celeb news Country radio station refuses to play Beyoncé

[BlossomSoul]

Go to a pop radio station or a rock radio station or an r&b radio station and request an unknown song.. they won’t play it unless they can ensure it will keep listeners from changing the channel. It’s a business

[Gossip_Boy]

Country radio plays nothing but garbage. All the good country music is being snubbed by them so I take this as a positive.

[orange22]

 

[Zefierce]

Camila Cabello’s next album is looking to be alt/indie.

 

should Camilla’s fans call and harass all of the alt/indie radio stations into playing her single, and label them racist if they don’t?

[Raver]

These songs were just released & those fans are already doing the most 

[Shelter]

 

[Rotunda]

20 minutes ago, Zefierce said:

Camila Cabello’s next album is looking to be alt/indie.

 

should Camilla’s fans call and harass all of the alt/indie radio stations into playing her single, and label them racist if they don’t?

It’ll give you something else to be annoyed about, so sure. 

[Shelter]

21 minutes ago, Zefierce said:

Camila Cabello’s next album is looking to be alt/indie.

 

should Camilla’s fans call and harass all of the alt/indie radio stations into playing her single, and label them racist if they don’t?

Why is this Swiftie so mad? 

[cuteboyzay]

25 minutes ago, Zefierce said:

Camila Cabello’s next album is looking to be alt/indie.

 

should Camilla’s fans call and harass all of the alt/indie radio stations into playing her single, and label them racist if they don’t?

I don’t think you realize how weird and lowkey r*cist this makes you sound. 

[cuteboyzay]

3 minutes ago, Shelter said:

Why is this Swiftie so mad? 

Literally why? It’s obvious they’re threatened in some capacity by a Black Woman. It’s strange but kinda funny .

[Rotunda]

And to be quite honest, regardless of whether or not it’s “racist” for these stations to not play Bey’s music, I do think it’s important to have the country music community publicly accept/reject one of the biggest Black Women in music. 
 

I think so many people fully disregard the genre that it allows them to be insular and stay backwards. There’s nothing wrong with putting a magnifying lens on them, especially after what happened with Daddy Lessons.

[liquiddiamonds]

Just now, Rotunda said:

And to be quite honest, regardless of whether or not it’s “racist” for these stations to not play Bey’s music, I do think it’s important to have the country music community publicly accept/reject one of the biggest Black Women in music. 
 

I think so many people fully disregard the genre that it allows them to be insular and stay backwards. There’s nothing wrong with putting a magnifying lens on them, especially after what happened with Daddy Lessons.

This is the woman that went to the SuperBowl in Black Panther attire and called out police brutality. That’s the moment their redneck racism towards Bey went to a whole other level. 
 

These are the people that pushed the lynching and racist imagery of Jason Aldean’s Try That in a Small Town all up to #2 in the Country Airplay charts.

 

It’s a huge **** y’all and racist exposè coming from her 

[Bloodflowers.]

Country radio never played "Not Fair" by Lily Allen because they don't play QUALITY country songs on their radio.

 

 

[thirdward]

1 hour ago, Lovett said:

the real question here is will bey going country help those artists tho?

radio can only play her for 1 era to please the hive then never play black country music 

it should be “play black people music” and not “play my fave’s latest single” idk 

them maybe the “reclaiming” thing can be actually worthwhile 

Edited February 14 by thirdward

[Lovett]

1 minute ago, thirdward said:

the real question here is will bey going country help those artists tho?

radio can only play her for 1 era to please the hive then never play black country music 

it should be “play black people music” and not “play my fave’s latest single” idk 

 

[orange22]

8 minutes ago, Lovett said:

 

She should do the interview tbh 

[Zefierce]

14 minutes ago, cuteboyzay said:

Literally why? It’s obvious they’re threatened in some capacity by a Black Woman. It’s strange but kinda funny .

Or it’s because I find this level of entitlement amusing.

 

when country radio didn’t play Joanne music after LITERALLY 1 day after release, you didn’t see Gaga fans making campaigns  to harass their local radio stations and flood their phone lines with insults.

 

its psychotic stan behavior actually.

[thirdward]

1 minute ago, Lovett said:

 

that’s great, she should get played but my point was is her getting played on country radio will allow black artists to get the same plays, playlists and thus reclaim the genre?

there should be a way where everyone kinda wins 

[thirdward]

4 minutes ago, orange22 said:

She should do the interview tbh 

exactly she should really explain what her point is 

[Lovett]

12 minutes ago, orange22 said:

She should do the interview tbh 

Very few artists of her calibre are doing radio interviews, so that expectation is unrealistic.

 

11 minutes ago, Zefierce said:

Or it’s because I find this level of entitlement amusing.

 

when country radio didn’t play Joanne music after LITERALLY 1 day after release, you didn’t see Gaga fans making campaigns  to harass their local radio stations and flood their phone lines with insults.

 

its psychotic stan behavior actually.

I find this comparison amusing tbh, because we're not just talking about a random song. It's a massive Beyoncé song with a tonne of media coverage on its release, that exploded to #2 on Spotify and Apple Music and #1 on iTunes. The radio station then refused to play it, then doubled down on said refusal. Joanne's singles did not get the same level of response, so the expectation is not the same.

 

8 minutes ago, thirdward said:

that’s great, she should get played but my point was is her getting played on country radio will allow black artists to get the same plays, playlists and thus reclaim the genre?

there should be a way where everyone kinda wins 

Well, that's a bold expectation so quickly after the release. We're already seeing an encouragement of female artists to be played so let's wait and see. Her involvement in the genre is bringing a lot more visibility to black artists in country, particularly black women. There's a lot of conversation now happening, time will tell how that translates.

