Re : women on the radio ….if Miranda , Kacey , Brandy , or Lee Ann , can’t get serious play with some of the terrific material they’ve recorded do we really care who else gets their nursery rhymes played ? Sad as it is that the male bro-shit gets played and female bro-shit ( Nettles , Shania etc.. ) doesn’t , perhaps its a blessing that we’re only subjected to bro-shit from one of the two human species recording commercial ‘ country’ music . Again …if you care about quality and equal time you probably know where to find it and if this article is any indication , people ARE finding it ….and it isn’t on mainstream commercial kiddie-driven ‘ country ‘ radio .
August 16, 2017 @ 12:01 pm
Albert you are the best. I agree whole-heartedly.
bad music is bad music, and it’s better to hear good music from only men than hear bad music from men and women.
but when I say who cares which women get played since we all know it won’t be the ones we want to hear I get called out of touch and an ungrateful expletive this and that.
“The males do better on radio because the placing of songs on radio is virtually preordained by the industry, while women are often systematically ignored”
quality is also systematically ignored. Stapleton is systematically ignored.
Chris. Stapleton. didn’t. get. radio. play.
think it through. take all the time you need.
now tell me why I would care about anyone getting radio play for any reason, except Chris Stapleton.
if Chris Stapleton can’t get radio play why are we even bothering to get anyone played?
or is Chris Stapleton not important enough to get radio play?
or is it just because he’s a dude and talented dudes getting radio play aren’t the Country Music argument du jour.
August 16, 2017 @ 12:26 pm
I can think of far more female writers and singers ( Lori McKenna , Gretchen Peters , Kacey Musgraves , Patty Loveless , Loretta , Dolly’s stuff , Margo Price , Lee Ann Womack , Miranda , Della Mae , Matreca Berg . Patty Griffin , Alecia Nugent , Rhonda Vincent , Claire Lynch , Maddie and Tae , Lennon and Maisy – YES indeed Lennon and Maisy – and on and on …newer and older ) I’d rather listen to than males , right now. And I have no trouble finding , buying ,You -Tubing , or streaming their stuff 24-7 . I don’t really care that I don’t hear therm on mainstream country radio because it would mean having to subject my intellignece to ALL OF THE REST OF THE BRO-SHIT ,THE COMMERCIALS, WEATHER FORECASTS , TRAFFIC REPORTS AND NEWS just to hear that one song every 90 minutes by a REAL artist . And at this point life is too short for me to make that compromise . In fact it was too short for me to make that compromise 35 years ago ….but I digress .
Let’s hope commercial ” country ” radio chokes on its own vomit .
August 16, 2017 @ 12:44 pm
I like you Albert, are you on any other websites? Facebook? for the Country Record? SaveState?
August 16, 2017 @ 4:32 pm
no
August 16, 2017 @ 12:26 pm
Ok, this is the wrong song for this article. Vice received a two day hourly iheart radio debut. It then quickly rose (after the 8 day crash that happens with those debuts) back into the top 30. Radio also kept this song in medium rotation (between 11-20 on the charts) for months, despite the fact that it had really bad call out scores.
Even for guys songs that sell well and have terrible call out scores flame-out on the charts. Vacation (by Rhett) went nowhere at radio but is certified gold, and will probably reach platinum, same with “words” by Blake, which broke his #1 streak. Lots of deserving songs don’t get a chance at radio…..this just wasn’t one of them.
August 17, 2017 @ 1:37 pm
You’re missing the point. Go back and read Trigger’s review of this song – he was quite critical of it. The point of the article is that people bought this single enough despite that it was a stiff at radio to certify it platinum and that other radio stiffs by women have sold well, which is something many of the B-list bros with Top 5 hits at radio haven’t been able to manage.
August 17, 2017 @ 2:21 pm
No, I’m not. Radio and sales aren’t the same thing, they have a relationship, but other factors also matter. Yes vice sold well, but the reason it’s radio peak was only 11 wasn’t bc Miranda is a woman. Even top name guys have singles that sell well stall out bc of bad research (now if you want to argue that women tend to have worse research bc of voices we’re used to, you’d be right), which is why I provided 2 contemporary examples of just that.
