Friday, May 16, 2008
TV finally gives country music its close-up
A medium that used to ignore Nashville has suddenly embraced the genre while shows like 'Idol' create new country stars.
By TOM ROLAND
Special to the Register
When former WB sitcom star Reba McEntire hosts the 43rd annual Academy of Country Music Awards from Las Vegas on CBS Sunday evening, she'll share the stage with at least two singers Carrie Underwood and Kellie Pickler who came to national prominence as "American Idol" contestants on FOX-TV; another, Trace Adkins, who created new fans as a participant on NBC's The Celebrity Apprentice; and another Garth Brooks who came out of semi-retirement to craft a CBS concert special from Los Angeles in January.
As if that's not enough, two more faces on the telecast John Rich and singer-songwriter Jewel will begin a run next month on "Nashville Star," a former USA Network show that's being bumped up to NBC. And yet another, Dwight Yoakam, just set a record as the artist who's made the most musical guest appearances on NBC's "The Tonight Show" during the Jay Leno era.
All the broadcast networks attached to current stars CBS, NBC, CW, Fox attached to current stars are more than just alphabet soup to Nashville's country music business. They represent a significant rise in popularity for the genre on TV, an uptick in exposure that comes right when the record business is having trouble selling recorded music.
There have been times in country's history when the Encino-based ACM's awards and the Nashville-based Country Music Association's annual show were about the only network fling most country artists would receive. In fact, during the 1990s, many of Nashville's independent publicists lost clients to P.R. houses in New York or Los Angeles because managers perceived that would make the difference in getting their artists booked on "The Tonight Show" or "Late Night with David Letterman."
Now, country artists are beginning to feel like they're receiving equal billing with pop, rock and R&B stars for the first time.
"The music has more integrity to it across the board than any other genre of music," Rich says in cheerleader mode. "Yet the East Coast and the West Coast people in the media, seems they have this stereotypical view of us, that we're some kind of uneducated, redneck-hillbilly, redheaded stepchildren of the music business, which couldn't be further from the truth. Our artists sell more records on average than any artists out there, our careers are longer and we sell more tickets."
Brooks has certainly sold more albums than any other solo act in the U.S. The longevity in the format is legendary, and as far as tickets go, the only act to mount a stadium tour this summer is country's Kenny Chesney. In addition, there are more radio stations in America play country more than 2,000 than any other music.
The vast majority of those stations are in small towns. In fact, if you take a drive across the Midwest, you'll hear many more stations playing country's George Strait or classic rock's Pink Floyd than you'll hear airing current pop stars such as Rihanna or Fergie. And those small stations add up.
Trace Adkins, for example, was told by NBC that he helped improve ratings in Middle America for Donald Trump's "The Celebrity Apprentice."
"I didn't hear that from Trump," Adkins notes. "I heard it from a couple of the producers that a lot more people in the flyover states were watchin'."
Several attempts to interview an NBC executive for this story proved unsuccessful.
This is hardly the first time that country music has found a window of popularity on network TV. In the early 1970s, "The Johnny Cash Show", "The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour" and "Hee-Haw" all had prime-time slots, and "The Ed Sullivan Show" booked country acts with regularity.
In the early 1980s, Barbara Mandrell & The Mandrell Sisters aired weekly, while country stars showed up on "The Dukes Of Hazzard" and a bevy of syndicated programs. In the early-'90s, Garth Brooks began receiving fairly regular specials, and Dick Clark Productions launched a short-lived weekly NBC series, "Hot Country Nights." In addition, country stars provided theme songs for several now-forgotten series, including "Uncle Buck" and "Harts Of The West", and shows such as "Empty Nest" and "Evening Shade" provided acting opportunities for McEntire, Brooks and Mandrell.
TV MAKES NEW STARS
In the past, the country-TV connection mostly provided a new outlet for established stars to increase awareness. This time around, the tube is actually building careers for new acts, primarily because of "American Idol" ironic since the ACMs aired opposite that Fox show for several years.
"Idol" is primarily a pop vehicle, yet it's launched more hitmakers in country music than in any other format. The list of ex-contestants who've hit the genre's Top 15 includes Pickler, Bucky Covington, Josh Gracin and Kelly Clarkson, a pop singer who's currently nominated jointly with McEntire for an ACM via the duet "Because Of You." And, of course, there's Carrie Underwood, whose 10 million albums sold outstrips every other former Idol.
Label interest in "Idol" makes sense. Country, more than any other genre, relies one-dimensionally on radio to build awareness of its acts. TV builds images quickly and provides instant name recognition that could take months or years to create otherwise.
"On the radio, I'm making 5 million impressions a week, whereas on television I made over 30 million impressions every time I sang on any episode of 'American Idol,'" notes Phil Stacey, who released his debut album in April. "That's a huge, huge thing to have that much exposure."
A spot on "Idol" also provides on-the-job training for those graduates who segue into recording careers. They enter the studio for their first albums already familiar with recording techniques and often more confident than a previous generation's new acts might have been. In addition, they've already gone through interviews and learned how to adjust their performances for different mediums.
"On TV, it's not about the big stage," Bucky Covington says, explaining the difference between working for the viewer on the couch instead of the ticket-holder at the back of a concert hall. "If they zoom in and do a tight shot, shoulders up, and all of a sudden I jump, we've just got a stupid-lookin' thing there. On TV, you gotta carry your energy differently
You do subtle things versus a lot of wild, rock-'n'-roll, yee-haw stuff."
"When the day's said and done, in the TV world, it's about the money," ACM chief Bob Romeo says. "It's about sponsors, and it's about advertisers."
At this juncture, country music seems to be providing them, enough that the Academy and Dick Clark Productions announced a new partnership this past week geared toward creating new country-related TV programming. Romeo indicated the deal might lead to an extra network special and a regular country series in the next year.
The genre, with songs built primarily on adult viewpoints instead of youthful angst, has a good shot at delivering a tangible audience that advertisers would want to target for dish soap commercials, truck spots or food products.
"If a lot of country people are family people," Romeo says, "then obviously Procter & Gamble would have an interest in those demos. If they own a house or have a dog, you can see how this starts to really build there."
The artists and their songs tend to attract that demo, at least in the heartland. McEntire, who played a mom in her sitcom, has sung about kids and divorce and adult education for three decades. Adkins' current single, "You're Gonna Miss This" passes on fatherly observations to a listener at a younger crossroads. And Covington's "A Different World" is awash in the nostalgia that accompanies a generation as it ages.
That point of view seems to carry more weight than usual in the TV industry's current cycle.
"I think it has to do with the state of the United States right now, where we are historically and politically in terms of the war," ACM Awards executive producer R.A. Clark says. "I'm wondering if there's a resurgence because of the economy, because of what's happening in the political climate, what's happening in the world. I can't put my finger on it. (But) songwriting drives country music, and it tells the experience of people, and maybe this (trend) really taps into what people's experience is."
Tom Roland is a veteran freelance writer and the founder of RolandNote.com, the Ultimate Country Music Database.
source:
Entertainment: Country music gets its close-up on network TV | country, music, stars, new, idol - OCRegister.com
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