Why Shania Twain is Interesting Pick for Songwriters Hall of Fame
The Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame announced their 2022 class last week, with Shania Twain, Steve Wariner, Hillary Lindsey, Gary Nicholson, and David Malloy all being named 2022 inductees. With Shania leading the way, this is the first time since 2009 that the Nashville institution has picked two women in its inductee class. The class will be formally induced in the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Gala on Sunday, October 30th at Music City Center.
“Thank you to Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame for this honor. It feels really good to be among so many of my songwriting idols and for my own songwriting to be celebrated. Ironically I was at home in Switzerland writing when this was announced!” Twain said. “It’s been a while since a woman has been inducted into this, so it’s pretty awesome to see not just me, but Hillary Lindsey included too.”
That last part of Shania’s statement is not exactly true. Amy Grant was inducted in 2021, Bobbie Gentry in 2020, Sharon Vaughn in 2019, K.T. Oslin in 2018, and so on. Saying “it’s been a while since a woman has been inducted” overshadows those women, and Twain was not the only one to do this. The NPR affiliate in Nashville, WPLN also said, “In some recent years, there have been no women inducted. And, in 2018, no women were even nominated for induction.”
But again, K.T. Oslin was inducted in 2018, so that probably would be important to note. Over the last 10 years, eight women have been inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Sure, two women at once is a rare feat for anything in Nashville, and country music specifically, and deserves to be celebrated. But let’s not erase the legacies of the women that have been inducted in recent years, which also include Beth Nielson Chapman, Rosanne Cash, Gretchen Peters, and Mary Chapin Carpenter since 2012.
Though the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame announcement usually comes and goes annually in the regular rhythms of Music City, this year feels different, especially with Shania Twain being inducted. It poses a few questions, and could have implications on other Halls of Fame who will be seriously considering Shania for induction in the coming years.
Shania Twain is one of those entertainers who you think of as a performer first, not a songwriter. The Canadian-born artist became an international superstar after crossing over into the pop world from country, and became one of the biggest stars in all of music in the mid 90s and into the early 2000s, culminating in her 2002 album Up!, which included two versions—one pop, and one country.
Some love to give Garth Brooks credit for the rabid popification of country music in the 90s, but it was Shania Twain who was significantly more responsible, specifically through Up!. Though Twain left a significant impact on country, the height of her career only consists of four albums released in a nine year span. And aside from her debut self-titled album, virtually every song Shania Twain released in that time period was co-written by her. Writing her first song at 10, some might be surprised how prolific of a songwriter Shania was, including penning all of her biggest hits, and all the songs on her 2nd, 3rd, and 4th albums. However, all of these Shania Twain songs were also co-written with her husband and producer at the time, Robert “Mutt” Lange.
So this begs the question, if you’re going to induct Shania Twain, do you have to induct “Mutt” Lange too since their songwriting credits are literally the same? Of course, the couple divorced in 2008 after 14 years of marriage, and after Mutt started having an affair with Shania’s assistant. Who deserves more or less of the credit for Shania Twain’s songs depends on who you speak to, though it’s safe to assume Shania was more involved on the writing side, with Mutt more worried about the production and arrangement side.
But Shania is also being inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame as a songwriter/artist, not just a songwriter. That’s right, the Songwriter Hall of Fame makes this distinction so that artists who also write songs don’t get overlooked. That’s how Beth Nielson Chapman, Rosanne Cash, Gretchen Peters, and Mary Chapin Carpenter all got in recently. Pure songwriters also get inducted, but in a different category.
What makes this all especially interesting is how it could affect the biggest hall of fame located in Nashville—the Country Music Hall of Fame. First, wouldn’t it be great if like the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Country Music Hall of Fame had a mechanism to induct songwriters who were also known as performers? The Country Hall of Fame does have a songwriter category that rotates in every three years, but it almost always goes to a behind-the-scenes professional writer who is specifically not a performer. The point of the category is to make sure these pure songwriters don’t go unrecognized.
However, under this current Country Hall of Fame induction regime, there really isn’t an avenue for performer/songwriters like Rosanne Cash, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Townes Van Zandt, John Prine, Guy Clark, or Billy Joe Shaver to get in. Their only avenue in would be as performers, since their songwriting credits for others would not be strong enough to get in exclusively as songwriters. This is a blind spot within the Country Music Hall of Fame’s system.