Now if you want to argue that radio should pay more attention to sales, ok. But that would then be true of men and women, and some songs you/I like, & some songs we hate.
August 16, 2017 @ 1:12 pm
seak05 – You can’t let one positive piece about Miranda go without a negative comment, can you? Your bias as a Blake Shelton super fan (if you can tell Blake fans about the airport Blake’s personal assistant flew into on twitter, then you are a superfan) limits your ability to objectively see Miranda and her career.
Vice didn’t have terrible callout scores. They weren’t amazing but many songs with worse scores rose above Vice. This absolutely deserved higher at radio. It went on to be a Grammy, ACM, etc. nominated song. It has quality lyrics, excellent singing by Miranda.
This is absolutely a case of country radio bias against females. It sold well, connected with audiences, and will be remember far greater than number 1 songs from that era from no-name male artists who can’t sell, stream, or tour a fraction of her numbers. If Vice were song by a male, then it would be a guaranteed number 1 song on radio.
There is a greater demand for female voices than radio provides and the numbers prove it. Radio is continue to perpetual the false claim that all listeners don’t want to hear female voices on the radio and it is destroying country music.
August 16, 2017 @ 1:31 pm
“Radio is continue to perpetual the false claim that all listeners don’t want to hear female voices on the radio and it is destroying country music.”
it’s destroying Country music with or without women and that’s the problem a lot of people don’t realize.
the songs suck, women or men.
Radio isn’t giving the listeners anything they want, women singers, quality music, or even local DJs.
They don’t even play Chris Stapleton.
but let’s all get mad that they aren’t playing Miranda Lambert because Chris Stapleton is just another dude.
August 16, 2017 @ 2:03 pm
The reason people aren’t up in arms about radio not playing Chris Stapleton is because it doesn’t matter. Chris has literally made country music history, with barely any help from radio. Nobody cares because Chris doesn’t need radio. A lot of artists, especially women, need more radio time for exposure and to grow a fan base and make more money for themselves. Chris isn’t just “another dude”, he’s a dude who doesn’t need any help, but some people do
August 16, 2017 @ 2:26 pm
okay. if playing the most significant artist in the last couple years doesn’t matter, why are we even arguing about this?
If Chris Stapleton isn’t important than why do we have radio at all? why are we arguing about who they play? why does it matter if Miranda or Kane Brown or Bill Monroe or Bill Cosby get air time on radio?
because apparently nothing matters anymore.
August 16, 2017 @ 2:58 pm
Ok 1) I don’t even know who Blake’s personal assistant is nm which airport she flies into (his fiddle player, & backup singer yes – but that’s for other reasons). And I’ve consistently said on this site that I find Blake to be very frustrating
2) I like vice, and it’s part of my playlist
3) even if I hated vice and loved Blake, this literally has nothing to do with that. Vice having terrible call out scores isn’t an opinion. I used sgaww bc it and vice were out at the same time & also together at the bottom of the national call out scores. Being a fan of one or the other doesn’t change that reality.
4) if you want to reply, hit the reply button on the post
August 17, 2017 @ 10:43 pm
I’ve seen Seak05 speak out against Blake on several different SM sites. Just because you don’t like something Miranda does, doesn’t make you a Blake fan and it’s ridiculous that people can’t discuss Miranda without needing to bring up her ex of 2+ years. That in itself is sexist as hell. Somehow Miranda is nothing without Blake?
As Seak explained radio doesn’t equal sales success or visa versa. Miranda besides a few singles that made it to #1 has never been a radio favorite. She doesn’t connect with radio listeners or IMO programmers. Her current flip flop of speaking out against radio when she pandered to radio the weeks before even doing the Bobby Bones show will not endear her either. Nothing to do with Blake.
