22 January 2020

Country Music Television (CMT) will be making sure female artists get equal airtime for music videos on their channel, effective immediately. This means that when it comes to showing music videos on their channel, there will be a direct 50/50 split between male and female artists in order to ensure equality. Previously on CMT, the balance was 60/40 male. The issue of female representation in country music in America reared its head fairly recently, when Kelsea Ballerini, Cassadee Pope and Kacey Musgraves highlighted a country radio station in America that said that it is decided there that there cannot be two female country artists back to back being played. A few days later, CMT took to their social media accounts to share the news, which they stated would take place with immediate effect rather than impose the equal measures at a later date. “Effective immediately all music video hours on CMT and CMT Music channels will have complete parity between male and female artists,” they tweeted out. “That means 50/50.” The news has been welcomed by many corners of the country music spectrum, with many hoping that it will pave the way for other radio stations and music video channels to follow suit. The issue of female representation in country music is far from a secret, with the gender imbalance being especially notable on country radio. A SongData study that emerged in April 2019 stated that the total amount of airplay that female artists and male-female ensembles combined is just 13-15%.

The ACM Awards will be two categories lighter for 2020 as they are dropping both the New Vocal Duo and New Vocal Group awards. It’ll be the first time in five years that the categories won’t be included in the showpiece event, which is partially due to the fact that artists are struggling to meet the eligibility requirements. The requirements are that you cannot be nominated twice in a three year period, can’t be former winners or be former winners of either Entertainer of the Year or Duo or Group of the Year and can’t have released a third album. As such, the pool is somewhat quite limited for artists out there – to the point that last year, the ACM Awards had a combined New Vocal Duo or Group of the Year category, with LANCO, Runaway June and High Valley being nominated. Of these, LANCO took home the award. However, both Runaway June and High Valley are ineligible for 2020 as they have been nominated twice in a three year period and there are other complications with nominations too – for example, if The Highwomen (Maren Morris, Brandi Carlile, Amanda Shires and Natalie Hemby) charted a top 40 single, they would be in contention, but if Morris or Carlile won Female Vocalist of the Year, the whole group would then be ineligible as they would contain a member that wasn’t ‘new’. The 2020 ACM Awards will take place on April 5 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, America.