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It was a very bad week, maybe a fatal one, for country music.
Faith Hill's album "Breathe" sold 242,229 units in its first week on the market. It will debut at # 1 on Billboard's Top 200 Album Chart this week. Although it isn't a country album, it will also debut at # 1 on Billboard's Country chart. No woman, not even Shania Twain, has sold so many albums in one week while recording for a Nashville label. It's an ominous sign.
Faith's success will increase the pressure on other artists, especially female artists, who record in Nashville. The sales bar has been raised again and the only way to meet the challenge is to turn in a more pop/rock direction. That's where the teen buyers are and they're the people who drive platinum sales.
If you were surprised by the big names who were dropped from label rosters in the past 24 months, you may be stunned at the turnover in the next 24 months.
Country music has always been a niche format and it will continue to be one for the foreseeable future. The big sales numbers are racked up by only a few artists. Faith, Garth Brooks, Shania Twain, Dixie Chicks, etc., are good Nashville-based pop acts who have enormous non-country fan appeal.
These are pop artists, not country. There's no confusion as long as we make that distinction. They appeal to a segment of the country audience, but they are superstars because they sell to the young pop/rock audience.
Buying into the idea that country is "broadening its appeal" by marketing to a younger audience is balderdash. Country is a narrow market, always has been, probably always will be. It would be more accurate to say that pop/rock is "broadening its appeal" by marketing to the country audience.
Label heads, both in Nashville and those who oversee the Nashville labels in New York and L.A., seem to care only for sales figures. It's a ruthless, bottom line business. If they could sell platinum with an album of 5th graders shouting obscenities, many would be happy to slap it on a CD and call it "Country". The word "country" is simply a marketing position.
There's a lot of grumbling about the schlock being turned out on music row these days. But let's recognize that some very good pop/rock is being made- Faith Hill, for one, makes good pop/rock recordings. She sells to the pop audience, but she also appeals to a segment of the country audience.
Unfortunately, real country music has almost disappeared from the major labels. At the same time, those labels have greater marketing skills than ever before. If music row was interested in real country, business would still be booming, though platinum parties might not occur very often.
Frankly, there's probably too much outside money and influence involved to hope that we'll see a return to the music that inspired books, college courses, TV documentaries and movies.
Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe country has to be forced out of Nashville to survive.
The Music Business City turned its back on bluegrass years ago. Out of necessity, the genre's promotional base shifted to Owensboro, KY- away from the powerful influence of the accountants, bankers, lawyers and rock exiles. Bluegrass recovered and is thriving. Never have so many people bought bluegrass albums and attended bluegrass concerts. The future of bluegrass would be far less bright if Nashville was still a fiddle and banjo city.
It's a Telecaster town now. People talk less about great songs and more about great marketing campaigns. Platinum dreams are here to stay.

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[This message was edited by Ron Page on 11-23-99]