That's always been the case. That's why country legends like Johnny Cash and Brenda Lee are also in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Elvis Presley was both the King of Rock & Roll and a very successful country star. Did you ever hear of Rockabilly? Waylon Jennings was as much a rock & roller as a country star. His son Shooter is continuing that tradition. The two genres are joined at the hip, and the differences are very small. Rap star Lil Nas X wears cowboy clothes in his show. It's all very subjective.
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That's always been the case. That's why country legends like Johnny Cash and Brenda Lee are also in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Elvis Presley was both the King of Rock & Roll and a very successful country star. Did you ever hear of Rockabilly? Waylon Jennings was as much a rock & roller as a country star. His son Shooter is continuing that tradition. The two genres are joined at the hip, and the differences are very small. Rap star Lil Nas X wears cowboy clothes in his show. It's all very subjective.
The major record labels are riding the cookie cutter mill of "bro country" until the wheels fall off. As long as 30-something suburban women continue to eat this stuff up, we won't wear any major changes in musical style on Country stations.
New artists with more of a traditional "roots" sound will continue to linger in the obscurity of college AAA stations because there is no commercial Alternative/Indie Country counterpart radio format like there is with Alternative Rock.
New artists with more of a traditional "roots" sound will continue to linger in the obscurity of college AAA stations because there is no commercial Alternative/Indie Country counterpart radio format like there is with Alternative Rock.
And yet, the major record labels continue to sign traditional country artists and their records have had success on country radio. For example, Texas singer Cody Johnson was signed to Warner Brothers, and he had a Top 10 hit this year. George Strait is still signed to MCA after 35 years, and had a Top 20 this year. Country music is a very diverse format, with lots of styles and sounds. It's not all one thing. That diversity is what drives its popularity.
Country is a very diverse genre, but not necessarily a very diverse radio format. George Strait's singles were almost all Top 5 charting through the 2000s, until the "bro-country" takeover. Now his songs struggle to reach the Top 20. And with so many Country stations and the way digital downloads and streaming is counted these days, you could probably still have a Top 20 hit even if the majority of Country stations refuse to play your song at all.
Speaking of which, I just heard a radio ad from Taylor Swift inviting people to pre-order her new album directly from her web site. And this was on an AC station that plays her music constantly. But she knows radio stations don't have real DJs anymore who promote new albums, so she had to buy airtime to do it herself.
Speaking of which, I just heard a radio ad from Taylor Swift inviting people to pre-order her new album directly from her web site. And this was on an AC station that plays her music constantly. But she knows radio stations don't have real DJs anymore who promote new albums, so she had to buy airtime to do it herself.
DJs had stopped doing that before Taylor was even a twinkle in her mommy and daddy's eyes.
With the possible exception of AOR stations which did things like "Album Release Parties" on the air and talked up "the first song from the new album that we've been waiting for..." most music stations that had live talent did not talk about new albums and release dates. CHRs and Urban songs as well as most country artists got mention for being "the new one from Sammy Singer" but not much about the album.
And today, since on demand is generally by song or by genre or by artist, the fact that some of the songs are bundled in an album is irrelevant. Physical product is a tiny part of music sales, and individual downloads are also declining. Artists that want to sell full albums have to be big artists who can get the fan base to actually purchase a whole set of songs when, in fact, most consumers know that an album is a couple of good songs and a slew of mediocre or downright bad ones.
In other words, this is not a radio problem or problem caused by radio. It's a record business problem caused by technology which allows the consumer to pick just the songs they want to hear frequently without having to buy a whole album. Since most downloads are for individual songs, and on-demand services create artist revenue by repetition, not a one time sale, the whole album concept it close to dead. In some music genres, artists release a new song every few weeks, month after month and there is no real effort to work the album concept except as an afterthought.
And, historically, most formats did not do much to promote albums as most stations focus on singles, not albums... for the same reason that consumers learned that albums had lots of crappy filler.
Radio has enough problems today without being blamed for a situation that is entirely the result of changing technology, the way consumers have always wanted to buy and consume music, and the sometimes Luddite management of many record labels.
I disagree. No other radio format plays current music from artists who can range in age from their teens to their 60s, and from the very traditional to the most contemporary. The "bro country" thing you focus on lasted two years and is over. All the "bros" are now married with kids, so they don't sing as much about trucks and that sort of thing. George Strait had #1 songs until he announced his retirement. He hadn't released new music to radio until this most recent song. It might have gone higher, but the record label has a lot of competing agendas these days.
Taylor quit country music more than 5 years ago. Her record label stopped promoting her music to country radio. It was a very purposeful thing they did, and it was done at her request. Otherwise, country radio would still be playing her music now. Taylor loved her time on country radio, and sent all of us presents when she left for pop. She knows radio stations have DJs because she visited them. She doesn't "buy airtime." That's something her record label does. It's something they also did when she was the Entertainer of the Year.
That's not exactly true. Country radio still airs album premiere specials, some of which are produced by the record labels, and some are produced by the major radio owners. Obviously all of the legal requirements are handled so there are no accusations of payola. The label-produced shows are clearly announced as such.
