In a 2015 interview with Russ Penuell of Country Aircheck, a country radio consultant spoke candidly about how female artists have long factored into the genre format’s airplay rotation formula. Not only did he caution against playing songs by too many female artists in a one-hour rotation, but he also claimed that playing their songs back-to-back was against the rules. As the genre’s leading female artists responded to the consultant’s comments, industry veteran Lon Helton admitted that this was precisely how country has functioned (and continues to function) for decades in interview with Beverly Keel:
“[S]ince the 1960s program directors have been telling people not to play two women back-to-back. 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.”
Research has shown that country radio developed this rotation practice in the 1960s as a way to structure their airplay time as a result of a pre-existing gender imbalance in the industry. But this ultimately initiated a practice of segregating music into distinct gender-defined patterns that favour male artists, instead of encouraging and fostering new female artists in the genre. This gender construct, perpetuated by the industry and embedded in the broader country music discourse, has served as a powerful exclusionary tool that has obscured and indeed limited the contributions of female artists.
Funded by a two-year Insight Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, this examined issues and raised awareness around gender representation as have been shaped by and relate to country music identity and culture between 1944 and 2016. The proposed project deconstructed the gender politics that have governed the genre, re-contextualized the discussion surrounding country music’s culture and identity and explored the ways in which it has dictated industry practices. In so doing, this project examined the role that female artists have long played in shaping country music culture and challenged the gender construct that underpins this narrative. Originally scheduled to conclude in 2020, the project was extended due to disruptions associated with the Covid-19 pandemic.
The project’s findings demonstrated how industry charts, radio programming practices, market-testing systems, and algorithmic recommendation structures reinforced longstanding inequities affecting women artists — particularly women of colour. Research emerging from the project documented a nearly 60% decline in songs by women on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart between 1996 and 2016, while subsequent studies of U.S. Country radio revealed a 66% decline in airplay for songs by women between 2000 and 2018. Additional analyses found that songs by women were often relegated to evening and overnight programming and that back-to-back spins for songs by women accounted for less than 1% of all Country radio airplay. Drawing on intersectional approaches indebted to feminist data studies and critical race theory, this work examined the ways institutional systems and commercial metrics shape visibility, access, and opportunity within the music industry.
This research developed in close conversation with artists, journalists, advocacy organizations, and industry professionals. After California-based lawyer Rachel Stilwell encountered my research on gender representation on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, she approached me while preparing a submission to the Federal Communications Commission responding to the National Association of Broadcasters’ proposal for further deregulation of commercial radio ownership. Through ongoing conversations with Stilwell and the Women of Music Action Network, I began work on a public report examining representation on U.S. Country radio between 2000 and 2018. Released publicly through SongData on April 29, 2019, the report documented the dramatic decline in airplay for songs by women and was cited in Stilwell’s FCC submission. In January 2024, the FCC ultimately rejected the NAB’s proposal, resolving instead to preserve ownership limits in support of diversity, localism, and competition within commercial radio broadcasting. Subsequent reports, including projects developed in consultation with the Women of Music Action Network and in partnership with CMT’s EqualPlay initiative, expanded this work to examine issues of radio programming and Spotify’s recommendation algorithms.
Because this work unfolded publicly through SongData and my social media platforms (@data_jada on Instagram, Twitter/X), the research became part of broader conversations about equity and representation in Country music as they were happening in real time. The reports have been widely cited in popular press, industry discourse, advocacy initiatives, and documentary projects, and I have been privileged to participate in conversations with scholars, journalists, industry professionals, artists, and the public through podcasts, media interviews, and industry panels, including appearances at MusicBiz, SXSW, and the 2024 Country Radio Seminar. Through a collaborative data journalism project with Jan Diehm for The Pudding, we also visualized the extreme marginalization of women on Country radio, demonstrating that back-to-back spins for songs by women accounted for only 0.5% of all airplay — a project that reached hundreds of thousands of readers and brought these issues to a much wider public audience.
One of the most meaningful outcomes of this work was the opportunity to explore more creative and publicly engaged forms of knowledge mobilization. In 2020, I co-wrote with singer-songwriter Tami Neilson a lecture-concert titled The F-Word: Songs of Feminism in Country Music, which combined my research on sexism and inequity in the industry with performances of songs discussed throughout the lecture. Premiered in New Zealand in October 2020 with actress Liv Tennet performing the role of Dr. Jada Watson, the project became transformational for me both professionally and personally. Experiencing audience reactions to the performance — not only the shock at the persistence of inequity, but also the ways audiences began thinking differently and more critically about representation and opportunity for women in the music industry — fundamentally reshaped my understanding of what public-facing research could do. Reviews and audience response to the show ultimately led to our invitation to perform The F-Word together for the first time on International Women’s Day in March 2025 as part of the Auckland Arts Festival.
While the SSHRC-funded portion of the project formally concluded in 2020, the questions at the centre of this research have become ones that I remain deeply invested in both personally and intellectually. The work continues to inform ongoing collaborative projects, public scholarship, and advocacy-oriented research on equity and representation in the music industry. It has also opened pathways for collaborations and research initiatives beyond U.S. Country music, many of which are shared publicly through RadioData. I continue to release annual updates on the representation of women on Country radio to coincide with Country Radio Seminar each year.
