This Bebe Rexha Madness Has To Stop
Bebe Rexha and her song “Meant to Be” with Florida Georgia Line has officially become to sum of all the fears for the encroachment of pop into country. It is the full realization of all the concerns that were addressed when Billboard changed its chart rules in 2012 to include pop spins on the country charts. “Meant To Be” has already officially become the scourge of country music in 2018, and all indications are that we are just getting started with the records it will break, and the chaos it will sow before it begins to lose steam.
Now spending its 14th week at the top of the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, “Meant To Be” officially becomes the biggest song for a woman in the 70 year history of the country music genre, at least according to Billboard. This distinction doesn’t lie with Loretta Lynn. It doesn’t lie with Tammy Wynette or Dolly Parton, or Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert, or the scores of other women who devoted their entire lives to the genre. No, it belongs to Bebe Rexha, who initially recorded and released this song as pop and pop only, with no intention of calling it country, only later to flip a switch and send it to country radio for it to completely rewrite the history books.
“Meant to Be” had already surpassed all of the other records for solo women performers on the Hot Country Songs chart. But at its 14th week, it now beats out Little Big Town’s “Girl Crush” as the song that involves any female performer in any capacity topping the charts for this long. Think about all the songs from women whose profiles are affixed to the walls of the Country Music Hall of Fame. Think about the dozens of today’s performers who’ve devoted entire years of their lives to radio tours, driving from station to station to try and ingratiate themselves to the country music industry, to still have their singles ignored by the format.
Bebe Rexha has truly done nothing in the country genre to earn this distinction. Even when Florida Georgia Line was coming up, and was positively exploding in popularity due to their massive single “Cruise,” the powers that be in country music forced them to go on a club tour to pay dues, and prove they could make it on the stage night in and night out before handing them the keys to stardom. Florida Georgia Line had to play Billy Bob’s in Ft. Worth. They played rooms like the House of Blues. The dates sold out immediately and it was mayhem because they could have been packing arenas at the time, but they did it to prove their dedication to the music.
Bebe Rexha? She has truly done nothing at all. How was this allowed to happen? How did we get here? And anyone with half a brain could see where this single was headed. Saving Country Music predicted this very scenario when “Meant To Be” shot up to #1 on the Hot Country Songs chart its first week. Now the future of the song only continues to brighten as it slowly makes its way up the country music radio charts, continuing to add points for itself in Billboard’s Hot Country Songs algorithm, even if streaming consumption and downloads slow down. A full page add just appeared for “Meant To Be” in this week’s Country Aircheck, indicating they are deeply devoted to bringing this song to #1 on radio, but slowly as to maximize its reign on Hot Country Songs.
“Meant to Be” could very easily have another 6 to 12 weeks in it on top of the Hot Country Songs chart at the least, shattering even more records. And now it’s been announced that Bebe Rexha will be one of the performers on the ACM Awards in mid-April, giving the song another boost, and once again bumping an actual country artist off the stage to make a spot for a pop performer.
Also, right now there are zero songs in the country radio Top 25 that are performed by country women. “Meant to Be” is the only song at the moment performed by a woman in the Top 25. Bebe Rexha gives radio programmers the excuse to exclude other women performers from the radio format. Don’t buy what Maren Morris and others are saying. For a third time, Maren Morris has gone on record proclaiming things are improving for women in country, telling Taste of Country recently, “It’s a slow process, but I think it is getting better.” No, it’s never been worse. Ever.
And what are we supposed to do from here? Billboard can’t, and won’t take “Meant To Be” out of eligibility now that it’s been included on the Hot Country Songs chart for so long. The curse is cast, and it will forever be etched in this history books as one of the biggest country songs ever—a song by an artist not even claiming to be country like Sam Hunt.
It’s an abomination on so many levels, and nothing can be done about it. But perhaps Bebe Rexha and “Meant To Be” can be used as an example why reasonable and intuitive rules tweaks to the Hot Country Songs chart need to be implemented to protect country artists and the legacy of the genre from these incursions by opportunistic carpetbaggers from other formats. Or, any success a song finds on the Hot Country Songs chart will be rendered meaningless and irrelevant because of the precedent Bebe Rexha and “Meant To Be” has set.
Billboard, The CMA, anyone. For the love of God, doing something about this.
March 8, 2018 @ 11:49 am
‘another 6 to 12 more weeks’
Probably more than that. It is currently #7 on the Hot 100 while the Rhett song is #34 and Aldean is #38 and they are the closest to her on the Hot Country Songs. Going to make a run at the Hunt record unless some out of nowhere song comes along (which may happen).
What a joke. Between the decision makers at Billboard and country music execs with no clue the history and trajectory of country music is being bent beyond belief because these events aren’t just one offs they change the future. FGL begat Hunt begat Bebe Rexha.
March 8, 2018 @ 12:57 pm
I’m confused, what are the folks at Billboard supposed to do? NOT put a song being played this much on country radio in the country charts?
March 8, 2018 @ 1:05 pm
Not include pop radio spins in the calculation of the country chart.
March 8, 2018 @ 1:11 pm
Wait, are pop radio stats being counted toward the country charts? Or just toward the Billboard Hot 100?
March 8, 2018 @ 1:17 pm
Here’s a breakdown of the chart rules implemented by Billboard in 2012 that have allowed Bebe Rexha to dominate the Hot Country Songs chart:
https://savingcountrymusic.com/billboard-changes-country-chart-rules-boosts-crossover-songs/
March 8, 2018 @ 1:54 pm
How the ‘country’ songs are ranked on the Hot 100 is how they are ranked on the Hot Country Songs chart.
More than just the pop airplay is that it compounds because these songs get pop airplay exposure directly leading to more streams and downloads from non country listeners.
It’s the direct reason why ‘Cruise’ and ‘Body Like A Dirt Road’ set longevity records.
March 8, 2018 @ 10:27 pm
But that wouldn’t make sense.
The chart is supposed to be the measure of the hottest country songs. Not the hottest songs on country radio.
Mainstream radio play *would* indicate that the song is hot.
Body Like A Back Road was clearly “hotter” than a typical country radio #1 — in part because its reach spanned beyond country radio.
