JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum Why stations are pulling Little Big Town's "Girl Crush"

Not really that surprised. Country radio listeners (not country music listeners) are generally the most intolerant. It is said that this is the biggest boycott since the Dixie Chicks. One of the highest selling songs of the year so far on itunes and it's not doing so well on the charts, similar to Kacey Musgraves Follow Your Arrow.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...-says-about-country-radio-today/?hpid=z4


Alana Lynn, a morning co-host on country music station 104.3 FM in Boise, Idaho, was excited to play Little Big Town’s latest single for her listeners. “Girl Crush,” a powerful ballad about a woman envious of her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend, seemed destined to be a hit.

“I want to taste her lips, yeah cause they taste like you / I want to drown myself in a bottle of her perfume,” vocalist Karen Fairchild sings. “I want her long blond hair, I want her magic touch / Yeah cause maybe then, you’d want me just as much. . . I got a girl crush.”

Sure, it’s a provocative way to describe jealousy. But when Lynn played the song on the air, she didn’t anticipate that she would get furious phone calls and e-mails accusing “Girl Crush” of “promoting the gay agenda” and threats to boycott the station. The last time she heard this much outrage from listeners? “The Dixie Chicks’ President Bush comments,” Lynn recalls, referring to when the trio’s career imploded in 2003 after making critical statements about the president.

Are you surprised by the anger over Little Big Town — especially considering it’s a complete misrepresentation of their lyrics? Lynn doesn’t play the song in the morning anymore after parents complained they didn’t want their kids hearing it. But it’s not just in Idaho: In recent weeks, multiple radio stations from coast to coast have been inundated with similar complaints about “Girl Crush,” forcing several to take it out of a regular rotation. (Sample comments heard by a Texas program director: “You are just promoting the gay agenda on your station and I am changing the channel and never listening to you ever again!!”)

As a result, the song is mired in a difficult climb on the radio charts, and it has ignited a controversy that is symbolic of the fraught state of country radio.

There’s a deep chasm these days between what’s popular on country radio — still the genre’s most powerful platform — and what fans are actually buying: “Girl Crush” is No. 4 on iTunes, but lags at No. 33 in radio rankings. And while country music is seen as more progressive now — with explicit lyrics about sex and casual marijuana use — significant portions of the traditional audience will not tolerate a song that they even wrongly assume is about a same-sex relationship.

Syndicated radio personality Bobby Bones, who hosts the nation’s most popular country morning show, fumed about this topic to his millions of listeners last week while Little Big Town was in the studio. “Is it frustrating to you that here is your song — that is one of the Top 10 sellers for weeks and weeks and weeks — and people on the radio are still afraid to play it because they think it’s a ‘lesbian song?’” he asked. “It would drive me insane!”

The group agreed. “Just the fact that we’re still discussing that, number one, there’s so many problems with that whole issue,” Fairchild said.

“It shouldn’t even matter if it’s a lesbian song, is the first thing,” Bones added. Though, of course, that has been proven to matter. Look no further than Kacey Musgraves and “Follow Your Arrow,” the song referencing same-sex kissing that racked up awards and sales but struggled to find a radio audience. Even in 2015, the subject is still a taboo in the genre.

An anonymous Texas program director, who wrote a long post about the song for the music blog For the Country Record, is annoyed that listeners refuse to acknowledge the real meaning behind the lyrics. “Country music fans, please try to have an open mind about songs you are hearing on the radio today and if you don’t like them, that’s fine,” the director wrote. “But don’t not like them for the wrong close-minded reasons.”

The backlash is disheartening for the Grammy-winning band, which has been thrilled by positive fan response and sales numbers (“Girl Crush” is selling about 25,000 copies a week) but disappointed by the radio reaction. Fairchild remembers when she and fellow group member Kimberly Schlapman first heard the song, penned by veteran Nashville songwriters Liz Rose, Lori McKenna and Hillary Lindsey. At Rose’s house during a “girls’ writers day,” Fairchild and Schlapman listened to the songwriter trio perform the tune — and immediately snapped it up for Little Big Town’s next album.


