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Kacey Musgraves just perfectly called out country radio stations for not playing enough women artists

Claire Harmeyer

Kacey Musgraves is not tolerating “white male bullshit.” Can we get a “hear, hear”? The singer (and six-time Grammy winner, might we add) just called out country radio for not giving women artists equal play on the airwaves in the most blunt and matter-of-fact way, and we’re cheering her on so loudly.

Musgraves is known for her candor and general badassery, so it’s no surprise that she’s calling out the major problem with country radio. What is a surprise, is that after years of conversation about equal play, country radio stations are still not listening. Even Jennifer Nettles stepping onto the CMAs red carpet in a dress that read point-blank, “Play our f*@#in records, please and thank you,” hasn’t changed their course of action.

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When I found out that the CMA’s were celebrating women artists this year, I saw a wonderful opportunity to invite and inspire conversation about country music’s need to play more women artists on radio and playlistings. (Some of you big country fans may have heard of this problem over the past few years. 16% of the top 500 songs over the last 4 years (2014-2018) were women. 16% of the top 500!!!!! 16%!!!!) This is unacceptable.) What better and more womanly way to invite such conversation than with fashion that sends a message?! I knew I had to collaborate with artists who were strong supporters of equality across all platforms. @csiriano is an advocate and activist for equality across all lines and his work is always inclusive. He is an absolute ally. @am_nyc is an amazing NY Artist whose work celebrates women and who knows first hand the challenges of equality within the art space. The piece that they created for me is a beautiful celebration of women in country music as well as a call to action within the industry at large. I am honored to get to be here at the @cma celebrating other women in country music. We need the celebration and support of women to move into country radio and country play listing. We want our songs to be played and our stories to be heard.The more our songs are played, the more women get to hear their own stories, challenges and triumphs reflected. GlamFam: H&M @ashleydonovan Styling @hayley_atkin_ Jewels @davidyurman Special thanks @lauracitron for guiding my train

A post shared by Jennifer Nettles (@jennifernettles) on Nov 13, 2019 at 7:38pm PST

More than just not listening, country radio stations are explicitly admitting to their wrongdoings, which gives us the feeling that they don’t see them as wrong. We’d say a big ol’ “WTF” is justified here.

Today, January 16th, country radio station 98 KCQ responded to a tweet from Variety Features Editor Chris Willman (jokingly, we assume) questioning a different station (105.1 country) playing two women artists’ songs back-to-back.

Willman tweeted, “I turned on the 105.1 country station in L.A. just now, and they were playing the new song by Gabby Barrett, and then, without any pause or interruption at all, they went into a Kelsea Ballerini song. Can’t they get fined for that?”

98 KCQ responded to William in a since-deleted tweet saying,

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Needless to say, this is so messed up. The fact that 98 KCQ felt the need to comment on William’ questioning of another station means that this issue is prevalent and indeed an intentional decision made by radio stations.

Country music stars Kacey Musgraves and Kelsea Ballerini were not having it. Musgraves had a matter-of-fact response, tweeting, “Smells like white male bullshit and why LONG ago I decided they cannot stop me.”

But her clapback didn’t end there. Musgraves reiterated her point by saying “And yet, they can play 18 dudes who sound exactly the same back to back. Makes total sense.”

Fellow country singer Kelsea Ballerini spoke out about the lack of diversity on country radio with an apology to all women artists who have experienced this unfairness:

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Disappointing is an understatement.

It’s 2020. Are companies really still not only allowing, but encouraging such blatant gender discrimination to happen?

Although we’ve seen women artists get major recognition with this year’s Grammy nominations, country music is still far behind when it comes to diversity. Catch up, people—this is ridiculous. We applaud Musgraves, Ballerini, Nettles, and everyone else speaking out about this issue, because unfortunately, it seems like it’s going to take a lot for this discrimination to end.