Country music’s greatest names haven’t been afraid to go head-to-head over time, exchanging blows on social media, making up at awards reveals and extra.
In 2015, a number of feminine artists got here collectively to fireplace again at radio character Keith Hill amid his feedback about why he performs extra male artists on the air. The controversy was dubbed “Tomato-gate.”
“If you want to make ratings in country radio, take females out. The reason is mainstream country radio generates more quarter hours from female listeners at the rate of 70 to 75 percent, and women like male artists,” Hill stated on the time, “The expectation is we’re principally a male format with a smaller female component. … 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.”
Martina McBride, Miranda Lambert, Sara Evans, Jennifer Nettles and Kacey Musgraves have been amongst these to talk out. In 2016, McBride advised Billboard, “If you’re singing and writing good songs, I don’t care what gender you are or if you’re trans — if it’s a great song, it should be played.”
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