The American Country Countdown Awards Already Suck
Hey Yeah, Kix Brooks My Man!
Actually Sorry Kix, But We Just Decided…
The only thing worse than a country music awards show is four of them. It feels like these annual earaches are multiplying like a pestilence in country music and the music world beyond, and now we have yet another machination of forced television pageantry to contend with. Say hello to the “American Country Countdown Awards”—the Busch League of country music award shows, and the replacement of the now apparently defunct “American Country Awards.” Yeah, sorry all you previous ACA winners, but it looks like those trophies are being rendered even more meaningless than they were before.
Since the ACA Awards were fabricated out of thin air by FOX to screw with the other networks who carry legitimate country awards shows with actual history, the show has featured B-level country talent, bad sound and performances, forced gratitude by award recipients, shitty hosts (aside from Kristin Chenoweth, she kicked ass in her own perky way), and a general low production-value presentation. They hope to change that all this year by bringing Dick Clark Productions in the mix—the same brain trust behind the ACM’s, or Academy of Country Music Awards, which would seem like natural competition, but what do I know?
One thing that apparently won’t change from the ACA’s to the American Country Countdown Awards is their history of shafting country music’s female artists. In 2011 the show ran down the 10 greatest “Artists of the Decade” and didn’t include even one female performer. Not even one out of the ten spots they had to fill. And this year in typical ACA, or ACCA (is that right?) form, there are no female nominees for their Song of the Year, no female nominees for “Digital” Song of the Year (like this deserves its own category), no female nominees for Breakthrough Artist of the Year, and no female nominees for Artist of the Year (though Lady Antebellum is somehow gerrymandered in there and is 1/3rd frau). Miranda Lambert’s Platinum is the only female Album of the Year nominee as well.
Oh and get this: Aside from the Breakthrough Artist of the Year category, the winners are chosen by aggregating airplay and touring stats from Soundscan and Mediabase and such, so pretty much anyone can sit there with a calculator and figure out who the winners are going to be before the first joke from hosts Florida Georgia Line falls flat. Watching those flunkies up there trying to read off a teleprompter might be the best entertainment all night. Kix Brooks was supposed to host the thing because he’s the American Country Countdown guy, but he’s all old and shit so let’s act like he doesn’t exist come TV time. Luke Bryan, Miranda Lambert, and the FGL boys are also scheduled to spare the crowd to death with performances. It’s all happening on December 15th at 8 PM Eastern if you want to tune in while wrapping presents to laugh your ass off.
Here’s their stupid nominees. Get and extra chuckle off the “Song of the Year” contenders. Maybe Saving Country Music will do a live blog if I’m bored.
Artist of the Year
- Jason Aldean
- Luke Bryan
- Florida Georgia Line
- Lady Antebellum
- Blake Shelton
Male Vocalist of the Year
- Jason Aldean
- Dierks Bentley
- Luke Bryan
- Randy Houser
- Blake Shelton
Female Vocalist of the Year
- Danielle Bradbery
- Miranda Lambert
- Cassadee Pope
- Taylor Swift
- Carrie Underwood
Album of the Year
- Crash My Party, Luke Bryan
- The Outsiders, Eric Church
- Here’s To The Good Times, Florida Georgia Line
- Just As I Am, Brantley Gilbert
- Platinum, Miranda Lambert
Song of the Year
- “When She Says Baby,” Jason Aldean
- “Beat of the Music,” Brett Eldredge
- “Lettin’ the Night Roll,” Justin Moore
- “Drink To That All Night,” Jerrod Niemann
- “Chillin’ It,” Cole Swindell
Breakthrough Artist of the Year
- Brett Eldredge
- Tyler Farr
- Kip Moore
- Thomas Rhett
- Cole Swindell
Group/Duo of the Year
- The Band Perry
- Eli Young Band
- Florida Georgia Line
- Lady Antebellum
- Zac Brown Band
Collaboration of the Year
- “This Is How We Roll,” Florida Georgia Line featuring Luke Bryan
- “Small Town Throwdown,” Brantley Gilbert featuring Justin Moore and Thomas Rhett
- “Meanwhile Back At Mama’s,” Tim McGraw featuring Faith Hill
- “My Eyes,” Blake Shelton featuring Gwen Sebastian
- “We Were Us,” Keith Urban and Miranda Lambert
Digital Song of the Year
- “Burnin’ It Down,” Jason Aldean
- “Drink A Beer,” Luke Bryan
- “Play It Again,” Luke Bryan
- “Dirt,” Florida Georgia Line
- “This Is How We Roll,” Florida Georgia Line featuring Luke Bryan
November 13, 2014 @ 10:03 am
practically everything about this is screaming “desperate attention grab from the bro-country sound”
November 13, 2014 @ 10:27 am
Well put, my friend.
