State Of The Charts: How 'Choosin' Texas' Has and Hasn't Changed Things For Women In Country

A year and a half ago, I did a very unscientific survey to (for the zillion time) spotlight the miserable state of gender diversity on the country charts. It featured a still up and coming artist named Ella Langley, among others, who was still looking for her first solo No. 1 song.

Fast forward to today, and we just can't shake "Choosin' Texas," which is currently beating a far newer Taylor Swift song (!) for a record-setting 11th week atop the all-genre Top 100. In fact, the top three songs on the Hot 100 and the Hot Country Song charts are the same despite none of them being by Morgan Wallen! Praise be!! (though Langley's duet with him is...climbing 😣)

To honor Langley officially setting the record for longest-running No. 1 country song on the Hot 100 by a woman artist (11 nonconsecutive weeks!), I thought I'd revisit the charts to see if there's been any trickledown success — if we're seeing more openness to women artists at radio, especially, given Langley's monumental success. Here's what I found (HCS = Hot Country Songs, which charts streaming/digital consumption/radio, CA = Country Airplay, which is just radio):

There are (drumroll please) seven women artists with solo songs on the country charts.

Ella Langley: "Choosin' Texas" (No. 1, HCS; has already gone recurrent/is not eligible for airplay), "Be Her" (No. 3, HCS and CA), "Loving Life Again" (No. 9 HCS), "Dandelion" (No. 15, HCS), "Bottom Of Your Boots" (No. 18, HCS), "Broken" (No. 48, HCS)

Taylor Swift: "I Knew It, I Knew You" (No. 2, HCS; No. 11, CA)

Stella Lefty: "Boston" (No. 4, HCS; No. 15, CA), "Thinking 'Bout You" (No. 49, HCS)

Kacey Musgraves: "Mexico Honey" (No. 13, HCS), "Dry Spell" (No. 36, HCS; No. 39, CA)

Megan Moroney: "Beautiful Things" (No. 14, HCS; No. 7, CA), "Medicine" (No. 50, HCS; No. 38, CA)

Avery Anna: "Blood Runs Thicker" (No. 47, HCS)

Ashley McBryde: "What If We Don't" (No. 34 CA)

Yes, that's up just one from last time we checked. Improvement, but only barely.

The percentage of spots taken by solo women is up substantially, though.

Out of 110 possible spots between the airplay and Hot Country charts, 22 are taken by solo women (or, in the case of Miranda and Ella's duet "Butterfly Season," two women! Such an anomaly we can barely account for it!). That means solo women artists account for 20% of the songs on the country charts right now — wild that that looks like a win by comparison to our last survey, when that number was at just 8%. Again, improvement, but still a woeful underrepresentation! Also Langley's status as a streaming heavyweight accounts for much of that percentage; she only has one solo song on the airplay chart right now (??).

The airplay chart still lags behind listeners' actual interest in hearing women artists.

There are currently five songs by solo women artists in the top ten on Hot Country songs — that's parity, baby! Yes, three of them are by Ella Langley...but if we allow her a half-point for her Morgan Wallen duet (bleh), we get a majority of women in the top ten of a country chart. It's not everything but it's something!

By contrast, there are just two songs by women solo artists in the top ten at country airplay, where the No. 1 is this generic blather. No. 2 is by Aldean (shudder). Total, only seven out of 60 songs are by solo women artists (12%). Yes, radio moves slow and has its own weird methods and cycles; still, that can't continue to be a passable excuse for inequity.

Women are still compelled to duet if they want to be heard.

There are more women on the country charts than listed above, they're just saddled with male sidekicks. Randomly, there are six different tracks charting right now featuring collaborations between two or more male artists...a trend? More and more men?

Ella Langley and Morgan Wallen: "I Can't Love You Anymore" (No. 4 HCS; No. 5 CA)

Lauren Alaina ft. Chase Matthew: "All My Exes" (No. 45, HCS; No. 20 CA)

Lainey Wilson and John Mayer: "Phone, Keys, Wallet" (No. 23, HCS; No. 23, CA) (as seen on DRTI :) )

Carly Pearce and Riley Green: "If I Don't Leave I'm Gonna Stay" (No. 54, CA) (also as seen on DRTI!)

Stella Lefty ft. Vincent Mason: "Something To Lose" (No. 16, HCS)

In conclusion: We're still waiting for post-Langley wave to hit in earnest.

For every white dude in country who hits it big the way Langley is right now — namely, of late, that's just Wallen and maybe Combs — we get like 500 imitators. We're still not really seeing that on the country charts, though there is a teeny, tiny, within one standard deviation probably (look, don't ask me to do math) level of improvement. Also, only two names here genuinely qualify as new: Stella Lefty and Avery Anna (I'm pretty cool on both, but that's beside the point). I spend enough time weeding through new country singles to know there's an abundance of great stuff out there, it's just not getting on the radio — as it ever was. Maybe Ella will give them one less excuse for keeping women artists on the outside looking in, at least.