But perhaps most importantly, Shania Twain’s induction into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame feels like it could be a preview for the Country Music Hall of Fame in the coming years. Shania Twain was already considered a front runner in the Hall of Fame’s “Modern Era” category. Each year, only two performers are inducted, one in the Modern Era, and one in the Veteran’s Era. Often what precludes artists from being considered from the Hall of Fame is not being right there in Nashville to lobby the members of the CMA’s secret selection committee for induction. Being originally from Canada, and now living in Switzerland, that traditionally would have someone like Shania Twain on the outside looking in.
None of these inductions happen without a bit of lobbying and arm twisting behind-the-scenes. What Shania Twain being inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame means is that she is now actively trying to rack up these kind of accolades. With the type of commercial success Shania had (over 100 million records sold, including two Diamond Certified albums and one Double Diamond Certified album), she immediately rockets to the top of consideration for the Country Music Hall of Fame, if she shows interest in wanting the distinction, and is willing to participate in the induction process.
Currently, Tanya Tucker is thought to be the front runner for induction in the Veterans Era for the Country Music Hall of Fame. At this point, it’s fair to think of Shania Twain as a front runner for the Modern Era, with Trisha Yearwood and Martina McBride also thought to be in strong contention, and perhaps Clint Black also in the mix. So yes, it could be that the Country Music Hall of Fame also inducts two women in 2023.
Another name that has been rumored to be moving up in Country Music Hall of Fame consideration in recent years is Steve Wariner. That fact that he’s being inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame with Shania is probably a good sign for his Country Music Hall of Fame prospects too.
This might be too much “inside baseball” talk for some. But these are the reasons Shania Twain’s pick for the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame doesn’t just feel like another perfunctory rhythm in Music City. It signals that she is ready to get off the sidelines and to start receiving big career accolades. And with her resume, she may receive them all before she is done.
August 10, 2022 @ 10:14 am
The first woman in the ’90s to ruin country music. Although, in fairness to Shania, her material sounds like George Strait compared to most of what’s out there now.
May 28, 2023 @ 2:55 pm
Yes but shes one of a hell perforrmer
August 10, 2022 @ 10:47 am
Listen to the songs she has written since her divorce from Mutt Lange. They are horrible. They sound like someone writing parody Shania songs. It’s more than obvious to me that Mutt Lange was pulling more than his 50% in the Shania tunes.
August 10, 2022 @ 9:50 pm
You are correct. Go listen to “Who Are You” on Carrie Underwood’s Blown Away album. Mutt wrote that himself, and it’s far better than anything Shania has done alone.
That said, good for her. I always liked her.
August 10, 2022 @ 10:48 am
“2002 album Up!, which included two versions—one pop, and one country.”
The third version is the most interesting. Musicians from India were brought in for that one.
August 10, 2022 @ 6:45 pm
“An army of didgeridoos. Fifty thousands didgeridoos!”
August 10, 2022 @ 7:24 pm
Folks, can we have a moment with Dewey?
August 10, 2022 @ 11:55 am
This line in the organization’s press release may have confused reporters — and Shania herself: “For the first time since 2009, two of our inductees-elect are women.” It’s a bit of a stretch, but you could misread that to mean there has not been a female inductee at all since 2009. It needed to be clearer: This is the first class of inductees since 2009 to include more than one female songwriter.
August 10, 2022 @ 12:51 pm
The fact of how apparently Shania herself wasn’t aware of recent females to win tells you that the award was something she covered that much. Far as saying how her songs since breaking up with her husband haven’t done well, means nothing really. A lot of Alan Jackson’s recent songs are just as good or better than songs that won awards back in the day but they don’t do that well now. Perspective. I liked Shanias music but I never thought the songs far as writing were all that great. Entertaining kind of the same as Florida Georgia line but not great songs. Just my thoughts
August 10, 2022 @ 1:17 pm
This is rich. (Pun intended) Speaking from her home in Switzerland, this Canadian multi-millionaire then gives not only mis-information, but she spouts out the usual obligatory trope that women arent being awarded or recognized. Can you be any more removed from reality, than this pop star has- been? ????
