Why Kelsea Ballerini’s #1 for “Love Me Like You Mean It” is a Shallow Victory
Welp, problem solved right? There is no longer an issue of gender equality in country music since pop starlet Kelsea Ballerini has just secured a #1 spot for her current single “Love Me Like You Mean It,” and did so in a historic fashion.
Or is there?
The #1 on the Mediabase country radio singles chart marks the first time a debut single from a female artist has crested the chart since Carrie Underwood’s “Jesus Take The Wheel” in 2006. Or if you consider that Underwood also released a “Coronation Song” as part of her American Idol victory, then it’s been since 2004 and Gretchen Wilson’s “Redneck Woman.” Sam Hunt’s “Leave The Night on” and Maddie & Tae’s “Girl In A Country Song” were also recent debut #1’s, but “Love Me Like You Mean It” tackled the difficult obstacle of a solo female #1 debut.
However is this really the substantive victory we were looking for that would symbolize inroads into the sausage fest at the top of the country music charts? Unfortunately the story about the “Love Me Like You Mean It” #1 is more about radio politics, a specific and calculated push by connected people, and frankly, a pop song on country radio. Though the diversity is welcomed, the result is circumspect.
Taylor Swift was the first to give “Love Me Like You Mean It” a serious nudge up the charts with her early support of the song on social network. It probably doesn’t hurt that Ballerini’s father is a radio station sales manager, and probably knows the in’s and out’s of the business. But more specifically, recent spins on the massive Bobby Bones syndicated radio show were likely what put “Love Me Like You Mean It” over the hump. And isn’t it interesting that the Bobby Bones comedy band The Raging Idiots just signed to Ballerini’s label, Black River Entertainment. Yes, Bobby Bones has a record deal (and your favorite band still doesn’t), and Ballerini could have been a beneficiary of some home cooking.
But we don’t need to float any conspiracy theories here. In the aftermath of SaladGate, where radio consultant Keith Hill recommended country stations scale back their female representation, there has been a movement in the opposite direction by some program directors, and an artist like Kelsea Ballerini is the beneficiary. She became the artist they could point to and say, “See, we support women.” “Love Me Like You Mean It” didn’t shoot up the charts, it was pushed there by a bevy of forces.
READ: Disney Is Getting Into the Country Radio Business
But is this about equality, or is this about quality music? Because if it’s about the latter then Kelsea Ballerini’s victory is a shallow one. It also may give us a false reading on just what an uphill battle most female artists still need to climb, while others will point to the #1 to say gender equality has now returned to the mainstream and let their guard down once again.
The insistence in country radio should be for each song to be judged on its own merit, regardless of the sex of the artist. But in the case of Kelsea and “Love Me Like You Mean It,” this is a pop song that shouldn’t be played on country radio anyway.
June 23, 2015 @ 8:32 am
I didn’t know Old Navy commercials qualified as country music now.
June 23, 2015 @ 8:44 am
I wouldnt even call it a “victory”. A generic artist got a #1 hit with a crappy song, male or female that is bad for Country music as a whole.
June 23, 2015 @ 8:51 am
I really don’t like this song and wasn’t a fan of how poppy it sounded. Then this past weekend I heard a stripped down version with nothing to it and it sounded really good. She has talent, just hope she goes more country and if she wants to go pop she goes away successfully elsewhere.
June 24, 2015 @ 4:56 am
I like that. . .
Go country, or go away!
June 23, 2015 @ 9:01 am
Not a victory at all, only because it is so much garbage. She is not a terrible singer, but this is a terrible song.
June 23, 2015 @ 9:04 am
I know quite a few who have been clamoring for a female to hit #1 again in recent months just because the artist is female, regardless of the song itself.
You’d be surprised as to exactly how bat-excrement crazy in some communities some got when “Something in the Water” fell short of #1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart. Many shouted conspiracies as to what kept it from the top of the chart and maligned the male artists who kept it from the perch. And there are also many who insinuate Kacey Musgraves is entitled to massive airplay only because they point to the sales of “Same Trailer Different Park” and two of its singles.
As devastating as the whole #Tomatogate debacle is; while I obviously lament the absurd state of disenfranchishing female artists out of the gate because of what a small handful of pencil pushers insist on radio data and marketability…………………..the song is ultimately what is most important in the country tradition.
“Love Me Like You Mean It” is simply a terrible song to my ears. It’s terribly produced, lyrically it cozies up to some of the worst of the bro-country trend (quite revealing how she spends the verses bemoaning her previous disappointments in relationships, yet shouts “Oh hey, boy with your hat back, mmmmm I kinda like that!” in the opening line as though she values physicality above any demands she makes in the chorus), and vocally she has this annoying Avril Lavigne-esque brattiness that gets on my nerves.
The bottom line is, they had to dumb down a song written and performed by a female until it acquiesced with the bro-crowd in order to produce a breakout female radio personality. That to me isn’t a victory but, rather, a regression. A victory would have been seeing Mickey Guyton slice through the competition with “Better Than You Left Me” and go Top Ten. A victory would have been seeing Jana Kramer’s latest, “I Got The Boy”, go Top Ten (although its sales have been solid). A victory would be seeing Cam’s newly-released “Burning House” become a breakout hit (although the “On The Verge” backing from its onset sucks).
June 23, 2015 @ 10:44 am
“And there are also many who insinuate Kacey Musgraves is entitled to massive airplay only because they point to the sales of “Same Trailer Different Park” and two of its singles.”
Well even Keith Hill said country radio screwed up by not playing Follow Your Arrow and Kellie Pickler has great songs that belong at #1, so there you go. There are many reasons why country radio should play them and more women with great songs a lot more, at least to top 10-20. Anything less (#30-60) is bs.
June 23, 2015 @ 3:15 pm
The point I was making is that no one is entitled to heavy airplay just because has a more loyal and outspoken fanbase.
Lest we forget, most of the sales of “Follow Your Arrow” came courtesy of award show buzz and success. But during its actual radio run, sales were notably middling (though stronger than surrounding radio singles relative to its low airplay)………….much like “Biscuits”.
It was largely variables beyond Music Row, including crossover appeal and critical hype, why it went onto becoming a digital hit. But it didn’t make nearly as much noise when it was actually charting at radio. “Merry Go ‘Round”, in fact, remains her only single that became a hit through more conventional means of promotion.
June 23, 2015 @ 6:12 pm
“The point I was making is that no one is entitled to heavy airplay just because has a more loyal and outspoken fanbase.”
True and more importantly no one should be entitled to heavy airplay just because they have a pair of truck nutz and that’s about the norm for country radio. Maybe that’s why some communities went bat-excrement crazy when Something in the Water fell short of #1. It probably deserved #1 and got knocked out by some male songs that usually aren’t as good. But an artist sometimes not hitting #1 on chart B is nowhere near as bad as radio keeping women with equally great songs out of the top 20.
I noticed many of Kacey’s sales came from her TV performances and other promo but the same is true for many artists. Besides country radio overplaying men and keeping female spins at just 7-14%, I don’t see any reason why Merry Go ”˜Round couldn’t go higher and some of her other singles top 20. If Taylor hadn’t left, they probably wouldn’t have let Kelsea’s song hit #1. I can’t stand them playing just 3 solo females on a regular basis and really wish they’d stop the absurd disenfranchishing of female artists with great songs for any reason.
