One of my more deeply conservative acquaintances on Facebook posted on his feed last night: "Well, CMT just went woke..Never watching that channel again". A bunch of his far-right cohorts agreed with him mightily, but they didn't exactly say what happened or why they considered the program "woke". Anyone have any ideas what happened to stir up the Trumpists? I don't care for country myself, so I wasn't watching.
Just guessing, but there were drag performers dancing on stage during Kelsea Ballerini's song.
Amen. CMT, which doesn't do much music programming anymore, has pushed for gender/racial diversity and cross-genre collaboration for years. It feels out of place musically with the '90s/traditional/red dirt sounds that are currently impacting mainstream country, but it is what it is. There's plenty of chatter on the country music discussion boards that Kelsea Ballerini will have radio turn on her new single the way it did on Maren Morris' and Miranda Lambert's most recent singles, and that's got to be pressure from the right and from the male audience country has been trying to win back over the past year. Morris and Lambert saw their follow-up singles to the very successful "Circles Around This Town" and "If I Was A Cowboy" crash and burn at radio, Lambert's never reaching the top 40, Morris' being shunned completely.
Does radio airplay make or break a single? Or is radio less important than individual consumers ? If a conservative radio station decides not to play a country single, is that less important than if conservative consumers decide not to buy it? I go back and forth trying to decide whether a radio station creates a hit or whether consumers create a hit, then a station plays a single because it tests well with its listeners.
There was a similar situation with the Dixie Chicks back in c. 2006, where they made remarks about Operation Desert Storm, which affected their careers and the airplay in Texas of their records, IIRC.
It's tuneful melody, with a strong beat and good lyrics. But I'm wondering why, in the face of the current controversy about drag shows, which is a hot-button topic that raises strong feelings, would an artist make a deliberately provocative statement by putting drag queens on stage? That seems like an inadvisable career move, in these tempestuous times. JMO -- Daryl
www.wideopencountry.com
That's the calculated risk Ballerini is taking. If radio won't play her songs anymore, her fans -- largely female -- will continue to stream them and support future material from her. Remember, she's been a country hit maker since 2014, three years longer than Wallen. There's decent support for her out there, although who knows how many of the politically/socially conservative women and teens who have supported her well-written hits will turn on her over what happened on Sunday night?Conversely, in 2021, Morgan Wallen made some controversial remarks, and some radio stations stopped playing him.
In response, his fans continued to stream his songs in high numbers.
Four months later, radio stations resumed playing Morgan's music.
Morgan Wallen's Radio Ban Is Quietly Lifted After Four Months
Four months after country singer Morgan Wallen was banned from country radio after a racial slur controversy, the ban was quietly lifted.
True. And the song she sang on the show picked up 12 adds this week. It's been out for a couple of months but is off to a slow start. I believe this has been its strongest week yet. That said, I've yet to hear it on any of the country stations here, although it might be getting overnight exposure.
Her soon-to-be-ex Morgan Evans was first out with a song addressing the breakup, but it stiffed. Kelsea responded with a five-track EP accompanied by a series of dramatic videos. Her label is probably waiting to see what happens with "If You Go Down" before sending any of those songs to radio. I don't sense any great fascination with this split in country music media, especially compared to the hysterical who-slept-with-who stories about a bunch of oversexed featherbrains from "Vanderpump Rules" that are dominating entertainment media now.
No. What I meant was that the reason her single has been moving slow was because of the divorce, not Sunday's TV show.
tasteofcountry.com
OK, I can see that. But again, the country chart is so slow that singles you think are dead in the water turn out to be simply waiting their turn and start climbing rapidly as late as 40 weeks into their chart stay. There's a song currently in the top 10, and still gaining spins, that has been in the airplay top 50 for more than 70 weeks!No. What I meant was that the reason her single has been moving slow was because of the divorce, not Sunday's TV show.
BTW her divorce was finalized in November
Kelsea Ballerini and Morgan Evans Have Finalized Their Divorce
Kelsea Ballerini and Morgan Evans are officially divorced + she's moving into a new home.
So she's likely to be on the other side of this by later this year.