“It’s a genius lyric, such a beautifully written song about jealousy,” Fairchild said in an interview with The Washington Post. “It was like, ‘Why would we not cut this?’”

Though label executives had some reservations about releasing it as a single, “They all agreed it was a moment on the record that everybody needed to hear,” Fairchild said. “Sure, there was a little bit of dialogue about the title and ‘Would people listen to the lyrics?’ But it didn’t stop us.”

As for the lyrics tripping up listeners, Fairchild guesses people hear the “taste her lips” line sung by a female singer and take assumptions from there — she’s still surprised by the controversy. “That’s just shocking to me, the close-mindedness of that, when that’s just not what the song was about,” Fairchild said, “But what if it were? It’s just a greater issue of listening to a song for what it is.”

In fact, the label recently cut a short commercial hoping to clear up some of the confusion. During the spot, the band introduces the song, while Fairchild explains the content: “It’s about a girl saying, you know, ‘Why do you love her and not me?’”

They hope it helps: If angry fans force program directors to play the song less, it creates a ripple effect across country radio. Some stations won’t even play a song if it’s not near the top of the charts, and “Girl Crush” is struggling to get there.

And there lies the problem with the divide between country sales and radio play: Even if a song’s sales are strong, there’s nothing like radio to attract an even broader audience. People in the industry hope there’s a way to reconcile the two, especially to diversify the kind of hard-partying tunes that have taken over country radio in recent years.

Though Little Big Town has seen success with party songs (such as the recent No. 1 “Day Drinking”), Fairchild says she’s heard from singer friends who hope that a ballad like “Girl Crush” can succeed on the radio and pave the way for more substantive music.

Narrow-minded and judgemental is truly dangerous when combined with being too lazy to actually read the lyrics, or too ignorant to understand what they've just read.

But little that people actually do, when it comes to lowest common denominators, seldom surprises me.

Midnite

What does that mean in the context of the "controversy" that you have brought up? Does it have a deeper meaning than just being jealous? ha, ha -- Radio stations are commercial enterprises. If their customers don't want them to do something, it might be best that they don't do that.

I don't think Little Big Town will be hurt by this -- the record label will just release a different radio single. On the bigger issues, I am not that interested in taking a public opinion one way or the other.

Republicans LOVE these people who are low IQ Voters who can't read or understand anything. If it was a different title and the same words NOT ONE problem would have arrived.

There are probably a lot of lesbians singing in Country Music and are petrified to come out....the same for the men. Country Radio Fans are ok with People getting drunk at parties and then driving HOME Drunk.

BUT the kicker with this Predictable Story is that it ISN'T even what the song is about LOLOL.

If I was starting out today as a Singer Songwriter looking at Pop and Country I'd run for the hills....CCM is a better place to go as some of the best songs and Bands are in Christian Contemporary Songs.

These are mouth breathing Rush Limbo Heads with No heads and I am SURE a Lot of the Established Stars in Country Music are shaking their heads at this and saying....NOTHING controversial is coming out from me. BUT this song wasn't controversial and they made a huge TITLE Mistake and only used it to attract attention and it backfired. Leave Country and Follow Taylor. SHE IS SO RICH she could start her own MTV and Put all the Country Stars that want Artistic freedom. I would LOVE to see ( and I'm dreaming ) Country Music Stars NOT Give these radio stations that won't play the song. A SMALL Vocal majority shouldn't be able to do this especially if they are totally wrong about this song. UGH!!!!! This is WORSE than the Dixie Chicks.....Country music has gotten awful and maybe a shake up over there is about time.

Girl Crush is the hook so it is the right title. It is a clever song with the innuendos.
It's not the bands fault that the listeners are morons. Country radio lets the inmates run the asylum.

I just find it funny that they'll make a big deal about this but let other "sins' slide.

Blake Shelton & Ashley Monroe had a song about having a one night stand. That was a number one I think. What kind of loser would call in and demand they stop playing a song anyway?