The issue comes down to what songs get classified as country. But once a song is classified as country, all consumption and radio play obviously should count.
March 9, 2018 @ 8:01 am
Yeah, I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around the argument. I mean, I get where Trigger is coming from, but it could really be boiled down to, “In a perfect world…” If you don’t want country songs to be considered for this chart, you would need those within country to raise a stink to be taken off of it, and that would mean they would be raising a fuss to be considered LESS IMPORTANT than pop, hip-hop, or any other form of commercial music. How does that help *anyone*?
March 9, 2018 @ 1:40 pm
Well, as you say, the issue is what songs get classified as country. Suppose some jerk last year decided, “Hey, let’s pretend Believer by Imagine Dragons is country! It’s more country than Sam Hunt, innit?” Without a spec of country radio play or other signifiers that it belongs in the genre, it would have rocketed up the country charts because pop and rock radio were playing it into the ground at the time.
That may seem like reductio ad absurdum, of course. But think of what we’re confronted with right here. Bebe Rexha is not a country singer, nor does she pretend to be one. The only reason it was put onto the country charts was because it featured Florida-Georgia Line. If that’s all that’s necessary, then why not also include that Hailee Steinfeld song that featured them a while back?
And from there, whatever you want can happen. Future Bebe Rexha songs without FGL may wind up on the country charts, simply because she’s been there before. And then whenever she’s featured on someone else’s track, that can get sent over to the country charts, and so on. I don’t think this can be dismissed anymore.
Mainstream play probably should count for something on the country charts, but only for actual crossover country songs (to the extent we still have those). Because if we’re entering an era where pop will be thinly masqueraded as country, and not just pop-heavy “country” singers, but actual openly pop singers, then this rule only enables such effrontery.
March 10, 2018 @ 1:23 pm
It all depends on which side of the fence one is shitting through.
March 8, 2018 @ 1:17 pm
Yes, actually. Becuase its NOT country. I have no problem with a song being catagorized by its musical content and not just by liberty of getting played on country radio.
March 9, 2018 @ 9:34 am
Why shouldn’t they exclude it? It’s not country.
As Trigger posted about some time back, Billboard excludes Green River Ordinance who is 1000x more country than Bebe Rexha:
https://savingcountrymusic.com/green-river-ordinance-excluded-from-billboard-country-charts-while-other-acts-go-unquestioned/
March 8, 2018 @ 12:01 pm
It’s such a boring song, too. Like I don’t see anything about this that makes it stand out, lyrically, musically, vocally, nothing. It’s just… there. How does generic, middle of the road sludge = record-breaking?
March 8, 2018 @ 12:26 pm
That’s par for the course across multiple genres of music over the past few years. My theory: the mono-genre that Trigger talks about is the 2010’s answer to easy listening music. Whether it’s a tepid tropical house song, a downbeat trap anthem, or in this case, lightweight MOR pop “country”, most modern music is designed not just as a melange of multiple genres, but as soporific and inoffensive.
March 8, 2018 @ 12:18 pm
But in the video she wears a flannel shirt, and the guy in the Challenger who picks her up hitchhiking is wearing one of those crunched-up souvenir stand cowboy hats. So I’m pretty sure that makes it okay.
March 9, 2018 @ 7:44 am
Its a shame she didn’t fall backwards out the window of that Challenger. As an aside, Chevy got really lazy with the Camaro styling. They just completely ripped off the Challenger.
March 8, 2018 @ 12:25 pm
The fact that we live in a time where an amazing true country talent like Kelsey Walden gets very little recognition (outside of sites like this one) but utter horseshit like this is breaking “country” records makes me sad.
March 8, 2018 @ 12:59 pm
Such little recognition, in fact, that even those who would laud her online spell her last name wrong!
March 8, 2018 @ 1:12 pm
Yeah I know its on not en. I didn’t catch the autocorrect.
March 8, 2018 @ 1:16 pm
Eh, just giving you shit!
March 8, 2018 @ 12:29 pm
Is she one of the Kardashian coven? Save a Bentley, ride a rapper?
March 8, 2018 @ 7:15 pm
hellavua thing happend to me the uther day went down to my favurite honky tonk win I got there a wite guy that thinks hes a rapper was runnin his mouth to all the good folks that frekwent the astableshment any how I had just about enuff of that shit n so I cock back to nock the dumass wite rapper out n outta no ware the owner of the honky tonk grabs my rist before Im able to nock that morons teeth out thats rite the owner who clames to care more about country music then any body lets wite rappers get away with runnin there mouths to his regulars without lettin em take up fur them selfs makes me feel wurse then an American livin in wunna thos sanktuwary sity
March 8, 2018 @ 7:55 pm
Dale, that is a sad story. A real sad story. I’m sorry you had to go through that. I had a similar thing happen to me at a honky tonk a few years back. Some out of town slicks were hogging the juke box and playing all manner of offensive noise. I talked to the sweet young thing behind the bar and got her to skip past all the “songs” the rabble had chosen. We finally got to something that wasn’t recommended for airplay and I felt much better. They whined and complained, but I told them that their best bet was to move on down the line.
March 8, 2018 @ 12:47 pm
The reason why stuff like this matters is because even if you don’t care nor listen to mainstream country music these people are the ones tat set the agenda that trickles down financially. If you like and respect the music of someone you should want them to be successful and reach as wide an audience as possible and make tons of money as that will mean that more artists like them will get the chance to do the same. And even if they don’t become superstars maybe they become successful enough to make a good living and continue to grow as artists.
It’s really simplistic and short sighted to just dismiss the mainstream as irrelevant.
March 8, 2018 @ 1:01 pm
Mmm hmmm. For all the talk about bro-country being dead, they’ve only lost about 5 spots out of any given Top Thirty chart. Why? Folks still pay for it / stream it.
March 8, 2018 @ 1:57 pm
No reasonable person would claim that country music hasn’t always had pop country songs and in fact some of what we now call classic country was in fact called pop country in it’s day (Patsy Cline for example). The difference is that in the past there was a balance of sounds where as now the poppier side has shifted farther from the middle and the countrier side has been pretty much eliminated from mainstream radio.
