Welcome back to Country Music 4 Ever! Since today is International Women's Day, I want to talk about women in country music. For many years now, there haven't been many female country singers on the radio. In 2019, women only made up roughly ten percent of mainstream country radio playlists, and it hasn't gotten much better in the years since then. In 2000, women held 33.3 percent of the songs on the year-end country airplay chart, but as the years passed, the number started to drop. In 2018, women only held 11.3 percent of the songs on the year-end country airplay chart. That's a pretty big drop in just 18 years.

On this week's Mediabase chart, women only make up 20 percent of the top songs. It's sad to say, but that's actually a decent amount.

As I was doing some research for this blog post, it made me wonder why the number of songs by women kept dropping through the years. I know the radio has some unfair rules for women, which you can read about in one of my other blog posts called “The Unwritten Rules For Women On Radio.” I know these rules play a part in women not getting a lot of airplay, but I think another reason is “Bro Country.”

I'm sure most of you know what “Bro Country” is, but for those of you who don't know, I'll explain it. “Bro Country” was a trend that started in country music around 2013. It was basically young guys singing about drinking, women, and pickup trucks. A few examples of “Bro Country” are “That's My Kinda Night” by Luke Bryan, “Get Me Some of That” by Thomas Rhett, and “Cruise” by Florida Georgia Line. People loved “Bro Country,” and since it was something women couldn't sing, I think they got overlooked. I can't say for sure because we'll never know, but I think if “Bro Country” didn't become popular, there would be a lot more women on country radio. There is no way to prove this, but it seems very likely.

Thanks for reading. Please let me know what you think. I'll be back soon!