I listened and I got the true meaning of the song, if she was like the girl she was singing about, then maybe the man would go for her. I liked the song, it was not the upbeat hard drinking sex and partying song type that radio is playing 90% of the time. The artist was not afraid to show her softer, emotional and loving side, not like the macho side that most artist these days want to portray.

Well Now,
They didn't inform me they were pulling what, GIRL CRUSH? How dare they! I can see I'm gonna have to pay more attention to COUNTRY RADIO!

So what you are saying is that anyone who doesn't believe like YOU believe, doesn't like what YOU like, have beliefs that are different than YOUR beliefs are small minded and idiots huh? Ever think YOU might be the one who is small minded?

MAB

Read this morning that an attorney in California wants a proposition on the next state ballot that ALL gays should be killed.

Seems Matt McLaughlin, an attorney in Huntington Beach, California is a right wing Christian who believes it is better to kill gays than face the wrath of God for not doing so. His initiative would also criminalize the support gay rights, making it punishable by a $1m fine, up to 10 years in prison, and expulsion from the state. (NOTE it does not appear this motion has a hope in making it on the ballot...but I expect this guy is being canny as a fox...lots of "like minded" people will be turning to him for legal work)

IF IF IF it is true that this song is being cut off, it is simply emblematic of a growing back lash by the extreme right to push back gains made by "their class enemies"

ie
the repeal of voter laws that makes it more difficult once again for marginalized groups to vote in some states

the creation of a intervenor's office that has legal standing and a duty to file delay of abortion applications (I think its in Louisiana) in the courts until such time that the fetus MUST be brought to term

the Texas school books controversies, where school books are ordered to be revised to reflect, not science or historic facts but the beliefs of evangelical editorial boards


It really is time for the extreme center, the radical middle, to stand up and show the left and right the moderate way is better.

I think when the bigoted people die off like the dinosaurs things will be a lot different in the US. The under 50's are a lot more liberal in regards to social issues according to the polls I have seen. Republicans can get ahead of this now or their support can die with their base.

Well John,
You should know all the "Flakes" moved to California so that is the name of that game. Maybe that drought they're having out there is the Wrath of God?

Hi Aaron,

Interesting thread.

Little Big Town wants to record that song … great for them.
The radio station doesn’t want to play it .. great for them.

If the government stepped in and forced Little Big Town not to sell it, or forced the radio station not to play the song …. then THAT would be an issue. Otherwise, it’s the free market at work, as it should be.

If I want the song played, I’m free to start my own radio station and play the song. That's what free enterprise is all about.

Plus, the verse in question is poorly written. I wouldn’t listen to the song on the grounds that the writer can’t articulate herself well enough to be taken seriously.

I want to taste her lips, yeah cause they taste like you
I want to drown myself in a bottle of her perfume
I want her long blond hair, I want her magic touch
Yeah cause maybe then, you’d want me just as much. . . I got a girl crush

For this verse to make sense, in relation to the other lines, the first line would have to be changed to something like:

I want to BE her lips, yeah cause they’RE TEMPTING YOU

Because, logically and importantly, how would her TASTING of the other girl’s lips make the guy want her just as much? Does he want to TASTE himself? Will tasting himself make him want her more? Obviously not, since, the whole time he was with her, he was tasting himself on her lips.

The other lines make sense … smelling like the other girl, having the other girl’s hair, her magic touch … if she had all of those things, it makes sense that the guy might want her just as much.

Of course, the rewrite I just did is boring, compared with the original. The writer was simply trying to sensationalize that first line. I don’t mind sensationalizing, if it’s done cleverly. If you screw it up, like it was screwed up here, then it’s not clever at all, and falls into the category of just plain stupid.

Lisa

Lisa, you say it's the free market in action, but is it? The article said it's #4 in downloads but #37 on the charts.

If this was the free market in action the downloads would match the position on the charts or be close to it.

What we have here is a vocal minority who are bullying the station heads into not playing a fine enough song.

I don't agree with your critique of the song. Girls kiss girls all of the time to make guys want them.

Aaron,

iTunes and radio stations have different markets and different customers.

They're two different animals.

