14887fan
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Post by 14887fan on Mar 20, 2015 2:00:33 GMT -5
Don't care how polarizing this single is; it's still frightening that we're verging on two and a half full years without seeing a solo woman top Country airplay. Saying that "the average listener doesn't care about peak position" is highly true, but that's absolutely no excuse for something as abhorrent of a statistic as that. Period.
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Markus Meyer
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Post by Markus Meyer on Mar 20, 2015 3:08:25 GMT -5
Don't care how polarizing this single is; it's still frightening that we're verging on two and a half full years without seeing a solo woman top Country airplay. Saying that "the average listener doesn't care about peak position" is highly true, but that's absolutely no excuse for something as abhorrent of a statistic as that. Period. That is honestly quite a pathetic statistic, and quite frankly, it disgusts me, but I will say that I think the struggles of this song have nothing to do with Miranda's gender. I think it's purely due to the fact that this is a very polarizing single choice.
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Post by myeverything on Mar 20, 2015 10:11:34 GMT -5
When y'all say "polarizing," what do you mean exactly? I've been following the charts for a good couple years now but definitely on the more casual side compared to mostly everyone here. I love learning more though and find it highly interesting (and slightly addicting) so sorry for the questions!
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sabre14
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Post by sabre14 on Mar 20, 2015 10:22:26 GMT -5
When y'all say "polarizing," what do you mean exactly? I've been following the charts for a good couple years now but definitely on the more casual side compared to mostly everyone here. I love learning more though and find it highly interesting (and slightly addicting) so sorry for the questions! A song that sparks highly positive and/or negative responses. Sometimes songs have trouble getting smooth chart runs if they fall under polarizing, like "1994", or deemed far too polarizing and flame out, like "Donkey". Now, I'm certainly not comparing "Little Red Wagon" to those songs but there's definitely a fair share of people who dislike it.
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Post by countrygirl918 on Mar 20, 2015 11:49:18 GMT -5
Don't care how polarizing this single is; it's still frightening that we're verging on two and a half full years without seeing a solo woman top Country airplay. Saying that "the average listener doesn't care about peak position" is highly true, but that's absolutely no excuse for something as abhorrent of a statistic as that. Period. That is honestly quite a pathetic statistic, and quite frankly, it disgusts me, but I will say that I think the struggles of this song have nothing to do with Miranda's gender. I think it's purely due to the fact that this is a very polarizing single choice. But would it be considered as polarizing if a man were singing it? I'm not saying Miranda being a woman is the sole, or even the biggest, factor in this song's struggles, but I do think it plays a factor. Women are held to different standards on country radio, and the audience is already predisposed not to like hearing female voices since they are so unused to it. So the song itself is polarizing, yes, but that a woman is singing it makes it even more so.
