Where are all the women in country music?
The Country Music Assn. has a big reveal planned for this year’s CMA Awards show in Nashville: Women make country music too.
An exaggeration? Perhaps, but not a big one for anyone whose exposure to country music in 2019 comes chiefly from radio.
Singer Maren Morris recently became the first female country artist to score a No. 1 hit on Billboard’s country airplay chart in 17 months, while a new study concluded that just 21% of all recordings in the Top 20 of that chart between January 2018 and July 2019 were made by women or male-female groups.
In the midst of this, the Nashvillebased CMA announced Monday that in place of its emcee team in recent years of Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley, hosting duties for this year’s awards ceremony, scheduled for Nov. 19, will be handed over to Underwood, who will be joined by guest hosts Reba McEntire and Dolly Parton. Show organizers also plan to spotlight female country artists throughout the evening.
“In addition to awarding the year’s best and brightest in the genre, the 53rd annual CMA Awards will celebrate the legacy of women within country music, and we couldn’t think of a more dynamic group of women to host the show,” Sarah Trahern, chief executive of the country music trade association, said in a statement.
“For 2019’s show,” the CMA added in a separate statement, “it is the right time to celebrate the rich musical history that women have had on this format, and we are thrilled we have two of the biggest female icons of all time as guest hosts.”
The move also comes as country is experiencing its latest identity crisis, courtesy of rapper Lil Nas X’s runaway hit single “Old Town Road.” Initially, Billboard magazine ruled the hip-hop-laden single ineligible to appear on its country charts because of “insufficient country content,” despite its banjo accents and lyric references to horseback riding, tractors, cowboy hats and bull riding. The song’s success has prompted a summer-long debate over what constitutes country music and what doesn’t.
The gender imbalance in country radio has drawn considerable attention in recent years. Radio consultant Keith Hill ignited a firestorm in 2015 when he said in an interview, “If you want to make ratings in country radio, take females out.” Digging himself in deeper, he added, “Trust me, I play great female records, and we’ve got some right now; they’re just not the lettuce in our salad. The lettuce is Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton, Keith Urban and artists like that. The tomatoes of our salad are the females.”