Brooks & Dunn - "Play Something Country"

[luvhonkytonk]

I love this song! They performed it last night on the awards. I thought they sounded great considering the lousy audio.

[reception]

mms://66.186.0.101/allaccess/brooplay.wma

[gcook]

eh... so so! Good song, but it just doesn't hit me.

[magnum]

Great fun summer song - the lyrics are a hoot. Sounds reminescent of their earlier days??

They really looked like they were enjoying themselves on the ACM show. Thought they had one of the best performances. Was it just me or were they GENUINELY excited to have won the Duo award -- loved the choke hold.

Thanks for posting the links.

[luvhonkytonk]

It's very reminiscent of their early days. I think the were truly surprised by their win. It hasn't been their best year and it could have gone to one of the other duos. I'm very happy it didn't. I still think they're the best!

[Zazie]

Pretty much everybody expected the Warren Brothers to win it this time, but B&D edged them out in what must have been a very close contest. I'm sure the powers-that-be in Nashville are still getting over the surprise.

[musicfan_84]

Warren Brothers? You mean Big & Rich... right?

[Zazie]

ben1120 said:

Warren Brothers? You mean Big & Rich... right?

No. And I'm not going to explain it, either. You'll have to do your best.

[musicfan_84]

Whoops... guess I'm not used to you having the sarcastic posts. Steelo usually takes care of that!

[Zazie]

I was sarcastic because I think the whole idea of a "duo" award is silly; it was the Judds forever, now it's B&D forever, and it doesn't mean much if, in order to find 5 nominees, the panel has to play the Warren Bros or the Bellamy Bros card. (They can't find 5 nominees for "group" either -- much as I love AKUS, they have as much chance to win as, well, the Warrens.)

There should be a group award, the duos should compete with the groups; and then whoever wins can at least know the award meant something. B&D can't be unaware of this, and that's why they always look a little sheepish as they go to collect their hardware.

Rascal Flatts haven't won so many of these that they are used to it. It's still new for them, so they aren't thinking about how their win over D Rio and Union Station isn't all that meaningful. For B&D, I'm sure they're delighted to win but it isn't much of a contest.

Ronnie Dunn sings about as well as anybody out there. He doesn't get full credit for that because he's part of a group effort, but he's got passion, he understands music, and he has a wonderful voice. I hope they stick around for a while....

[reception]

Week ending 5/27/2005: Debut at #39.

[reception]

Week ending 6/3/2005: Biggest jumper moving 39-24.

[austin]

This single sure is taking off. It is pretty good, but I prefer 'It's Getting Better All The Time'.

This one will probably hit #1 as well, though.

[luvhonkytonk]

I love both songs. It just shows how versatile they are. Of course, when Ronnie Dunn opens his mouth, it's all good!

[magnum]

Great post Zazie... Agree with you. Kind of strange to think that Blue County (who I like BTW) can get nominated and they haven't reached the top 20 with a song yet have they? Could understand the Bellamy Brothers because they are internationally renowned.

Seems that during the past years the group category is where the duos used to be. Going forward should be interesting. Sugarland showed they can play with the big boys on the ACMs. Would love to see Trick Pony rebound. Hard to believe how many duos are out there now trying to find their niche. There seems to be a good mix of styles with the duos - Traditional country to the southern rock.

If they would combine the groups and duos how do you feel about the lead singers contending for male/female vocals (e.g. Dunn, the lead singer of Sugarland sure has some vocals and Richie from Lonestar, etc.).

zazie said:

IRonnie Dunn sings about as well as anybody out there. He doesn't get full credit for that because he's part of a group effort, but he's got passion, he understands music, and he has a wonderful voice. I hope they stick around for a while....

Couldn't agree with you more about Dunn's vocals and passion either which shows through so much on his live performances (e.g. the CMA performance of IGBATT). Radio doesn't embrace ballads the way it seems, but you just couldn't deny this song IMO.

Liking PSC more everytime I hear it! Great song to be on the airways while traveling, or whatever. Love B&D's versatility to take you from verge of tears with a ballad to just plain fun honky tonking stuff where you can just let loose without a care in the world. Hope PSC does well on the charts.

[Perp]

This is yet another example of a fast-rising big-name song that MAY be hitting a premature peak pretty soon. It's begun to flounder around. For the last 10 days B&D have gained just 186,000 in audience on the daily R&R. The 10 days prior to that, they gained almost 6 million. It just ground to a screeching halt as far as audience goes. Their audience bullet on BB this week is a very weak 357,000.