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zaclord π
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Post by zaclord π on Mar 20, 2015 12:17:33 GMT -5
When y'all say "polarizing," what do you mean exactly? I've been following the charts for a good couple years now but definitely on the more casual side compared to mostly everyone here. I love learning more though and find it highly interesting (and slightly addicting) so sorry for the questions! I feel like the term "polarizing" is difficult to describe, just like "radio friendly" would be hard to describe, but the reasons I find this very, very polarizing is for several reasons: 1) No one seems to be very clear as to what this song is about. If it's difficult for us on pulse to figure out a reasonable answer to the subject of this song, the average listener will have the same issue. 2) It's LOUD. While other songs people could easily ignore if they're casually listening to the radio due and don't care for the song, this song is unbearable if you don't like it. It's an easy channel-changer for me, and I'm sure many other people jump towards the dial when they hear the opening notes of this song if they don't care for the tune. It just seems to be either something people LOVE or HATE. No in between. 3) It's very in-your-face. Miranda has had a few other singles like this before, the 'take it or leave it, this is what it is' type songs, and sometimes it pays off for her ("Gunpowder & Lead", "Kerosene", "Mama's Broken Heart"), but more frequently they underperform, to her standards at least ("Crazy Ex-Girlfriend", "All Kinds of Kinds", "Fastest Girl In Town", "Only Prettier", "Somethin' Bad") and I find that "Little Red Wagon" is by far the most in-your-face single of hers to date. Many people just don't care for that style as much. 4) It seems like even most people who are fans of Miranda's don't even like this song. I couldn't tell you a name of a Miranda single that I hated, some I don't love sure, but none that I hate... until this song. It's just a mess all around in my opinion. And lastly, the one that really applies to any "polarizing" song: 5) It just doesn't sound like everything else on radio, which can make it stick out. Sometimes being "polarizing" can also translate to doing great on radio, look at "Take Your Time" by Sam Hunt. But also, it can mean that a song is gonna struggle to connect with listeners because its just not what the average country listener is used to hearing. Such as "Girl Crush" by Little Big Town. Radio programmers can just be more hesitant to play songs that sound different than the others they are playing because if its too different, listeners may change the channel, which radio PDs don't want to happen. So it just takes more data and research (call out scores, sales, streaming, etc.) to evaluate if the song is worth taking the risk. Sometimes even with fantastic research backing up a song, radio PDs still don't wanna take the risk, like "Follow Your Arrow" by Kacey Musgraves. So there really is no clear way to describe what would make a song qualify as "polarizing", but I feel like the reasons stated in numbers 1-4 are the reasons LRW falls into the "polarizing" description stated in number 5. Hopefully that helps!
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sabre14
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Post by sabre14 on Mar 20, 2015 12:52:26 GMT -5
Don't care how polarizing this single is; it's still frightening that we're verging on two and a half full years without seeing a solo woman top Country airplay. Saying that "the average listener doesn't care about peak position" is highly true, but that's absolutely no excuse for something as abhorrent of a statistic as that. Period. I don't think anybody is arguing the fact that a solo female artist hasn't gotten a Billboard #1 since October of 2012 is ridiculous. It's certainly frustrating just thinking we've had a streak that long, but in terms of Carrie's songs, as long as the song is still played often and fans can sing along to every word, because it's played often, that's more important in the end. Her label still counts those MB #1's, even if many here ignore it. Miranda's song is polarizing - that's why it's looking more like it's flaming out with each passing day (another 222k in lost audience today, bringing it's total since Sunday at 340k and 1.15 million over the past 12 days). Country radio has proven that they treat her singles with great respect, even though she has had to settle for a couple MB only #1's over the past two years ("Little Red Wagon" had a very fast climb to the top 20). "Over You", "Mama's Broken Heart", "Automatic" - smooth sailing for the most part. "Somethin' Bad", "Little Red Wagon" - harder road. There's been plenty of songs over the past decade or so that have been polarizing - it can happen to any artist really. Unfortunately the point I keep pointing back to made by 43dudleyvillas about female voices being less familiar on radio in 2015, make it that much harder for female artists, especially when it's a song as grating to some as "Little Red Wagon". I also don't think RCA is overly concerned about the risk of releasing songs like this. If they were, there's no way they would have released this after "Somethin' Bad". They know Miranda is in high demand from fans and is well regarded among the industry and her peers (awards shows show it) - they just allow her to get these fun songs out to radio sometimes because Miranda can afford to. I'm sure her next "radio-friendly" release (which go for most artists) will go into the top 5 (at least) and her next lead single will soar to the top 2.
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Markus Meyer
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Post by Markus Meyer on Mar 20, 2015 13:13:59 GMT -5
That is honestly quite a pathetic statistic, and quite frankly, it disgusts me, but I will say that I think the struggles of this song have nothing to do with Miranda's gender. I think it's purely due to the fact that this is a very polarizing single choice. But would it be considered as polarizing if a man were singing it? Yes, most definitely. Just look at "1994", a song by an A-list act in Aldean, and it peaked at what, #14? Country radio has its limitations with every artist. Yes, "Take Your Time" could be seen as "polarizing", but so could "Mama's Broken Heart" which was HUGE for Miranda.
