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TAYLOR SWIFT VS. CARRIE UNDERWOOD, CONTINUED
Dear Gary,
I'm sure that Billboard will get the fan war-inspired hits it was looking for by posting the Carrie Underwood/ Taylor Swift comparison and asking the silly question of who the country chart queen is.
Taylor Swift Vs. Carrie Underwood: Who's Country's Chart Queen?
I personally find the question to be a silly one because, starting with her sophomore album "Fearless," Swift has been jointly promoted to the country and pop markets through the Big Machine and Republic labels, whereas Underwood hasn't had that joint promotion since her debut album (when she was signed to both Arista Nashville and Arista; except for a few crossover singles since). That joint promotion is naturally going to result in Swift receiving stronger promotional consideration and airplay on the pop formats, which in turn feeds download sales, album sales and tour numbers. With so much of Swift's extraordinary success owing to her promotion and presence on pop formats, I don't find a lot of her success to be relevant to the country genre.
As you point out in your article, Underwood's music is more "core country." From where I stand, the only country song Swift has released from her sophomore and third albums was "Mean." As for the rest of her singles, I don't consider charting on country to be enough to qualify a song as country, as the tendency of corporate interests to latch onto something for the sake of ratings and on account of promotion gets in the way of music considerations. The Clear Channel inflated-debuts of Swift's current single (and other artists' this year) are just one indication of the meaninglessness of stats like a debut.
When I listen to the music Swift has released since her debut album, I hear a pop singer/songwriter with pop-singing tendencies. Certainly Underwood has pushed the envelope with some of her single releases (her current single "Blown Away" being a good example). But, when I hear Underwood, I hear a country vocalist (it's there in the curls and cry of her voice), and when I consider Underwood and the arc of her career, I see someone who (unlike Swift) has committed herself to the country genre, to honoring its roots and building on its history to widen its scope.
There is a bigger reason your question is silly, and it's that ongoing epidemic of recentism. Dolly Parton and Reba McEntire both have many more country top 10 hits and No. 1 hits than Underwood (and Swift). For sheer longevity, if there is a country chart queen out there, it is one of them. Underwood may be up there with them in numbers one day. Shania Twain's album sales dwarf both Underwood's and Swift's. By reducing the comparison to one between two currently charting artists, you deprive the "country chart queen" question of context and do a real disservice to the discussion. I would love to know where Patsy Cline and the original queen Kitty Wells fit into the discussion, as well, not to mention Loretta Lynn.
I would've been much more interested in reading an historical overview on how country's biggest-name women have fared at the format. Instead, the nature of your article is going to evoke a lot of useless viciousness between the extremes of two fanbases.
Sincerely,
Debbie Vilas
Hi Debbie,
Great points all-around. The idea for the feature actually came about after one of our editors did an interview about which women are most popular at country currently after Swift and Underwood, as it seems accepted that those two stars - in whichever order - currently wear the crown among women in the genre.
We felt, based on chart research, that Miranda Lambert is a solid (unscientific) pick for third, with relative vets Martina McBride and Sara Evans still capable of hits at country radio and such newbies as Jana Kramer and Lauren Alaina off to promising starts. Interestingly, the other star women at country currently sing in groups. Perhaps the most popular crossover act, Lady Antebellum, features Hillary Scott, while Little Big Town, currently at No. 1 on Country Songs with "Pontoon," spotlights the vocals of Karen Fairchild and Kimberly Schlapman.
Following that analysis, we thought we'd try to clarify who between Swift and Underwood might be country's current chart "queen," based on a variety of chart-based numbers. Basically, we wanted to spell out all the facts, many of which certainly favor Swift, considering her crossover success. (We kind of figured the piece would get clicks. Usually we chart artists' hits; hopefully it's not too bad if we try to get a few sometimes, too.)
And, Underwood certainly ranked ahead in a few categories, most notably most Country Songs No. 1s: 12, vs. Swift's six, underscoring that her sound is clearly more of a lock at country radio.
I agree: Underwood sounds more like a traditional country vocalist, sporting a little more twang in her voice (while a song like "Don't Forget to Remember Me" does what country songs do best: tug at the heart with touching lyrics about familial bonds). As even Underwood has said, she and Swift are quite different artists. Swift has found her success with a more pop-sounding voice, by helping lead artists into the social media era with a personal online presence from the start and with higher touring figures. Clearly, there's room for both Underwood (who arrived, of course, via the not-so-traditional "American Idol") and Swift at country and the more stars for any format, the better.
