Several years ago, Josh Schott started a weekly feature on the now-defunct Country Perspective blog that asked a simple question: Based on Billboard’s country airplay charts, just how good (or bad) is country radio at this very moment? In the spirit of the original feature, I decided to try my hand at evaluating the state of the radio myself.
The methodology is as follows: Each song that appears is assigned a score based on its review score. 0/10 songs get the minimum score (-5), 10/10 songs get the maximum (+5), and so on. The result (which can range from +250 to -250) gives you an idea of where things stand on the radio.
This week’s official numbers are from Mediabase’s weekly chart publication. Without further ado, let’s crunch some numbers!
Best Song: “Burn Out,” 10/10
Worst Song: “One That Got Away,” 1/10
Mode Score: 0 (15 songs)
Gone:
- Blake Shelton, “Turnin’ Me On” (recurrent)
- Eric Church, “Desperate Man” (recurrent)
Leaving:
- Dan + Shay, “Speechless” (holds at #1, but Lynch has been advertising max-spins for this week)
- Kane Brown, “Lose It” (down from #7 to #8)
- Mitchell Tenpenny, “Drunk Me” (down from #15 to #19)
- Eric Church, “Desperate Man” (down from #41 to #50)
Death Watch:
- Kip Moore, “Last Shot” (down from #5 to #6 after 49 weeks)
- Chris Stapleton, “Millionaire” (at #11 after 36 weeks, it’s time to start getting nervous)
- Midland, “Burn Out” (at #12 after 37 weeks, it was time to start getting nervous a while ago)
- Tyler Rich, “The Difference” (holds at #25, but after 35 weeks it’s time for a full-blown panic)
- Rodney Atkins ft. The Fisk Jubilee Singers, “Caught Up In The Country” (holds at #30 and doesn’t project to go much higher)
- Granger Smith, “You’re In It” (up from #35 to #34, and honestly, I have no idea what to make of this thing anymore)
Bubbling Under 50:
- Garth Brooks, “Stronger Than Me” (5/10)
- Brothers Osborne, “I Don’t Remember Me (Before I Met You)” (5/10)
- The Pistol Annies, “Got My Name Changed Back” (5/10)
On The Way:
- Ashley McBryde, “Girl Goin’ Nowhere” (8/10)
- Tenille Townes, “Somebody’s Daughter” (5/10)
- Kane Brown, “Good As You” (6/10)
- Eric Church, “Some Of It”
- Chris Young, “Raised On Country” (5/10)
- Dylan Scott, “Nothing To Do Town”
Overall Thoughts: It’s the first week of 2019, and just like the beginning of a professional sport season, everyone feels like they can be a success today!
Everybody’s got a bullet and triple-digit point gains to show off this week (even the songs that are going backwards), which means that are charts are temporarily in stasis while the have and have-nots sort themselves out (Paisley’s four-spot jump to #44 is the biggest move of the week). The logjam at the top of the pile should break loose soon, as Lynch looks to formally challenge for Dan + Shay’s #1 slot this week and get the escalator moving again.
I’m a little torn on the quality of music I’m seeing right now: The more-recent new arrivals/reentries (Dickerson, Gilbert & Ell, Murphy) are decent, but a fair bit of the flotsam I’ve been complaining about for months now (Atkins, LoCash, Wallen, Smith, Houser, Maddie & Tae, Lay) is starting to find some traction simply because stations are flailing around looking for playlist filler. Hopefully some stronger January releases (and there seem to be a few of them) correct this issue when they assume their rightful positions on the chart.
So what do you think? Are the numbers better or worse than you expected? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
Kyle's Korner 