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Post by myeverything on Mar 20, 2015 13:53:40 GMT -5
Y'all are so helpful and interesting, lol! Special thanks to zaclord, that was an awesome explanation. Thank you!!!!
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Post by countrygirl918 on Mar 20, 2015 14:15:02 GMT -5
But would it be considered as polarizing if a man were singing it? Yes, most definitely. Just look at "1994", a song by an A-list act in Aldean, and it peaked at what, #14? Country radio has its limitations with every artist. Yes, "Take Your Time" could be seen as "polarizing", but so could "Mama's Broken Heart" which was HUGE for Miranda. So, you don't think the gender issue plays any role whatsoever? Like I said, it's obviously not the only factor and I don't think it's the biggest factor by any means ( zaclord π outlined some of the bigger factors), but the point I'm trying to make is that I do think it plays a factor, at least a little. Even superstars like Carrie and Miranda aren't completely immune to country radio's current dislike of female artists. Like @daydrinker said a few days ago, listeners (especially casual ones) seem to be harder on polarizing material from female artists than they are on polarizing material from male artists. I feel like actual chart position only tells part of the story, especially as it relates to the song being "polarizing". Looking at listener feedback and callout scores gives a lot of insight into the issue as well. For those of you who follow callout reports/listener feedback, were the negativity scores as high for songs like "1994" or "Donkey" as they are for "Little Red Wagon"? What about the passion/favorite scores? I've found it very interesting that a lot of the female-voiced songs on the charts lately have had high negativity scores (unsurprisingly), but also high passion/favorite scores. I wonder if the scores for those polarizing songs by male artists tend to see the same sort of pattern in the callout reports in terms of high negativity but also high passion. There's been plenty of songs over the past decade or so that have been polarizing - it can happen to any artist really. Unfortunately the point I keep pointing back to made by 43dudleyvillas about female voices being less familiar on radio in 2015, make it that much harder for female artists, especially when it's a song as grating to some as "Little Red Wagon". That's a much more succinct summary of what I'm trying to say. "Little Red Wagon" is no doubt a polarizing single. People seem to either love it or hate it, with not many in between. But the fact that a woman is singing it as well makes it, to steal Zazie's term, double-polarizing.
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Markus Meyer
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Post by Markus Meyer on Mar 20, 2015 16:33:09 GMT -5
I don't feel gender plays a role at all. When it comes to Miranda or Carrie, radio is not unkind. They consistently score top 5 hits, so it's puzzling to me why people seem to think they're hard done by. Should we be developing more young, female talent? Yes, it's ridiculous that the likes of Kacey Musgraves (with her kick ass sales) and Brandy Clark (with her mainstream award nominations) are getting next to no airplay, but when it comes to the two A-list female acts country music boasts, gender isn't an issue. Both go up the charts with relative ease.
ETA: also don't think males are immune to underperforming polarizing singles. "Lookin' for That Girl", "Donkey", etc
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sbp17
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Post by sbp17 on Mar 20, 2015 16:54:52 GMT -5
So if you feel that gender does not play a role at all, what do you attribute the drought of number ones from a female and the very small percentage of females that even break the top 40?
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.indulgecountry
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Post by .indulgecountry on Mar 20, 2015 17:00:28 GMT -5
This song not hitting #1 isn't really the problem. It's the fact that stuff like "Automatic," "Mama's Broken Heart," "See You Again," etc. didn't get there, because they were all big hits and would've probably all hit the top if sung by male artists (far quieter hits by newer male artists have done it time and time again). I get why this wouldn't hit #1, but there's no question that females are done so horribly wrong by radio and it's gotten to the point where they can't even reliably get the two artists that get guaranteed hits to the top of the charts. It is an absolute travesty.