August 18, 2017 @ 5:27 am
Miranda is nothing with or without Blake, and he is nothing with or without her.
They are both thorns in the side of Country Music.
August 18, 2017 @ 7:24 am
That’s a reduction of both artists, and I hate Blake Shelton.
You’re saying a lot of stuff just to get a rise out of folks Fuzzy, including trashing Cody Jinks when you admit you’ve never heard his music. That’s not what these comment sections are for. This is not YouTube.
August 18, 2017 @ 7:38 am
I never trashed Cody Jinks.
I have no reason to. I don’t know what he sounds like.
I’m just saying that seemingly overnight everyone I talk to in the Country Music scene is telling me about Cody Jinks. the other thing is that I wouldn’t consider him to be an outlaw, (maybe there’s some stuff he’s said that I don’t know about) especially compared to notoriously renegade Sturgill Simpson.
I know that everyone feels differently about a lot of artists, especially Miranda Lambert.
but as someone who grew up on the Porter Wagoner Show and remembers when Tom T. Hall hosted Pop Goes the Country and watched every episode of the Wilburn Brothers Show, I see a lot of this contemporary stuff as being very similar to the other stuff. so pardon my traditionalism but it all sounds the same and none of it sounds very Country to me.
Yes. I’m that one guy that you have a problem with for being the poster child that the bro-supporters use as a counter-argument: the guy who doesn’t want Country Music to “evolve.”
Yes. I do want it all to sound like it did when I grew up.
not because I didn’t like other kinds of music, I love Green Day and Charlie Parker for Pete’s Sake.
But I want Country to sound Country.
and if it all sounds like Lefty, George, and Johnny Cash, well that’s kind of the point, isn’t it?
we don’t criticize sax players for “all wanting to sound like Sonny Rollins” or classical violinists for “all wanting to play Beethoven and sound like Heifetz”
because those are the accepted standards of the genre.
and looking at Wayne Hancock’s 2016 “slinging rhythm” album I see no reason that more contemporary artists can’t make similar music.
because that’s the way Country Music was when I was a kid.
yes. I’m angry.
and no. I don’t want it to change.
but apparently my traditionalism isn’t appreciated.
August 18, 2017 @ 7:56 am
You have bitched and moaned ad nauseam about the rise of Cody Jinks. And now we find out you have never listened to him! If you did listen to his latest album (the one that’s put him over the top), you might find out that it is a traditional country album. Certainly much more so than Stapleton and also Sturgill’s last two. So how on earth is it a bad thing that he’s had so much success lately?
August 18, 2017 @ 1:51 pm
I’ve seen Seak05 drag Blake on this and other SM platforms. She’s certainly not some blind Blake Shelton unlike you with Miranda.
It’s ridiculous that people can’t make any comments about Miranda without Blake dragged in to it. That’s the real sexism. Was being married to Blake all She’s got going for her? They’ve been divorced for more than 2 years, she’s had a boyfriend now for 2 years. Let it rest and let Miranda be her own person good or bad.
August 16, 2017 @ 2:34 pm
Miranda cowrote the song. give credit?
August 16, 2017 @ 2:46 pm
Miranda wasn’t purposely left out of the songwriting credit. I was more trying to illustrate that a couple of Nashville hitmakers were part of the song, making the fact that it still didn’t crack the Top 10 more quizzical. I just updated the language to reflect that Miranda was also part of the writing.
August 16, 2017 @ 3:16 pm
It got really poor research, this just isn’t quizzical. It had very high negatives, and a low net positive score on the call outs, despite a high favorite score. It also had a very high burn rate. I agree with your general point, but this just isn’t the song. Radio and sales have a relationship, but it’s not a direct correlation & sometimes that’s a good thing — and sometimes it stinks.
Also this is a basic flaw in direct comparisons of hot country vs airplay. Any lead single (or single off of a yet to be released album) from a big name artist is going to score top 5 on HCS is debut week, because it’s going to have very high sales that week (out of proportion to its more stable week to week sales), and it’s getting an iheart radio push. That peak though is artificial.