August 11, 2022 @ 9:36 pm
I can’t express enough how frustrating it is to constantly see the contributions of women, Black and Brown artists, LGBT members, and others in country music erased so someone can launch a viral tweet, or post a shocking story about how exclusionary country music is, when they’re the ones who are very directly being exclusionary and actively participating in erasing the legacies of these artists. I can almost understand Shania Twain being confused on the matter, or someone telling her something that she parrots out carelessly in a Tweet. But to have a media outlet be so careless with information is nothing less than irresponsible, and I’m not exaggerating when I say I see this happening multiple times a week. Then I’m the dude that has to come in like the hall monitor, and try to correct the record, when the correction will never receive as much traction as the fabrication.
August 10, 2022 @ 1:41 pm
She made some good pop music and was hot in the videos. Not country.
August 11, 2022 @ 11:06 am
“Whose Bed (Have Your Boots Been Under)” was most definitely country.
August 11, 2022 @ 4:33 pm
I’ll give you that one. Just watched the video. 32 million views. And she was hot.
August 10, 2022 @ 1:46 pm
I never saw Steve Wariner as being a star. Did anybody actually go and buy tickets to attend a show headlined by Steve Wariner?
His singles played on the radio at times. They were not bad, but there was nothing about them that stood out. He was a good guitar player and collaborator with other artists.
I wouldn’t vore for Steve Wariner for the Country Music H-o-F. I’d much rather see artists like Moe Bandy, Mark Chesnutt, Tracy Lawrence, Travis Tritt, and, of course Clint Black inducted–artists who made records that made me want to turn up the radio and that I still would want to hear 25–plus years later.
(No offense intended to Steve Wariner fans, if there are any. That’s just my opinion.)
August 11, 2022 @ 8:31 am
No offense taken…but yes, I’ve seen Steve Wariner five times in concert. He’s amazing, as a singer and musician. I’ve collected his albums from day one. 55 charted singles with 13 number ones is nothing to discount, especially since those records all still hold up well today. He’s beloved by his fellow artists. I think he’s as deserving to be a HOF member as anyone on your list, as well as Shania Twain. I definitely think Tanya Tucker should be the next veteran; the modern era is anyone’s guess.
August 11, 2022 @ 4:09 pm
When “Small Town Girl” comes on the radio, the volume is getting cranked.
August 10, 2022 @ 2:22 pm
Steve Wariner is immensely qualified. Glad to see this recognition.
No comment on the other ones.
August 10, 2022 @ 9:49 pm
Steve may have come up a bit short as mega star but he was about the only new country act from the early 80s still big into the early 21st century outside of Strait and Reba. He certainly he outlasted Ricky Skaggs, Lee Greenwood, and other newcomers from that period on radio. He absolutely deserves this and Country Music Hall of Fame honors, too.
August 11, 2022 @ 11:13 am
I’m not personally a Lee Greenwood fan. But his biggest song has transcended the music industry and become a part of late-20th, early 21st Century American history, for being performed for Presidents and in front of millions of people on the National Mall, in stadiums and other mass gatherings.
I can see Greenwood being inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame for “GBTUSA” and even possibly the Country Music H-oF, though the fact that the song tends to be embraced along patisan–(Republican)– lines might maket that a difficult thing to push.
August 11, 2022 @ 9:31 pm
Huge Lee Greenwood fan here. His body of work is excellent, though God Bless The USA is the crown jewel. He’s been very underrated as an artist. His first Christmas LP (Christmas To Christmas) and the duet LP with Barbara Mandrell (Meant For Each Other) are all-time favorites in our household. I think a viable argument can be made for a HOF induction someday.
The deranged socialists have education, sports, media, movies, most music and corporate America. I think the rest of us are proud to claim Greenwood and God Bless The USA. Nothing to be ashamed of…fly your flags and sing it loud.
August 10, 2022 @ 2:28 pm
The Rock & Rock HOF is looking sideways at this honor.
Just terrible.
August 10, 2022 @ 3:02 pm
Shania Twain chooses to live in Switzerland solely because it’s the birthplace of yodeling.
August 10, 2022 @ 4:41 pm
Steve wariner definitely deserves to be recognized as a great song writer. His best stuff is far better than Shanias pop stuff. Far as being in the hall as an artist, not writer, maybe not. But as a writer, definitely deserves it
August 10, 2022 @ 5:14 pm
While I am not really that much of a fan of Shania’s (her voice is pretty good, though I do admittedly find some of her songs a touch vacuous, lyrically speaking), I think some of the invective being thrown at her on this dais is a bit on the extreme side. Yes, she may not be exactly the most extraordinary songwriter in the world regardless of gender, but she is hardly the worst. There are plenty of hacks out there in Nashville now who have written some of the lousiest and most toxic junk ever to come off of Music Row over the last twelve years, most of them fit for the Bromeister sect (I’ll not name names, because why give attention to jackasses, right?; just to say that I’m talking about the Usual Suspects); but Shania, even if she’s not another Rosanne Cash or Bobbie Gentry (like that’s even possible!), is a fair distance away from being an outright hack.
