A consultant in the country music business has sparked criticism for his controversial remarks about female artists - and why radio programmers should avoid playing their music.
"If you want to make ratings in country radio, take females out," Keith Hill says in the new issue of trade magazine Country Aircheck Weekly.
"The reason is mainstream Country radio generates more quarter hours from female listeners at the rate of 70 to 75%, and women like male artists," says Hill, whom the magazine says is "playfully described by some as 'the world's leading authority on music scheduling.'"
"I'm basing that not only on music tests from over the years, but more than 300 client radio stations," Hill continues. "The expectation is we're principally a male format with a smaller female component. I've got about 40 music databases in front of me and the percentage of females in the one with the most is 19%. 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."
Hill's comments touched off a flurry of comments within the country music business, with both artists and businesspeople chiming in - and most of them disagree with Hill.
"Wow.....just wow. Just read this from a major country radio publication," country superstar Martina McBride said via her Facebook page. "How do you feel about this statement? I especially want to hear from the females. Do you not like to hear other women singing about what you are going through as women? I'm really curious. Because to me, country music is about relating. Someone relating to what you are really going through on a day to day basis in your life. Did you girls (core female listeners) know you were being 'assessed' in this way? Is this how you really feel? Hmmm.... "
Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland was a bit more blunt:
Don't worry babe. I see an opportunity here. I big ole vagina shaped opportunity. #yesisaidvagina #trynottofaint https://t.co/ELeiTURgXe
— Jennifer Nettles (@JenniferNettles) May 27, 2015
Miranda Lambert, too, fired back at Hill.
"If you want to make ratings in country radio, take females out,"- Keith Hill This is he biggest bunch of BULLSHIT I have ever heard. — Miranda Lambert (@mirandalambert) May 28, 2015
"I can tell you that working and programming radio for over 20 years, this is simply not true," CMT Senior Vice President Leslie Fram said in response to Hill's assertions, according to The Tennessean."Top 40 is primarily a female format and the majority of artists on their chart are women. This posting is taking us 20 steps backwards. It's an insult to every female artist in the format."
Country Aircheck Publisher Lon Helton, who edited the story that included Hill's comments, told The Tennessean he wasn't surprised to read what Hill had said.
"Remember, since the 1960s, program directors have been telling people not to play two women back to back," Helton told The Tennessean. "It has nothing to do with sexism. It has to do with the fact that through the years, you have had very few hits by women, so you want to spread them out a little bit because there are fewer of them. ... When [listeners] vote about the music they want to hear on the radio, when asked when they hear the hooks, they seem to prefer the music from male artists. It is a fine difference to say whether they prefer men or women, but overwhelming they vote for songs by men."
McBride, who spoke with The Tennessean after she commented about the issue on Facebook, disagreed.
"I feel like the more these ideas and philosophies are allowed to perpetuate, the harder it is to keep them from becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy when it comes to labels investing in female acts, writers writing great songs for females, and radio giving them a fair shot," she told the newspaper.
"At the end of the day, hopefully it has started a healthy conversation that can really make a difference and push aside once and for all these archaic and out-of-touch ideas about what females want to hear on their radio stations."