Most if not all of these recent singles, Biscuits, On To Something Good, Better Than You Left Me, I Got The Boy, and My Mistake deserved top 20. Did Bobby Bones play My Mistake and it didn’t sell? It seems odd that a ballad is replacing it when country radio hates playing ballads.
June 23, 2015 @ 2:06 pm
Couldn’t agree more. I’m all for more female voices on country radio, but not like this… :p
June 23, 2015 @ 9:17 am
But there’s ten seconds of banjo in the beginning and she kind of has a southern accent. Isn’t that what passes for country these days?
June 23, 2015 @ 9:41 am
And she’s blonde! 😉
June 23, 2015 @ 9:44 am
Not sure why you call her a “pop starlet” when she has had zero success on pop radio. Or is that just an offensive way to refer to ayoung woman whose music you just do not like? Newsflash: in order to be a pop starlet, you have to first be successful at having pop hits. The only hit she has is country so until she has at least 2 pop hits, i think you should refrain from referring to her as pop starlet. Just call her a singer. You guys are overkill calling young country women who you do not like pop stars whether they’ve had that success or not.
June 23, 2015 @ 10:00 am
Country is pop in 2015. Country is more pop than pop is. Ed Sheeran is more country than Kelsea Ballerini, or at least “Love Me Like You Mean It.” Meghan Trainor is more country than Sam Hunt. Just because Kelsea found her success in the country format doesn’t mean she’s not pop, it probably means she is. A derivative song like this could never hack it in the pop market at this point.
June 23, 2015 @ 10:35 am
And as it stands, “Take Your Time” is struggling right now in its so-called “crossover bid” for Mainstream Top 40 airplay………….despite stellar sales and strong callout statistics on the format.
It’s looking as though it will peak similarly to where Florida Georgia Line’s remix of “This Is How We Roll” with Jason Derulo will peak (around #25) unless it suddenly explodes.
June 23, 2015 @ 11:30 am
And this is yet another example of why Sam Hunt is shoe horned into the ‘country’ format.
He would not stand a chance of making it in the mainstream pop top 40 format. But country will take all the cast offs of other genres and make them stars. It’s so pathetic.
June 24, 2015 @ 10:38 am
Trigger. :A derivative song like this could never hack it in the pop market at this point.”
This may be the saddest comment I’ve ever seen on the current state of country music.
June 24, 2015 @ 5:02 am
Starlet
a young actress with aspirations to become a star.
“a Hollywood starlet”
Key word: Aspirations. She is exactly a pop starlet. Have a clue next time.
June 23, 2015 @ 9:44 am
The production of this song is what bothers me the most. It sounds so generic and dated. The lyrics aren’t great either but her vocals are pleasant enough. Maybe there are some good songs on her album but I’m not curious enough to find out. People keep calling her “the next Taylor Swift”. Well, “Tim McGraw” was a first single that made me want to hear more. And it actually sounded country. This song does nothing for me. Meanwhile, Mickey Guyton’s “Better than You Left Me” barely cracked the top 30. On a side note, Ballerini is on the Black River label owned by Terry and Kim Pegula who also own the Buffalo Bills and Sabres.
June 23, 2015 @ 10:31 am
It sucks that this had to be her first single, and the single that hits number 1, because she does have a good voice and some decent songs off of “The First Time”. I wonder if she’ll do what Eric Paslay did; establish herself with a catchy song, then release something deeper like Secondhand Smoke or First Time.
Just checked Wikipedia, and it says she’ll be releasing Dibs as her next single. I should’ve expected as much.
June 23, 2015 @ 10:45 am
I hope to review her album soon.
June 24, 2015 @ 4:00 am
Yeah, I’ve heard there are tracks on the album that are significantly more country than this, (in subject matter if not production).
Hopefully it’s just a matter of getting her foot in the door so she can be more country time, rather than getting her foot in the door so she can somehow be even more poppy next time.
June 23, 2015 @ 10:57 am
Two of the worst songs on the album. When people actually get to see what she’s made of, it will be an entirely different conversation.
June 23, 2015 @ 11:13 am
I have listened to a couple of the song mentioned as “good ones” and while they are significantly better than her radio releases, let’s not oversell it with this totally changing the conversation about her. It’s not like she wrote or stumbled upon the next “Sunday Morning Comin’ Down”.
June 23, 2015 @ 1:13 pm
I agree that they aren’t excellent, but they’re a giant step above this song. I just wish she’d release something beyond just shallow pop, and to me those are her best songs, even if they’re only decent.
June 26, 2015 @ 5:43 pm
I’d recommend to everyone, including Trigger, to check out some of her live acoustic performances. They’re actually country. lol
June 25, 2015 @ 9:13 am
WHAT are you talking about? How are you going to say this girl is any good whatsoever. I have heard her album and its just as bad as this single. How are you such a vagine that you think she is any good is what I don’t understand.
June 23, 2015 @ 2:33 pm
Its a terrific record …she’s a talented and unique-sounding singer …..it is very ” NOW” ….very pop . That’s the only issue I have with it . Every pop song that finds/buys/forces its way onto country radio is one less REAL country song that stands that chance- male or female . Its a pop song by a pop singer .
June 23, 2015 @ 3:16 pm
That’s my problem; she goes head first into pop. Her voice is fine enough, and she wrote every song on the album. There are some songs that show real promise. It’s the songs that go to a pop sound that are the worst to me. Dibs, Yeah Boy, and this song all suffer because they play into the sound of a poor Taylor Swift ripoff. Of course, those will be the songs forced to radio to fill the void left by Taylor.
Another issue is her songwriting. It can be good, for example in Secondhand Smoke (in case you didn’t notice I like that song a lot). It can also be really clunky and stupid, like in Yeah Boy and Dibs.
I really don’t know what to think of her at all. From her singles, it seems she’ll be a Taylor Swift wannabe. From her album, it’s a complete mixed bag. Her album is the equivalent of a box of chocolates; the chocolate could either be filled with caramel and nougat, or it could be filled with toothpaste.
June 23, 2015 @ 5:15 pm
Its apples and oranges as I and so many others see it .
Tony Bennett is arguably THE best living vocalist, purveying his style of song, in the world. I love Tony …I love his grasp of the craft , his control , his phrasing , his pitch , his live performance , his professionalism , his attention to detail and , of course , the gifted musicians he is associated with and the stunningly emotional and dynamic arrangements they serve up . As good as his music is in EVERY ONE of those areas , I DO NOT want to turn on country radio and hear them playing Tony Bennett ..much less CALL what he’s doing ” Country Music ” . It is not country music . And nor is Ballerini’s music , as talented as she may or may not be . The same measure that stops Country radio from playing Mr. Bennett and calling it ‘ country ‘ should be in place when it comes to playing Ballerini , Hunt , Luke Bryan , the Kruise Kids and about 50 others trying to scale the walls under false pretenses . But it isn’t . And the result of that oversight / mismanagement / lack of mission / will be the loss of an art-form ..REAL country music with traditional instrumentation , traditional and universal themes , mature musical ideas and performances which appeal to an adult demographic , attention to writing craft and most importantly the HEART in the song and the singer .