March 8, 2018 @ 5:42 pm
Oh no, I totally understand what you’re saying. There does seem to be a major disconnect with some folks who talk about how much they miss “real” country, and then start naming artists who sound like Count Basie played behind them on their biggest hits.
March 9, 2018 @ 3:18 pm
Isaac, I just googled “Count Basie violin player,” and got the late Claude Williams, who played guitar for the Count, but who also was accomplished on the violin and the banjo. So, unlike most current country music, Basie had a “fiddler / banjoist” in the band!!!
March 8, 2018 @ 5:38 pm
THIS observation is sooooo important ,Scotty .
Young folks / musicians /writers/singers are inspired and informed by what is ‘CONSIDERED’ to be good music and or lyrics . We’ve seen how radio in the past decade or more has spawned a generation of people TOTALLY convinced that they are listening to the best ‘country’ music around right there on the radio . They’ve been raised on this non-country science-fiction diet of directionless music bereft of substance , original music ideas and even talent . BUT the irrefutable fact is that they do support it ,pay to see and hear it and use it as influences in their own music endeavours .
Of course ( and I repeat myself,I know ) this is only a part of the bigger cultural issue : A Kardashian nation watching THE BACHELOR ,a half dozen talent shows , listening to mean tweets on Kimmel , judging people in the media rather than in court rooms and listening to whatever they’ve been force-fed musically . I won’t even mention the harm created by Trump in just over a year . Sure …this may only be a segment of the population …but its a HUGE influential segment .
We absolutely need to push back against this shit ….we need to support what our HEARTS know to be right and what we know is right for our kids …….on ALL fronts . We’ve never needed to be more culturally vigilant .
March 8, 2018 @ 5:51 pm
Young folks have always been influenced by what was a radio hit at the time they were kids, whether that means “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy” or “It’s Not Easy Being Easy”. Before the Kardashians, grown ass adults were watching ALF, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, and The Jerry Springer Show. Talent shows = Star Search and Showtime at the Apollo. Judging people in the media = a dude named OJ, and his buddies the Melendez’s. AND we were all listening to whatever was forced on us without the benefit of a streaming service or satellite radio.
Not to say you’re wrong! Just saying everything has been terrible forever.
March 8, 2018 @ 10:17 pm
you make a good point isaac….. its been going down the drain on a lot of fronts for a long time . for me , the ‘dumbing down ‘ seems to be getting exponentially worse .
musically speaking , as a young player I was inspired by an amazing array of talent -on MAINSTREAM radio …from Steely Dan to Merle to Stevie Wonder , James Taylor, George Jones , Randy and some amazing songwriting and musicianship . when I listen to mainstream radio today I can only feel sad that THIS is the stuff that younger aspiring talent may THINK is the good stuff…….especially where ‘country music’ is concerned . I want a young kid to hear a steel guitar ride and say ‘ WOW ! I WANNA PLAY THAT INSTRUMENT ” …not hear a drum machine and 3 les pauls strumming chords on 11 and a guy using a fake twang with a ‘radio personality ‘ calling it ‘ country music ‘.
March 9, 2018 @ 8:08 am
Well, first of all, let me say I am completely behind you on the fake twang. Living in Nashville, it makes my freakin’ teeth itch every time I go out to eat and have my Yankee server give me a forced “y’all”. CAN’T STAND IT!
I also hear you on the fact that it seems like there used to be overall better songwriting and musicianship on mainstream radio, but don’t sugarcoat the fact that there has ALWAYS been crap mixed in there as well. For every Tammy Wynette, there has been an Olivia Newton-John beating her for Best Country Female Vocalist.
It’s funny, I was just transcribing an interview last night that I did with the lead guy of the band J. Roddy & the Business, and he mentioned how they had noticed a few years back that any time they would tour Europe, bands with guitars and drums are now widely-considered “heritage acts” there. He sees that happening here as well. To paraphrase his words, it feels like it really boils down to kids not being angry enough to buy a guitar and play/sing really loud and mad.
March 9, 2018 @ 8:46 am
”……bands with guitars and drums are now widely-considered “heritage acts” ..”
”kids not angry enough.”…good observation .
the band “Yes” was recently interviewed and said..” music/songs today are all about a singer …selling a singer ..NOT the music or a great song ”
our smalltown local music store has stopped carrying electric guitars/amps and related effects pedal. the owner tells me acoustics are out-selling them AND his biggest sales are in school stage band instruments .
but yeah ….you sure hear a lot of dirty rhythm guitar in ‘country’ music . I saw Alan Jackson 2-3 years back and he lets his band HONK…… and makes sure you KNOW they are great players .
I can’t help but feel some of the pain the Big Bands must have felt when Elvis Buddy , the Beatles and Stones came along .
March 8, 2018 @ 12:47 pm
What a beyond infuriating joke!
As much as I despise Taylor Swift, and despite those 2 giving the impression they’re incredibly stupid, something inside me told me Florida Georgia Line was worse. A rage fills me everytime I see or hear them. For an “act” that comes off as so dumb, it’s unbelievable they’ve caused or been a leeway to so much erosion in Country Music. I had a spur in my side just from seeing/hearing them, and that was before the whole Billboard longest number ones list abomination. For the top 10 in that list to hold those records through all the lesser songs & downright garbage that’s passed through the last 50+ years was a miracle. Then those to nimrods annihilate the entire list & it’s like a real life episode of Punk’d or Candid Camera. Now a genuine whore who doesn’t even pretend to be Country & isn’t even taken seriously in her own genre is unabashedly bragging about being “The First Female In the History of Country Music” to this, this, and this?! It’s all just completely unfathomable. Just when you think it can’t get worse. I think we’ve all died and gone to hell
March 8, 2018 @ 1:03 pm
Just wondering, what makes her “genuine”? Have you seen her papers?
Also, Trigger: this is why a lot of folks are talking…
March 8, 2018 @ 1:35 pm
If this is your definition of hell, you’ve had a pretty good life.
March 13, 2018 @ 11:56 am
Who are you calling a whore Taylor Swift or Bebe Rexha? Also how did Taylor Swift get into this?