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14887fan
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Post by 14887fan on Mar 20, 2015 19:05:43 GMT -5
I don't feel gender plays a role at all. When it comes to Miranda or Carrie, radio is not unkind. They consistently score top 5 hits, so it's puzzling to me why people seem to think they're hard done by. Should we be developing more young, female talent? Yes, it's ridiculous that the likes of Kacey Musgraves (with her kick ass sales) and Brandy Clark (with her mainstream award nominations) are getting next to no airplay, but when it comes to the two A-list female acts country music boasts, gender isn't an issue. Both go up the charts with relative ease. ETA: also don't think males are immune to underperforming polarizing singles. "Lookin' for That Girl", "Donkey", etc A) Gender plays a role and if you don't think that at all, then I'm really not sure what charts you're looking at, because they surely aren't the same ones that I'm seeing. B) There's a difference between singles being polarizing and singles receiving overwhelmingly awful feedback and being generally horrid all around. "Little Red Wagon" is not one of those. "Lookin' For That Girl" and "Donkey" are. C) Yes, radio is kind to Lambert and Underwood, but look at the last 2 and a half years and how many singles they've released, and how many of them have gone to #1. Shouldn't take long to figure out the answer. I'm not saying that they should both receive #1 singles all the time and anything less than that is when we are allowed to cry sexism, but the fact that their singles, including "Mama's Broken Heart", "Automatic", "See You Again", "Two Black Cadillacs", "Something in the Water", and even their duet, "Somethin' Bad", missed #1 while other songs with MUCH worse callout scores and MUCH, MUCH weaker sales have is disheartening and actually pretty insulting. It goes to show that radio is not reflecting what listeners want. If that were the case, then an awful lot of the #1s of the past couple of years would've barely scraped the Top 15. It's a sexist issue on Country radio's part, and the more they mute the voices of this genre's female artists, the harder it'll be for one to break through -- not just because of radio's stubbornness, but also because of the foreignness of female artists on the airwaves to listeners, as someone brought up before.
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rsmatto
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Post by rsmatto on Mar 20, 2015 19:21:17 GMT -5
Radio also loves female vocalists who front bands (or take leads in bands) so to them, maybe their 'female quotient' is filled up by these bands more often than we realize (and even then the last #1 was what, Maddie & Tae?). Miranda's "Automatic" did go #1 on the Aircheck Chart too.
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sabre14
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Post by sabre14 on Mar 20, 2015 19:23:40 GMT -5
I don't feel gender plays a role at all. When it comes to Miranda or Carrie, radio is not unkind. They consistently score top 5 hits, so it's puzzling to me why people seem to think they're hard done by. Should we be developing more young, female talent? Yes, it's ridiculous that the likes of Kacey Musgraves (with her kick ass sales) and Brandy Clark (with her mainstream award nominations) are getting next to no airplay, but when it comes to the two A-list female acts country music boasts, gender isn't an issue. Both go up the charts with relative ease. ETA: also don't think males are immune to underperforming polarizing singles. "Lookin' for That Girl", "Donkey", etc B) There's a difference between singles being polarizing and singles receiving overwhelmingly awful feedback and being generally horrid all around. "Little Red Wagon" is not one of those. "Lookin' For That Girl" Actually believe it or not, that song had a fairly easy ride (considering the awfulness of the "song") to the top 15. It's call-out numbers were not that bad - in fact some weeks "Lookin' For That Girl" outscored other songs out at the time like "19 You + Me", "Cop Car", "Give Me Back My Hometown", "Keep Them Kisses Comin'" and "Automatic". During it's run, it's Bulls-eye scores for total dislike were anywhere from 16% to just 10%. And yes I know call-out scores are just a sample of a larger picture, but it is worth noting. That being said, it was certainly the most negative feedback for a song from Tim's fans in his career and Big Machine pulled the plug before any hugely negative backlash could happen. "Donkey" though, yes. That was "the" horrid feedback of all horrid feedbacks and it flamed out after just 6 weeks.