November 13, 2014 @ 10:08 am
Holy. Shit.
I don’t watch award shows – they’re a possible national platform for genuine artistry and a chance for someone to take a risk and impact fans who would normally not see them. Instead, they offer up canned jokes and flat performances that rarely inspire.
This, though. This. This is like if “Party Down South” wanted to have a “Fancy ass ball.”
The fact that Cole Swindell is listed anywhere near the top 5 of any list in country music is unstomachable. No, seriously, I’m close to vomiting up my chick-fil-a biscuit. I think the only thing keeping it down right now is my iron-clad resolve to not waste the 1.75 I spent on it. And Drink to That All Night? Song of the year? Really?
I mean, when you saw the hosts, you knew there wouldn’t be substance to these awards, but this is downright laughable. How is there not a category for “Best Wallet Chain”?
November 13, 2014 @ 10:31 am
“How is there not a category for “Best Wallet Chain”?”
That line made me laugh out loud. Careful though. If enough people read that, next year’s set of awards might actually feature that award.
November 13, 2014 @ 10:21 am
Why would Kix want to be associated with this? Nearly every song there is the reason I have turned off the radio and turned to Spotify.
November 13, 2014 @ 11:19 am
Hes’ not. He was supposed to be the host because he hosts the American Country Countdown on radio. But then they decided Florida Georgia Line with tennis balls shoved down their crotch and stumbling over teleprompter lines would be better for ratings.
November 13, 2014 @ 11:28 am
Tennis balls lol… I am pretty sure that LB had some stuffing at the CMAs. It was just to round and full down there to be natural. My girlfriends and I thought you guys used socks though.
November 14, 2014 @ 9:17 am
I do use socks–or at least I did. I was using them for a while, but I was only getting weird responses. Then finally somebody pointed out I should be putting them in the FRONT–not the back.
Live and learn.
November 14, 2014 @ 9:57 pm
Trigger,
Don’t do a live blog of this farce they’re calling an awards show. This so-called awards show was created to showcase all that is wrong with country music today and to celebrate everything and anything bro-country. Man, you are better than that. This awards show is for the young and retarded.
November 13, 2014 @ 10:24 am
as usual no watch
but I will be interested in the upcoming Grammy noms
November 13, 2014 @ 10:26 am
To me, calling them the American Country Countdown awards is a sham. ACC no longer exists. It died when Bob Kingsley left and started his own show. CT40 is essentially the ACC we all grew up with. Kix is a good guy, but he is hosting a dull, watered down, bland version of …. wait, the name is making more sense now.
Wondered if Trig had any thoughts on this angle?
November 13, 2014 @ 10:47 am
This is one of those joke articles…right?
November 13, 2014 @ 10:49 am
With the exception of very few nominations, this is a very vomitatious list. I’ll admit, I liked Luke Bryan when he first came out, even went to a concert, but I am sick of him now. Even more, I am tired of the same damn 5 acts performing at every single thing. Even CMT’s Artists of the Year are Luke, Miranda, Aldean, FGL… Enough already. Hell I would sit through Raelynn shrieking her song just to have a little variation.
November 13, 2014 @ 5:50 pm
I’ve got to say “vomitatious” is probably the best word I’ve heard to describe the Bro bunch.
November 13, 2014 @ 11:02 am
We gave up on the countdown a while back as the music got worse and worse. I hope Kix gets paid handsomely to act like he enjoys Chase Rice and Thomas Rhett, cause lord knows I would need a dump truck full of money backed up to my house.