August 16, 2017 @ 3:55 pm
Carly Pearce is a “iHeart On The Verge” artist & the song (“Every Little Thing”) is #16 after 22 weeks. Maren Morris on #18 after 22 weeks + Lady A + Thomas Rhett feat. Maren Morris & Kane Brown feat. a little bit of harmony singing by Lauren Alaina. That’s it. (Billboard Country Airplay Top 20 – 08/14).
Below the Top 20: Miranda Lambert (#33), Kelsea Ballerini (#41 – no bullet), Lindsay Ell (#52), Lauren Alaina (#57 – Re-Entry) & Danielle Bradbery (#59 – New). (Source: Billboard Country Update – 08/14)
Btw…Billy Currington is #1 for a 3rd week with the ultra-über classic country tune “Do I Make You Wanna”.
Btw 2…Kylie Frey feat. Randy Rodgers is the new #1 in Texas with “Too Bad”. (Texas Regional Radio Report Top100)
More female artists:
Briana Adams – Dive Bars & Old Guitars (EP) – 08/25 – From Texas – Debut EP
Stephanie Quayle – Love The Way You See Me (Album) – 09/08 (“Drinking With Dolly”)
Adrian Johnston – It Takes Time (EP) – 08/18 (Current single “Adult Beverages” #67 Texas Radio Charts)
Australian Alt-Country artist Gretta Ziller – Queen Of Boomtown (Album) – 09/01 (Current single “Queen Of Boomtown” is #37 Australian Country Tracks Chart & on my list for Song Of The Year)
August 16, 2017 @ 5:14 pm
I think we need to do away with the Country Airplay chart entirely. I realize that it’s been around since 1990 (and for a while was THE country singles chart) but nowadays it clearly isn’t representative of what the truly popular songs in country are.
August 16, 2017 @ 7:27 pm
This is only tangentially related to this post, but it’s at the heart of what SCM is about. There’s a good article that was just published at TAC, which has a fairly wide readership:
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/three-chords-and-a-maga-hat/
August 17, 2017 @ 5:58 am
Good article, and good comments section too.
August 17, 2017 @ 6:11 am
I’m not really a conservative per se, but I’ve read numerous thoughtful articles on that site in the past (e.g., some by Andrew Bacevich) and this is a another good one.
Like Trump, I’m a New Yorker by birth. I wonder if Trump could name one Merle Haggard or George Jones song off the top of his head. Maybe Okie from Muscogee? Maybe not.
August 17, 2017 @ 9:05 am
Probably not. I’m an ex New Yorker and heard about him every night on the news for 20 years. I honestly couldn’t tell you what music he knows or likes.
August 17, 2017 @ 9:26 am
My guess is classic rock.
August 17, 2017 @ 7:29 am
I am a 28 year old, lifelong, die hard feminist liberal Democratic woman, and even *I* enjoyed that article. This only proves how bipartisan an issue this truly is. 🙂
August 17, 2017 @ 9:03 am
So did I and same here with my political leanings. It’a spot on.
August 16, 2017 @ 10:12 pm
Here is a thing. When I first heard “Vice”, didn’t much care for it. I can see why it wouldn’t play well in radio. It’s a bit slow. Miranda’s delivery is low. It doesn’t immediately reach out and grab you by the throat. But, repeated listenings have deepened my appreciation of the song. Like the entire album, you can’t really grasp the song with a casual listen. You have to get into it. Let it wander around in your head and take root. I did, and “Vice” is now a favorite.
August 17, 2017 @ 5:14 am
The Dixie Chicks should make a new full traditional country album like Home – they are women, playing country music so they wouldn’t be played on radio anyway even if they hadn’t fallen out with country radio all those years ago!
At least the album might be good:-)
August 17, 2017 @ 5:24 am
no… the album wouldn’t be good.
August 17, 2017 @ 6:47 am
Says you. Over and over.