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Markus Meyer
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Post by Markus Meyer on Mar 20, 2015 19:33:05 GMT -5
So if you feel that gender does not play a role at all, what do you attribute the drought of number ones from a female and the very small percentage of females that even break the top 40? I did not say that it has no affect on the charts. I said that if we're going to complain about gender bias, and we certainly should because the lack of successful solo female acts is beyond ridiculous, it should not be attributed to this one song. As for Carrie/Miranda consistently missing the top on Billboard (and let's not forget, they have had their fair share of Mediabase #1's), a lot of it had to do with getting blocked by other smash hits. "Mama's Broken Heart" was blocked by a fellow monster hit in "Get Your Shine On", a song which has gone double platinum. "Two Black Cadillacs" was blocked by "Sure Be Cool If You Did", a platinum (probably near 2x platinum) lead single from a career album of one of the genres biggest star. "See You Again" was blocked by Keith Urban's lead single (IIRC, these were about even in sales) "Automatic" was blocked by mega smash "Play It Again", which had insanely high call-out scores and sales. Nobody should argue "Automatic" should have won this battle. "Something In the Water" is the only one that one could argue was unfair, as it was blocked by "Talladega" (a big hit in its own right, but not quite as big as SITW)
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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2015 22:36:22 GMT -5
I don't feel gender plays a role at all. When it comes to Miranda or Carrie, radio is not unkind. They consistently score top 5 hits, so it's puzzling to me why people seem to think they're hard done by. People aren't saying that Miranda and Carrie haven't done well at radio, or that radio hasn't been good to them. What people are saying is that, because of the dearth of female voices on the radio, when a couple of female songs do finally come over the airwaves, many listeners get easily taken aback because they are so used to hearing male voices 97% of the time that when they finally hear a female voice, it's somewhat jarring to them. It's because, over the last few years, country radio has been targeting a predominantly male audience by playing almost nothing but male country artists. As a result, the audience has basically been conditioned to expect almost nothing but male voices. Miranda and Carrie still do well, but it only takes one look at literally any call-out chart over the last few years to see that (most of the time) female-led songs have higher negative ratings and higher passion scores (but the negative ratings are still high enough that they drag the overall ranking down) than songs sung by male artists. There have been countless songs by new male artists that have breezed to the top of the charts despite lukewarm sales and only average callout ratings...but because the songs are from male artists, they qualify as the type of "easy listening" songs that radio is completely willing to put into high rotation (despite indicators that the songs themselves are actually not all that popular with listeners and consumers). I don't necessarily think the gender issue is the biggest reason as to why this song is struggling, because (imo) this is just a bad song, plain and simple. But if this song were sung by a male, or if a male artist like Blake or Luke or FGL sang a similar-sounding song (production-wise, with equally strange lyrics), then yes, absolutely, I think those songs would have an easier time at radio than LRW is currently having. I'd also be willing to bet that a male version of a song like "Automatic" or "Somethin' Bad" would have easily topped the Billboard chart. No way to prove it because it's a hypothetical situation, but I absolutely believe that if FGL or Luke + Jason sang "Somethin' Bad", then it would have gone #1.
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dm2081
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Post by dm2081 on Mar 21, 2015 0:15:14 GMT -5
One thing that I haven't seen mentioned though is how female fan bases react to the over abundance of males on radio and the lack of females. Let's be honest, Luke Bryan would be nowhere near as popular without the female fan base that supports him by buying his albums and singles, and going to his concerts. Has anyone ever gone to a line dancing country bar lately? There is a HUGE female fan base. I think many overlook the fact that females are the ones buying a lot of these male singles. I wish there was a statistic somewhere about the % of female digital purchasers or album sales. But I also think one reason why males go over well in country music because many women find some of these male country singers to be very attractive. Guys like Luke Bryan and Sam Hunt and even Tim McGraw are known for their looks. It's obvious that most guys aren't more inclined to buy music from a good looking male like many females are. On the flip side though, I don't think many men are willing to give a positive callout score or buy a digital single from a female artist just because they're really attractive (Carrie Underwood for example). I think this is why females tend to have songs of more quality, at least in terms of lyrics, because they can't rely simply on good looks to sell their songs. Sure, it helps them to an extent, but at the end of the day it seems like they're judged more on the quality of the song. Many girls go to Luke Bryan concerts with signs saying "Marry Me". I have no doubt these same girls would buy a Luke Bryan song even if it was just a recording of him taking a poop. That's just my two cents though.