November 13, 2014 @ 11:18 am
After looking over the nominations, maybe their doing Kix a favor
November 13, 2014 @ 11:26 am
wow this is total crap
November 13, 2014 @ 11:41 am
Sometimes something can be so bad, it’s good. This is going to be a train wreck, so there should be lots of unintentional funny moments. I’m tuning in just to laugh at the ridiculousness of it. A holiday beverage should make it even better to watch 🙂
November 13, 2014 @ 12:16 pm
Ha ha, yeah, like getting hammered and watching a really bad movie.
November 13, 2014 @ 2:30 pm
This could be the “Sharknado” of country music awards!
My god, an award show basically celebrating popularity of songs and artists. This is bound to be bad and pointless.
November 13, 2014 @ 1:38 pm
And with all of the network (fake) reality shows , talent shows, survivor shows , fluff daytime talk shows , and various other televised crap preying on the lowest common denominator surprises us why ??
November 13, 2014 @ 1:58 pm
What a bunch of crap. Trig, please don’t even dignify this with a live blog.
November 13, 2014 @ 5:30 pm
This.
November 14, 2014 @ 9:25 am
Yeah–don’t do it, man. Nobody who reads this site cares enough to make it worth you going through that. Save yourself!
(But it WOULD be funny as shit!!)
November 14, 2014 @ 11:41 pm
I’ve done live blogs for the past couple of years for this show just because I’m sort of required to watch them and it helps me stay attentive. If I did one, it would be more about venting my own thoughts as I suffer through than anything else. Nobody should feel required to follow along.
We’ll see.
November 13, 2014 @ 2:16 pm
Dignity’s got nuthin’ to do with it. Clint Eastwood said that. Or at least something like that.
November 13, 2014 @ 2:24 pm
Ah, but the country rap constituency is going to be furious that Big Smo, Colt Ford and Jawga Boyz are nowhere to be seen in the field.
So hell: they’re gonna start their OWN country awards telecast too! That’ll show ’em boys! 😉
*
The “Song of the Year” nominees are just absurdly bad.
Forget about artistic quality and critical appeal for a moment. Let’s approach this from a Mediabase/Soundscan perspective. It STILL doesn’t add up. Of the five, I’m pretty sure only two have went Platinum (“Drink To That All Night”, “Chillin’ It”). Besides that, there are clearly more legitimate contenders from a blatantly commercial standpoint than any of these. If you’re going to allot nominees solely on airplay, sales and touring revenue, at the very least make sure you select the cream of the crop. By that standard, “Play It Again”, “This Is How We Roll”, “I Don’t Dance” and “American Kids” would be more appropriate candidates.
The “Breakthrough Artist of the Year” category is also mostly laughable. Kip Moore’s two most recent singles have been utter flops. Tyler Farr may already be on his way out too (even though I actually like “A Guy Walks Into A Bar” and hope it rebounds). Of the five, Brett Eldredge is the only one I can visualize having relative staying power, but because of his lack of distinctive artistic personality and stage presence, I highly doubt he is going to remain even commercially viable a decade from now.
November 13, 2014 @ 2:29 pm
It’s sad when you are so bad that the musi……….um, can’t say musical……..um, those who promote the noise, powers that be, have to keep making up new award shows to get their “projects” into the limelight.
November 13, 2014 @ 3:49 pm
I want it to be Randy Houser for male vocalist of the year, Miranda Lambert for both female vocalist and album of the year (even though I HATED Something Bad), Brett Eldredge for song and breakthrough artist of the year, Zac Brown Band for duo of the year, and Meanwhile Back At Momma’s for collab of the year.
However, it will turn out like this:
Artist Of The Year: Jason Aldean (because Burnin It Down was just FANTASTIC)
Male Vocalist Of The Year: Jason Aldean (see the sarcastic comment above)
Female Vocalist Of The Year: Taylor Swift (And the haters gonna hate hate hate hate hate)
And so on. The fact that Cole Swindell and Tyler Farr actually are getting nominated for awards is depressing.
On a side note, where is Eric Paslay is breakout artists? Had two big hits so far, and his new single She Don’t Love You is fantastic.
