The answer: perhaps.
It's been six years, and if you put your ear to the ground you can hear and feel the oncoming backlash - especially among country programmers. Song after song that burns quickly, researches with high negatives, and an increasingly short shelf-life from single to single tells me that programmers' (and listeners) patience with this artist is wearing thin.
To be fair, she has done everything and more an artist can from the promotional and business side to get and maintain friends at radio, but I submit that had she not gone above and beyond in these areas her viability within the format would have been nil by 2010.
She's a huge pop star, no doubt. And her music reflects that, with more and more of each album aimed at pop airplay, regardless of the fact that she continues to swear that she will always be country. The proof is right there in every release.
Combine the above with the fact that her songs, country, pop or whatever, are aimed at a demographic that the standard country station doesn't consider a primary target, and the interest from single to single to get on - and continue to play - the latest Taylor Swift is waning.
Do we want to give her concert tickets away? Her cd's? Absolutely! But as time passes it gets to be more a case of jumping on what's hot in pop culture as opposed to what's hot in the country lifegroup. The country radio station I worked for in 2000 tried hard to secure and give away N'Sync tickets when they came to town. Taylor Swift is more like that now than if we were giving away Tim McGraw tickets.
Also, one gets the impression the listeners are getting tired of the one-trick pony that is "Guess who I'm writing about in THIS song?". That was interesting for the first album, but after that, not so much.
Finally, the format cannot keep relying on a young woman writing and singing songs aimed at the teen female crowd. When we first met Taylor she was 15 and singing songs that a 15 year old girl could relate to. Six years later, it seems like that will "never, ever, ever" change. While that song may be selling through the roof, I doubt very much the core demos we aim at as programmers are the ones buying it.
The weird thing about her is that consultants continue to rave about her, calling her "a treasure" (Jaye Albright) while at the same time watching single after single burn quickly and test itself off playlists in less and less time.
So - is Taylor Swift done at country? Perhaps. Or maybe the ship can be righted again.
Thoughts?
It's been six years, and if you put your ear to the ground you can hear and feel the oncoming backlash - especially among country programmers. Song after song that burns quickly, researches with high negatives, and an increasingly short shelf-life from single to single tells me that programmers' (and listeners) patience with this artist is wearing thin.
To be fair, she has done everything and more an artist can from the promotional and business side to get and maintain friends at radio, but I submit that had she not gone above and beyond in these areas her viability within the format would have been nil by 2010.
She's a huge pop star, no doubt. And her music reflects that, with more and more of each album aimed at pop airplay, regardless of the fact that she continues to swear that she will always be country. The proof is right there in every release.
Combine the above with the fact that her songs, country, pop or whatever, are aimed at a demographic that the standard country station doesn't consider a primary target, and the interest from single to single to get on - and continue to play - the latest Taylor Swift is waning.
Do we want to give her concert tickets away? Her cd's? Absolutely! But as time passes it gets to be more a case of jumping on what's hot in pop culture as opposed to what's hot in the country lifegroup. The country radio station I worked for in 2000 tried hard to secure and give away N'Sync tickets when they came to town. Taylor Swift is more like that now than if we were giving away Tim McGraw tickets.
Also, one gets the impression the listeners are getting tired of the one-trick pony that is "Guess who I'm writing about in THIS song?". That was interesting for the first album, but after that, not so much.
Finally, the format cannot keep relying on a young woman writing and singing songs aimed at the teen female crowd. When we first met Taylor she was 15 and singing songs that a 15 year old girl could relate to. Six years later, it seems like that will "never, ever, ever" change. While that song may be selling through the roof, I doubt very much the core demos we aim at as programmers are the ones buying it.
The weird thing about her is that consultants continue to rave about her, calling her "a treasure" (Jaye Albright) while at the same time watching single after single burn quickly and test itself off playlists in less and less time.
So - is Taylor Swift done at country? Perhaps. Or maybe the ship can be righted again.
Thoughts?