If their customer tastes happen to match up, then great.

If they don't, then so what?

The beauty of all of us being able to express ourselves is that we don't have to agree on the critique of any song.

Lisa

I see you just added a comment about girls kissing girls all the time to make guys want them.

This singer says she wants to kiss this girl because the girl tastes like him. The payoff at the end is that, if she does all of the things she listed, he will want her more.

It simply doesn't hold together.

It does seem like itunes and country radio are different. Like if you want to know what songs are the actual popular songs you go to itunes and see which ones sell the most. If you want to know which ones were allowed to be played by a bunch of old farts, you check billboards country hit list.

Right.
And there's nothing wrong with old farts having successful radio stations.
And there's nothing wrong with people liking the music that old farts are playing.

It's called free enterprise.

Free enterprise would be not requesting or buying the song or turning the channel, instead of calling into the radio stations and threatening to never listen again. It's bulllying.

There is nothing wrong with calling a business and saying that you do not like their products and will not shop there again.

A shop owner then has the option of either ignoring the customer or changing the product.

In this case, the shop is a radio station.

See you keep saying free enterprise and you are right there is no governmental regulation. But this is breach of the free market. This is not how the free market is supposed to operate.

It is exactly how the free market is supposed to operate.

If you don't like the fact that a business is NOT playing Little Big Town's song, then you have the right to complain.

The business owner takes all of this into consideration and either decides to change the product -- or not.

I suppose you're right. But they'd still be a giant ass if they threatened a store owner because of a certain product.

If you don't like a song, turn the channel. If you don't like a product don't buy it. That's where I'll end this.

People do it all the time, Aaron.

Between civil people, it's not a threat. You don't call a store owner and say, "I'm going to run you over if you don't stop carrying this product."

You simply say, "I don't like your product, so I don't plan to listen anymore. If you change your product, then I will come back."

(I just saw your other comment so I'm responding again...)

I spent my career in marketing.

A good business ALWAYS wants to know why a customer isn't coming back.

They spend millions on market research, trying to figure out why people are or aren't coming.

It's a kind and civil thing to do to let business owners know why you are no longer frequenting them.

I've worked retail. I've met all kinds of people and it's never the good people who will threaten to shop elsehwere because we sold a product they didn't like.

We know in this case it's because they are bigots since they ranted about the so called gay agenda. So the next question is, is it ethical for a business (radio stations) to discriminate against a song because some of their listeners disaprove of the lyrics? This is obviously a social/societal issue and I think social issues are important and need to be protected better and so when this happens it's a major setback for country music.

I don't understand why you think there's a problem here, Aaron.

There are plenty of things that are perfectly legal and mainstream, but people don't want to hear songs about it.

I don't want to hear a song about a 25-year-old man kissing the dry, cracked lips of an old lady with bad breath who burps a lot.

It's perfectly legal to be an old lady with dry, cracked lips and bad breath and a burping problem, but does that mean that I don't have the right to complain about the song? You could argue it's age discrimination ... but who cares.

I guess you're right. This is still a genre that tolerates its top artists singing fondly about the confederate flag despite its nasty history from the civil war to the 50's and 60's and now it being a symbol for the neo nazis and klan members. I really shouldn't be surprised at all.

There's no boycotting of those songs.

If I may: This isn't about the right to boycott or protest or the Free Enterprise System...

The bottom line, is to at least get the facts straight before you get your panties in a bunch.

This song isn't about lesbian sex!!!!...And THAT's where the " ignorance" comes into play in regards to those who are protesting about it.

....Sigh....One man's ceiling is another man's floor...Paul Simon...
Midnite

Aaron, exactly what part of the south are you talking about where artists are singing fondly of their Confederate flags? Are you seeing this personally, or is this another thing you read on the Internet,because that is always such a totally truthful source. Aside from some total idiots and I could sure point at plenty of others who are just as ridiculous, there is not much of that in this business. Most everyone in the legitimate music industry is long past that nonsense and considers it just that.

