Spotlighting the early achievements of female artists in the 74 years of the Billboard Country Chart’s existence, which, since its inception, has been a hard, rough and long continuous battle to be heard and represented. #country #countrymusic #womeninmusic

Recently, Billboard magazine reported, in an article disseminated by the Associated Press, a startling find: by mid-summer of this year, women have accounted for 21% of number-one songs on the chart in 2020, the highest percentage since 2006, when women made up 23% of the chart-toppers.

Tammy Wynette on the cover of the Stand By Your Man LP, 1968. Photograph by Al Clayton, courtesy of Sony/BMG.

The sheer fact that this is news has been a hotly debated topic since the start of the new millennium. Musicologist Jada Watson, writing for NBC, outlines why not only women have been ignored by Country radio in the last several years, but also women of color as well.

This honestly should come as little to no surprise. The Country chart was first established by Billboard in 1946, and has since become the industry standard. It wasn’t until 1952, a full eight years after its inception that a female artist topped the chart with the now seminal recording “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honkey Tonk Angels” by Kitty Wells.

Linda Martell, 1970. Photo by Bruno, courtesy of Sun entertainment.

There have been female superstars in the Country genre, but they are few and far between. In addition to currently getting their music played often at the times of lowest ratings for any station broadcasting music (after 10 p.m. until 6 a.m.), one veteran artist, the legendary Loretta Lynn, has had more singles banned than any artist in Country music history for subjects that specifically deal with women’s issues (1974’s “The Pill”, about birth control, is a prime example). She even recorded, with Jack White, a multiple-Grammy winning album, Van Lear Rose in 2004, that received more airplay on public radio and alternative radio than traditional Country radio.

RIAA Gold Record award for the single “Country Sunshine” by Dottie West, which at the time represented over one million in sales, 1973. Courtesy of the family of West.

In an article for NPR, Eric Weisbard stated this about all radio formats: “Radio sold listeners to advertisers, not music to fans, and that meant being pragmatic about the tastes of groups highly defined by age, gender, race and class, not vaunting musical standards.” What this means: advertisers, those entities financially supporting media, and not listeners, are dictating programming.