From a blog on About.com titled “Country Music Today and Tomorrow”:
“As I sit here listening to song after song on the radio, I think to myself…this is country music? How closely must you listen to hear a steel guitar or fiddle in today’s songs? Where are those country greats like George Jones, Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, The Statler Brothers, and Roy Clark? Why, they’re pushed to the background; labeled legends, and played only on special occasions, or even worse, in tributes when they pass on.
Something is wrong here. Why does radio seem to think that once a star is over 40 they are ready for the scrap heap? Stars like Loretta and George sound just as great as they did 20 years ago. So, why aren’t they being played?”
Once I read this I decided to do some research of my own about the ages of different artists. I looked up the ages of the top 10 country music artists from CMT.com and ‘pop’ artists from MTV.com. Here is what I found (artist – age of group members):
Country Music Artists
Sugarland – 33 and 37
Tim McGraw – 41
Rascal Flatts – 36 and 37
Carrie Underwood – 25
Taylor Swift – 18
Alan Jackson – 49
Sara Evans – 37
Kenny Chesney – 40
Toby Keith – 46
Trace Adkins – 46
‘Pop’ Artists
Lil Wayne – 25
Chris Brown – 19
Mariah Carey – 38
Danity Kane – 24, 24, 24, 24, and 28
Britney Spears – 26
Usher – 29
T-pain – 22
Soulja Boy Tell’em – 16
Madonna – 49
Rihanna – 20
From this data you can clearly see that country artists are much older. Of course you have the few country artists who are younger, as well as the pop artists who are older, but it was interesting because Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, and Rascal Flatts were all labeled as country pop. This shows that some of the younger country artists are mixing the two genres to become ‘popular’. If they do this, then is it really country music?
I believe that this age difference is one of the main reasons country music is shadowed by other genres. People are looking for fresh, new, and young talent. This is not a good way to define mainstream music because there are many groups/artists that are very good, but are just a little older. I do not think age should make a difference. People should listen to music for the actual music aspect of it. If people started to do this, I think country music could become more mainstream than what is is now.
Here are just some interesting facts that this blog also pointed out:
- the Dixie Chicks fought to keep their fiddle and steel guitar in their music when asked by VH1 to remove them so that they could play their videos
- Randy Travis still is successful with a traditional sound
- So is Dwight Yoakam with his rockabilly sound
- And George Strait hasn’t had a bad record yet. He’s very consistent at recording music that makes it to the top of the charts.
-Natalie Boyce
I had never thought about the age difference between genres before it but it is definately true. I can only think of a few country singers in Australia who are under the age of 30! An interesting fact that sort of relates to country music being pushed to the background when it comes to being played on mainstream radio is when country singer Kasey Chambers first started trying to get her music played on radio no one would do it. Ironically she wrote a song called ‘not pretty enough’ that was based around her music not being played on radio, not long after this her song became a hit on the air waves!!
I think the age gap is because pop music isn’t generally popular only because of the music but because of what it represents – a young hot and popular generation. Its meant to be something that every teen dreams of, and I dont think that you will find many teens dreaming of being a middle aged baulding, struggling musician with an acoustic guitar. Country music however, is about the music. Not the image. Its about telling a legitimate story and about growing up in hard times but striving to reach your dreams. Can you really say that artists like Paris Hilton had a hard time bring out a CD or that she really recorded anything that was ‘real’ rather than just for publicity purposes?