Just like this song, you probably should get some facts straight before you go off painting with the same broad brush you accuse others of. Your own intolerance is showing as you brand anyone who doesn't believe like you bigoted, narrow minded, rascist,homophobic and all the other cliches people use when their arguments don't hold water.

The reality in life is that people can say anything they want to but also can expect pushback if other people don't agree with them. And to quote women in the music business who have made millions then assigning some kind of "poor little women" who are being bullied by evil men, is about the ultimate in hypocracy.

People can put out their protest songs, issue songs and believe me, there is NO shortage of people with a soapbox. Might want to get your own house in order before throwing stones at everyone else.

MAB

This is from the band on what the song is about:

Country radio pulling song from airwaves

"In fact, according to the band, the song isn't even about a woman in love with another woman. It's about a scorned woman who is trying to understand why her man left her.

"Country music was built on songs about heartache and jealousy," Little Big Town's Phillip Sweet said of the song in an interview with Vevo.

"This woman is just looking at the woman her man left her for and wondering, 'What does she have that I don't have? What am I missing? What is it that she's giving you that I can't give you?'" the band's Kimberly Schlapman explained.

Fellow country artists and Nashville songwriters have chimed in on the controversy in support of Little Big Town. Singer Charlie Worsham pointed out that fans should take more issue with the "boozy objectification of women" seen in many of today's country tunes."

Might want to learn what things are about before going off half cocked about them.

MAB

Great Conversation Guys....loved it.

Lol Marc. Didn't Paisley put out a horreneous song called Accidental Racist which was incredibly insulting and missed the whole point exactly, of the confederate flag?

Trace Adkins recently too. Toby Keith associates himself with the flag.

It just sounds like you want to cover up the bad things about country and all you're really doing is making me want to prove that you're wrong.

As far as bigoted and homophobic well yeah when people rant about gays and there being an agenda you're frickin right they're a bigot. I don't mince words. If that's what they are then cool. They should own it, not deny it.

The most ridiculous part in accidental racist was when paisley compared LLs Doo Rag to the Confederate Flag. I love Brad Paisley but what the hell?

Brad Paisley -ft LL Cool J - Accidental Racist (he also has it on him)
Blake Shelton - Kiss My Country Ass
Toby Keith has the flag in some of his videos
Trace Adkins wears an ear piece of the flag also has it in some of his videos

Just a quick google search. These are not minor leaguers. These are your top male country singers. Kind of hard to brush it under the rug as if it were a non issue.

I mean when your industrys top acts are publicly supportive of a flag that is known worldwide as being one of racist, there's nothing you can say or do or write to change that perception. No amount of your denial or yelling is going to change that reality Marc.

I already know what the song is about. That's definitely good advice though for the idiots who were calling in to demand they stop playing the song because they thought it was country's version of Katy Perrys I Kissed A Girl.

I like you Marc and since you work in Nashville and trying to make things happen there for yourself you most likely cannot say anything perceived as negative in the country music business. I get that. People are "watching" and things stay online forever. That's why I can say whatever I want about it. I'm not trying. I don't even really write anymore and when I do it's not country. I am a fan of the genre.
I love music and the music world.

Dang Lisa, I just spent six hours on my new song, have to shelve it now...

At 40 years his senior
She couldn't but deny
While his lips were soft and tender,
Her's were cracked and dry.

anyone want to add to it...bad breath and burping as a 2nd verse or chorus...
----------------------

Interesting topic with its ebbs and flows.

God Bless Roy and Helen

ho, ho Roy!!
I think that burping should be introduced in the bridge...
(Once you're done with it, maybe Little Big Town will record it.)
Lisa

Aaron,

Regarding whether "Girl Crush" is a "lesbian" song ...

In my discussion of it yesterday, I talked about the singer's "guy." Obviously, I don't view it as a lesbian song. However, she is fantasizing about doing things that only a lesbian would want to do.

Kind of like, if she sang, "I dream about taking a drill and filling in my ex-lover's cavities, so I can touch the inside of his mouth." I mean, she's not actually dreaming of being a dentist, but she is dreaming about doing something that only a dentist would do.

