We need to talk about country music.
It’s a genre as polarizing as it is layered. On the surface, country music is exactly as it is stereotyped—ruled by white men with pickup trucks singing about beer and dirt roads. That’s what you’re most likely to hear if you flip to a country radio station, even in 2021. Country music, historically, has not changed much over the years. Some fans will try to convince you that country has been overrun by too much pop music, lacking the roots that birthed country music in the mountains and prairies of America with banjos and bluegrass and Bibles. While many artists’ music does indeed crossover to pop, the popularization of pop-country music ignores the layers of subgenres within country music that don’t get mainstream attention. And these deeper pockets of country music long ignored are where the women of country music reside.
Women are the backbone of country music. Arguably the most recognizable, universally-loved country artist of all time is the one and only Dolly Parton, whose songs have spanned generations and genres and left a mark on music forever. Women like Dolly have long dominated the songwriting side of country music, crafting hits for male artists. Kacey Musgraves and Maren Morris are two of the biggest female country stars today, and like Dolly, both began their careers writing songs for male artists like Brothers Osborne and Tim McGraw. Clearly, the women of country music have plenty to say. And yet, according to an article from NBC News in 2020, several studies showed a 66 percent decline in women’s country radio airplay from 2000 to 2018 and a 9.7 to 1 ratio in total spins for men versus women. The studies even revealed that time of day was a factor, with a significant amount of women’s music being played during nighttime slots when there’s the lowest percentage of listeners.
This disparity becomes puzzling when you look at the country music audience, which is largely made up of women. In a study posted to Digital Music News, CMT and Coleman Insights reported that 84 percent of listeners want equal radio play, 72 percent said they hear more songs by men on the radio, and about 7 in 10 listeners want more female artists in country music. These data reveal that while audiences want to hear female stories, the industry makes it difficult for women to take up a deserved space. The lack of female voices being broadcasted to wider, mainstream audiences perpetuates a cycle in which they are unheard. Outside of what the radio plays, those who dive deeper into the nooks and crannies of the genre would witness women producing some of the most honest, raw, artistic songs in country music.
In a society where white males often get away with much more than they should, much more than anyone else would, country music rests comfortably. Since February, Morgan Wallen has been under fire after his usage of the n-word was caught on video. Many country artists condemned him and the message he sent—most of them women. And yet, his album sales have only increased, and he now has the first country album in history to spend 7 weeks at number one on the Billboard 200, according to Chart Data. Well-known female country artists like Morris and Kelsea Ballerini tweeted their support for the Black community and expressed wishes for country music to do better. Ballerini quote-tweeted a post that read:
If a female artist did 5% of the shit he has pulled she would be immediately dropped by everyone.
– Bonnie J. Baker (@bjewelb) February 2, 2021
Not only did this incident highlight once again the struggles women face in country music, but it also emphasized the lack of attention given to people of color in country music and the blatant racism shown by fans of Wallen. While Black country musicians like Jimmie Allen, Breland, Yola, Mickey Guyton, and Rhiannon Giddens have carved out their spaces in country music as the successors of past artists like Charley Pride and Linda Martell, these names are not nearly as recognizable as Carrie Underwood or Miranda Lambert, or even smaller artists like Maddie & Tae or Lauren Alaina. If women in country music have faced ignorance and blatant prejudice when it comes to radio play and exposure, spinning their wheels for years in the business, then Black women in country music have experienced that treatment 10 times over.
What country radio won’t tell you, is that there are plenty of Black women who sing country music. Who write country music. Who have lived and breathed the experiences of country music. Brittney Spencer, Reyna Roberts, Tiera, Chapel Hart, and so many more artists not only need to be heard but shared. The lack of support and exposure of these artists exposes country music’s stale culture, permeating with misogyny and racism.
Thanks to these artists, the roots of country music are upheld. The outlaws and outliers are still raising their voices. Country music is not just the boots and the rednecks and the trucks, it’s every other voice with a story to tell that doesn’t fit into that box. And on March 14, 2021, Mickey Guyton will become the first Black female country artist to perform on the Grammys stage, as a nominee for her song “Black Like Me”–the first-ever nomination for a black woman in country music.
This is only the beginning.