I consider Swift, too, though, still very much a country artist, even though she often veers toward pop, never more so than with the current "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," which she co-wrote with pop author Max Martin. Her first single, after all, was called " Tim McGraw." Her first Country Songs No. 1 was the down-home "Our Song." And, not only is "Mean" country in its structure and instrumentation, so was her recent single, the acoustic guitar-based "Ours."
Swift also, as several commenters below the piece noted, writes or co-writes her material, including all 15 of her Country Songs top 10s. (Although some may not realize that Underwood has co-written eight of her top 10s.) I think that Swift is a great writer. The test for me is always whether a melody surprises me, and many of her songs do, especially "Love Story," "Mean" and "Ours." She also translates her personality to her songs. You can certainly picture her calling the object of her scorn in "Mean" a "liar" and "pathetic" in her head exactly the way it sounds in the song: half-spoken and mockingly. I'll always take an artist who can put their own unique vision into a song. When a catchy hook is added, what more do you need?
So, our idea was to figure out how Swift and Underwood fare by the facts. Ultimately, they're both tallying hit songs and albums repeatedly, so the feature hopefully served to highlight both talented stars' many successes.
You do bring up a great point, though, about women who've previously called the country format home in preceding decades.
Dolly Parton doesn't seem like a bad choice for country's all-time top female star. She boasts the most Country Songs No. 1s among women (25), has crossed over two Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s ("9 to 5" and "Islands in the Stream") and wrote one of the biggest pop hits ever, "I Will Always Love You," a 14-week Hot 100 No. 1 for Whitney Houston in 1992-93. Oh, and when you have your own theme park ("Dollywood"), I think that qualifies you for pop culture ubiquity.
Reba McEntire is within one of Parton's No. 1s sum and could be considered the heir to Parton's throne once Parton's run of consistent hits ended in the early '90s and McEntire became a constant force at the format through as recently as last year with the No. 1 "Turn on the Radio."
Both Parton and McEntire have expanded their scopes with numerous acting roles, as well.
Shania Twain, as you note, impressed country and pop fans much from the mid-'90s through the mid-2000s. With U.S. album sales of 34.2 million, Twain leads all country women dating to the advent of Nielsen SoundScan data in 1991. McEntire is next at 30.1 million, while all-female group the Dixie Chicks follow at 27.1 million. (And, who knows how many more hits, and albums sold, they would've claimed had Natalie Maines not criticized President Bush publicly in 2003, halting the act's star superstar status at country radio.) At 15.5 million, Twain's "Come on Over" is the second-best-selling album of the SoundScan era. Only Metallica's self-titled 1991 set has sold more (15.8 million).
Other women of country royalty? Tammy Wynette (20 Country Songs No. 1s), Crystal Gayle (18) and Loretta Lynn (16), while Kitty Wells has placed 81 entries on Country Songs; Tanya Tucker, 68; Dottie West, 63; Barbara Mandrell, 55; and, Anne Murray, 54. Plus, trivia: which woman held the mark for the most consecutive career-opening Country Songs top 10s before Underwood (16) and Swift (15) came along? Connie Smith, who started with 12 in 1964-68. She placed 48 titles in all on the tally through 1985.
And, before them all (including the late '80s/early '90s boom that brought such hitmakers as Faith Hill, Patty Loveless, Lorrie Morgan, Pam Tillis, Wynonna (apart from the Judds), Trisha Yearwood and my favorite country artist ever, Mary Chapin Carpenter), there was Patsy Cline.
On any list of country queens, Cline is a must. Had she not died in a plane crash at age 30 and lived to today, she would've celebrated her 80th birthday yesterday (Sept. 8). (Perhaps she'd even still be charting with, say, duets albums featuring modern-day stars. Maybe even Swift and Underwood.)
Cline's adopted hometown of Winchester, Va., noted the milestone date at a special bash yesterday. (Cline lived there from ages 16 to 25.) "She's still loved worldwide," Patsy Cline Historic House executive director JudySue Huyett-Kempf says of the singer who in her all-too-brief time gave us the classics "Walkin' After Midnight," "I Fall to Pieces" and, her signature song, "Crazy." "We get people here who named their kids after her.
"They still relate to her music, to her life."
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