If people called the radio station and said, "we don't want to hear that dentist song..." and then Little Big Town went around saying, "it's not a dentist song..." Yeah, they'd be accurate.

All of that being said...

"Girl Crush" could DEFINITELY be interpreted as a "lesbian song" just as much as it could be interpreted as a "heterosexual song."

It's androgynous.

The entire song doesn't include any pronouns, except for "you." It could very well be interpreted as a lesbian singing about being jealous of her lesbian girlfriend's new girlfriend. Thus, interpreting it as a "lesbian song" is JUST as valid as interpreting it as a "heterosexual song."

Also, it's bizarre that Little Big Town is going on an Explanation Tour about their song, telling people whether their interpretations are right or wrong.

Lisa

I think that It's important to remember that most downloads or streams from the internet are a personal thing and done by individuals. An Individual has control over who is listening and can stop the play at any time with a pause button etc.

Headphones are also a standard option.

But radio is usually playing to an audience. Maybe Mum Dad and the children at breakfast or on the drive to school etc. Maybe at a mall full of people, so I guess that radio has to be more conscious of what is played, especially when the words can be misconstrued.

God Bless Roy and Helen

Humm,
The song "Problem" is posted on the front Page of Fox News. And, after listening to the song it does sound like a uh, Lesbian thing.

I do especially like the voice of the girl singing the song!

SO, go Google BEAUTIFUL LIES by Jean Shepard and forget the whole thing!

Controversy in music is NOT a new thing at all. As a teenager I can recall when the top pop music station in Chicago refused to play "Eve of Destruction" which is so timely half a century later that a sequel could very easily be written. But radio is even more choosy today than they were at that time, so they probably wouldn't touch it. And I pointed out once that when the original version of "You're Sixteen" came out, it was an innocent song about a teenage crush. But when Ringo Starr's remake came out a decade of so later there was all this talk about "jail bait", which was not in evidence during the earlier time frame.

Where country radio is concerned, my biggest beef with them is that what passes for country today is really rock, and that you barely hear any of the traditional sound, as immortalized in the song "Murder on Music Row". That is my 2c worth on this. I have never yet heard the song in question, mostly because I have abandoned most music radio of any genre due to the reasons listed above.

If it was a guy singing "I want to taste his lips, to see what you taste like" immediately you would think what a gay thing to say, and nobody would want to hear it.

because it's more acceptable for two women to kiss, it's "no big deal"

And with porn all over the internet, guys watch women doing things all the time.

So it IS, somewhat lesbian, because a guy would never say that.

Having said that, you could look at every
Melissa Etheridge song and find lesbian references, if you want to. You can also find straight references, if you want to.

And in any song, you can find inuendo for things that are not even there.

Songwriters writing for Nashville are usually writing on the nose stuff, telling exactly what they mean, but in other genres, alot of songs can be interpreted many ways.

Naive though of radio to not play the song, where porn is on every webpage on the internet.

My Computer did a double post! Sorry.

I LIKE Lesbians lol
This publicity about the song has probably sky rocketed sales so all is good....all PR is good whether it negative of positive. Who was that pretty female star that had a bunch of hits that came out of the closet and was never heard from again? Just can't remember her name. Lots of Yahoos in the South that still hang the confederate flag proudly and the Stars in Country JUST Care about catering to them for the money. It's always about THE MONEY....not just in this.

Uh....Barry......


Sebring, Florida?

A song recorded by Charlie Rich, BEHIND CLOSED DOORS in 1973 was very controversial at the time. I think a lot of Stations wouldn't play it. Jean Shepard put out a song TWO WHOOPS AND A HOLLER that was not played much either. Things have changed a lot since the Sexual Revolution!

Females are sensual and more open to kissing other women than men are with other men. It doesn't make them a lesbian or even bi sexual. I know women who are heterosexuals but have kissed other women on the lips. Not really a big deal or even that shocking.

why has this become a confederate flag post?YAHOOOOOOOO!

I believe that was Chely Wright. She used kickstarter to raise enough funds for a cd that will be released this year.