November 13, 2014 @ 5:24 pm
I agree Eric Pasley deserves more recognition in general.
He chose the two worst tracks on his debut album by far as his lead two singles, and it is most unfortunate because the rest of his eponymous debut is very strong and, at times, brilliant. “She Don’t Love You” is easily one of the five best mainstream country singles of this year.
I also agree Tyler Farr and Cole Swindell shouldn’t even be here, although I do like Farr’s current single “A Guy Walks Into A Bar”. Even so, I doubt it was released in time to be eligible for this year’s cycle and his nomination was dependent on his two stupid hits “Redneck Crazy” and “Whiskey In My Water”.
November 13, 2014 @ 8:58 pm
Just another bro country circle jerk from the looks of it
November 13, 2014 @ 9:39 pm
this is my Superbowl.
can. not. wait.
November 14, 2014 @ 2:11 am
Have I died and gone to hell?? Horrible!!
November 14, 2014 @ 3:00 am
There isn’t any Kacey Musgraves nominations so rejoice SCM posters.
November 14, 2014 @ 5:03 am
Hey Trigger, ever think about the “Saving Country Music Awards?” Show them how you think it should be done. Wouldn’t need a tv show, just a nice write up on here.
November 14, 2014 @ 12:16 pm
I do name Song, Artist, and Album of the Year each year. Have thought about trying to do some awards type thing beyond that. Maybe some day.
November 17, 2014 @ 2:22 pm
If there was a “saving country music awards” show ever on TV, I’m sure it would be hosted by either George Strait or Alan Jackson, amirite Trigger?
November 14, 2014 @ 11:59 am
This should be called the “Bro-Country Awards” show. Is it me or are 95% of the nominees bro-country artists? I believe that they came up with this farce due to the bro-country artists getting shut out at the CMAs. And if I were Miranda, I wouldn’t even bother to perform, much less show up to this steam pile of rabbit turds that they’re obviously trying to pass off as an awards ceremony. And to NOT have Kix Brooks hosting it when he’s the one who hosts the radio show is a slap in the face. Well…. This crap is a slap in the face of country music, now that I think about it. Let’s hope that this awards show gets abysmal ratings and they decide not to do it again next year.
November 14, 2014 @ 1:30 pm
that’s like the CMA’s all over …. :/
November 14, 2014 @ 1:42 pm
Its not the CMAs all over again. The CMAs actually had pretty decent performances by Lacey Musgraves/Loretta Lynn, George Strait/Eric Church (even though George should’ve have performed by himself. Eric looked like a total moron next to him, IMHO.) & Carrie Underwood. Underwood’s performance was arguably the best one of the night. The sad part was that not only was she co-hosting the CMAs with Brad Paisley, she changed outfits multiple times and she is pregnant with her husband’s child and STILL put everyone to shame. The American Country Countdown Awards are just saying “let’s make a toast to popular mainstream bro-country music that isn’t even close to being country music and we’ll have its two biggest jackasses host it!” I can already see the Ebonics coming out full force and them stumbling over themselves when they attempt to read the words coming from the Teleprompter. This is going to be a flaming shitshow in itself. Let’s all pray that they decide to cancel it next year and pray that they have the common sense not to inflict this crap upon us ever again.
November 14, 2014 @ 10:14 pm
How many awards can one genre have? These awards seem to be a horrible attempt to make permanent “bro-country”.
November 14, 2014 @ 10:30 pm
AX10,
They’re licking their wounds, due to them being shut out at the CMAs. What kills me is that Luke Bryan and the pinheads FGL are nominated 2 or 3 times in ONE category alone. I’m disgusted that this will be televised nationally. I don’t want to see any of these idiots on my TV. I hope and pray that there’s a rerun of Sons of Anarchy on that night. I’d rather stare at Katey Sagal’s chest instead.
November 16, 2014 @ 10:45 am
This show is clearly poised to make the ACAs look like a venerable art form. One point, though – if the winners are chosen based on concrete data and not a voting panel (save the Breakthrough Artist “award”), what is the point of having 5 nominees in the first place? Aren’t the winners essentially predetermined and this is just an excuse for these idiots to brag about their “nominations?”
