It has been about a year since I looked at how many females were making an impact in the format. I bring it up again because there has been a change since last year when I compared Country to Top 40 and AC to see the comparison between the formats.
A funny thing happened this year. No, Country has not gotten better, but the other formats have gone in the other direction.
In 2012, three females placed songs in the Top 20 on the Country Mediabase year end chart. Jana Kramer, Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert were the only three females on the list. Taylor Swift was not on the list but she had kind of a good year and really doesn’t need chart position to influence sales. In Top 40 Ellie Goulding, Carly Rae Jepsen, Kelly Clarkson, Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry, Rihanna (twice), Demi Lovato, Adele and Pink all made the Top 20. That is 50 percent of the Top 20 for the year compared to 15 percent for Country.
In AC, there was between 11 and 13. “Moves Like Jagger” credits Christina Aguilera and The Band Perry is on the list. Certainly Kimberly is the “voice” on the song. Let’s agree on 12 which means 60 percent of this chart was female.
Today, as I write this column, the Country chart has two female voices in the Top 20. Again, one is TBP and the other is Carrie. Top 40 has five in the Top 20 and AC has eight. I ask this question every year. I think I have written about this three times now and it completely stumps me.
We see female acts working very hard, without the success their efforts should show. There are a few female artists bubbling under, like Sheryl Crow, Kacey Musgraves and Jana Kramer, who is flirting with repeating her debut success. I really like Maggie Rose and Jaida Dreyer because I happen to know personally how hard they both work at it. Katie Armiger is pounding the highways as is Sarah Darling. Gretchen Wilson is a great act live, but she may be overlooked because of her early music being too big to repeat. Not fair.
Blake Shelton has given us Cassadee Pope and Gwen Sebastian. You might think his influence would count for more but so far that has not been enough. Speaking of TV success, what female has had more tube time than Kellie Pickler? And who doesn’t love Kellie? But her current single is just out there somewhere. I know I have failed to mention a couple of young ladies that have shown up on the radio but with little play. Actually, this isn’t about individual acts. My point in mentioning them is to show they are out there and working hard but to little avail.
Looking for a reason, you could blame male PDs but that doesn’t really work. You can blame label support but that wouldn’t make any sense either. Sony has Miranda and Carrie. Maybe that is enough for them. Taylor is (and should be) the queen of BMLG. Warner Bros. doesn’t have a lead female but Ms. Crow is pecking away at chart position. The Universal Label Group has a ton of successful male and group performers but no stand out female yet.
I once worked for a boss that DEMANDED we play 50 percent females on the station. It wasn’t too long ago and it was impossible. As I look at their list today I see some questionable titles from female acts so this philosophy must still be in place. Maybe this is the way to force females on the air. As a programmer, I would love the balance of sound and tempo that ballads and females bring to the station. But I have learned that trying to force feed the audience is a mistake. You need to lead them until they take over and then you had better follow them.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of MusicRow.)