August 11, 2022 @ 8:42 am
Shania has a unique songwriting style…it’s very conversational in structure. If you compare her songs to Mutt Lange’s rock or even country songs he’s written (Lonestar, Jessica Andrews, Carrie Underwood), they are very different. I think Shania’s songs are primarily her vision with some input from Mutt. Recognition for her is well-deserved.
August 11, 2022 @ 4:40 pm
I don’t doubt that this kind of recognition for Shania was something she absolutely earned; nor do I doubt that her songs are her vision, with enhancement in the production booth from her ex. I guess I’m not as wild about her as others have been.
But again, it’s just one man’s opinion; to each his own. And in all good honesty, I do think the bashing she has gotten over the years because her style of pop/country was so commercially huge is at times over-the-top.
August 10, 2022 @ 5:51 pm
MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER!
I’d put her in my top 10 songwriters of all time, easy. And her band during her peak years was insanely talented.
Shania’s songs don’t have anywhere near the depth or meaning, but it’s hard to argue they aren’t entertaining and successful.
August 10, 2022 @ 7:35 pm
MCC was never country, although “How Do” and “Down at the Twist and Shout” were well-done nods to their respective subgenres. Still, she is an outstanding songwriter and artist in whatever musical pigeonhole you wish to place her (folk, rock, pop). I saw her and her great band in concert three times during her big years, one of them at Toad’s Place, the legendary New Haven club. That was no country show, but I loved every minute of it.
August 10, 2022 @ 9:43 pm
She was country enough to be two-time CMA Female vocalist of the year. I like both Shania and MCC but Mary is clearly the better songwriter. (And of course, it one is taking hard “not country” line how does Shania fit?)
August 10, 2022 @ 6:11 pm
I was told by a Country Music Hall of Fame elector that Shania has already appeared on the Modern Ballot for induction to that Hall of Fame as well. It’s been over 25 years since her breakout and the gozillion records she’s sold, that is going to happen soon. Traditional country fans are just going to have to swallow that pill. While I would love to see Patty Loveless, Kathy Mattea, Trisha Yearwood and Martina McBride be inducted in that category first, it likely will be Shania that see her bronze likeness displayed first.
August 10, 2022 @ 6:55 pm
David B,
Afraid you are right on this. I get tired; however, of swallowing these bitter pills.
August 10, 2022 @ 7:36 pm
I’m always searching around for the artist who really killed country. I’ve blamed just about everyone at some point, but I really do blame Mutt and Shania as the most extreme case. It’s just like Chet Atkins and the countrypolitan movement: driven by the producers for whatever is most palatable and easy to market. The main difference is Shania ruined it for far longer.
August 10, 2022 @ 9:45 pm
keith urban gets my vote. Even The New York Times mentioned he was really a rock star marketed as country or something like that years ago.
And while Garth may be generally country, he certainly opened the door for non-country concerts – screaming fans, flashing lights, etc. – for more rock acts to creep into the genre.
August 11, 2022 @ 8:57 am
What are true country fans supposed to act like? Ma and Pa sitting silently at a taping of Pop Goes The Country? Artists like Garth and Shania brought a real concert experience…a show…to country music. People attending those shows who didn’t consider themselves country fans may have decided to check out other country artists and became fans along the way. Sure, genres may have blended, but in the end, country music benefited. You can’t blame an artist for actually trying to entertain.
Country music is cyclical…every decade or so, it swings hard to a pop/ rock style, then swings back to a more traditional sound. We seem to be in the traditional cycle right now, until the next country/pop superstar comes along.
August 11, 2022 @ 5:08 pm
I think what you are describing is the country music *industry*, not the genre. Conflating these styles from outside the tradition that are injected by industry to grow the market, with country itself, has been damaging to country and has diluted other roots music sub genres to a point they no longer exist. You are only seeing the whiplash to traditional now because supply is driven by the listener more now that country radio has lost its stranglehold on listeners due to the proliferation of streaming.
