Female country music artists have consistently faced a lack of equality in radio – their music is typically played less on the radio compared to their male counterparts. The highest-played male artist on country radio, Kenny Chesney, has earned more than six million spins, while the highest-played female artist, Carrie Underwood, has only earned a little more than three million spins. At the end of the year, even the male artists with the lowest numbers performed better than their female counterparts.
Data from SongData’s study “Gender Representation On Country Format Radio: A Study of Published Reports from 2000-2018” found that this disparity has worsened over the years. Another example of these discriminations is from country radio station 98 KCQ in Michigan. In 2020, one of their DJs publicly stated on X, formerly known as Twitter, that they had an unwritten rule that they could not play songs by female country artists back-to-back. This led to backlash from country artists such as Kelsea Ballerini and Kacey Musgraves.
After this mishap, Country Music Television announced on Jan. 21, 2020, that they “would institute equal airplay for female artists on their two channels.” Another country radio station in Canada announced that they would split airplay fifty-fifty between female and male artists. However, this did not do much to ease the insult for female artists.
While there are still popular female country artists out there like Kelsea Ballerini, Carrie Underwood and Ashley McBride, they still do not receive the same treatment as men even after years of being in the country music industry. This might have to do with the fact that white men make up the majority demographic of country music listeners; however, this does not resolve the difference in treatment towards female artists. They still deserve to be given the same opportunities and airtime; who knows what could happen to their level of success if given the same airtime as their male counterparts?
The environment in the country music industry has even led Maren Morris to step away from the genre. Morris is leaving because of the country music environment, not because it’s not the music she wants to make. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Morris talked about how the toxicity of the industry has worsened over the years and how it negatively affected her. She has since moved from labels Columbia Nashville to Columbia Records with her new EP “The Bridge,” which details her departure from the country music industry.
The first song on the EP, “The Tree,” starts with the soft strum of an electric guitar and drum. Through the usage of tree metaphors, she shows how even as country music was growing, the inside was rotting. She sings, “Hope I’m not the only one,” which can be interpreted as her encouraging other female artists to stand with her, if not follow her lead. The second track, “Get The Hell Out Of Here,” is an acoustic song about being burnt out and wanting to please others but ultimately choosing yourself. The song is meant to be inspiring to others and to get them to understand why she is leaving country music.
With Morris leaving the genre, many wonder if she is only the first of many to follow. If there is no equality in country music, how will the industry appeal to incoming female artists? Only time will tell what the future of country music looks like.