November 16, 2014 @ 5:20 pm
At this point I’ve given up on awards shows period. When I look at the history all awards shows just see SO stupid. A Taste of Honey for best new artist over The Cars, Elvis Costello, Toto Granted not all of those are top tier icons but A Taste of Honey… um…
The of course the 2 years prior The Starlight Vocal Band… in a year that included Boston…
And the of course the fact that the Grammy even entertained the idea of Niki Minaj as best artists shows they didn’t look very far to try and find real talent because anybody is better than that tragic mess of a “rapper” and “artist”.
of course this doesn’t even account for those FAR BETTER acts that didn’t even get nominated. LOL! They are fun and painful to watch at the smae time and SOMETIMES actually entertaining but if you are watching to see artists get some respect from their industry… forget it.
November 17, 2014 @ 2:20 pm
You really have NO CLUE how hard i laughed when I heard Kix Brooks announce this new “awards show”. I hate all of Kix Brooks horrible ‘radio shows’ as it is, they are pathetic and he over-does them. I cannot imagine how terrible this “awards show” is going to be. I’m so sick of hearing about all the country awards shows, I swear every time I log into facebook there is a country artist’s page (whom I have “liked”) spamming my news feed with VOTE FOR ME! VOTE FOR ME! FOR THIS BLAH BLAH BLAH AWARDS!!! I mean really….it’s just all a publicity stunt, to draw in more people to country music…like we need more of that? I thought modern country with the pop sound was enough? Kix Brooks sucks, the new FGL album sucks, and most of the songs/artists they have “nominated” suck or have sucked for awhile. I will watch this show just to get a laugh!
November 18, 2014 @ 7:52 am
wow are they still giving out guitars as the award? Judging by the list of nominees for song of the year no comment…
November 19, 2014 @ 4:29 pm
This is a comment from one of their fangirls:
“And music evolves, get over it you old hag and buy old CD’s. New country still has its roots and always will. So calm down and stop being a hater. Youre gf is probably slobbering all over this hunk reason why you are here writing hate comments, lol. Get Out of here with such negativity seriously”
The defense mechanisms/half-assed reponses came out in full force. This was my reply back:
” I like old country and new country. The reason why you refuse to read my response is because:
1) its the truth and fangirls like you can’t handle the truth even when it bitchslaps you in the face.
2) you most likely do not know HOW to read. I’ll be happy to purchase Hooked on Phonics or Rosetta Stone and FedEx it to you, since you can’t spell for shit. Open up a schoolbook, for cryin out loud!
3) Luke Bryan only the award due to his tours, not artistic merit.
4) Sturgill Simpson and Jason Isbell have released albums this year, so technically its NEW country. Do your research before you open your mouth. Better yet: think before you speak.
5) Why don’t you try shutting your mouth before you speak? Obviously you don’t know much about country: past, present or future. You give us Southern folk a bad name. You’re most likely another groupie who wants to get in bed with Fluke Bryan. Just another ordinary dimwitted fangirl.
6) Country music doesn’t evolve to the point where its not country or respect its roots. That is called devolving. Once again: DO YOUR RESEARCH BEFORE YOU OPEN AND CONTINUE TO EMBARRASS YOURSELF LIKE YOU ARE NOW!!
7) And I’m damn sure jealous of singing songs that aren’t remotely country and have dumbed-down lyrics that objectify women as a fashion accessory or a piece of meat. I’m really jealous that I can’t hold a note to save my life and that I consistently fall off the stage because I don’t know where the fuck I am going.
8) I wouldn’t want to try & fit in his skinny jeans because I have an actual ass and I don’t want to cut off the blood circulation to my lower extremities. 
June 6, 2015 @ 11:49 am
From these lists, I like Randy Houser and Tyler Farr (their songs don’t have great substance, but they are great singers). I absolutely hate Lady Antebella, Thomas Rhett, Cole Swindell, Miranda Lambert (my little red wagon= worst song ever). My favourite country artists are Garth Brooks, Allan Jackson, Toby Keith, Josh Turner. I’m only 17, but I like the older songs.