Opinion: Is Taylor The New Garth; Does History Repeat?
Further evidence? Taylor on the new cover of "InStyle."
Country’s last popularity peak was spearheaded by Garth Brooks who attracted both countryphiles and musicphiles—fans with a wide variety of musical tastes. Today there are a great many similarities to those times with the media’s strong attraction toward Taylor Swift and her music which to date has sold over 10 million records.
When Garth was riding his wave of popularity he helped, (and was helped), by what we now call the class of ’89. Is there a new class of ’09? Hot acts were showcased on the CMA Awards such as Lady Antebellum, Darius Rucker, Jason Aldean, Miranda Lambert, Zac Brown Band, Jamey Johnson and Billy Currington. Favorites such as Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley, Sugarland, George Strait, Kenny Chesney, Martina McBride and Reba proved themselves current and cutting edge. It was an amazing tour de force of new, developing and established talents.
Could country be on the verge of a strong expansion lead by the 19-year-old singer/songwriter and reinforced by a vigorous rising class of appealing artists ready to benefit from the format’s increased attention? Let’s examine some of the recent dots
on our tastemaker radar and see if they connect.
A lot of high profile happenings have taken place in a short timespan. The CMA Awards show this week drew its highest ratings since 2005 with an estimated 35 million viewers watching at least some portion of the show. Swift performed twice and won four trophies. The precocious prodigy also brought Saturday Night Live its best ratings of the season when she appeared as host and musical guest on Nov. 7. Bundle Swift’s recent appearance/performance on Oprah, the VMA/Kanye West incident which brought worldwide coverage, plus her sold-out tour and it is easy to see why she is now the largest selling artist across all formats. And where is she from? What does she call herself? [Answers: Nashville; country.]
A grassroots indication that attention is turning toward country music, also happened the day following the Awards when MusicRow.com experienced its largest ever one-day traffic numbers—a staggering increase of 37% over its previous all-time best day. People were searching out information about Swift, the awards and the format in numbers we have never seen before.
Is Taylor the new Garth? Will her magnetic popularity reconnect country with a larger multi-format audience? Is there a class of ’09? Time will tell, but it appears that a new energy in country music is starting to rumble across America. Hopefully we’ll see it reflected on the holiday sales charts. If these dots are connecting, it will mean good things for everyone on Music Row in the coming year. Bring it on!
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I don’t suppose the higher TV ratings had anything to do with Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood’s promotional efforts via satellite interviews with local ABC affiliates and performances on Good Morning America, not to mention radio interviews that piggybacked their latest #1 singles with CMA promotion (and in Underwood’s case, album promotion).
The half hour breakdowns of the telecast show that the most watched half hour of performances was the 9-9:30 slot featuring performances by Daughtry featuring Vince Gill, Underwood, Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, as well as an award win by Darius Rucker.
There’s no denying Swift’s massive stardom and presence but her pop culture relevance has very little to do with country music. After all she remixes her songs for other formats and performs those remixed versions on shows like Saturday Night Live. At a certain point her self identification as “country” becomes meaningless – I believe we’re past that point. There is transcending genre because your music truly combines features of multiple genres, and there’s “transcending genre” because you have been successfully marketed to appeal to audiences not committed to any one radio format. Swift’s case is the latter and it’s obvious that her invigoration of the teenage female audience has sent our genre’s corporate interests scrambling to take advantage. Wednesday night’s CMA telecast was merely a crystallization of that.
I think that a true reconnection of country music to a multi-format audience requires a true country element in the music that doesn’t get remixed out at the earliest opportunity. I’m looking at the likes of Sugarland, Underwood, and Lady Antebellum to do that. Taylor Swift’s supernova is her own and won’t help the format in the long run.
whoever you are… i Love you for saying exactly what I think. Taylor is an Entertainer, but at the point she is with her music she is a Pop Star and very little of a country star.
She might have started as one and really like country music, but she is no longer a pure country singer (if she ever was one), I Think at the CMA’s there were other people that could have win and that should have won more that her.
I really don’t think the CMAs, the ACMs are her place, come on she is nominee for the AMAs as country and as Pop singer. I’m not saying she is a bad singer, a bad songwritter, I’m only saying that she is NOT country.
So does that mean since Tim is on the cover of Men’s Journal and was on the cover of People last week he brought the ratings up and he has all the press for his new movie.
Don’t leave Tim Mcgraw’s name off the list.
The only reason the ratings went up for the programs you mentioned was because the younger people follow Taylor. The more mature people could care less about Taylor. The opening act at the CMAs was so ROCK!! Throwing furniture, sliding down a pole, slithering on the floor and tossing her hair around was about as country as Ringo Starr. It makes me sick that you compare her with Garth Brooks. Yes, Garth did get a little crazy in some of his concerts, but his songs and lifestyle is pure country. I think as Taylor’s fans matures and Taylor matures…she will be a has-been.
While I too applaud the ratings success of the CMA’s, I also believe that there is much more to it than Taylor’s appearance and presence. We had better be careful how we interpret her effect on the genre in general as all indications are that the people who she attracts are not core country fans and do not represent the format. All one has to do is go to ITunes and look up Taylor’s album and view what buyers also purchased. You’ll find it’s largely pop and tweeny rock, and most likely the country numbers are due to the fact that parents are purchasing for their kids, and They’re the ones who also buy George and Kenny. Also, Taylor’s vocal performance at the top of the show left a lot to be desired. I hope she has a long career, but I think it’s a shame that so many true talents will never get the chance in this format due to lack of politics and/or money. I mourn the loss of real country music.
“The only reason the ratings went up for the programs you mentioned was because the younger people follow Taylor”.
…Now remind me again why that’s a bad thing? Taylor portrays a good girl image for our youth, and THAT IS country! The negative Naomi-like comments on Taylors success are dark and ugly… and not what I want my daughter looking up to! In fact, those comments sound a little like what most people would associate with rock/pop/alternative or whatever you call it. So who’s not country?