That changed this summer, when Lambert was featured on Jason Aldean’s single “Drowns the Whiskey.” The track steadily climbed to No. 1 in August, about three months after it was released. The two will perform it at the CMAs, where it’s nominated for single and vocal event of the year. It’s always great to have a hit, but how does Lambert feel about the chart disparity?
“Yes, I had to sing with someone with a penis to get a number one,” Lambert said matter-of-factly in a recent interview with The Washington Post. “I do like this person, Jason Aldean, a lot . . . so it was a great song with an old friend.”
“But you know — if we went and looked at how many singles or records were sold for the Top 10 songs right now, I’d probably triple it on record sales. So it doesn’t matter," she said.
Country radio is already under extreme scrutiny for its gender imbalance. In 2015, a consultant sparked backlash when he advised country stations to decrease the number of songs by women for higher ratings, and radio has been in the spotlight ever since. There hasn’t been much progress: The Tennessean reported that only 10.4 percent of songs on country radio charts in 2017 were from female artists, down from 13 percent the year before.
Why couldn’t Lambert get a hit single?
When Lambert released “The Weight of These Wings” in late 2016, after her divorce from Blake Shelton, it was noticeably darker than her previous efforts. Lambert acknowledged the deeply personal project might not fit at radio, which often craves up-tempo, feel-good tunes. “I know radio’s been a struggle, but I really needed to say these things,” she told HITS Daily Double.
Fans, however, bought the record in droves, and it sold 122,000 copies the first week. “Vice,” the haunting first single, made it to No. 11 on radio in October 2016. “We Should Be Friends” peaked in the mid-20s in March 2017. The heart-wrenching “Tin Man” only made it to No. 22 in December 2017. “Keeper of the Flame,” released in April, was one of Lambert’s lowest-charting songs ever, and didn’t crack the Top 50.
Timothy Hayes, program director at the independent 105.7 FM in Lubbock, Tex., noticed this decline when he was a DJ at his former station, where he wrote a blog post titled “Why Can’t Miranda Lambert Get a Hit Single?” Now, he theorizes, it’s possible male programmers have trouble relating to Lambert’s music. Or they don’t think the subject matter — the fiery singles or melancholy post-divorce tracks — will connect with their target listener demographic, moms in their mid-30s. But he doesn’t like the optics of Lambert only now getting a No. 1 with Aldean.
“The fact that it almost felt like Jason had to hold her hand to go up [the chart], to get her a No. 1, like he had to escort her there, it just seemed —” Hayes trailed off.
Multiple programmers across the country didn’t return requests to discuss why Lambert’s new music hasn’t made an impact on radio, despite her collaboration with Aldean flying up the chart. A few others offered similar thoughts: Lambert is a brilliant artist, and “The Weight of These Wings” was a great record — except it lacked “consumable” singles that could be radio hits.
“Miranda does what she wants, always, and that’s, I think, why we love her,” said Julie Stevens, program director at KRTY (95.3 FM) in San Jose. “‘The Weight of These Wings’ was really introspective. It was very dark, and it was exactly what Miranda wanted to do and exactly what she was feeling at the time. But it doesn’t necessarily make for a really good radio-friendly record.”
“We played everything she sent us,” Stevens said, adding, “I don’t think there’s a conspiracy against her, I really don’t. I just think that she does what she wants to do. She is not interested in ‘making a hit record’ . . . so sometimes it gets played and sometimes it doesn’t.”
Songs by women ‘aren’t getting chances’
Country music’s gender imbalance isn’t just a radio problem — it’s prevalent on streaming service playlists, festival lineups, award shows and more. Still, radio is most frequently the focus, especially on social media. Nashville collective Women of Music Action Network, for example, will post bleak screenshots of radio charts, and how empty they look if you take every male act away.
Some programmers claim they’re eager to play more songs by women, yet their hands are tied, because they report to corporate overlords and song choices are limited to singles shipped by labels. Of course, record labels might be hesitant to sign female artists if they think it will be an unwinnable battle at radio. So the infuriating, cyclical blame game continues.
Elaina Smith, co-host of the nationally syndicated “Nash Nights Live,”worked in adult contemporary and pop radio before moving to Nashville. She was shocked when she heard country programmers say they’re told to never play two songs by women back-to-back. Smith was especially disturbed by their reasoning: allegedly, female listeners, the target demo, don’t like to hear female voices on the radio.
Smith, who launched a podcast this fall called Women Want to Hear Women, is one of many in Nashville determined to debunk that problematic thinking, and raise awareness about the challenges women face in the industry. “Nothing is ever going to change unless it’s known and we can be open about it,” Smith said.
One of the numerous issues with that two-song policy, Smith said, is audiences don’t have time to get familiar with the tracks, so they’re less likely to become hits.
“Everything is about familiarity,” Smith said. “If a song isn’t doing that well and it’s a guy, I feel like they’re more prone to keep pushing it . . . but these songs [by women] aren’t getting chances that male songs are getting, in my experience and observation.”
Lambert, of course, is well aware of the behind-the-scenes of radio. She recently promoted an album with her band, the Pistol Annies; her bandmates, Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley jokingly “dared” country radio to play their new single. Lambert seems content either way.
“At this point, music’s just an in-betweener for advertisements on radio. But that’s fine, whatever. I’ll take both,” Lambert told The Post. “But there’s so many other ways to find music, I feel like people can find us and find all these artists that they love in other facets besides radio.”