Home is a fine album. I took that CD over from my wife few years ago because she really doesn’t listen to CDs anymore. I wish I bought it when it came out, but I had a prejudice against anything identified as mainstream country. For starters, I could have heard Patty Griffin’s Truth No. 2 years before her Silver Bell album finally got released in 2013. My loss.
August 17, 2017 @ 6:56 am
No.
Being martyred was the best thing for the Dixie Chicks. Just like breaking up was the best thing for the Beatles. It allotted both groups ample excuses to avoid any criticism of decline. People, like Country Universe for example, have argued that the removal of the Dixie Chicks from commercial prominence somehow led to Bro-Country leading to them receiving a greater importance than they deserve.
August 17, 2017 @ 7:30 am
Cowboyal’s comment was that the Dixie Chicks should make an album like Home. Many around here think it’s a classic album. Trigger identified it as one of the top ten country albums of its decade.
Not just Country Universe. Trigger has also opined that the banning of the Chicks had an adverse effect on the quality of mainstream country music.
The Beatles chose to break up after being together for about a decade. The Dixie Chicks did not choose to be shunned. If you’re saying that the Beatles might have eventually declined if they had stayed together and that might have affected their legacy, that might be true to some extent. I think I heard Keith Richards make a similar point once. However, from my listening to Wide Open Spaces, Fly and Home more than a decade after the controversy, it seems to me that they had just hit their artistic stride on Home and maybe they would have put out some more good music in the next few years after that.
August 17, 2017 @ 8:41 am
saying that home is the best album of it’s decade is sort of like saying Luke Bryan is the best of the bros.
the best of shit is still shit.
all the albums from that era were atrocious, milquetoast watered down soccer mom music for bored suburbanites.
Real Country Music hasn’t been widely played on Country Radio for about forty years now. I say the end of it was about the mid eighties when Rocker turned Country Kenny Rogers started doing his “Doctor Hook gone Country” songs. and when the Gatlin Brothers (extremely talented but not Country) came along.
we had the class of 89 which gave a brief respite in the 90s with Randy, Tritt but we also had the DC, Big and Rich, and all the other disasters.
we had a bit of a break at the end of the oughts when Dierks and Josh Turner came along.
but by and large the eighties were disco Country, the nineties and early oughts were “country light” by clean shaven suburban dudes and hot blonde soccer moms that sang about Jesus and the troops, and then in 2010 it all went wrong when Blake Miranda and Puke Bryan came along.
Home was just as far removed from real Country music as everything else on the shelves beside it.
it was acoustic light rock by a bunch of suburban people who’d grown up in the eighties and missed out on the influential part of American history.
you know: the forties and fifties, the two decades that made two more great decades.
I say we got about four decades of real Country music, so from 1940 to about 1980. of course lots of good music came before and after, but in my mind that’s when the industry and the music was hand in hand.
after the eighties the radio turned to stupid disco country and oversized hats, the nineties was a bit better and then the oughts brought us a bunch of soccer moms and wannabe eighties-style celebrity models/singers. then blake miranda and luke ruined it all starting around 2009.
being “martyred” was a good thing because it removed one bad group from the overall picture,
and let’s not make them martyrs. they were a bunch of free-speech abusing neo-hippies with zero respect for the land that birthed them.
August 17, 2017 @ 9:41 am
“saying that home is the best album of it’s decade is sort of like saying Luke Bryan is the best of the bros.
the best of shit is still shit.”
Nobody said it was the “best album of its decade.”
Jack Williams said, “Trigger identified it as one of the top ten country albums of its decade.”
See, this is how you create a Straw Man.
August 17, 2017 @ 9:45 am
Here’s Trigger’s article on the top ten county albums from 2001 to 2010,. You want to call that a garbage list? Knock yourself out.
https://savingcountrymusic.com/top-10-country-albums-of-the-decade-2001-2010/
I know what your opinion is on Home. Just like I know your opinion on your other various hobby horse topics such as on Maddie and Tae, women on the radio, and albums released under Borchetta’s labels. You make the same points over and over and over again. It’s way past tiresome. Do me a favor and start your own website.
