Maren Morris' First Airplay No. 1 and Country Radio's Attitudes Toward Women

As noted by contributor Marissa R. Moss in our Year in Music issue, country radio was not kind to women artists in 2017, with only Lauren Alaina and Carly Pearce landing singles at No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart. There’s no firm indication of what 2018 will bring, but there’s at least one positive data point: Maren Morris has landed her first No. 1 on Mediabase’s country radio chart, as well as a No. 2 on Country Airplay with “I Could Use a Love Song.”

A press release sent this morning from Morris' label, Columbia Nashville, indicated that “Love Song” was also at No. 1 on Country Airplay, but that information is not reflected on the latest chart, dated Jan. 13. It’s possible that the PR team received advance notice that the song claimed the top spot on the Jan. 20 chart. An email requesting confirmation was unreturned at press time. Update: Morris' PR team confirms that the Jan. 20 Country Airplay chart, due to be published Jan. 16, will reflect "Love Song" reaching the No. 1 position. At any rate, it's an achievement worth celebrating, and it sounds like Morris plans to: She tweeted that she'll get a tattoo in honor of the song, which is nominated for Best Country Solo Performance at next month's Grammys ceremony (up against Chris Stapleton, Alison Krauss, Miranda Lambert and Sam Hunt).

Some country artists do achieve critical and commercial success without major-league support from country radio. According to Nielsen’s 2017 Year End Music Report, Stapleton was country’s top performer for the year, moving more than 1.8 million units (counting album sales as well as album-equivalent download purchases and streams). Stapleton’s Country Airplay performance has been respectable, but his highest song on that chart so far is “Nobody to Blame” from 2015’s Traveller, which peaked at No. 10, and his highest-charting track from 2017’s two-volume From A Room is “Broken Halos,” which hit No. 19.

Even though streaming is where you'll find the most impressive growth in the current music economy, radio remains a critical medium for mainstream country artists. The Nielsen report shows country radio stations with a 7.6 percent share of the listening market, ranked third of all formats behind adult contemporary and news stations. Country music barely makes a blip in discussions of top streaming music. Despite the success of Hunt’s pop crossover “Body Like a Back Road,” which Nielsen reports was streamed more than 430 million times, the same report notes that on-demand streams of country songs (including music videos and audio-only streams) accounted for only 5.5 percent of all music streams in 2017. Hip-hop, R&B and pop are far and away the winners in the streaming realm. For comparison’s sake, the most-streamed song of 2017 was Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito,” with 1.3 billion streams.

None of the top-performing country songs or albums in Nielsen’s report was by a woman. Morris has technically appeared at No. 1 on Country Airplay before, as the featured guest on Thomas Rhett’s “Craving You.” As Rolling Stone Country’s Jon Freeman noted last summer in an in-depth piece about country radio’s attitudes toward women, there’s a decent chance that there’s a not-too-distant future in which country radio simply won’t matter as much in an artists’ career. If radio continues to ignore top-grade artists because of their gender, that day will come even sooner. What we’ll be waiting to see is whether “Love Song” reflects a change in radio’s relationship with female artists, or is simply a continuation of the narrative.

As for “I Could Use a Love Song” itself, it’s the third single from Morris’ 2016 LP Hero, which already earned her four nominations at last year’s Grammys. (She took home one of those: Best Country Solo Performance for “My Church.”) Morris co-wrote “Love Song” with Jimmy Robbins and Laura Veltz, and it’s a solid piece of writing that praises how powerful an impact a good love song can have when you need it the most. Sonically, it harkens to some of pop-country’s best uses of melodic and rhythmic influences from R&B in the ’90s.

Morris is currently set to tour with One Direction’s Niall Horan on his next run behind his solo debut Flicker. The tour lands in Music City at Ascend Amphitheater on July 23. Tickets start at $35 and are available right here.

There’s a good chance that if you’re reading this, you’re already plenty familiar with Morris and “Love Song,” but if not, give it a spin below. Also, check out her appearance on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts, which also features the song (alongside “Rich” and “My Church”).