Just recently there was a lot of excitement about the new Miranda Lambert song, and stations did a big countdown to the first spin. Yes with music being released in different ways, there's not as much focus on release day as there used to be. But you'd be surprised how much local radio is involved in promoting singles and albums, as well as concerts.
I was not aware that many country stations still did album premiers, except as sponsored events. Good to know. How often do those happen at significant stations, and how much of the content of the album is actually played?
Singles releases by superstar A+ artists are always pretty big on formats that are focused on currents. However, the move by the music industry worldwide to Friday releases has made these less of a random act. The move to releasing additional cuts much faster in some genres makes it far less thrilling, too.
A new song premiered on a morning show with a big name attached is something that can be promoted. It's a benchmark. But if overdone, it's boring.
Concerts are different; they are tangible and often revenue sources for stations. Most stations still want to give away tickets, do backstages or meet & greets and they'll put a vehicle and staffers at the entrance if they can.
But in most formats, I don't see anywhere near the degree of interest in albums that there used to be... and that can be logically explained by the lack of consumer interest is the concept as a purchase option when singles and on-demand are the norm. I just think that the album overall is nearly as dead as the dodo.
iHeart, Entercom, and Cumulus all do these kinds of things, and they happen whenever a major album is released. They're typically aired in the 7PM slot or on wknds. The album special usually will play several songs from the new album mixed in with some previous hits. My sense is they are sponsored, but with the requisite label attribution.
In the context of "today's country music," the emphasis is on currents. More than a quarter of the music on a typical country station is drawn from the Top 50. It's not uncommon to hear a current, a recurrent, and a gold as part of the regular rotation. So you will hear a lot of new country on country radio. These stations are involved in promoting new music and new artists. The DJs at these stations are hired for their connection to the "country life group." That means their air talent is frequently at shows, frequently interviewing artists (usually by phone), frequently taking about what's going on with the big stars. There are lots of news sources and services providing news and information about country music and the stars. It's all part of local show prep. So when someone says "radio stations don't have real DJs anymore," that may be true in some formats, but not country.
At the 50KW AC Variety FM station I work for, we were sampling some songs recently released and labeled as contemporary country... shite no! they were pop music!!
More get-off-my-lawn stuff. Country radio hasn't been a purist's domain since the 1940s or 1950s, and back then the music was largely programmed as part of a full-service AM's schedule, which means not onlty that the music wasn't the main focus but that the DJs were likely to play other forms of popular music as well. Country radio didn't really take off until the "Nashville Sound" -- Chet Atkins' brainchild -- smoothed the edges off the music. But even then, there was plenty of room for Tammy and George and Conway and Loretta on the playlist. "He'll Have To Go" and "Golden Ring" on the same station? Sure. Just as George Strait and Randy Travis were still being played on country radio in 1990, as was that year's Grammy winner for Best Country Song -- Kathy Mattea's "Where've You Been," a top 10 hit that featured not fiddle and guitar but a stately piano-and-cello arrangement! Was it country? Damn right. It told a story and touched hearts the way a great country song is supposed to, and the listeners to country radio obviously accepted and liked it.
That is one of the few artists that can do that.
This year, digital downloads are predicted to be about 8% of music sales. Streaming is going to be nearly 85% of music sales. The remainder is physical product.
Of a projected $3.7 billion music market, one million units at about $10 for Taylor Swift is a tiny, tiny part.
I like all kinds of country, insomuch as i mean.... classic country of the 70s 80s 90s.. i liek a fair amount of todays new stuff too.. but nto all of it.
I'm only 35 btw
A lot of today's country music is just pop music sung with an exaggerated Southern twang. Otherwise it's the same finger snaps, Pro Tools drum loops, distorted rock guitars, and repetitive Auto-Tuned vocals. If there's ever a fiddle or steel guitar to be heard now, it's buried way, way down in the background. There isn't even any point to doing separate "pop" and "country" mixes of new songs like Faith Hill and Shania Twain used to do, because now they'd both sound the same.
In fact, Nashville was one of the first big users of Auto-Tune. I started hearing its artifacts in country vocals even before Cher's "Believe" and Eiffel 65's "I'm Blue".
Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings never had fiddle or steel in any of their records. I guess they weren't country artists.
One of the most consistent users of auto tune has been Dolly Parton. She may have been the first.
Here's a song that's over 50 years old with finger snaps, and no fiddle or steel. It crossed over to pop and won a country Grammy.
https://youtu.be/7HBQFjoqDYE
James Otto Sweet Heart
Banned
^^^ To me, the best copy of that song is the little bit that we get out of my most favorite actor, Bronson Pinchot that is, during the season five Perfect Strangers episode named Come Fly With Me. I love to hear him sing it SO much!!! 
God bless you and the beautiful precious always!!!
Holly
P.S. When Larry makes him stop singing, I just want to kick that little shrimp where I know that it would hurt for his choice to interrupt the flawlessness!!!
God bless you and the beautiful precious always!!!
Holly
P.S. When Larry makes him stop singing, I just want to kick that little shrimp where I know that it would hurt for his choice to interrupt the flawlessness!!!
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