August 17, 2017 @ 9:48 am
who cares about the specifics about who said it was how good or who identified it as this or that???
it was still by no means any kind of a Country album and it came out of an era when Country Music wasn’t being played on the radio
August 17, 2017 @ 9:53 am
ok ok ok.
How many of those albums got meaningfully played on the radio?
maybe 3.
therefore using this list is kind of a cherry-picked thing because (gasp) of course there was great Country Music that decade!
but not on the radio!!!! we had Dierks and Josh Turner at the end of the oughts and we had JJ but come on putting That Lonesome Song beneath Home is a serious Country Music blasphemy.
and with regards to Maddie and Tae and Big Machine:
maybe I annoy people, oh well they can grow up and ignore it.
but anybody who buys anything from Big Machine, or supports fake Country Artists like Maddie and Tae are getting in the way of the effort to save Country Music.
I know more about this genre than you do.
so when you keep getting in the way and dragging my genre down I get a bit steamed up.
August 18, 2017 @ 4:27 pm
Jack,
Quit playing mini-mod.
And Fuzzy wouldn’t need to make the same points if the same article wasn’t constantly released.
August 19, 2017 @ 7:31 am
Like I said, I don’t know what “playing mini-mod” means. Too old, maybe? My comments here have been predominantly about the Dixie Chicks album Home, but I gather that your last point is about the “women not on the radio” topic. I count one such article out of 13 on the current front page.
Sometimes I get tired of certain topics being covered repeatedly here that I’m not particularly interested in (e.g., Taylor Swift when she was “leaving country music”). And I get the urge to bitch about it in the comments section. Then I say to myself, “Trigger’s gonna Trigger.” He’s going to write about whatever he feels passionate about at the time and that might not always be what I want to read, given what I’m interested in. Sooner or later, he’ll write about something in my wheelhouse. And I’m getting all of this content FOR FREE.
August 18, 2017 @ 6:06 pm
Quit playing mini-mod.
I don’t know what that means.
August 17, 2017 @ 6:46 am
Same old article. Same old response.
Country music radio won’t play good songs. That is the problem. And it won’t change until radio understands that quality will sell.
August 17, 2017 @ 8:03 am
‘Radio’ and record labels have made the calculated choice to chase a youthful , image-driven demographic with their product . That demographic is tech-savy , financially impulsive and not particularly invested in or passionate about much beyond their OWN image and well-being. A lack of life experience means this demographic would not relate to songs of substance or ‘adult’ themes . The ‘product’ reflects this sentiment with mostly throw-away ear candy with a short life span so the next bit of ear candy can cash in sooner than later . Like feeding peanuts to an elephant .
It is an easy , non-discerning target and provides an avenue to product exposure through social media that costs labels NOTHING .Not even the manufacturing of physical products is a ‘cost’ factor in these times …no CD’s . Its a market with disposable income which supports ticket prices for shows and just needs any excuse for a social gathering /party/ escape ….and word gets out quickly – young folks want to feel part of a common experience ..its important to them . Music ( song lyrics and messages ) is not as personal as it once was when Merle and many others ( James Taylor , Harrry Chapin, Carole King , Dolly ) were writing and performing . Kids want to be part of an experience WITH peers .
In other words , find an easily accessed market , one that’s impressionable and not necessarily aware of options and/or the history of the genre ..has a few $$$ and bingo ? Profits . Pop music has known this for years . Now that ‘country ‘ has become pop it is not hard to see how or why these companies can’t turn back . Its about as lucrative a scenario as they’d find in this music biz climate.
August 17, 2017 @ 2:43 pm
Beating Trigger to this by a day will be a feather in my cap for the rest of my life.
August 18, 2017 @ 8:28 am
I was just on ITunes and see Shania has a hot new release. I told you assholes this is what would happen.
August 18, 2017 @ 8:30 am
hahahahahahaha!