Country Music - What’s the secret?

It seems the current country model is the old music industry model, where professional songwriters wrote for performers instead of an artist-writer majority; where the artist needed the major label to become famous; where radio actually broke new records and new artists. While this model no longer works in the pop/rock/urban worlds, it still works in country music.

Everyone is familiar with piracy running rampant in the last several years. However, the country world doesn’t seem to be complaining about piracy. Country fans are still buying albums. A lot of those albums may be sold at a rackjobber like Wal-Mart, but the point is - they are actually being sold. What do country fans know that the P2P junkies are missing? Is it a conscience? Is it learning basic manners from their parents? Please, thank you, and don’t steal. There is still something to be said for teaching manners to children, but that’s a whole other topic.

Maybe it goes back to the timeless mantra: Content is king. While I don’t necessarily like every song on a country album, most albums have more than the one or two likable tracks to be found on a pop album amidst ten fillers.

The recently-aired CMA’s were a great awards show; a real pleasure to watch. It was my first time watching the CMA’s and I was happily surprised to see awards giving to the best country radio stations in small, medium, large and major markets; as well as the best country DJ’s in each of these markets. In addition, the best side and session musicians were recognized in categories based on instrument played.

Furthermore, acts that have been performing for a long time are not ignored, but embraced. George Strait’s first album was released in 1981 and he has more certified gold and platinum albums in the US over any other country artist, with only Elvis Presley and The Beatles surpassing him in overall certified albums (Wikipedia). At the CMA’s, he still won new awards, and the audience cheered for him more than many of the newer, popular acts. That is rarely seen in other music genres, unless the band reunites or hits some other milestone. It seems as if country music is really a community supporting all its members, helping them grow, and cheering their success.

In addition, Capitol is now doing the second run of an innovative marketing campaign with Trace Adkins, in which Adkins appears on multiple radio station websites with messages tailored to each station, encouraging fans to enter a contest to see him and also buy his new album. Why is something like this not being done with other artists?

Please don’t misunderstand, I still love my rock and I always will. I love artist-writers. This is an unsure but very exciting time to find a new industry model.