Have a listen to AJ’s ‘SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO LOVE ME ANYMORE ” written by Adam Wright and barely given radio exposure whatsoever yet garnering a Grammy nomination for BEST country song in 2013 -14 . Tell me you can’t feel Jackson’s pain in his performance and tell me we can’t ALL relate to that pain through broken-hearted puppy love or a couple separating at 60 years old . The lyric is authentic and serves the narrative and the pain ….not the drum loop machine . THAT’s a COUNTRY SONG from the steel guitar ride to the soaring vocals in the bridge to AJ’s masterful delivery of what should be a modern-day country classic in the making . If not for all the air space taken up by half-written songs for teenaged girls .THAT’S what pisses me off about what the industry tries to pass off as ” country ” music .
June 23, 2015 @ 10:32 am
I’m happy to see a woman hit #1 but not at all happy about country radio because even if Kelsea continues to hit #1 or top 10, at best all this does is refill 1 of 3 solo female slots Taylor left. Allowing room for just 3 solo females at the top is a major problem and why they’ve kept Kellie Pickler out of there for 8 years. They have a long way to go to fix their saladgate female airplay problem and no woman hitting #1 once or 10 times comes close to solving it. When I see many more than 3 solo women hitting top 10, 20 and #1 much more often then I’ll get excited and listen. The problem is the constant low percentage of airplay (spins) country radio allows all women combined, which is only about 7-14% including groups with female voices. Meanwhile men always get about 85%. And the female percentage never increases even when it definitely should, mainly when women release singles from the best albums of the year like Kellie, Ashley Monroe and Kacey Musgraves did. Kellie earned her first #1 at least 11 singles ago but so far radio hasn’t allowed that to happen plus they kept her 6 latest out of the top 20 and they’ve been doing the same to Kacey. I need and EXPECT to hear more country-leaning women on country radio (Kellie, Kacey, Ashley, etc.) and there’s no reason why they can’t play them along with Kelsea. Make the newer and brand new male acts wait their turn for a change before making them #1 before more established women with equal and better songs.
June 23, 2015 @ 10:37 am
Well, I put the video on see I could hear the awesome #1 hit song Kelsea Ballerina….
But, instead a pop song came on sung by some young pop tart. I heard computers, sampled instruments and lyrics written by a 12 year old girl. It was really awful!!
Could you please post the #1 country song which you meant to post.
Thanks
June 23, 2015 @ 10:49 am
This is the question I would like to know, if you all so believe this was a calculated and politcal push, what makes Kelsea Ballerini the chosen one over any of the many many many other young, pretty, hair swinging, eyelash batting girls singing country-pop songs I have seen try to break through over the last the few years?
June 23, 2015 @ 10:57 am
Timing, timing, timing. For her anyway the whole controversy around that consultant dude’s comments couldn’t have come at a better time with her song within striking distance of the top. Now all the radio types can say ‘see we play women’ and then move on to the next Cole Swindell or Thomas Rhett song.
June 23, 2015 @ 11:33 am
No the fact that this tomato bullshit came about was timing in the sense that it happened to come while she released her first single. I was telling the world that this girl was gonna be the next Taylor Swift longg before all this females on the radio drama was even talked about. Hundreds of other females have tried to come through but the problem has been that they don’t have IT. But its unfortunate that when she does get to that level that there will be people who will try to say its because of this nonsense.
June 23, 2015 @ 11:38 am
Sorry I didn’t know that some random internet commenter was telling the world about her.
Your over the top sell job looks kind of fishy to me.
June 23, 2015 @ 11:50 am
I was hoping Trigger would answer the question because he knows I’ve been waiting for this conversation to come up for a long time.
June 23, 2015 @ 12:09 pm
I don’t really have a good answer for you Anthony. I do think timing probably had a lot to do with it, and so did probably knowing the right people. But we’re still very early in the Kelsea narrative. It’s usually easier to look back and determine how something like this happened than it is when it’s happening.
June 23, 2015 @ 1:15 pm
Fair enough. I hope people do give it that time to see where her career goes instead of assuming right away that it came into fruition because of all this controversy. I’ve seen hundreds of females put out EP’s over the years and try to break through the ceiling and when I saw Kelsea Ballerini for the first time which was around the time she was about to release hers, I knew she was head and shoulders more talented than the rest and going to shatter that ceiling. So its difficult for me to sit here after coming to that conclusion back then and becoming a fan really, and now have to listen to such things. I knew I would have to fight in order to give her some kind of support on a platform like this especially if they have a business plan in mind which there is nothing wrong with if it gets her where she needs to be in order to showcase her talent.
June 23, 2015 @ 11:16 am
I believe the difference is Miss Ballerini’s connections and the endless resources of her label. Don’t get me wrong, I actually love her album and I hope this forced/heavily pushed #1 gets her more attention and subsequent album sales, but this #1 was bought and paid for through heavy promotion by her label and connections with people in the radio industry like Bobby Bones. I do not know how long Kellie Pickler has been with the label or why they haven’t pushed for her like they have with Kelsea, so I can’t answer why she hasn’t been afforded the same advantages. I did read that Kelsea toured with Bobby Bones’ band, so she does have a personal connection there, in addition to now being label mates at Black River.
Also, I do think the musical style/lyrics of her song are much easier for the current country radio audience and programmers to digest. It fits in quite well with bro-country and really does a good job of filling the Taylor Swift vacancy. Personally, I find the song catchy and I don’t get too caught up in the current state of country radio. If I like what they play, I listen and if I don’t, then I find something I like somewhere else. Music evolves and a lot of what used to be pop and rock doesn’t fit on Top 40 anymore, so it has slowly filtered into country. Current country artists grew up listening to hair bands, Madonna, and the Backstreet Boys, so you can’t expect the music they put out to stay the same. A lot of the more progressive country artists are too somber for my tastes. I honestly can’t stand Kacey Musgraves’ music and it has nothing to do with me not having a history of listening to country. Her subject matter is just too depressing or too socially conscious.
So, yes, country music today is “popular” music. So, if you want more traditional lyrics and instrumentation, go listen to Spotify or Pandora and leave mainstream country radio alone. I personally don’t think it’s an exposure issue. If country radio started playing more Kacey Musgraves, more Brandy Clark, or more Sturgill Simpson, I would change the radio station (and yes, I have listened to all of their albums). The closest artist to “traditional” country that I like is Chris Stapleton, because his music is more bluesy/southern rock/outlaw country. I try to give more female artists and more traditional music a chance (I’m a women in my mid-30s), but I just don’t like most of it. It all sounds like music that should have been out in the 60s and 70s – two decades of music that I mostly hated.
June 23, 2015 @ 11:35 am
‘go listen to Spotify or Pandora’
Yeah but why can’t you do that? Why does a decades old genre of music have to be completely altered just because you don’t like it? And it’s fine if you don’t but let’s not put the blame on the long time fans of the genre and make them out to be the ones trying to change everything when it’s you that wants to alter the historical trends of country music.
June 23, 2015 @ 11:43 am
So you hate Country music, Stacey; fair enough.
I, as a lifelong fan of Country music, don’t want or need you or your kind as a fan of my music. It’s YOU, and the rest of the dumbed-down masses that need to leave Country music alone.
Country music needs to go back to being a music for the people who like it.
Like the Fuzzmeister said a while back: “If your favorite Chinese restaurant started serving microwaveable cheeseburgers, and told you it was the evolution of Chinese food, you wouldn’t be very happy would you?”
June 23, 2015 @ 11:47 am
It’s kind of like if someone started squatting in your house and then they redecorated the entire thing and when you said that you didn’t really like what they have done to the place and their response was to tell you to move to a smaller house in another part of town.