March 8, 2018 @ 12:59 pm
I know this is about Billboard and classifications and shit likes that, that I don’t know about, nor really want to, but what about the public’s role in this this. Even for pop, which I can at least appreciate if it’s well done, this is not good. Why are people eating shit like this up? I know that the forces that be help lead the public consumer in certain directions, but the public itself, including “country” listeners also bare responsibility for this. I think it speaks to a much larger problem about human beings, personally.
March 8, 2018 @ 1:10 pm
That’s the thing, for all of the talk about saving country music, there are plenty of folks in rural areas listening to their local country station calling up to request songs like this. It’s not new; I remember stations playing “Achy Breaky Heart” twenty or so times in a row as a stunt, saying as long as someone called up and requested it they’d play it again. The majority of the requesters really DID want to hear it that seventeenth time!
March 8, 2018 @ 1:28 pm
“That’s the thing, for all of the talk about saving country music, there are plenty of folks in rural areas listening to their local country station calling up to request songs like this.”
That’s not true. No. 1, there is no “request” interface with today’s country radio. It is all formatted from on high. Second, the reason “Meant To Be” is #1 is because it’s been boosted by spins on pop radio, and by streams and downloads from pop fans. Third, as I have diagrammed twice now, Bebe Rexha is directly benefiting from advantageous playlist slotting that has nothing to do with the measure of appetite in the public for the song.
Price Points & Playlist Manipulations: How Babe Rexha Gamed The System to Go #1 in Country:
https://savingcountrymusic.com/price-points-playlist-manipulations-how-babe-rexha-gamed-the-system-to-go-1-in-country/
The Inequalities Plaguing Country Radio Are Somehow Even Worse on Spotify’s Major Playlists (Bebe Rexa is proven to be a beneficiary) :
https://savingcountrymusic.com/the-inequalities-plaguing-country-radio-are-somehow-even-worse-on-spotifys-major-playlists/
March 8, 2018 @ 1:37 pm
…you don’t think that there are any radio stations that take requests? I mean, I understand you’re talking iHeartRadio and Cumulus stations, but there are plenty of just locally owned stations still out there in the wilds of God’s Country and shit.
March 8, 2018 @ 1:57 pm
Froggy 104.3 here in Pittsburgh takes requests. Don’t usually listen to today’s “country” radio but when I do people call in asking for songs to be played a few times over again.
March 8, 2018 @ 2:02 pm
Take them? Maybe yes or on their social media sites but does it really effect what they play? Doubtful.
Most of these big stations are programmed by some vice president of regional programming for the Great Lakes region or some other such thing. Not many big marker music directors have the autonomy to go way outside the lines.
March 8, 2018 @ 2:04 pm
You would have to define the station and if it’s an actual reporting station or not. You may be correct they take requests and everything but for chart purposes they may not be reporting to the major charts.
March 8, 2018 @ 2:16 pm
Oh Isaac, you have SO much to learn about the evils of the mainstream country music business.
March 8, 2018 @ 2:26 pm
I’m sure there are some radio stations out there that take requests for certain shows. But most don’t. Most programming is done from on high by corporations that own hundreds of affiliates. The point is not that a local station in Iowa doesn’t operate a request line. The point is it doesn’t make a significant dent in the data compared to shoehorning “Meant To Be” into every major playlist across multiple platforms automating plays of the song that then feed into the Hot Country Songs algorithm in a purposeful manipulation of the system.
March 8, 2018 @ 2:32 pm
Or they make it look like they play requests by playing some caller requesting the latest Thomas Rhett hit as the lead in when in fact the song was slated to be played at that time anyway. Therefore the gullible think they matter when in fact the vice president of regional programming for the Southwest region couldn’t care less what Tiffany and her fellow workers at Hansen Brothers Insurance want to hear.
March 8, 2018 @ 3:42 pm
Scotty is right. There are stations here in Chicago pull that “fake request” shit all the time. They play a recording of a “request phone call” from “Brittany in Highland Park” saying “can you play __________” fill in the blank with some shit pop song they were going to play anyway because the computer says it’s been 2 hrs 37 minutes since it was played and the sheeple actually think it’s a legit request they’re playing. In this day and age why would anyone have to request anything from a radio station anyway? Every song in the world is in the palm of your hand.
March 8, 2018 @ 7:17 pm
you’re a douche bag because you had to throw the Trump thing into your stupid comment
March 8, 2018 @ 1:00 pm
Y’all probably like Blake Shelton if your talking like that. BASIC! You dissing Bebe and Florida Georgia Line, and that’s where you crossed a line.
March 8, 2018 @ 4:45 pm
Someone ate one too many tide pods.
March 8, 2018 @ 4:47 pm
Also..*you’re*. Nah, I’m more of a Cody Jinks guy myself.
March 8, 2018 @ 7:56 pm
Cody Jinks, Ward Davis, Colter Wall, Jason Isbell and Sturgill Simpson, are true country music artists! You never hear of the great female artist like Sunny Sweeney and Ashley Mcbryde on mainstream radio. It’s really sad. This article is straight on point. Female artist are still struggling in Country music and this ridiculous, lame song….is only going to make things worse.
March 9, 2018 @ 10:00 pm
I actually have heard Ashley McBryde on radio in Nashville a few times. I think either Nash Icon or 103.3 🙂
March 8, 2018 @ 1:20 pm
I am annoyed that this song is selling so well because my gosh it’s horrible..
People have said that we shouldn’t be mad because it’s only country cause of FGL so don’t blame Bebe Rexha for it. Also because of her struggle at pop radio she’s equal to the many women who have struggled in country radio.
I hate people who defend this song as country as it isn’t and meanwhile many more women who are at least trying to be country struggle
March 8, 2018 @ 1:31 pm
YOU probably like Blake Shelton
March 8, 2018 @ 2:26 pm
No one here likes Blake Shelton very much
March 8, 2018 @ 1:26 pm
What’s happened is country music has become a bitch for artists that aren’t talented enough to fit into their respective genre.
Bebe Rexha=Pop
Sam Hunt=Pop/Hip-hop
Walker Hayes=Pop/Hip-hop
All the Bro Country artists (of which there are too many to list and I’m not going to waste my time doing so)=Pop/Hip-hop/Rap
Mitchell Tenpenny=Proves my point
March 8, 2018 @ 1:40 pm
Mitchell Tenpenny made radio programmers and Spotify playlist arrangers his “Bitches” when he released that stupid song. He proves your point exactly.
