Jennifer Nettles Takes Her #EqualPlay Message To The Pages Of Glamour

Jennifer Nettles (Photo: Lev Radin/Shutterstock.com)

BIG MACHINE RECORDS artist JENNIFER NETTLES is taking her call for equal airplay for female Country artists to the pages of GLAMOUR. NETTLES penned an essay for the fashion magazine outlining her views on the issue and explaining her decision to wear a “statement” suit to the 2019 CMA Awards that included the words “play our f*o#kn records, please & thank you” on the inside of a cape, along with “#EqualPlay.”

“People kind of knew there was a disparity in Country music,” she wrote. “But I think when you look at the actual statistical information behind it, when you really understand those numbers, it’s staggering. The ANNENBERG INCLUSION INITIATIVE did a study and found that of the top 500 charted Country songs from 2014 to 2018, only 16% were by female artists (NET NEWS 4/5/19). That is tragic. Those numbers reveal a truth that artists share and lament over but haven’t had the actual research to back up until now.

“For women in Country music, what happens is that even out of that 16% who are being played, the average female is 29 years old,” she continued. “For men, the average mean age in that group is 42. That says a lot about what we value socially—the pressures that are put on women in terms of ageism and beauty. It also tells me that women aren’t offered the same support to be able to continue their careers.”

Added NETTLES, Radio programming is based on algorithms, which is basically a bias set to numbers. You can go in and code for diversity and equality, but you have to care enough to do it. An example of this at play: When big data really started to become a part of the Country music industry, there was this ‘bro country’ trend that created a bias toward male artists. I would have loved if big data had come in during a time when women were really celebrated—when we had FAITH HILL, MARTINA MCBRIDE and SHAIA TWAIN topping the charts. People use these algorithms to justify their own systems of belief rather than analyze the truth. They look at the numbers and say, ‘Well, people turn the channel whenever they hear a woman sing.’ No. They turn the channel when they don’t hear something they recognize, because people have an inherent bias toward familiarity. People don’t have familiarity with women on Country radio because they’re not played. If they were familiar with the song, they’d like it! If you just played it more, it would fix the problem. But therein lies the challenge.

“I hope that bringing attention to this will create an impact—a culture that will allow space for transparency and questioning and to actually change these programs that continue to exclude people,” she concluded. “Big data continues to be derivative of a past that isn't indicative of what we want our future to be. I’m starting with music, but it’s a bigger issue—one that will absolutely affect the lives of every individual in this country.”

As for the cape, NETTLES said she “wanted to get people’s attention and point a cheeky, subversive finger at the truth.” Read her essay here.

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