June 23, 2015 @ 11:51 am
I guess I’m just saying that there isn’t any music out there that sounds the same way it did 20, 30, 40 years ago, so why do you expect country music to stay the same?
June 23, 2015 @ 12:07 pm
Other than Clint, bless his heart, not many people that comment here expect country music to stay the same forever but it has completely deviated from it’s roots and I can’t see how anyone can honestly dispute that.
June 23, 2015 @ 12:11 pm
But in all fairness to Clint, he considers country music to be his lifestyle. Many of us do, but he’s bitter because he sees the alienation of true country music from the mainstream as representative of a destruction of his culture and the world going to hell, to hear him say it. Everybody has a time, place, aesthetic, etc. that they consider the ideal point in their lives and would readily return to. Clint is just angry when expressing his own. Or at least that’s how I’ve learned to read what he has to say.
June 23, 2015 @ 11:57 am
Look, we can certainly disagree on what we think should be played on country radio, but why do insults need to be hurled? I have listened to country music since I was a child. I adore Conway Twitty, Vince Gill, Patty Loveless (although she has had some cheesy, stupid songs in the 90s), Dwight Yoakam, Tracy Lawrence, etc, but I am a fan of most genres of music. Country had some pretty stupid songs in the 90s and it isn’t just the bro-country songs that have brought it down. I mean, I like some of Dolly’s songs, but she had some disasters like Romeo too. Patty is an amazing vocalist, but her Elvis song grates on my every nerve. I can appreciate good country music. I adore Brad’s Whiskey Lullaby and When I Get Where I’m Going, but he also has some seriously cheesy songs like Online that are cute at first but then annoy you. I like good light-hearted music that you can listen to when tailgating at the Saturday college football game, but I also like Chris Stapleton, a great country ballad, or I go listen to alternative/rock music like Hozier if I want something deeper. I just don’t understand why traditionalists are all over bro-country when some of the country music that was out in the 90s was just as bad or worse – Lonestar’s Mr. Mom anyone? Watermelon Crawl? Trace Adkins….anything except his ballads? Do you have a problem with that type of country too? I get that Brandy, Kacey, Sturgill, and others like them may make music more like the country music of the 60s-80s and perhaps that is what you consider country, not from the 90s on, but that music is 30 years old. Rock doesn’t sound the way it did 30 years ago. Pop doesn’t sound like it did 30 years ago. Why should country?
June 23, 2015 @ 12:04 pm
Because there is no balance. Yes country has always had some country pop in it but it has always been just a part of the spectrum now it is the entire spectrum. How many songs like ‘Whiskey Lullaby’ or ‘When I Get Where I’m Going’ have been big hits in the last few years? Virtually none is the answer. And just telling people to get out and go listen to Spotify is pretty damn arrogant.
June 23, 2015 @ 12:12 pm
See this comment thread is another great example of why the country format needs to split. One format for the current Top 40 country, and one that mixes in older country, more independent country, and some of the new stuff as well. Let’s get this done and end the culture war that country music has become, and give more time and attention to worthy artists.
June 23, 2015 @ 12:25 pm
I can’t seem to reply directly to you, Scotty, so I had to reply to my own post. I don’t mean to be arrogant and I realize that by posting in the comments here, I am having a conversation with people who are much more serious about music (country or otherwise) than I am. I have never been one to care whether country or any other genre stays true to its roots. That’s why I said, I listen to what I like, I occasionally try something new on others’ recommendations, but at the end of the day I don’t get hung up on what’s played on any radio station. So, yes, I do feel that if people don’t like what is playing on country radio or pop radio or alternative radio, they should just change the channel or find another source for the music they do like. I don’t blame artists or radio for trying to make money from a dying media outlet. Why do I care what country radio plays when I can make my own station on Spotify or Pandora with less commercials and skip the songs I don’t like? Even on the free version, I have some control over what I listen to.
June 23, 2015 @ 12:42 pm
I’m not that far off from you Stacey I too listen to other kinds of music but when I listen to country music I want to listen a form of country music that is true to the genre historically not other kinds of music that I like imported to the country station. And while radio may be dying it is nowhere near death and will be around as a major factor for a long time to come and it is still a huge shaper of trends in all forms of music but especially country music which has always been far more associated with radio than other genres.
June 23, 2015 @ 12:47 pm
Stacey,
The cheesy songs of the 90’s were exceptions to the norm. They are called novelty songs, and they have been released by mainstream Country acts, on occasion, since Country music’s commercial birth in the 1920’s. In 2015, novelty IS the norm, not the exception.
More to your examples, I never considered Lonestar to be a traditional country band. Watermelon crawl may have been corny lyrically, but it sounded Country and spoke about rural life without using the same old tenets the modern C-rap songs use. I agree about Trace Adkins. He managed to waste one of the most beautiful bass voices I’ve ever heard on a career of novelty trash; it’s a shame.
What I “consider Country”, is not based on an era; it’s based on a sound. To me, the early nineties was a great time for Country music; it seemed to start it’s decline around 1995.
Urban musical styles, that were created by and for people with no ties to southern or rural America, are now the dominant sound on “Country” radio; that’s the problem, and wasn’t the case in the 90’s.
I wasn’t trying to hurl insults; I was only trying to give my opinion in a matter-of-fact way. I found it insulting that you told me I should have to listen to Pandora to hear the music I like, when you’re the interloper, not me.
June 23, 2015 @ 1:00 pm
Pop doesn”™t sound like it did 30 years ago. Why should country?
I have said it before and will say it again: while I do understand and agree that country music shouldn’t sound now like it did in 1985, I don’t understand why the evolution of the genre has to be Florida-Georgia Line and Sam Hunt as opposed to Aaron Watson and William Clark Green.
June 23, 2015 @ 1:12 pm
Clint,
As I said in my reply to Scott – I choose to mainly listen to Spotify, Pandora, or my own music collection. That is why I don’t care too much what any radio station plays. I suppose you consider me or people like me interlopers, but the real problem is the music industry and radio executives. Perhaps if Kacey or Brandy or Sturgill or Chris Stapleton were played on “mainstream” country radio more, more people would hear them and like them and buy their albums and then others like them could get more airplay. I have no idea if it’s the supply or the demand that is the problem. I think it’s a generational thing. Granted, I have good friends who say they can’t stand what country has become, but it’s all lip service. In one breath, my friend says she hates the state of country music and in the next says she likes Luke’s latest song, Kick the Dust Up. I may be a fan of current country music, but just like the music in the 90s, that doesn’t mean I like every song. I like Luke and loved him best when he sand “Do I”, I like some of his bro-country, but I hate his newest single. I like most of Kelsea’s new album, pop flavored as it is, but I hate that her next single is Dibs, because there are parts of it that sound like the pop singer Kesha, which I hate. I personally don’t see why the two styles can’t co-exist on country, but I guess it all comes down to money and what sells. I guess I just don’t appreciate being called an interloper. I’m not the one making the music or the one programming the songs on the radio. If they play it and I like it, I listen. If I don’t like it, I change the station. I don’t even buy music anymore except for a select few artists (Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert, David Nail, and recently I bought Chris Stapleton to support a fellow Kentuckian). I haven’t bought an album by another artist in years. I know there are a lot of people out there upset that country has become another home for urban beats/EDM music and I don’t know what to tell anyone to do about it. I have a neighbor that has been playing country music for years and probably could have had success in the 90s/early 2000s and he recently announced that he’s tired of the industry – he said he has changed, the music has changed, and he is retiring. I’m sure it isn’t easy for some to accept the changes in the genre and I do wish there was more variety, but until someone stops making money off of bro-country it isn’t going to change.