March 8, 2018 @ 5:53 pm
It hasn’t really gotten much radio play, has it? I’m asking this seriously. Please God, tell me it hasn’t!
March 8, 2018 @ 7:56 pm
Not really sure. All I know is last night on the radio I heard “We have a guest y’all are really gonna like. His name is Mitchell Tenpenny and we’re playing his new song at 8. Be sure to tune in!” Not a good sign
March 8, 2018 @ 8:02 pm
Yeah, he was a guest on WSM’s (“Home of the Grand Ole Opry”!!!) afternoon drive show a couple of weeks back. I have no idea what he was promoting, but it definitely wasn’t THIS song.
March 8, 2018 @ 1:34 pm
None of this should surprise anybody though. Nashville happily hands out record deals & promotion to anybody with a remotely decent amount of starpower. The principle that’s allowing bebe rexha to hold this record is also the one that has allowed people like Steven Tyler, Sheryl Crow, Aaron Lewis, Jana Kramer, Charles Esten, and many others who see country as a means of saving their flagging careers in other genres or a way to capitalize on their visibility on tv, to make records here and be “country artists.” The fact that Nashville’s more current production Style makes a lot of “country” music redundant in the face of Pop was something that was a long time coming, and even happened back in the 80s when everything sounded like Disco. The country industry seems to feel like pop or rock music’s lesser-known younger brother and I think that has a lot to do with the choices that are made at the executive level or in the production studio. They’re trying to get that pop/rock money and so they co-opt production styles or people who can make that happen.
The only problem with this in my mind is that Nashville is kind of like LA but worse, because they try to hide behind this idea that country music is somehow more legitimate than other forms because of its “honesty” and “integrity.” Maybe in some places it is, but not so much on the radio.
March 8, 2018 @ 1:39 pm
Man, Charles Esten has worked his ass off to be accepted by country folks, to more or less no avail. Hell, dude released 52 songs last year, and not a one of them sounded like a pop-reject.
March 8, 2018 @ 4:52 pm
I don’t really have a problem with Aaron Lewis.
I don’t think he did it to save his career.
I think he likes country music and is just growing into different things.
But that is just IMO
March 8, 2018 @ 5:54 pm
Yeah, I think he could make a significant more amount of money on tour with Staind, probably in theaters, rather than the bars I usually see advertising his current-at-the-time tours all of the time.
March 8, 2018 @ 9:18 pm
Don’t throw Aaron Lewis in that rant. He’s part of the solution and not even close to being part of the problem we’re talking about here.
March 8, 2018 @ 1:37 pm
Would love to see a “stock market crash” kind of thing here. Maybe if the song tops the Hot Country Songs, Billboard Hot 100, and Country airplay all within the same week then the charts will overload and crash and Country radio will finally implode. Then we could establish a better format if this song breaks the charts. Billboard will realize they screwed up by letting such a song top so many charts it doesn’t actually belong on, and then maybe we’ll see change. Ideally, it falls off the country charts next week, but there’s no forgetting about it now. It broke a COUNTRY record and that’s inexcusable. Something needs to break Billboards algorithms and methods and screw the system. Maybe this song will do it, then people will realize what kind of garbage they are impacting the country industry with.
March 8, 2018 @ 1:37 pm
Once upon a time, a record executive and a radio programmer watched the rise of Shania Twain. Dollar signs lit up their eyes.
“Why can’t country just be pop music?” said the radio programmer.
“People might notice,” said the record executive.
“Can’t we just get rid of real drums?” he answered.
“It’s a start,” said the record executive. “After that, steel guitar and fiddles.”
“Where are we going to find country artists to turn pop? Do I have to drive my Bentley down a gravel road?”
“No. We’ll just use artists not good enough to make the pop charts.”
“Won’t people notice?”
“Give them a cowboy hat. We can take that away later, along with those twangy damned Telecasters.”
“But what about older country fans?”
“Bunch of rednecks that don’t spend enough money anyway. To hell with them.”
“Hey, I know this guy named Sam Hunt…”
March 8, 2018 @ 1:41 pm
No lie, I was behind a Bentley a few weeks back in the drive thru of a Chick Fil A here in Nashville.
March 8, 2018 @ 2:08 pm
A WOMAN at the top with a hit tune and STILL you bitch?
March 8, 2018 @ 4:48 pm
Someone hasn’t been paying attention.
March 8, 2018 @ 2:22 pm
Once upon a time, country music was a bar with a sign on top that said “Country Music.” Then the bar changed ownership, the new owners didn’t like country music, so they programmed the new pop music they liked, and business continued much as before, just with less money. So they never took down the sign. When people complained, those people were told, “hey jackass, you gotta evolve!” The sign still hangs there. People still complain about it. Sometimes they get excited about little changes that happen inside the bar, but the new owners don’t care. Then everyone dies. The end.
March 8, 2018 @ 2:23 pm
What thou soweth thou shalt reapeth.
And everyone whining about the lack of women is sowing what they hath reapt.
Did I not say that the whining would only bring more trash like this?
Now then, please remind me why I should care about the state of the radio when I have a greatest hits of Kenny Price I can enjoy.
Because I don’t care about the radio.
I want to find new music for me, myself, and number 1.
and I’m number 1.
March 8, 2018 @ 5:56 pm
(People complain about the lack of women on country radio. This talk largely starts when this single has already been a hit.)
“SEEEEEEEEEE???!??!?!?!?? WHAT’D I TELL YOU?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?”
March 8, 2018 @ 2:34 pm
you want to know why this sits at number 1? This piece of crap is on EVERY FUCKING PLAYLIST, whether it’s a country or pop playlist. It’s right beside (or above) Brett Young and Keith Urban on country playlists, just under Ed Sheeran and Camila Cabello on pop playlists. It’s always among the top spots, it’s obviously recieving overexposure.
March 8, 2018 @ 5:58 pm
Please refrain from the Brett Young dissing. A buddy of mine has a song on this guy’s album, and he’s actually able to have a little walking around money as a songwriter, which is largely unheard of these days.
