Country Sweep: October 20, 2012...

Hey folks, thanks for stopping by, we're up to part four of this week's "chart sweeps" and this time out it's the latest country music to make the chart. I posted (well ranted) before about the changes Billboard magazine made in some of their charts, which is most blatant in this week's country chart. Since now it's being tallied with not only sales and streaming internet plays, but also airplay across all the radio formats, the genre chart is now skewed to "crossover" tracks, and you don't have to go any farther than the new "official" #1 song on the Country Songs chart, Taylor Swift's "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together". After getting a push on Clear Channel to play the song incessantly the first week on country radio, it debuted all the way up at #13 on the chart. After that, the song dropped in airplay, but still managing to hang around in the lower teens on the list. This week, airplay plummeted, and it comes in at #36 on the Airplay chart. but now due to the changes, the song rockets up to be the #1 song thanks to both its gigantic sales advantage and pop/AC airplay.

Now while the industry had been notified of the changes coming, the music fan base certainly wasn't, and boy the biggest outcry came from the country camp. Accusations of "rigging" are being thrown about, including thoughts of a conspiracy against Carrie Underwood from reaching the top of the chart, which not to demean but think rather far-fetched in itself, since Underwood has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of crossover pop success. If this was in place years ago, "Before He Cheats" would've never left the chart.

Another big problem is the song itself, since it is quite a departure from Taylor's more "country" fare (she's been straddling the line her whole career). It's co-written by Swift with two Swedish guys, Max Martin and "Shellback", who have penned for Katy Perry and Britney Spears. And the production (by those Swedes with Dan Huff), is decidedly done as a pop record in the strict definition of the word. There was a country version subbing in fiddles and banjos that was serviced to country radio to play. Did you know that? I sure didn't. You know why? They won't even sell it on iTunes or Amazon...

...and that's the point these traditionalists are making. At what point does including at artists because of their normal recording style become kind of a joke? I'm a bit more flexible on that, and even understand the inclusion of WANEGBT due to its country radio presence, but two of her other preview tracks are on the chart, with "Red" at #2 due to its massive sales edge. In fact, the top Country Airplay hit, Jason Aldean's "Take A Little Ride", is pushed down to #5 (under Underwood, by the way). And it seems everyone it waiting to see what happens to her new preview single "I Knew You Were Trouble" (also co-written by those Swedes), which incorporates dubstep - dubstep! - into the song. All bets are off at that point. Deciding what is "country" is a hard editorial bind to be in, but perhaps some level of country radio airplay must make it eligible, and perhaps skewing the sales as a fraction that the country airplay is to the entire picture. One good thing about the new chart is that older songs don't drop off until they're out of the top-25 and over 20 weeks. I hope they do the same for the Airplay chart as well; the disappearance of really big songs as soon as they drop out of the top-10 was annoying at least, reminding me of the early 80s when hits would plummet as soon as they stopped being promoted (before airplay was actually monitored).

That being said, I'm going to continue to just use the Country Airplay chart for now..

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As I said, on the Country Airplay chart, Jason Aldean spends a remarkable third week at #1 with "Take A Little Ride". It's the first single to spend 3 weeks on top since Blake Shelton's "God Gave Me You" almost a year ago.

There's one debut on the airplay chart, and it's by singer Craig Campbell, who scored a top-20 hit in 2010 with "Family Man". He returns at #60 with "Outta My Head", the first single from an upcoming sophomore album. It's a pleasant country-pop-rock confection that's got a driving beat and a mournful but aggressive performance by Campbell. Nothing earth-shattering, but very entertaining nonetheless...

That's it for now..I'll be closing up this week's "chart sweeps" later on tonight with a trip to the dance floor. Twang on!