June 23, 2015 @ 1:17 pm
The difference between now and the 90s is that it’s not just a handful of dumb songs every year amidst a majority of good ones. Dumb bro songs and stuff like this or Sam Hunt that don’t even remotely sound country are the majority now, to the extent that artists who sound too “country” don’t even get played. On country radio.
Why do I still care about radio with all the online options? Well, radio has been a part of the cultural landscape for most of my life. It was a way to hear new music and old favorites and feel a connection to the music scene. I don’t feel that connection anymore just listening online; it’s more isolated. I still care because country artists like Chris Stapleton and Kacey Musgraves and manymanymany others can’t get the widespread exposure that radio offers. Also, it kinda bothers me that so many people are buying into such empty, soulless music. As the quote at the top of this website so beautifully states, “When a culture’s music is lifeless, that culture is bound for more trouble than just having nothing decent to listen to.”
As much as I loved the early 90s, I don’t expect country music to always sound like that. But I do expect it to still sound like country music. Real live instruments and vocals, not electronic beats and over-production that washes every bit of soul out of the music.
June 23, 2015 @ 1:21 pm
Or, short version of my long post: It’s kinda like if every song in the early 90s suddenly had to sound like Achy Breaky Heart, because that’s what sold.
June 23, 2015 @ 1:21 pm
Great comment Melissa this is what I’ve been trying to say.
The first one that is though the Achy Breaky one was OK too. 😉
June 24, 2015 @ 4:11 am
Insults need to be hurled because Clint needs to hurl insults.
Because Clint.
June 23, 2015 @ 1:56 pm
Clint, I have two questions if you’ll indulge me:
1. Who are you favorites from the ’90s, aside from Mark Chesnutt?
2. Why is it that you only comment on the negative articles around here? Trigger covers PLENTY of real country music daily. Sure, there’s the odd Americana acts like Jason Isbell and Justin Townes Earle, but for the most part he puts a lot of genuine country out here. It seems like those articles never garner your attention. Why?
June 23, 2015 @ 2:31 pm
Sure A.D.,
1. In no particular order:
Travis Tritt
Alan Jackson
Tracy Lawrence
Doug Supernaw
Vince Gill
George Strait
Clint Black
Patty Loveless
Joe Diffie
Doug Stone
Brooks & Dunn
Sammy Kershaw
Tracy Byrd
David Ball
Ken Mellons
Daryle Singletary
Confederate Railroad
David Lee Murphy
Diamond Rio
George Jones
Marty Brown
Royal Wade Kimes
Dwight Yoakam
Shenandoah
Rand Travis
Aaron Tippin
John Anderson
Blackhawk
Garth Brooks pre-’93
Wesley Dennis
Trisha Yearwood
John Michael Montgomery
Chris Ledoux
2. I’m currently a very negative, bitter person. It feels good to get things “off my chest” so to speak. I could probably go into more detail if this short answer isn’t enough.
June 23, 2015 @ 3:34 pm
1. Man, seeing so many of those names for the first time in years just makes me sad. Of course, every era has acts that don’t make it through the decade and the ’90s was no exception, regardless of what factors led to an them petering out. Nonetheless, you named quite a few of my favorites as well. What do you think of Ricky Van Shelton?
2. Feel free to elaborate should you feel the need. I don’t want to badger anyone for personal details but if you’re willing to share of your own accord go right ahead and I’ll read. I’m sorry you’re at such a point in your life that you’re so bitter, by the way. I myself have struggled with similar issues for years.
3. By the way, I forgot to ask: do you happen to live in Arkansas? You commented elsewhere on SCM about visiting a part of the state and I got the impression it was where you reside (I’m an Arkansas boy myself).
June 24, 2015 @ 8:43 am
I love Ricky Van, but I was thinking of him as an 80’s act, not 90’s; he had his first hit in ’86 and was pretty much off the charts by ’92. That’s a shame by the way; I never understood why his career died out so suddenly.
It would literally(in the correct sense of the word, not the modern misused sense) take a couple of hours for me to explain all the reasons for my bitterness. I’ll just tell you that the entire world seems to be going to Hell in a hand basket, and to make matters worse, I can’t even hear a Country song on the dad-blamed radio.
Yes, I am an Arkansawyer.
June 24, 2015 @ 10:35 am
Sorry, I tend to forget that his radio career petered out so quickly in the ’90s. He only released two albums in the ’80s and six in the ’90s, so that’s why I consider him to be a part of that era as well (by the way, I’m only counting studio releases of mostly original material, not compilations or Christmas albums). His last top 20 hit was in 1994 with “Where Was I” from A Bridge I Didn’t Burn.
One of my favorite childhood songs was his 1994 single from Love and Honor called “Wherever She Is.” I still have the cassette single I used to wear out in my dad’s old pickup, and it spurred me to collect all of his albums last year. I agree, it’s a shame he sort of fell off the map, but as I recall alcohol had a thing or two to do with that. That album I just mentioned also didn’t do as well as his previous releases, and this was right when Garth was going more pop and Shania was getting big, so he was being pressured to go with a more refined sound that he didn’t like. As a result, he asked to be released from his contract with Columbia.
Afterwards, he released a Walmart-exclusive album called Making Plans in 1997 (one of the first artists to ever do that sort of thing) that didn’t make much of an impact. He then released one more studio album with Fried Green Tomatoes in 2000. It goes without saying that his indie status and traditional sound all but ended his radio prominence at that point. I emailed his wife a few months ago and she said that he didn’t have any plans for any new material, so he’s effectively retired at this point, live or otherwise.
I notice that you also listed John Michael Montgomery, another one of my favorites. Do you happen to care for his brother’s output with Montgomery Gentry? Their most recent songs kind of stink, but I mean before that?
Also, if you can pair down your story into a somewhat condensed version, I’d love to hear what you have to say.
June 23, 2015 @ 12:28 pm
“There isn”™t any music out there that sounds the same way it did 20, 30, 40 years ago.”
Except for the biggest song of the year in any genre, which sounds a lot like a 1970s funk song. And the biggest song of 2013, which sounds so much like the 1970s that the people behind it have been forced to pay the original artist.
June 23, 2015 @ 1:15 pm
^^^^^This^^^^^
June 23, 2015 @ 12:30 pm
Current country artists grew up listening to hair bands, Madonna, and the Backstreet Boys
Yes, we know this. All of these influences shine through in all their disgusting glory. So it’s obvious they never liked country music, which leads to the question of why they didn’t try to make it in these other genres as opposed to redefining country music out of existence as was done with modern rock in the aftermath of the grunge movement.