This work would not have been possible without the generosity, trust, and collaboration of many individuals and organizations, including the Women of Music Action Network, Rachel Stilwell, Leslie Fram and CMT, Tami Neilson, and Jan Diehm. I am especially grateful to the artists, journalists, and industry professionals who entrusted me with their stories of discrimination, exclusion, resilience, and survival within oppressive systems. In recognition of its public impact and commitment to accessible scholarship, this project was awarded the University of Ottawa Office of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation’s Award for Knowledge Mobilization Excellence.
Publications
2023. “’What Are You Gonna Tell Her?’ (2020): Mickey Guyton’s Advocacy and Protest for Equity in Country Music.” Chapter to appear in Analyzing Recorded Music: Collected Perspectives, edited by Mike Alleyne, Lori Burns, and William Moylan. New York: Routledge Press.
2021. “Billboard’s Hot Country Songs Chart and the Curation of Country Music Culture.”Popular Music History, Special Issue on Popular Music Curation 13 (1-2): 168-90.
2019. “Gender on the Billboard Hot Country Songs Chart, 1996-2016.” Popular Music & Society 42 (5): 538-60.
Articles
Watson, Jada. 2023. “Loretta Lynn | ‘Don’t Come Home A Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind)’ | 1966.” Article written for Hilobrow’s Dolly Your Enthusiasm series, 4 March.
Conference Proceedings
2020. “From Public Humanities to Social Remembering: Big Data and the Digital Redlining of Women in Country Music Culture.” Proceedings of DH2020: Carrefours/Intersections, Ottawa, July 2020, 265-66.
Invited Public Talks
“What Can Big Data Tell Us About Music Genres?” Invited talk at Carleton University’s X-Lab Brown Bag Lunch Series (Ottawa, ON), November 13, 2019.
“Looking for Tomatoes through Digital Humanities: Using Digital Tools to Investigate Inclusion and Diversity in Country Music Culture.” University of Ottawa’s Women in Innovation Series (Ottawa, ON), October 29, 2019.
“Truth in Numbers? Representation of Women in Country Music Culture.” Invited speaker at Middle Tennessee State University (Murfreesboro, TN), October 17, 2019.
Conference Presentations
“We don’t want handouts, we want equal opportunity”: Mickey Guyton’s Advocacy and Protest for Equality in Country Music.” Paper to be resented at the annual conference of the Society for American Music; March 2021.
“From Public Humanities to Social Remembering: Big Data and the Digital Redlining of Women in Country Music Culture.” Paper accepted for DH2020; Ottawa, ON, July 2020. [cancelled due to Covid-19]
« La culture country et la perpétuation de l’effacement des femmes : Les méthodes de Billboard et la diversité sur la liste de classement Hot Country Songs ». Paper presented at the annual conference of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music-Canada Branch; Montreal, QC, May 2019.
“The Endangerment of Female Representation in Country Music Culture: Changing Billboard Methodologies and Ecological Diversity on the Hot Country Songs Chart.” Paper presented at PopCon at the Museum of Popular Culture; Seattle, WA, April 2019.
“Our time has come, your time is up: The Song Suffragettes’ March for Gender Equality in Country Music.” Paper to be Presented at the Society for American Music; New Orleans, March 2019. Portions of this project presented at the International Country Music Conference; Nashville, June 2019.
“Discographic Metadata as a Research Resource for Studying Popular Music Genres: Introducing the SongData Project.” Paper presented at the joint conference of the New England and New York State/Ontario Chapters of the Music Library Association, with the Quebec Chapter of the Canadian Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres; McGill University, November 2018.
“Changing Billboard Methodologies and the Ecological Diversity on the Hot Country Songs Chart.” Paper presented at the International Country Music Conference; Nashville, Tennessee, June 2018.
“‘Girl on the Billboard’: Changing Billboard Methodologies and the Ecological Diversity on the Hot Country Songs Chart.” Paper presented at the International Association for the Study of Popular Music-US Branch; Nashville, Tennessee, March 2018.
“Toward a Data-Driven Analysis of Gender Representation on Billboard’s Country Songs Chart, 1985-Present.” Paper presented at the International Country Music Conference; Nashville, Tennessee, June 2017.
Creative Works
“We Need More Feminist Explosions,” liner notes for Tami Neilson’s Kingmaker. Album released 15 July 2022.
- Chris Forster, “Outspoken & Outstanding: Tami Neilson Lets Rip,” 2 June 2022, The Big Idea.
- Maeri Ferguson, “Tami Neilson Goes Feral for Statement – Making ‘Kingmaker’,” 13 July 2022, No Depression.
- Mills, Amanda, “Tami Neilson: Mama’s Talkin’ (To the APO),” July 2022, nzmusician.co.nz.
Neilson, Tami, and Jada Watson. 2020. “The F-Word: Songs of Feminism in Country Music.” Lecture-Concert researched and written Neilson and Watson; performed by Tami Neilson, narrated by Liv Tennet as Dr. Jada Watson. To be premiered at the Harcourts Hawke’s Bay Arts Festival, 23 October 2020.
- Tami Neilson, “Neilson discusses the F-Word,” Dunedin Arts Festival.
- Tami Neilson, “Musical Chairs: Tami Neilson,” 25 December 2020, Radio New Zealand (National). [Neilson discusses F-Word and gender inequity in country music at 26:16]
- Rob Harberts, “Tami Neilson, Hawkes Bay, NZ,” 23 October 2020, ambientlightblog.com.
- Audience reaction, “The F-Word: Songs of Feminism in Country Music – Tami Neilson,” 24 October 2020, Harcourts Hawke’s Bay Festival on Facebook.
This research is supported by an Insight Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