August 11, 2022 @ 7:15 am
Kenny Roger’s and Glen Campbell are two other pop artists that get to have the country title for whatever reason
August 12, 2022 @ 11:43 am
Jones, Hagg Etc,
Your comment jumped out at me. I see your point is that Rogers and Campbell were pop artists in your estimation, so who cares if Twain was pop or not, she rightfully belongs in country as long as they do? Lets take Campbell first, an Arkansas country boy, raised on a farm who happened to be blessed with a world-class voice and world class guitar skills. While true that much of his catalog leaned into the more schmaltzy productions, with string sections and so on, when you stripped him down, the songs and the voice were absolutely as country as the day was long. ( His early influences were Hank and Jimmie) When he sang Hartford’s Gentle on my Mind, or Jimmy Webb’s The moon is a Harsh Mistress, or Wichita Lineman or Galveston, no one could top him. His voice was a superior instrument. He resonated with country folks, city folks, and just about anyone who heard him. Simply put, Campbell was a pop star, but he was also a country star, in fact one of the biggest in his era. The other point I wish to make, is that the songs had enormous SUBSTANCE!( Something lacking in the aforementioned Swiss castle living Princess’s material)
August 20, 2022 @ 9:26 pm
Amen, Kevin.
August 10, 2022 @ 9:57 pm
The real crime is that the Songwriters Hall of Fame even more so than the Country Music Hall of Fame has forgotten about scores of important songwriters pre-1995. At least the CMHOF will let one veteran in each year.
Can anyone really argue that anyone in this group deserves to be in the Songwriters Hall of Fame more than Donna Fargo or Liz Anderson? Donna wrote almost all her own hits for years while Liz wrote hits for many people including herself and her daughter Lynn Anderson. How many country songs are on the level of Liz’s “I’m a Lonesome Fugitive” as a masterpiece of songwriting? Dottie West has also been ignored by this organization. Ray Griff wrote scores of hits in the 60s and 70s and he’s not in the Hall of Fame.
August 10, 2022 @ 10:21 pm
This article is a bunch of country-purist, whiny crap. Shania is and has always been a brilliant, talented and intelligent songwriter. She was winning BMI songwriter awards early in her career. What exactly are you mad at? Her beauty? Her talent? Her ability to literally own a female perspective that screams louder than the prominent males in “traditional” country? Her appeal accross genres?
She has been more than clear that she has written songs since a child and that writing is the most important part of her art.
Sounds like you just don’t care for her and tried to write an incredibly long and unnecessary article about why you don’t like how successful she is.
August 10, 2022 @ 10:36 pm
As someone who regularly criticizes the incursion of pop into country, I felt like I was very fair and judicious in this article, articulating the merits of Shania Twain’s songwriting record, and specifically pointing out that she’s been writing songs since the age of 10. There were a lot of different tacts that could have been taken with this subject. I chose to take the one of being objective, reporting the facts, and letting readers decide how they feel about it.
August 13, 2022 @ 2:36 pm
If it’s possible to hear someone bending over backwards, I heard it in this article.
August 10, 2022 @ 11:15 pm
“Country purist crap” …..really?! On a blog called Saving Country Music?! SMH. Shania….”brilliant” lmao.
August 11, 2022 @ 10:45 am
Hi Jake,
I despise Shania Twain. I despise her voice. I despise her songs. I despise her dancing. I despise her attitude. I despise her face. There’s really nothing about her I don’t despise. I consider her scum. I despise the fact that the human race has devolved so, that someone like Shania Twain can be successful.
I said all that to say: I’m the one you should cry to, not Trigger.
August 11, 2022 @ 6:17 am
This article didn’t say anything about Shanias writing being bad or less than others. So trig shouldn’t be blamed. Do some in the comments feel that way to different degrees, yea, but that’s people’s own opinions nothing to do with trigger
August 11, 2022 @ 6:29 am
Her success is not all down to Mutt Lange and it is unfair on her to say it is. She has had great success worldwide and whether one likes her music or not, she deserves the honour. She has worked hard. Good for her.
August 12, 2022 @ 8:20 am
Her music without Mutt has been a bust.
It is fairly obvious that he was carrying the load.
August 13, 2022 @ 10:23 am
Yeah because no older artists just fall out of favor as times change. Additionally she was out of the scene for an extended period. It could only have been Mutt
August 13, 2022 @ 10:46 am
Defend her honor, Mike. She still won’t sleep with you.