June 23, 2015 @ 1:17 pm
I think the difference is that they liked all types of music. Personally, I grew up on country and granted, I’ve had times of my life where I didn’t care for it (mainly as a teen), but I also like R&B, pop, alternative, rock, etc. I adore Conway Twitty, but when I was a teen I loved Keith Sweat and Usher and Backstreet Boys. Today, I adore Miranda Lambert, Mumford, Hozier, Carrie Underwood and David Nail, but I also like Taylor Swift and Adele. I suppose if the current country artists only ever listened to Waylon and George and Tammy and Loretta, then their music would sound similar, but like me, they grew up listening to everything so it’s all influenced their music. Plus, even though you may say what’s out now isn’t country, it isn’t exactly strictly pop or rock or R&B either, so where should it be played? You can maybe say it shouldn’t be played at all, but someone somewhere likes it and is buying it and is paying to see these artists in concert. I haven’t studied popular music history enough, but perhaps the trend of country music borrowing influence from currently popular music is new and that is what people don’t like.
June 23, 2015 @ 1:59 pm
they grew up listening to everything so it”™s all influenced their music.
I don’t see that as a valid excuse. I listen to a lot of heavy metal anymore, Judas Priest, Ozzy, Maiden, that sort of thing, right along with the classic and Texas country. But if I was going to call myself a country singer I would leave the metal on the bus and bring the country music on the record. Hell, Aaron Watson admitted to listening to and enjoying Sam Hunt, even as he said Hunt’s album was the least country things he’d ever heard. I’m sure he’s not the only one. But he sounds nothing like Sam Hunt. And then there was the Dixie Chicks’ response via Natalie Maines when they were asked to remix “Landslide” for pop radio:
“We listen to those other stations, and we’re fans of that other music…but we’re trying to bring country back to country.”
I don’t see why that’s not how it should be done.
June 24, 2015 @ 4:26 am
Right on, Stacey. I don’t trust people who claim not to like I Want it That Way or Everybody.
Pistolero: a lot of what people like to bitch about in modern music is the lyrical content, which is essentially a country-fied version of early 2000s party rap/pop/R&B. It’s an attempt to co-opt and bleach hip hop culture, haha.
If you were a country singer, can you really say that you wouldn’t bring in some of your metal influences lyrically? And wouldn’t you be more guitar-centric than many country acts (think Copperhead Road)?
June 24, 2015 @ 6:58 am
I might go that route now and then. CR-era Steve Earle is not a bad thing to emulate. But I’d mostly want to do more straight-ahead traditional music stuff between, say, the George Strait-Jason Boland and the Stragglers continuum.
June 24, 2015 @ 9:44 am
Fair enough. You also have to factor in that this is a business, first and foremost. It’s about money, not making music.
Over the last couple of years, country has successfully co-opted the party rap audience, i.e. the people who think of Ice Cube as the guy from Are We There Yet and of Willie Nelson as that old guy who smokes weed, and think that “Candy Shop” is old school hip hop. Country is now the chill-out music of choice for that crowd, which is frankly an impressive (and unfortunate) accomplishment by the Nashville crew.
June 24, 2015 @ 9:52 am
it isn”™t exactly strictly pop or rock or R&B either, so where should it be played?
So it’s okay to call it “country” solely because it allegedly doesn’t fit anywhere else?
And from what I’ve heard of the likes of Sam Hunt and Florida-Georgia Line, they at least sound pretty pop to me. A hell of a lot more pop than country for sure. The only thing that even hints at FGL being country is Tyler Hubbard’s accent.
June 23, 2015 @ 1:20 pm
I find it ironic that the same people who push for country music to “evolve” are the same people who buy the same songs about girls, beer, and trucks over and over again. You keep saying that country music needs to change, but in the mainstream, song lyrics are virtually identical.
June 23, 2015 @ 1:59 pm
Well said! 😀
June 23, 2015 @ 2:56 pm
“…but this #1 was bought and paid for through heavy promotion by her label and connections with people in the radio industry like Bobby Bones.”
So is EVERY single that goes anywhere because that’s how radio works and other labels said they spend $1.5 million or more to get a single to #1. Bobby Bones played what his bosses and programmer programmed as usual plus maybe some extra spins like radio does for men. He also started playing Buy Me A Boat and Burning House.
“I do not know how long Kellie Pickler has been with the label or why they haven”™t pushed for her like they have with Kelsea, so I can”™t answer why she hasn”™t been afforded the same advantages. I did read that Kelsea toured with Bobby Bones”™ band, so she does have a personal connection there, in addition to now being label mates at Black River.”
The Woman I Am (2013) is Kellie’s first album on Black River and they promoted 3 singles from it to radio. They also promote Craig Morgan and got some of his singles to around #13 because he’s male so radio isn’t keeping him out of the top 20. Kellie’s singing and music is better and more critically acclaimed yet radio didn’t let her 6 latest singles in the top 20 because she’s a woman. They started keeping her out of the top 20 when she was with Sony, a full album plus 1 single before she went to Black River. That’s 6 singles promoted by 2 labels with major resources radio kept out of the top 20. Radio not playing enough women is the problem, not Kellie or the label obviously since they just got another solo female’s debut single to #1. Radio has been shutting Kellie and most women with great songs out of the top 20 and they should stop doing that. If they let Kellie back in the top 10-20 again then we should see a longer push for her singles again. And Bobby Bones should help her (and she did years of radio tours, listener shows and interviews before he was even in country radio) like he did Kelsea. I guess he mostly helps who his bosses deciding who gets played say to and THEY need to help Kellie hit #1. Radio loves to blame the female problem on everyone but radio but obviously they are keeping great women out of the top 10-20 and that is what must change. They should make more room for women instead of pushing them out of the top 20 and waiting for one to leave before allowing another to hit #1, and stop playing newer men past them.
I don’t expect radio to play many traditional songs but what sucks is they aren’t playing most of the great non-traditional female country/pop/rock songs either.
June 23, 2015 @ 11:16 am
Every time I hear this song, I swear that I have heard it before. Then it hit me, this is almost the same song as Luke Bryan’s “Crash My Party”. Its getting so bad that they are remaking their own crappy songs now.
June 23, 2015 @ 11:25 am
Darn, I miss the days when artists like Gretchen Wilson were big. I might be alone in this regard, but the music just wasn’t that bad only ten years ago, give or take a song or two. Wilson and her signature anthem might have been obnoxious, but at least she seemed of the proper mindset and musical aesthetic for a country music star. She hailed from the “country and proud, play it loud” camp that Hank Jr. perfected during his peak, not the fakeout laundry list ass-covering slathered in hip hop elements that is bro-country or the toothless interloping pop music of Urbanpolitan. Again, I’m not normally a subscriber of the “everything sucks now, it was better back then” mindset, but it’s hard not to feel that way in certain cases.
June 23, 2015 @ 12:36 pm
Although it’s not hard to see why Gretchen Wilson imploded after her massive-selling debut (trying too hard to cash in on that “loud and proud redneck woman” image with many subsequent singles, her sound already beginning to fall out of favor at that time, the polarizing tone of some of her songs with regards to country life versus city life, etc.)……………..I did like her music as a whole.
Her third album, “One Of The Boys”, was excellent. A lot of deeper, intimate tracks permeate that record that criminally went overlooked. Many tragically overlook the fact that she can sell ballads just as effectively as rowdy up-tempos and she has even flirted with “Good Morning Heartache”, originally arranged as more of a jazz recording, and did a great job making it her own. Finally, she has a compelling narrative and her decidedly organic instrumentation underscores that.
I certainly wouldn’t mind to see her miraculously return to the charts, or someone like her. Even “Redneck Woman” didn’t bother me that much because while it was a straight-up laundry list song that name-dropped Walmart, it made up for it with Wilson’s persuasive energy and charisma as well as instrumentation. At least it SOUNDED like what she boasted being.