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onebuffalo
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Post by onebuffalo on Mar 21, 2015 7:41:09 GMT -5
When y'all say "polarizing," what do you mean exactly? I've been following the charts for a good couple years now but definitely on the more casual side compared to mostly everyone here. I love learning more though and find it highly interesting (and slightly addicting) so sorry for the questions! Y'all are so helpful and interesting, lol! Special thanks to zaclord, that was an awesome explanation. Thank you!!!! I thought you were from Western New York. What is with the 'y'alls'? Anyway, when female country listeners prefer male artists over female artists, there's a problem there. If you are a woman and are complaining that female artists aren't getting to the top of the charts, you have to ask yourself if you are helping them out and if not, why? Female listeners should be requesting more female artists than male artists. After all, only a female knows what another one has gone through.
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Post by myeverything on Mar 21, 2015 20:42:41 GMT -5
^ Haha! I am, but live in Nashville now. I'd say y'all up there already anyway and people would look at me like I had two heads I'm a huge country music listener/follower, etc and I have to say that Miranda is just about the only female artist I like (love, actually, but we won't go there) - Out of my solid Top 5 artists (yes currently but pretty much for all of time) she is the only female. The rest are males. And I also know a lot of other females who like male singers and not female singers as well. I'm not saying there isn't an issue with the lack of female artists on country radio today because I fully agree that there is, but it's just not something I take too personally or get that upset over. Like always, people are gonna like what they like and that's that. There's no right or wrong, it's all personal preference! Some girls may like the girl singers and some may like the guys!! And vice versa. I definitely notice though, that usually it's all one or the other.
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sabre14
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Post by sabre14 on Mar 22, 2015 11:16:32 GMT -5
Well Miranda lost 340k in audience this week and 1.15 million the past two weeks. However, she managed to gain 53 spins so she should get her bullet back this week, even if there's a point decrease.
Either way though, things are simply not looking good for this song.
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drock89
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Post by drock89 on Mar 22, 2015 12:24:26 GMT -5
I was really hoping the video would clarify what the hell this song is about. If anything, now I'm more confused.
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onebuffalo
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Post by onebuffalo on Mar 22, 2015 15:35:26 GMT -5
^ Haha! I am, but live in Nashville now. I'd say y'all up there already anyway and people would look at me like I had two heads I'm a huge country music listener/follower, etc and I have to say that Miranda is just about the only female artist I like (love, actually, but we won't go there) - Out of my solid Top 5 artists (yes currently but pretty much for all of time) she is the only female. The rest are males. And I also know a lot of other females who like male singers and not female singers as well. I'm not saying there isn't an issue with the lack of female artists on country radio today because I fully agree that there is, but it's just not something I take too personally or get that upset over. Like always, people are gonna like what they like and that's that. There's no right or wrong, it's all personal preference! Some girls may like the girl singers and some may like the guys!! And vice versa. I definitely notice though, that usually it's all one or the other. I know you've been in Nashville awhile. Let us know when you're the Queen! Anyway, anyone noticed how this song is struggling with the announcement of Gary Overton leaving Sony?