Popularity has nothing to do with quality. Alan Jackson doesn’t chart anymore but his latest albums have been among his finest. Same with George Strait.
Shania’s latest album was terrible. It had none of the seductive tone that highlighted her work with Mutt.
Look at her career. Her first album was a massive bust. Then for the second album, she teamed up with Mutt. Instant success.
She has five studio albums. The two albums without Mutt were busts. Draw the conclusions.
Facts over feelings.
August 11, 2022 @ 6:58 am
Sorry – but coming from another place in the world other than America I find this article I stumbled across (and many of the comments) sadly misogynistic and outdated. How sad American country can’t celebrate those that champion it. Shania is a legend (by sales alone) and actually an artist I do think of as a songwriter first with a very distinct lyric voice. And her songs have stood the test of time. To me and my generation she was the gateway to country music and it’s sad she’s being criticised for that instead of celebrated. In Australia, her songs were the first country songs we heard on commercial radio (in original form) in decades – because they were great songs that transcended borders or genres. We don’t question other writers with co-writers – so why a woman who has proved herself over and over as a performer and writer. And frankly what has Mutt done lately? This article feels like sad click bait but Shania deserves her dues.
August 11, 2022 @ 7:55 am
She is never going to sleep with you, Michael.
August 11, 2022 @ 8:58 am
But he has a shot with AOC.
August 11, 2022 @ 7:24 am
I personally blame Shania Twain for the destruction of a very good thing. Country in the 1990’s was finally getting all the airplay, concert attendance, and sales it deserved all along. The Class of ’89 was a stunning thing to behold, with the highest-quality songwriting and performance in a long generation. Women were already well-represented, and those women weren’t just boobs and boots, they were AMAZING performers and songwriters. Of COURSE record company execs were going to find someone to exploit, to capitalize.
Enter Shania.
She was an endearing obscure Canadian performer, more from the Vegas/Branson tradition than Americana, where dance moves are still important. Mutt Lange, the guy who already ruined hard rock and new wave music (Think Def Leppard’s boy-band phase, or The Cars falling from Moving In Stereo to Uh-Oh, It’s Magic), saw his chance to cash in on the destruction of yet another genre. The result was devastating, and we all know how it panned out, with vacuous fluff like Guys Do It All The Time, etc.
I started feeling ill with country radio in 1996, and by 2001, I was out the door completely, and only ever hear it in small-town Dollar General stores, these days.
Shania Twain is not an innovator. She’s not much of a songwriter, we all know that platinum-selling acts take a songwriting credit on things they didn’t write, because they CAN. She does deserve credit for putting on the greasepaint and trodding the boards, dues are dues, but her nomination takes a spot away from real songwriters, who ACTUALLY DESERVE accolades in an age where songwriting isn’t as lucrative. Shania got to live in a Swiss castle and fly private. She’ll be okay financially with the legacy of taking a piece of other peoples’ songs. She had her day, and probably belongs in some hall of fame that recognizes casino acts. I could name ten women who deserve it, though.
August 11, 2022 @ 12:04 pm
Her songs had fruity key changes in them that were completely unnecessary.
August 12, 2022 @ 5:39 am
This is the viewpoint so many casual country fans take in regards to the 90s boom and bust. I hear all the time, “the 90s were the last great decade, the last time traditional country reigned Supreme”, and so on. But, if you really look at the airplay and sales charts and lay out the releases in a linear list, you will see it was the proliferation of hat acts and sound-alikes that really brought on the drop in quality. In the early 90s, you had guys like Mark Chesnutt, Joe Diffie’s amazing debut and sophomore albums, the first big hits by Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn and others. Yet, by the mid to late 90s, we were given John Michael Montgomery with his syrupy love songs, Tracy Byrd (a great singer who never got the material to match his pipes), Rick Trevino, Michael Peterson and a dozen other forgettable “hit-makers”.
To me, it was the record labels trying to keep recreating what was already selling, at least on the male side. By 1996, all the men sounded and looked the same because that was the safe way to get on the radio. The women artists of the time had to be different. So, you got the traditional sounds of Patty Loveless and Pam Tillis, mainstream country from Trisha Yearwood and Reba, and more pop-rock sounds from Shania Twain and Faith Hill. It was a great time in country music for the women folk.