[Mezik]

3 hours ago, Phaunzie said:

Sis, I hate country, and even I know that is a lie. Women over 35 are not that restricted in that genre, especially compared to pop, rock and rnb. Reba, Dolly, Allison Kraus and others are still making rounds. 

 

Not the girls saying that Beyonce is reclaiming country, as though black country artists haven't been doing their thing since forever. The Pointer Sisters need their flowers.

You clearly don’t listen to country radio.

 

Reba, Dolly, and Allison don’t get any regular airplay. I think the last one of any of them to above top 20 was Reba in 2011? There’s been actual research done showing that radio doesn’t support females once they hit a certain age (ex — look at Carrie Underwood’s recent singles). 
 

I think it was something around only 10(ish) females in country music radio history have made it to the top 15 over 35. 
 

Country Radio doesn’t even play women within the genre (look at the top 20 I think there’s two women in it). Country radio is sexist.

[thirdward]

6 minutes ago, Lovett said:

Very few artists of her calibre are doing radio interviews, so that expectation is unrealistic.

 

I find this comparison amusing tbh, because we're not just talking about a random song. It's a massive Beyoncé song with a tonne of media coverage on its release, that exploded to #2 on Spotify and Apple Music and #1 on iTunes. The radio station then refused to play it, then doubled down on said refusal. Joanne's singles did not get the same level of response, so the expectation is not the same.

 

Well, that's a bold expectation so quickly after the release. We're already seeing an encouragement of female artists to be played so let's wait and see. Her involvement in the genre is bringing a lot more visibility to black artists in country, particularly black women. There's a lot of conversation now happening, time will tell how that translates.

exactly, if the conversation doesn’t stop after the end of the era she should could accomplish something amazing that will have impact 

[swissman]

1 hour ago, Zefierce said:

Or it’s because I find this level of entitlement amusing.

 

when country radio didn’t play Joanne music after LITERALLY 1 day after release, you didn’t see Gaga fans making campaigns  to harass their local radio stations and flood their phone lines with insults.

 

its psychotic stan behavior actually.

When country radio didn't play Daddy Lessons, you didn't see the Hive making campaigns to harass their local radio stations and flood their phone lines with insults. Did you?

 

So what could be different this time around?

 

Comparing Joanne to Daddy Lessons, one was a pretty straight-forward switch seemingly more motivated to reinvent after ARTPOP than to make a political statement with the genre and the other, in the context of Lemonade was a lite-reclaimation of the country genre. Now, TEXAS HOLD 'EM coming off the back of a work literally named RENAISSANCE (meaning rebirth) it's clear the intent is not to reinvent but to reinvigorate for political/cultural reasons. Beyoncé seems to aim to renew interest and spotlight on the fact that Black musicians pioneered much of what we consider country today, and thus a radio station flatly denying it to be played...when radio stations should take requests, seems very wrapped up in bigotry both in who is singing the song (a popstar) and what demographic she represents (being a Black woman).

 

So to your point about if indie stations don't play Camila ... is it racist? If the stations have a history of racism in addition to just plain old rockism, then it probably is. And since everyone in this thread is trying to explain how no one should expect to hear this song on the radio because that's just the way it is...it's pretty clear the racism isn't just there but widely accepted and upheld with little challenges to that thinking. Now the Hive is doing something about it, and look: there already has been progress made.

Is this entitlement? I guess, if you want to call it that. Technically any country song should have the same opportunity to be played as any other country song regardless of the singer's gender, race or typical genre. If the listeners end up not liking it and never requesting it, that's a different story, but to not even give it a chance ever is near censorship. And why aren't bigoted stations seen as entitled for holding onto sexist and racist music bias?

 

 

Edited February 14 by swissman

[Rotunda]

51 minutes ago, Zefierce said:

Or it’s because I find this level of entitlement amusing.

 

when country radio didn’t play Joanne music after LITERALLY 1 day after release, you didn’t see Gaga fans making campaigns  to harass their local radio stations and flood their phone lines with insults.

 

its psychotic stan behavior actually.

Ridiculous stan behavior aside, I think there’s a lot of necessary context between the Gaga era and Bey’s era that is being left out. 
 

During the Lemonade Era Bey had two distinctly negative interactions with conservative media:

 

1.  After performing Formation at the Super Bowl, police unions and conservative outlets called for a “Boycott” of Beyoncé.

 

2. After Beyoncé performed Daddy Lessons with The Chicks on the Country Music Awards, she was the target of widespread racist comments online, and with some artists even saying she didn’t belong there.
 

There’s already factual evidence of racism from Bey’s past interactions with the country music space, so even if these radio stations do not have racist intent with how they deal with her, it’s worth it for people to discuss how disregarding her music may play into an already undeniable climate of racism that plagues the country music community.

The question of whether the country music space is willing to accept a mainstream Black woman doing an undeniably country album as opposed to one throwaway zydeco/country song is also a valuable one to engage with.

 

Similarly, it’s worth noting that what Beyoncé is doing with her three acts is distinct from the style of reinvention that Gaga is known for. 
 

Based on Bey’s approach to Renaissance, she’s trying to be taken in good faith in the genres she’s adapting to. She wants her work to be classified in the genre she’s attempting. She isn’t angling for a  “Pop Vocal Album” or “Progressive R&B album” with dance/country elements. Gaga definitely pushed to be taken seriously as an artist with Joanne, but there was no indication she wanted to be taken seriously as a country artist. Her singles included Perfect Illusion (which is not a country song), and two songs that got Pop Grammy nominations. 
 

Presumably, Bey is trying to explore three genres through her Acts whose Black roots/influences are often obscured. That requires a different kind of engagement than Gaga doing a country album because she wants to be seen as more authentic. 

[Raphy23]

It'll get more pop play than country. And probably more rhythmic play than both.