June 23, 2015 @ 3:49 pm
To be honest, I’ve really only ever found her to be annoying at best. She has some decent songs but they’re really not my cup of tea. I was merely pining for the time at which she existed and the fact that most artists at the time still had some credibility. For instance, I won’t care if I ever hear “Redneck Woman” again in my life, but never have I questioned her sincerity or authenticity in that song, over-the-top or not. You’re spot on with the SOUNDING and BEING association and contrast. It’s always sadly amusing to hear the top males nowadays RAP about being COUNTRY.
I’m not a Gretchen fan, per se, but as I indicated in my initial post I didn’t exactly mind hearing her music on the radio and at least she could back it up. I much prefer rowdy country like hers that doesn’t really stimulate me to dreck that’s so disparate in style from the genre it calls home that I get depressed.
June 23, 2015 @ 4:18 pm
Man, you’ve got that right. Her career just evaporated after her second album. You can’t fault her for not trying either. She’s released 3 albums after that second one, and in my opinion they’re musically consistent with the first two. There’s 0 reason you couldn’t find 2 or 3 top 5 singles off of each of them for country radio.
That second album was a hit too if I remember correctly. The only thing I can think of is the rise of Carrie Underwood and the clones of her that followed, (aka pretty little blonde girls who belong on pop stations) just took the attention off of an authentic female country artist like Wilson. Damn shame.
June 23, 2015 @ 11:32 am
Since the tv is on and I didn’t want to disturb my wife by playing the video (and since it probably sucks) I went online and looked up the lyrics. We’re doomed. For one thing, the credits list SIX songwriters. It took SIX songwriters to rhyme “leaving” with — wait for it — “leaving”?!? It took SIX songwriters to rhyme “it” with “it”?!?
Granted, those are perfect rhymes.
SIX songwriters. Let that sink in. Kris Kristofferson they ain’t.
June 23, 2015 @ 2:46 pm
Exactly , Heyday . What’s forgotten in much of this pop-centric new country universe is the GREAT COUNTRY writer who’s spent years learning to write meaningful , even important songs adhering to the structures and craft of GREAT legendary country songs and writers , and has , no doubt , been rejected by dozens of artists , labels and publishers who keep finding fault with his efforts by nit-picking some insignificant aspect of his skilled write and yet subject listeners to a trite throw-away ditty that can’t find a rhyme for ” LEAVING “.
June 23, 2015 @ 11:34 am
Glossy, substanceless pop wallpaper. So, perfect for country radio.
June 23, 2015 @ 12:23 pm
I think country music has always had a diversity problem. Back in the oughts when “soccer mom country” was all the rage it was women dominating the airplay with a lot of “feel like a woman” songs. One of the reasons I can’t stand Willie’s Roadhouse is because they seem to think that Johnny Russell, Rodriquez, Bush, and Mathis were the only people who ever made country music. Every hour I hear one or more of the above, and they, as well as Tony Booth and Joe Stampley, all sound similar to me.
June 23, 2015 @ 1:24 pm
The 70’s is one area where we do disagree, Fuzz.
While most people seem to point to the outlaws as being the greatest in the 70’s, I’ve always preferred the unsung traditionalists of that decade. Bush, Street, Bandy, Stewart, Rodriquez, etc. are some of my all-time favorites. Those guys, along with Hag and Jones, are why the 70’s were great.
Waylon and Willie have always been afterthoughts to me.
June 23, 2015 @ 1:31 pm
Johnny Rodriguez would be high up on my list of most underrated country singers of all time.
June 23, 2015 @ 1:35 pm
Yes sir. I’d have to agree.
June 23, 2015 @ 3:18 pm
Yep. That man never cut a bad song. I actually prefer his version of “That’s The Way Love Goes.”
June 23, 2015 @ 3:42 pm
I think the deal with the Outlaws was that they exhibited a more renegade and less adjusted attitude through their music and scene, and attracted a lot of people that otherwise were uninterested in country music. Similar to now, only it seemed to mostly be rock & roll fans that keyed into the same spirit as conveyed through that type of music. For instance, while my mother has always been a country fan, born and bred, my father only began to appreciate it with Waylon and such artists as his introduction to the genre from rock & roll. It’s not his “favorite,” but it has cultivated itself into a lifelong appreciation on his part. I understand that you’re not fond of “interlopers” of this sort, but he knows what real country music is (we were watching the ACMs or some show one year and the Band Perry began playing, and he looked at me and plainly stated “that ain’t country and western music.”)
Speaking of Outlaws, what do you think of David Allan Coe and Johnny Paycheck? I love the latter, but have problems with Coe’s personality that I tend to vent around here from time to time. Music is great, though. I personally love Willie and think Waylon is okay, but I can understand how you would be annoyed with them at this point. They’re two of the seven names from before the ’90s that your average “country” artist can name today.
June 23, 2015 @ 4:09 pm
Clint: I guess I feel like Mathis, Bush and Rodriguez were all too similar… Not enough variety. Love Moe Bandy… We’ll see about Mt. View, always heard great stuff about it; always wanted to see that restaurant that Grandpa J and Ramona ran… don’t think I’m playing south of Ohio this year.
Acca: I consider myself a fan of Waylon’s serious ballad stuff more than his outlaw rock shtick; but I feel like it’s gotten out of hand… Shooter and Hank III and company have extremized it and that’s why we have their unique brand of country hair metal, or whatever you might call it. I think a lot of people play up the outlaw image and try to emulate it in their sound, especially people like III and Shooter, and I usually hear Sturgill considered an outlaw, but most of these are people just thinking that outlaw is about sound. Waylon wasn’t an outlaw because he rocked his country, he was an outlaw because he played by his own rules.
June 23, 2015 @ 1:08 pm
This song is like listening to two hands scrubbing with hand sanitizer. I hate it.
June 23, 2015 @ 1:14 pm
“Taylor Swift was the first to give “Love Me Like You Mean It” a serious nudge up the charts with her early support of the song on social network. It probably doesn”™t hurt that Ballerini”™s father is a radio station sales manager, and probably knows the in”™s and out”™s of the business. But more specifically, recent spins on the massive Bobby Bones syndicated radio show were likely what put “Love Me Like You Mean It” over the hump. And isn”™t it interesting that the Bobby Bones comedy band The Raging Idiots just signed to Ballerini”™s label, Black River Entertainment.”
And herein lies the problem. It’s one big incestuous orgy with corporate radio, corporate record labels, tech, and “singers.”
Looks like country music really is about sex with your family members.
This even makes Keith Hill’s comments look contrived for the sole purpose of pushing this talentless, privileged child of nepotism to #1 for PR purposes.
I’m even leaning toward the Apple/Taylor Swift “squabble” as being contrived and methodically written out.
June 23, 2015 @ 2:24 pm
OK one #1 does not equal equality. LOL! And are they playing this song on radio mixed in with other female acts or just her one song ever three hours?
June 23, 2015 @ 2:28 pm
This isn’t country music .
This isn’t a country singer .
This isn’t helping any ’cause ‘ .
This isn’t appealing to a broader demographic .
This isn’t making it easier for REAL country female singers to be recognized..in fact its making it harder. .
