Country music radio largely overlooks female artists. Young country music professionals and creatives want to change that.
- Loren de Los Santos
- Feb 27, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: Apr 30, 2024
2023’s Year-End Statistics on Country Music Radio
In late December, music organization The Women of Country reported on Instagram that solo female country music acts made up an abysmal 5.75% of songs on the Billboard Country Airplay Chart in 2023. 88.5% of that airplay went to solo male acts, while the remaining 5.75% went to songs featuring both men and women.
Throughout the year, Lainey Wilson was the only solo woman to achieve a No.1 hit on the country chart with her songs “Heart Like a Truck” and “Watermelon Moonshine.” Wilson is the first solo female act to get a No.1 hit in two years and the first since 2016 to earn multiple No.1s in a calendar year.
Despite the big year female country music artists had when it came to critical reception and social impact, why didn’t that translate to airtime or impact on the country charts?
Country radio’s skewed airtime statistics isn’t anything new
Gideon Dean, a Music Industry student at the State University of New York, Oneonta and current intern at Albany Broadcasting, says that country radio’s approach to deciding what and what doesn’t play on the airwaves is unreflective of what audiences want. “There is no real research that says that the listeners of country radio don’t want to hear female artists, and there’s no real reason for a lot of those programming rules of thumb that are still there,” Gideon says.
Throughout his budding career as a country music radio broadcaster, Gideon has witnessed firsthand the opposition from other broadcasters to play more female artists on their stations. “I’ve seen how like those program directors are like, ‘Okay, you know we can’t,’” Gideon says. “Like it’s just a golden rule that you don’t play two female artists back-to-back.”
Gideon is the host of “Equal Play” on WONY-FM, SUNY Oneonta’s radio station, where he is also the Programming Director. The radio show, which Gideon has been producing since the Fall of 2021, gives ample airtime to the women of country music, current and past. “It’s two hours once a week where I get to have that outlet to highlight all those voices.”
Despite the presence of shows like “Equal Play,” which are meant to highlight the underrepresented artists of country music, Gideon believes that these efforts to diversify the voices of the genre go in vain. “Unfortunately, it really has been an issue—the gap between male artists and female artists on country radio,” Gideon says. “I’ve seen it both like just on the chart and doing statistical analysis of the charts year-to-year.”
What does this mean for female country music artists?
For Macy Dot, a singer-songwriter from East Texas and student at the Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business at Nashville’s Belmont University, the lack of female artists being played on country music radio doesn’t seem to discourage her—if anything, it encourages her to strengthen the female music community she has built up since moving to Nashville. “I have always heard people say you can complain about a problem or become part of a solution, and that has stood out to me a lot in my years in Nashville,” Macy says. “I feel like we’re living in a time where there’s a lot of momentum for female artists. I think that people are starting to raise awareness and to notice it.”
As a young artist, Macy makes an effort to support women in country music through performances. In January, Macy performed alongside five other artists as a part of Song Suffragettes, a weekly all-female singer-songwriter show hosted at the Listening Room Cafe in Nashville. “Being a part of Song Suffragettes has been a dream,” Macy says. “I truly feel so honored to be a part of such an incredible group, and I hope to continue to work with them and play rounds in and just be a part of the community that they’ve created.”
Macy emphasizes the impact that creating community among fellow female artists has had on her career. “I know a lot of people can say that women are competitive and not always inclusive to each other, but I’ve been so extremely blessed on my journey and my time in the industry,” Macy says. “So far, I’ve been surrounded by so many incredibly encouraging people.”
What’s in store for female country artists in 2024?
Despite the dismal statistics regarding women in country music radio in 2023, Gideon believes that female country music artists had a really big year and will continue to shine in 2024. “You had Megan Moroney break out. You had Lainey Wilson win Entertainer of the Year. You had Kacey Musgraves having a No.1 hit. There were just a lot of voices that kind of had a moment last year,” Gideon says. “And I feel like this year, I’m really interested to see how the whole Beyoncé thing plays out.”
On Feb. 11, Beyoncé released two country songs titled “Texas Hold’ Em” and “16 Carriages,” which debuted at No.1 and No.9 respectively on the Hot Country Songs Chart and made her the first Black woman to top the chart. Since the songs’ release, Gideon has seen more of a push on social media to highlight the different voices of country music. “I feel like there's a whole sector of female country artists of color that are kind of left out of that conversation that are very much there. I think this year, will see a lot of those voices come into the spotlight a little bit more, which I'm excited to see."
Macy asserts the invaluable contributions that female country music artists have made to the genre and will continue to make in the future. “For years, men have dominated country airplay, and I don’t have anything against that. But there’s something so special about female singer-songwriters, producers, performers, businesswomen. And I’ve always just thought that it was so important for female listeners to have relatable lyrics on the radio and be able to sing along,” Macy says. “I think that there’s so many aspects of the industry that females are going to dominate in. I have so many friends who are so talented and just have so many aspirations and dreams, and I can’t wait to see all of that unfold for all of them.”
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