March 9, 2018 @ 2:00 am
sorry, where did I talk trash about Brett Young exactly? I love his music…
March 9, 2018 @ 8:10 am
Sorry! Whenever I see someone beside Keith Urban, I just assume they’re both getting shit on!
March 8, 2018 @ 10:29 pm
Eh, it was selling long before it was a single / received any meaningful exposure on the digital services.
I can’t say that I totally understand it, but it’s definitely connecting with listeners.
March 8, 2018 @ 2:51 pm
The day this invasion caused a Pop artist to go #1 on our charts, I called it the saddest day in Country Music history. It still stings just as much today and unfortunately it may only be the begining. I just try not to think about it too much because it is just depressing. I wish someone somewhere with an influence or following would have the balls to come out and say something about this.
March 8, 2018 @ 5:58 pm
Kenny Rogers?
March 8, 2018 @ 3:58 pm
Y’all are just pissed because a pop artist and a country artist made a song together. I just don’t get why your acting like it’s a fucking episode of the walking dead. If so… I call being Rick!
March 8, 2018 @ 4:49 pm
*you’re*
March 8, 2018 @ 5:34 pm
Please remind me, who was the country artist involved here?
March 8, 2018 @ 5:59 pm
The session player on the drum machine.
March 8, 2018 @ 4:53 pm
Fck off Trigg ur just a jelious hater, just cuz u dont like it doesnt mean others dont. Times change, music changes, and all there doing chasing there dreams—ooh look, a Tide Pod! Nom nom nom nom nom nom nom gucci gang gucci gang gucci gang gucci gang
March 8, 2018 @ 6:00 pm
I just caught Gucci Mane in concert in Nashville! Lesson learned: I’m too damn old for some things.
March 8, 2018 @ 4:57 pm
The 2010’s has been the worst decade in the history of country music, bar none; not saying EVERYTHING that has come out since 2010 has been horrible (2010-2012 had some exceptional stuff, until FGL dropped their debut and started the wave that everybody is currently riding), but this decade has seen a bonafide pop song with a “southern” twang become the longest-running number one hit in the history of the genre singles charts (“Body Like a Backroad”) and a literal female pop artist (obviously, Bebe Rexha) position herself to have the most successful female-fronted single in the history of the genre, despite her not even having a single moment of history within the country genre. At least Shania Twain teased the mainstream with some real country music before she crossed over to pop. My God.
March 8, 2018 @ 6:04 pm
Can’t speak on the longest-running number one bit, but here are some pop stars who crossed over to country, be it for a short or long time:
Tina Turner
Ray Charles
Jerry Lee Lewis
Conway Twitty
Kenny Rogers
When they let those long haired hippies in through the front door in the sixties and seventies, it was the end I tell you. THE END!
March 8, 2018 @ 9:28 pm
You forgot to mention Jewel’s failed attempt to crossover to country.
March 9, 2018 @ 8:12 am
Holy shit, I had completely forgotten about that, the failed attempt at become more pop is still echoing in my mind.
March 9, 2018 @ 9:17 am
add jessica simpson and yes even marie osmond to that list of carpetbaggers.
March 8, 2018 @ 7:26 pm
The 2010’s has been the worst decade in the history of country music, bar none
190-proof truth right there, bubba.
March 8, 2018 @ 5:18 pm
Can’t stand Florida Georgia Line….
March 8, 2018 @ 5:28 pm
She is Albanian,and has the longest #1 country song for a female!!
March 8, 2018 @ 6:05 pm
She’s from Albany, NY?!? Woulda expected a little more…meat on her bones?
March 9, 2018 @ 1:36 am
She’s from Albania not Albany NY. Probably she don’t know what a steel guitar is.
March 8, 2018 @ 5:35 pm
The emperor has no clothes.
But do we need an emperor?
March 8, 2018 @ 5:56 pm
This sounds dreadful
God, I miss Tammy, Loretta and Emilou
March 8, 2018 @ 6:27 pm
Omfg Shut the fuck up. It’s funny how you guys are so pressed that she’s popular with country music fans. Is she not allowed to chart on anywhere but the pop chart? You honestly are just embarrassing yourselves by being so obsessed with her and continuing to ignore people who you claim deserve the spot. Bebe remains unbothered and talented while the rest of these people remain irrelevant. Stay pressed while she slays.
March 8, 2018 @ 6:34 pm
Also since you’re complaining so much on why less relevant people aren’t charting, BUY THEIR DAMN MUSIC AND START PROMOTING THEM. like holy fuck you’re so obsessive over Bebe it’s actually hilarious. This is the reason why other country artists are failing, you’re obsessing over the stupidest shit. So stfu buy the other country music artist’s songs and promote them or stfu. Not bee’s fault she’s popular
March 8, 2018 @ 6:57 pm
I think you misunderstood. Nobody cares that she’s popular, the problem is that a POP singer, who never even claimed to be country, is breaking country records on the country charts on country radio with a POP song. I do buy my favorite artists albums. I go to their shows. I tell people about them. Does that mean that country radio will magically start playing them? No.
March 8, 2018 @ 7:41 pm
I bet you have trouble opening jars.
March 8, 2018 @ 8:10 pm
I’ll agree with FOYIF on this: changes in 2018 don’t come from angry blog posts and misspelled comments left below them. Someone (mighta been Billboard!) recently ran a piece on how acts have fans who put in full-time jobs worth of hours each week into promoting their music online, and that’s how a lot of new acts (like ol’ Bebe here) are making an impact. I love classic country, but the only chance of a major impact in pop culture coming from the memory of Buck Owens in 2018 is if a wacky .gif from Hee Haw goes viral.
Not happy about it, but for all of the rolling of eyes over the thought of country music evolving, there is something to be said for the concept of adapting. Be the change you want to see. Someone like Wayne Hancock comes out with a new album? Talk about that shit ad naseum, not just in one article, and then one Twitter and Facebook post. Etc etc etc, I’m on deadline, I gotta go.
March 9, 2018 @ 6:25 am
Me, I’m just looking forward to the day when Chinese restaurants evolve into burger joints.
March 9, 2018 @ 8:15 am
Trigger’s nightmare = my dream come true!