June 23, 2015 @ 4:11 pm
Amen
June 23, 2015 @ 4:56 pm
Has anybody heard this girl Cam, I thought the name was seriously cheesy, but I listened to some of her songs and they are pretty good. She has cut 5 songs and I think most of them are very solid. I’m not saying she’s Loretta Lynn, but they are good songs I think. They seem radio friendly, so it really surprises me that she hasn’t had some success. The new song by Jana Kramer is also a very good song I think, I guess Brantley Gilbert probably had her blackballed after they broke up.
June 23, 2015 @ 7:42 pm
I will probably be writing about her soon.
June 23, 2015 @ 5:22 pm
I didn’t care for the song at first but the song grew on me the more I listen to it. She’s a good singer but her song is more pop than country but still a pretty good song.
June 23, 2015 @ 7:55 pm
Congratulations Kelsea Ballerini for your first #1 and Black River Entertainment.
June 23, 2015 @ 8:06 pm
The thing that annoyed me most about Kelsea is not her music or her tiny figure or even her pop sound of seeing her live. She’s a sweet girl and acting her age, which life is different when you’re older and see folks acting like that. Perhaps it was Peter Pan or another song (was a five song acoustic set) but she was so proud to say that when she wrote it they were listening to Beyoncé. I want my artists I love to bleed country music. When it’s a cover or a throwback give me a classic country song. Rarely if ever do we get the same cool treatment from another genre.
June 23, 2015 @ 11:44 pm
I don’t get the point of platitudes such as “she’s a sweet girl”. What does it mean? Does it mean that she smiles, flirts, and puts on a young and innocent persona? Does it mean that she’s inexperienced, pampered, and gets treated like a princess? Does it mean that she’s (gasp) pageant material?
People said this about T-Swift, they said this about Carrie, and in the old days they even said it about Faith Hill and Britney Spears. So what? Does the window dressing make the person?
June 24, 2015 @ 4:55 am
Just a little giggly and everything is fun attitude. Hard to explain but getting together with a few more females her age is endless selfies. She’s nice don’t get me wrong. Being a lone male over thirty and hanging out with a group of females who are college age would be extremely tough. I’ve been there. Maturity level and interests are completely different.
June 23, 2015 @ 11:34 pm
This is NOT a meaningful victory, it is not a victory for country music, or for music in general. This is not a win just because Kelsea happens to be a woman. We need to get away from the corrosive influence of group identity politics.
As far as my ears can tell, this song of hers is a big nothing. There is nothing original, nothing new, nothing memorable. This song doesn’t even measure up to any of the radio singles from Taylor’s first album, even if one could accept teen pop as a form of music.
I can understand why Taylor might want to give it her blessing. “Love Me Like You Mean It” is basically an endorsement of Taylor’s style, which at the same time makes it painfully clear that Kelsea doesn’t have the chops to seriously compete with Taylor. It’s just enough of a clone to make mainstream “country” radio programmers long for the days of T-Swift.
June 24, 2015 @ 12:14 am
I’m throwing in the towel. Nashville can piss up a rope, for all I care. I hope they don’t reinstate Hank, and they tear down the Ryman. Forget saving country music. It’s dead. I’m sticking with Texas, the red dirt and whatever else out there like Whitey that is left.
In all seriousness, I know this sort of defeats the state purpose of SCM, but what is the point, at this juncture? Mainstream is never going to go traditional enough to satisfy many, if not most of us. Why bother trying to make it? Let them have their bubble gum crap. Heck, they can even have the name “country”. We need to just take our roots and do our own thing.
June 24, 2015 @ 10:48 am
I really don’t know how to respond to this question. I feel like even if it is a fruitless effort, we should let our dissent be known when others characterize Kelsea’s #1 as a ground breaking moment. At the same time, what else happened yesterday? A reigning Album of the Year winner released a very traditional and quality album—something we haven’t seen in mainstream country in years. As long as I continue to see chutes of life springing forth through the scorched earth, I don’t feel the need to give up the fight.
June 24, 2015 @ 1:40 pm
Maybe I am not sure how you should answer either Trigger. I am not normally so cynical, but the other day was the last straw. You know about Mount Shasta, so you know how rural, and country this area is. Hank Jr. knew what he was talking about when he said “north California and south Alabama” in Country Boy Can Survive. I live a pretty rural life, so I feel utterly disconnected from all the horse piss Nashville keeps churning out these days. I had a hard enough time with Chesney 10 years ago, but at least that still sort of felt like country. Now we are being force-fed this manure on the radio and I resent it. It has no connection, no bearing on what real country people want to hear and it feels like an invasion.
The thing that set me off and turned me into a cynic was the other day when I was helping my neighbor hang a gate. He is in his mid-70’s and been a blacksmith for almost 50 years. He lived his life listening to Marty Robbins, Lefty Frizzell, Waylong Jennings, Merle Haggard etc. Heck, Merle used to frequent these parts regularly when he lived on Lake Shasta. So we were hanging this giant wrought-iron gate that he pounded out of raw steel and listening to the radio while doing so. Of course, all they played on the country station was Girl Crush, John Couger et al, Real Life and finally this Ballerini tart. It pissed me off something fierce. I never listen to the radio in general, but this collection of turds was just horrible. To top it off, they played Three Dog Night. Now, nothing against them, but a boy band from the 70’s isn’t, in any way, country. Thanks alot KSYC, for sucking and making this older man more despondent about the state of the world as he nears the end of his laugh. He can’t even enjoy a good country tune while sweating out in the noontime sun.
So that is why I am done. If Nashville doesn’t want us, it is mutual because I don’t want their goats*** either. There is no more saving country music. That horse has left the barn. We can claim the tradition and soul, but leave them the edifice. Good riddance to them, their reheated (and generally, poorly executed) mid-90’s chum and their lame, suburban fantasies. So keep doing what you are doing, Trigger, because it is worthy. You highlight the stuff that is good and usually do a fine job of mocking that which deserves to be mocked (your review of 1994 is still your apogee). Let’s all make fun of these music city morons and enjoy the great music that is out there. I just don’t think there is anything left to save.
June 24, 2015 @ 6:22 am
she’s basically a taylor swift wannabe with a bubbly personality who writes female style bro country style songs. (aka dumb down no substance lyrics).
June 24, 2015 @ 9:06 pm
I heard this song a couple weeks ago and, well it is not surprising that it is doing great. Could someone shoot me now and end this? There is no hope IMO for country, at least country that can be heard on mainstream radio. When I hear a song start of with some synthed BS as in the topic song…….whicky whicky waaaarnnmnme……(maybe I missed it but I can’t believe no one has commented on this). And also toward the end when she is singing love me like you mean it, ayyyy, ayyy, ayyyy, her last ayyyyy reveals she has no voice depth and is just anotther Brittney Spears (I bet Brittney is wishing she could have tapped into the current ‘country’ market). What another POS crapfest. My hope would be all of the millennial new ‘country’ artists and also Bobby Bones go do what they aspire to do and get to the real hip hop scene and get their asses kicked. Another BTW, was curious and listened to the b jones ‘show’ last week. At least 25% of it was hiphop promotional bullets between actual talk and songs. I bet if you strung all of these bullets together it would account for at least an hour.
Gut-Wrenching Jason Isbell Songs; See Ray Wylie Sing “Stone Blind Horses”; Kelsea Ballerini Hits #1 | Country California
June 25, 2015 @ 10:17 am
[…] Congratulations(?) to Kelsea Ballerini on hitting #1 with “Love Me Like You Mean It.” […]