I suppose you could argue the label is saying "What's the big rush? Let's take our time." since there's an ENORMOUS gap of about 9 million ahead of it on R&R (5.8 million on BB) before you hit the next song, and maybe it's best to just take it easy and wait for songs above you to weaken, but in the meantime B&D are sitting ducks for Brad Paisley who is churning up at a good clip.

Or it could be the song just isn't that great to begin with. It has some problems on at least one research chart. It shares the dubious honor on the Callout America chart of having the highest negatives in the "Strong Dislike" category, along with McGraw's "Fries". Each got a 6.0 score (the higher the score, the worse off you are) while the chart on average had a 2.5 score. The next worst scoring song got a 4.0, so Tim and B&D are kind of standing alone in a field.

I'm not anti-B&D or anything, but I think if this song does tank earlier than expected, it once again is showing that big name stars can't expect to release sub-par songs and sit back and watch them hit #1. Enjoy the fast ride up, because the expiration date of the song may be sooner than you think.

[edited to fix a minor typo]

[Zazie]

Perp, you keep closer tabs on the chart data than I do -- but I think I've seen, on more than a few occasions, a song that had a ridiculously big move one week have a correction the next week before resuming its climb. B&D had about a 3.5 million gain in a 7-day period, and now they've had a standstill week, but still the two weeks average almost 2 million. It might be that the song will peak early, but it seems more likely that it will resume its steady gains.

[Perp]

Zazie, I tend to notice things that stand out in my Excel graphs, and then I poke around further in my chart archives to see what's going on. I like the birds-eye view the graphs give me. It's too easy to miss trends just staring at numbers.

I wonder what made "Play Something Country" take off with a 6 million 7-day increase in the first place? On a graph I'm looking at, it looks a bit 'artifical' or 'engineered' how it had a very linear climb that lasted 10 days. If the idea was to gain breathing room over Brad, it worked (for awhile). Now their audience lead over him is less than it was when that surge started.

[luvhonkytonk]

Thanks for all the interesting info Zazie and Perp. As a huge B&D fan, I've been watching this song like a hawk. I was kind of confused by the drastic changes in the last two week. Just a point of information. B&D and Brad Paisley are both on the same record label. I don't know if that makes any difference in your theory. Also, Brad's song has been out 4 weeks longer than B&D's song. I'm very interested in reading your comments.

[Perp]

Yes, I realized after posting my comments that both are on Arista. Thanks for pointing that out.

Maybe the label feels obligated to give Brad more spins since his song is older than B&D's, as you brougt up, and want some brakes applied to B&D because of that? It's all speculation anyway, but I sorta like to speculate. (as if anyone out there hasn't figured that out by now).

[magnum]

perpetualemotion said:

It has some problems on at least one research chart.  It shares the dubious honor on the Callout America chart of having the highest negatives in the "Strong Dislike" category, along with McGraw's "Fries".  Each got a 6.0 score (the higher the score, the worse off you are) while the chart on average had a 2.5 score.  The next worst scoring song got a 4.0, so Tim and B&D are kind of standing alone in a field.

Interesting to note that although it is showing a high dislike, it comes in at #14 out of 35 overall for LIKE ALOT and #18 for overall position on the chart which isn't too shabby at all. Is this just one of those songs where there isn't too much middle ground?

Went over to RATE THE MUSIC and their release today, is showing it in the Top 10 favorite country songs which is really a good sign right?

How much faith do you have in these particular charts? How honest do you think people are when they take these? or are their responses in reaction to their favorite artists? How much does radio rely on these charts?? Have any of you ever participated in the CALL OUT survey? Just curious as who is involved in these surveys, etc. etc.

[Zazie]

I'm sure the label would love to manage it so they both get to #1. And it would be B&D's 20th Billboard #1, so that would be a nice milestone. But if they were doing that, they'd be keeping Brad a respectable distance behind B&D, wouldn't they? And yet the gap has closed so much.

Brad's songs tend to last a long time, and this one has moved uncharacteristically fast for him. I wouldn't think Brad would have trouble waiting at #2 until B&D had their shot, even though his song is a little older.