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zaclord π
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Post by zaclord π on Mar 22, 2015 18:15:23 GMT -5
^ Haha! I am, but live in Nashville now. I'd say y'all up there already anyway and people would look at me like I had two heads I'm a huge country music listener/follower, etc and I have to say that Miranda is just about the only female artist I like (love, actually, but we won't go there) - Out of my solid Top 5 artists (yes currently but pretty much for all of time) she is the only female. The rest are males. And I also know a lot of other females who like male singers and not female singers as well. I'm not saying there isn't an issue with the lack of female artists on country radio today because I fully agree that there is, but it's just not something I take too personally or get that upset over. Like always, people are gonna like what they like and that's that. There's no right or wrong, it's all personal preference! Some girls may like the girl singers and some may like the guys!! And vice versa. I definitely notice though, that usually it's all one or the other. I know you've been in Nashville awhile. Let us know when you're the Queen! Anyway, anyone noticed how this song is struggling with the announcement of Gary Overton leaving Sony? This song was struggling long before the announcement of Overton leaving. This one has been moving very slowly for practically a month now and has had some days of major losses in spins and audience before this past week. So this one is in no way peaking because of Overton leaving, especially when other songs from Sony artists are continuing to do just fine (Kenny, Brad, Carrie, Chris, Tyler Farr, and then Cam and Logan Mize seem to have a good momentum going thus far for new artists).
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Post by 43dudleyvillas on Mar 23, 2015 9:29:42 GMT -5
One thing that I haven't seen mentioned though is how female fan bases react to the over abundance of males on radio and the lack of females. Let's be honest, Luke Bryan would be nowhere near as popular without the female fan base that supports him by buying his albums and singles, and going to his concerts. Has anyone ever gone to a line dancing country bar lately? There is a HUGE female fan base. I think many overlook the fact that females are the ones buying a lot of these male singles. I wish there was a statistic somewhere about the % of female digital purchasers or album sales. But I also think one reason why males go over well in country music because many women find some of these male country singers to be very attractive. Guys like Luke Bryan and Sam Hunt and even Tim McGraw are known for their looks. It's obvious that most guys aren't more inclined to buy music from a good looking male like many females are. On the flip side though, I don't think many men are willing to give a positive callout score or buy a digital single from a female artist just because they're really attractive (Carrie Underwood for example). I think this is why females tend to have songs of more quality, at least in terms of lyrics, because they can't rely simply on good looks to sell their songs. Sure, it helps them to an extent, but at the end of the day it seems like they're judged more on the quality of the song. Many girls go to Luke Bryan concerts with signs saying "Marry Me". I have no doubt these same girls would buy a Luke Bryan song even if it was just a recording of him taking a poop. That's just my two cents though. Sure, Luke has plenty of female support. The thing is, so do Carrie and Miranda, and their singles aren't all but guaranteed #1s the way his are. And as I always note about sales, Kacey Musgraves has outsold all of the male artists who have broken through at country radio since she released "Merry Go Round," except for Florida-Georgia Line. Total sales of Jennifer Nettles' album remain ahead of Brad Paisley's current album (which came out eight months later, but which is not selling much weekly at this point), but she didn't get a top-40 single. I think you're onto something about an imbalance created by the gendered nature of fan preference, but I don't think that it works quite the way you characterized it above. Female country fans seem to have no trouble supporting female country artists and female-led groups along with various male artists. Male fans, however, seem to focus their support on male artists, and a significant segment of them in country these days seem to score female-led songs down on callout surveys.