I don’t think the bust (which always comes after a boom in every industry) can be attributed to any female perfomers, let alone just one. It was the labels flooding the market with fresh-faced twenty-somethings in tight Wranglers and a Stetson. The music became secondary while chasing the bottom line.
August 12, 2022 @ 7:42 am
It’s funny to me that everyone wants to blame these massive trends on individual artists, who are if anything the least in control over what is popular and what gets promoted.
August 12, 2022 @ 8:28 am
Because Shania is the most common name dropped by current female Nashville singers. She is the main inspiration. Check their bios. Shania is ubiquitous. Tillis and Loveless, sadly, aren’t.
They want to be Shania. Singing hit pop songs with sexy videos.
People whine about Garth and the hat acts. But Garth has a long list of worthy additions to the country canon. The hat acts sounded traditional yet fresh.
Shania ended up pure pop without any substance other than catchy and she poisoned the well of the next generation.
August 12, 2022 @ 9:42 am
I blame the fans.
August 11, 2022 @ 11:55 am
“Ironically I was at home in Switzerland”
i’m out. she is the Springsteen of country.
i am regular joe with muh pickup truck and muh podcast with Obama
does she still have a flat belly? that may change my opinion of her. maybe she and Maren can have a jugg off competit-tion
August 11, 2022 @ 12:15 pm
So sick of hearing about Shania Twain..we are both from Timmins Ontario ….She should b in the hall of fame for complaining about her childhood so much. She shouldn’t thought twice before leaving her Timmins boyfriend that got her to Nashville where she met Mutt and threw her bf to the wolves…..karma will serve you the same tea u have served others
August 12, 2022 @ 9:10 pm
I have always been a Shania Twain fan and I suspect that lots of readers of this site are closet Shania fans as well. I saw her in Vegas earlier this year, and you could feel the legend status radiating off of her. She sounded amazing and gave an A+ performance.
We are talking about an artist who has claim to the title of THE biggest star in the music world from the late 90s to about 2003. WBHYBBU, That Don’t Impress Me Much, and You’re Still The One are, as far as I’m concerned, three of the very best country songs ever written. Shania has sold enough songs that she’s written to be the 26th best-selling artist of all time in the U.S. She’s got a pair of Country Song of the Year Grammys sitting on a shelf somewhere in one of her homes. And almost three decades after her debut album was released, every man, woman, and child know the words to at least one song Shania Twain wrote by heart. How many 90s country artists can you say that about?
Are all of Shania’s songs Pulitzer-worthy? No. But her contributions to the pantheon of country songs are important, substantial, and easily award-worthy.
August 13, 2022 @ 10:53 am
The more I think about it, this award is a joke.
Shania’s latest album was terrible. It had none of the seductive tone that highlighted her work with Mutt. I don’t like her music but I understand the appeal. It was musical soda.
Look at her career. Her first album was a massive bust. Then for the second album, she teamed up with Mutt. Instant success.
She has five studio albums. The two albums without Mutt were duds.
Mutt was Victor Frankenstein. Shania was the creature.
Her first album had 10 songs. She has a single cowrite. Then the three Mutt albums were all cowrites with him. The latest album was all Shania cowrites.
She has ONE single solo written song on five albums.
What a farce.
Trigger, you were far too lenient.
August 14, 2022 @ 7:32 am
Mutt Lang made her “the best paid lap dancer in Nashville.”
(Steve Earle)
August 20, 2022 @ 6:18 pm
The reason Shania Twain was always my least favorite artist, besides the pop production and too much focus on sex appeal, was that her song lyrics weren’t really that good. This is Hall of Fame worthy?
“Even my skin is acting weird / I wish that I could grow a beard /Then I could cover up my spots / Not play connect the dots” (Up)
“You’re a fine piece of real estate, and I’m gonna get me some land” (I’m Gonna Get Ya)
“All we ever want is more / A lot more than we had before / So take me to the nearest store” (Ka-Ching)
“Men are like shoes / Made to confuse / Yeah, there’s so many of ’em / I don’t know which ones to choose” (Shoes)
“I broke a nail / Opening the mail / I cursed out loud ’cause it hurt like hell” (Honey I’m Home)
The writing feels like figuring out what words rhyme and calling it a song. I get that she sold millions but shouldn’t a songwriting hall of fame be about, I don’t know, the songs? I’ll give her credit for You’re Still the One and there might be a couple decent album tracks I’m not familiar with, but taken as a whole, I can’t consider her in the same league as the other song writers being awarded.