Any competition from behind? Tim's climbing, Sara's had a great last month and looks very solid. Gretchen isn't getting to #1 so fast that she'd stop either Brad or B&D. Short conclusion: I don't know what's going on. But I sure wouldn't count B&D out.

[drock89]

There are a lot of contenders for #1. It will be a race of will. Faith will get there next I think, and stay there for multiple weeks. So how long can these songs gain enough to move and then challenge the top spot while holding off the competition from below.

[Perp]

magnum said:

Interesting to note that although it is showing a high dislike, it comes in at #14 out of 35 overall for LIKE ALOT and #18 for overall position on the chart which isn't too shabby at all.  Is this just one of those songs where there isn't too much middle ground?

Went over to RATE THE MUSIC and their release today, is showing it in the Top 10 favorite country songs which is really a good sign right?

How much faith do you have in these particular charts?  How honest do you think people are when they take these? or are their responses in reaction to their favorite artists?  How much does radio rely on these charts??  Have any of you ever participated in the CALL OUT survey?  Just curious as who is involved in these surveys, etc. etc.

Those are all valid points you bring up. I agree that B&D's overall ranking on the Callout America chart isn't awful, but for a top-tier act you'd think it could be higher. It could still move up since the song is still relatively young.

I think the true diehard fans of any particular act will tend to give low scores to everyone but their own favorite, especially if it's an online survey like at RateTheMusic that is open to anyone. What percentage of people polled are like that, I have no idea. I would guess the average country radio listener is probably less likely to be so rigid.

One thing about Rate The Music is ANYONE can join in and participate, which I think would tend to favor the A-list acts who have the biggest fan bases. In contrast, Callout America chooses YOU, randomly. You cannot ask to be put on the poll. I tried to participate because my local small-market station is one of the statons that Callout America works with. I was sent back a form letter saying sorry, you can't participate unless you are called.

It's not hard to find big differences in how songs rank at Callout America, Rate The Music, and Hit Predictor, so I look them all over to get a general feel how things are going for a song. I have no idea which stations live and die by these sort of polls, and which barely pay attention to them.

I do think that a series of very positive writeups on the weekly Callout America Research Letter and a very good HitPredictor ranking for SHeDAISY's single helped give the song some credibility when it needed it the most, after a pretty slow start.

[bamafan2102]

I am a B&D fun but this song is not so good IMO. I agree with the Duo awards. What a joke. Also isn't it about time Kix took the lead or did South Of Santa Fe ruin it for a while.

[luvhonkytonk]

bamafan2102 said:

Also isn't it about time Kix took the lead or did South Of Santa Fe ruin it for a while.

Maybe forever. Personally, I don't want to hear Kix sing lead. His voice just isn't that great. There are some songs that I think may have done alright on the radio, but IMO radio just doesn't get into Kix' voice. Ronnie has the power vocals, he can sing anything.

I used to be on some sort of call out list. I would get a call every so often and they would play about 36 song clips. I was able to rate them as tired of, never liked, not familiar, like or favorite. I'm pretty sure those were the categories. They stopped calling. I guess they rotate who they call. Maybe they realized I will never give Kenny, Tim and a couple others a good rating. I just don't like them. I switch the station when they come on. I loved doing that, it was fun.

[Perp]

Part of the reason for B&D moving slowly while Brad is surging...

At KPLX: Brad's in power rotation with 51 spins, 1.4 million... B&D have 27 spins (down 7)
At WUSN: Brad is up 7 spins this week, B&D are down 5
At KZLA: Brad is up 6 spins, B&D are down 3

[bamafan2102]

I do agree that Kix's voice is not all that great but he always seemed to sing the songs that stuck out to me off of their albums. Not because he was singing them but they were just different. My favorite B&D song is More Than A Margarita and Kix sang it. If Kix will no longer be featured that what will happen down the road??????

[luvhonkytonk]

Kix still has album cuts. I'm just speculating. I've heard that he is singing a song from the new CD in concert. So, maybe he will get a single from Hillbilly Deluxe. Although, they were doing "Feels Good Don't It from Red Dirt Road and it was never released as a single. I wish it had been, it's a great song with a great hook.

[Perp]

Maybe "Play Something Country" is going to start moving again. B&D had the 3rd largest one day audience gain on the daily R&R today (.506), behind Gretchen (1.388) and SHeDAISY (.563). Brad Paisley (.496) and Sara Evans (.440) round out the top five.