* Let me illustrate with reference to two current callout surveys: * I dislike making general statements, so let me state up front that I realize that there are many individual exceptions to this, including a number of men on this board. But look at the callout survey data below, and I hope it's clear that I'm just summarizing what the numbers seem to show. Critical Mass MediaMales 25-44Artist/Song | Rank (out of 36) | Pop Score | Potential | Positive | Favorite | Negative | Net Positive | Heavy Burn | Familiarity | Carrie Underwood, "Little Toy Guns" | #23 | 68 | 74 | 53.4 | 20.7 | 25.9 | 27.6 | 6.9 | 92.1 | Little Big Town, "Girl Crush" | #33 | 54 | 71 | 51.9 | 22.6 | 33.1 | 18.8 | 4.5 | 76.9 | Miranda Lambert, "Little Red Wagon" | #35 | 51 | 59 | 45.5 | 15.4 | 42.4 | 3.1 | 5.9 | 86.6 |
Females, 25-44Artist/Single | Rank (out of 36) | Pop Score | Potential | Positive | Favorite | Negative | Net Positive | Heavy Burn | Familiarity | Carrie Underwood, "Little Toy Guns" | #19 | 68 | 81 | 64.1 | 21.1 | 22.7 | 41.4 | 7.0 | 92.1 | Little Big Town, "Girl Crush" | #20 | 68 | 82 | 63.0 | 31.0 | 29.7 | 33.2 | 1.9 | 82.3 | Miranda Lambert, "Little Red Wagon" | #25 | 61 | 71 | 54.3 | 24.1 | 36.1 | 18.1 | 6.3 | 86.4 |
Callout AmericaMales, 18-54Artist/Single | Rank (out of 35) | Positive Index | Positive | Favorite | Neutral | Dislike | Strong Dislike | Fatigue | Carrie Underwood, "Little Toy Guns" | #31 | 3.64 | 60.3 | 23.8 | 21.9 | 15.9 | 2.0 | 17.2 | Little Big Town, "Girl Crush" | #34 | 3.55 | 56.8 | 22.6 | 18.4 | 24.7 | 0.0 | 23.7 | Miranda Lambert, "Little Red Wagon" | #32 | 3.61 | 65.8 | 21.6 | 10.0 | 22.1 | 2.1 | 24.2 |
Females 18-54Artist/Single | Rank (out of 35) | Positive Index | Positive | Favorite | Neutral | Dislike | Strong Dislike | Fatigue | Carrie Underwood, "Little Toy Guns" | #7 | 4.10 | 79.5 | 42.4 | 9.9 | 9.3 | 1.3 | 9.3 | Little Big Town, "Girl Crush" | #19 | 3.99 | 75.8 | 38.9 | 8.9 | 15.3 | 0.0 | 3.7 | Miranda Lambert, "Little Red Wagon" | #30 | 3.69 | 64.7 | 33.7 | 8.4 | 24.2 | 2.6 | 27.4 |
Both surveys show female listeners rating the female or female-lead singles higher than their male listener counterparts. Especially telling is that on both surveys, males rank at least two of the three songs close to last among the songs surveyed. Meanwhile, females rank both "Little Toy Guns" (which just entered the CMM survey) and "Girl Crush" ahead of their current airplay ranks. But take the callout pool as a whole, and of course female artists are going to test worse than male artists if male fans consistently score female artists lower.
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jptexas
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Post by jptexas on Mar 24, 2015 15:51:29 GMT -5
^^Really informative. Thanks.
It'll be awhile, but I'm interested to see how Carrie's lead single from her new album will do. I know Overton will be out so the new guy or by a miraculous chance, the new girl will certainly pull out the red carpet for that one. Following these current trends, it's not a sure thing.
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Ten Pound Hammer
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Banned
I watched it all on my radio
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Post by Ten Pound Hammer on Apr 4, 2015 16:31:20 GMT -5
By the by, anyone else bothered ny the fact that she says Tony "Lomas" and not Tony Lamas?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 4, 2015 18:02:05 GMT -5
By the by, anyone else bothered ny the fact that she says Tony "Lomas" and not Tony Lamas? Yep. That's always really annoyed me, but I haven't thought about it much lately because I turn the station as soon as this one comes on. I literally cannot stand this song.
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sabre14
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Post by sabre14 on Apr 4, 2015 18:08:04 GMT -5
By the by, anyone else bothered ny the fact that she says Tony "Lomas" and not Tony Lamas? Yep. That's always really annoyed me, but I haven't thought about it much lately because I turn the station as soon as this one comes on. I literally cannot stand this song. Yeah that line bothers me too, but it's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this song...
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