January 30, 2019 @ 6:40 pm
>>>Me, I’m just looking forward to the day when Chinese restaurants evolve into burger joints
It’s already happened in my area. Around here, there is one Chinese restaurant that advertises and serves “Chinese and American” food and has on their menu a bunch of Chinese stuff like Chow Mein, Chop Suey, fried rice, Tso Chicken, etcetera and “AmericanFood” like hamburgers, hot dogs, cheeseburgers, French fries, etcetera. Yet it is a Chinese restaurant with a Chinese name owned by Chinese people.
good restaurant.
But to bring this back on topic, at least they don’t serve ONLY American food while only advertising it as a Chinese restaurant with only Chinese food
or advertise it as only serving Chinese food while advertising it as a restaurant with only American food,
unlike what Billboard and the music industry is doing to country music advertising purely pop music as country music.
At least the Chinese restaurant is honest and doesn’t advertise their hamburgers and hot dogs as Chinese food.
Or their Chop Suey and Chow Mein as American food.
March 8, 2018 @ 6:57 pm
Right, she slays! ???? And FGL kills it! ????
Pretty sure that most of the blame isn’t being put on her…. if you read the whole thing. I do, however, personally blame people who think this “slays.”
March 8, 2018 @ 8:54 pm
Focus:
I hate you. I hope all the bad things in life happen to you and only you.
March 8, 2018 @ 11:47 pm
Geesh. People like you are the reason we still have directions on shampoo bottles. You’re completely missing the point and choosing to throw a cuss fit.
March 9, 2018 @ 8:17 am
True story: I read the instructions on every new bottle of shampoo I buy. Not even as a joke, but to see if THIS one is somehow different. Am I supposed to leave it in for a minute, etc etc.
March 9, 2018 @ 2:29 am
Well, FOYIF sure gave me an insightful first impression of what I now will consider to be the average Bebe fan. OMFGs and all.
March 9, 2018 @ 7:56 am
Anyone who thinks a Brooklyn, NY born Albanian pop singer is country shouldn’t be reading this site.
March 9, 2018 @ 8:18 am
Brooklyn has a hell of a country scene these days, no joke.
March 9, 2018 @ 8:59 am
And Doug Seegers is from the same island that Brooklyn is on (Long Island). He may even be from Queens (and so, NYC).
March 9, 2018 @ 9:38 am
Zephaniah Ohora, The Brother Brothers, Phoebe Hunt (from Texas, but living there.) Greg Garing. New York has a great hub around the Skinny Dennis right now.
March 9, 2018 @ 9:22 am
I’m pretty sure ALL of today’s country ‘stars’ are Albanian pop singers from Brooklyn NY.
Music Row oughta open a branch there .
March 8, 2018 @ 7:03 pm
This is what the article Trigger wrote said… “the new system, and where it threatens to erode the autonomy of the country format is how the country charts now consider radio play from ALL formats, not just country.” What idiot ever thought this was a good idea? Do Country Airplay spins count in the Latin or Rap charts? What a joke!
March 9, 2018 @ 11:49 pm
Yes, country airplay would in fact count toward a song’s position on the Hot Rap Songs chart. It wouldn’t count toward a song’s position on R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay.
For whatever reason, people seem to be missing that there’s a difference between the Hot Country Songs chart and the Country Airplay chart.
Hot Country Songs = hottest overall songs that Billboard classifies as country. It takes into account all formats of radio airplay, sales and streams. Pop airplay obviously contributes to the song’s popularity (“hotness”), so of course it counts.
Country Airplay = ranking of songs based on audience impressions at country radio.
March 8, 2018 @ 7:11 pm
What is this moron “Focus On Your Irrelevant Favs” talking about? No one hates Bebe Rexha, some people here might even like her, but that is so far beside the point its not even funny. We just dont want songs that are not country to be topping the “Country Charts”. The same as someone listening to Jay-Z or Kendrick Lamar, they dont want George Strait on top of the Rap charts just because Strait sent “All My Ex’s…” to all the rap stations and for some reason they are playing Strait’s music. Do you see how ridiculous that sounds? You probably feel dumb now, you’re welcome
March 8, 2018 @ 8:11 pm
Wait…is George Strait rapping in this scenario?
March 9, 2018 @ 12:57 am
My brain tried to conjure up that scenario and promptly crashed.
March 8, 2018 @ 9:10 pm
As already said by many others, this is just truly sad. I really do feel for the actual female country singers who’ve been trying make it in this business with little to no success, only to have something like this happen. It just has to be completely frustrating. On another note, I hate that this terrible song shares the same title with one of my favorite Sammy Kershaw songs.
March 9, 2018 @ 12:26 am
This is not the fault of the charts. It’s the result of pop country. Yes, the charts are making it easier, but billboard is the gun not the shooter. Nashville was the one to pull the trigger. This is what you get for having songs like What ifs and the Fighter being called country. The only difference between those songs and this song is that Bebe rexha never considered herself country previously. When you have artists using country as a stepping stone to pop your going to get pop artists using country to have their music gain popularity. It was bound to happen sooner or later the way nashvilles been acting, doing anything to get an extra dime. country mainstream will either become truly dead because of this or they will finally get their heads on straight. We all know it’s going to be the former. The almighty dollar and the lust for worldwide fame kills anything and everything that is supposed to come from the heart.
March 9, 2018 @ 12:46 am
I paused a Waylon song for a minute and played “Meant to be” for the hell of it. I got a short ways into it, paused it, went and threw up in the backyard, came back in, grabbed another beer, and resumed the Waylon song.
March 9, 2018 @ 6:32 am
Ugh, this noise has made it across the Atlantic. Heard it on the radio over here yesterday.
I can remember a time when our pop charts were distinct from yours, we had our own acts seasoned with a smattering of internationally famous US artists. Nowadays, give or take a week or two, and with the order being slightly different, our charts are pretty much the same as yours. Not only are we experiencing the mono-genre so often mentioned on these pages, it seems we have a “mono-culture”, where we are all fed the same grey mush into our ears.
Perhaps I should be glad that music is breaking down borders, but I’m not. It’s troubling. We our losing our musical identities and the musical landscape everywhere is becoming the same.
March 9, 2018 @ 6:40 am
100.0 KXRB in Sioux Falls South Dakota advertise as “Real Country” radio.
Made the switch to FM radio from AM about six months ago.
Also have put up about ten billboards around town with Alan and George on them.
Heard “Rose Garden” and “BBQ Stain” on my commute this morning – they usually keep a mix of new and old like that.
My point is…. not all is lost in this world.
March 9, 2018 @ 1:28 pm
92.1 Hank FM (KTFW) in Fort Worth plays a nice mix as well, with very little post-2010 country. I hear a Jerry Reed song most days, believe it or not!
March 9, 2018 @ 6:54 am
Trashy attractive blonde works behind the counter and pines for love and more. Where have I heard that one before? The numbers game here should convince everyone that the fix is in.
Burn it down and start over.
March 9, 2018 @ 8:20 am
The fix = universal common themes?
Also: trashy?
March 9, 2018 @ 8:42 am
Isaac, Trigger laid out the fix very nicely right here:
https://savingcountrymusic.com/price-points-playlist-manipulations-how-babe-rexha-gamed-the-system-to-go-1-in-country/
What you’re seeing is not what’s really happening. Spend some time with that article.
March 9, 2018 @ 7:03 am
Three seconds after vocals started. No further commentary necessary.
March 9, 2018 @ 8:01 am
But hey, a woman singer made it to #1. That is what we wanted.
Of course, as plenty of us were saying it means nothing because country music radio has a stupid problem.
March 9, 2018 @ 8:03 am
“But hey, a woman singer made it to #1. That is what we wanted.”
Bingo.
Nearly everything in culture becomes more unbearably awful as it becomes more feminized, but hey, lets strive for equality.
March 9, 2018 @ 9:45 am
I guess we ought not be surprised….after all, FL/GA Line collaborated with the Back Street Boys on God, Your Momma and Me resulting in a Number One “country song” and the Back Street Boys being awarded a gold record. Apparently it is their mission to completely destroy country music as we know it.
March 9, 2018 @ 12:17 pm
Okay, so a no-talent like Bebe Rexha can go straight to number one, while true talents like Ashley Monroe and Kacey Musgraves struggle to get their music heard in the mainstream? Makes a lot of sense. (Not.)
Fuck country radio.
March 9, 2018 @ 3:48 pm
I’m just waiting for Nicki Minaj’s new rap song to be released on “country” radio…
March 9, 2018 @ 7:22 pm
Shrinking revenue. They have to go big, which means no more genres at all. All commercial music will be reduced, like a bad cartoon, until it reaches the simplicity of porn. I give it ten years or less.
March 12, 2018 @ 11:04 am
I agree with this. The music mogul’s were so BLOODY slow to accept digital that other folks like YouTube, Pandora, Spotify, beat them to it. And now there is no going back because your average music listener wants there music for free. And no matter how shite the music the sound quality, the lyrics, the variety, or the service they will go where it is free (or at the least very near free), especially their target demo of 11 to 25 year olds. Especially when it comes to the kind of music you see on the charts.
And if people won’t pay for music then the music companies are going to invest as little money as possible in their product. There are a few exception where the artist mostly dictates the quality (i.e. Adele) but overall they just run it through the assembly line and fine it off with a computer backing track and boom fit to radio!
This is why I feel most mainstream music of of the big genres (pop, hip-hop, country, rock) can’t hold a candle to stuff from 10 years ago and that stuff pales compared to anything from the 90s, which I personally thought was mostly awful after about 1995 or so.
March 9, 2018 @ 10:02 pm
I might be the only one, but I actually have no idea who this Bebe girl is and I’ve never heard this song, although I have heard OF it. I try to avoid FGL whenever possible haha
March 10, 2018 @ 3:43 pm
now that taylor swift screwed the pooch, it leaves an opening for bebe
March 11, 2018 @ 8:03 am
Hey Trig first off, let me say your website and metamodern are the reason I now only listen to country music. I discovered both about 6 months ago after having abandoned the genre when Pat green moved to Nashvillle. This past October I started at the beginning of your website and skimmed every page from the FreeHank3 MySpace days all the way to this article. I wanted to get caught up on all I had been missing out on since 2006 (Straight to hell sent me in the opposite direction compared to most folks). Thanks to you the past six months were incredibly enjoyable. I was laughing my ass off and banging my head in agreement with you when what’s his name from the hustlas gave you shit for no fucking reason and then when xxx was a thing and that entitled Jennings guy thru his paranoid temper tantrum on down to the silly sexism bullshit that is currently being lobbed at you. And the only thing that I questioned bout you was (at this point you should tape down your pupils so they don’t go too far in the back of your head but please hear me out) your use of the term “carpetbagger”. Speaking as a sufficiently white ???? Dixie mothafucka I have to say, knowing how much you hate politics, I find it perplexing that you would use such a politically loaded term. I have no other issue with you, but every time you use this word it feels like a kick to the crotch of my Lily white klan robe. If for nothing else, shouldnt we avoid making it any easier to label us racist? Having said that, keep sticking it to those progressive, pinko, faggy (the modern definition of one who obnoxiously rides a loud motorcycle) scalawags!
April 10, 2018 @ 9:24 pm
This is so sick is not even funny anymore that a fuckin Albanian fuckin dork hair wants to be blonde is a Country singer this should be illegal the Country is going in wrong direction with all that mixt color p there trying to change American culture and music Bebe I hate U very dork complexion and I hate you’re voice.
January 22, 2019 @ 12:26 pm
My baby’s dad cheated on me a year ago new years with a gal that Looks n Acts just like her. A gal that was a h..n an addict that is/went around n was known n been around with the whole community. N what song was playing when they did it with..? Meant to be..
June 15, 2019 @ 8:38 pm
Wow y’all are dumb, Keith urban has been pop forever, Jason Aldean almost forever, lady A forever, Carrie Underwood is off and on. U think this chic is not country, but I bet u think t-shirt by Thomas Rhett is saving country. I hate FL GA line with a passion, but this song is better than most anything else out on radio right now. I MISS ME MORE??? Straight up Britney Spears clone. Gtfoh
June 15, 2019 @ 8:45 pm
“I bet u think t-shirt by Thomas Rhett is saving country.”
I’ll take that bet.