Thriving in commercial country music is a bit of a tightrope walk.
The artists who make a permanent mark — people such as Merle Haggard, Alan Jackson, Reba McEntire, Dolly Parton or Willie Nelson — invariably have their own look, their own sound and/or their own kinds of songs. But success isn’t merely a matter of being different; there’s a long line of acts who have stood out through the years for unique attributes that never caught fire with the masses.
Part of the tightrope walk is the nature of the music that’s popular at any time. If all the music in existence were represented by a standard, letter-size sheet of paper, the songs that earn significant exposure on playlists would be about the size of a pencil dot. The easiest way to figure out how to land on that tiny dot would be to identify all the elements that mark a successful recording. But that pencil dot is continuously moving, in part because customers are invariably looking for something new, but also because the advent of new technologies, new creative ideas and new gatekeepers invariably changes the rules.
Those conflicting ideas — the need to be different and the temptation to conform — were a recurring theme during the recent Billboard Country Live events, as a handful of artists and executives received Country Power Player awards on June 6 and seven panels explored current issues and trends in country music on June 7 for a consumer audience.
Jelly Roll perhaps best illustrated the balance of matching the current sound of the genre and creating an individual brand. After establishing a persona as a rapper-rocker, the Nashville native slipped into country over the last year, with music that had some similarities to sounds that were already working.
“How lucky am I that HARDY is on fire right now?” he asked rhetorically, alluding to that artist’s hard-rock edge and rawness that had already found favor with programmers. “Guys like Tyler Childers are out right now. Guys like Sturgill Simpson are on the scene right now. There’s so much variety in music, and especially in the genre of country music right now.”
But Jelly Roll’s civic passions — born from his own story, which includes substance abuse and incarceration — set him apart in the current structure. His blunt honesty about his past, and about the issues he has yet to conquer, makes him an ideal spokesman for a significant part of the country audience, many of whom know characters like him.
“I shoveled s–t for 30 years, and I’ve turned my heart,” Jelly Roll said. “When my heart changed, it’s like God was [saying], ‘Just waiting on you, big fella.’ And he started repaying all that bad luck I had.”
Jelly Roll was at least partially cynical when he started courting Nashville’s country gatekeepers for an opportunity. He was convinced that the fans would be there, but repeatedly got suggestions that he should be looking in Los Angeles or somewhere else for his shot.
That sort of experience is familiar to nearly every artist who stood out from the crowd. “When I first moved here, this town told me I couldn’t be me, and I heard no for so many years,” Carly Pearce said during a panel about women in country music. “I just want the next generation to have the hope to be brave to do that. Because you can.”
History supports individuality. Johnny Cash, with his man-in-black fashion choices and imposing vocal tone, earned an authoritative place in country’s annals. Loretta Lynn, through her plain-spoken songs and overwhelming history of hardship, made a connection. Alabama, sporting a then-daring mix of country harmony and rock influence, became an arena act that many tried to emulate. Miranda Lambert, mixing fiery femininity and Texan musical heritage, needed a little development time but ultimately broke through and became an icon.
Still, while decision-makers are fairly competent at identifying what’s unique, they’re less successful at knowing what differences will actually work.
“When I got to town, boy, they were quick to tell me what to change,” Ashley McBryde said while accepting a Billboard groundbreaker award. “That was, ‘Your hair’s too curly. Lose 30 pounds’ — we’re all trying to lose 30 pounds — and ‘Too many tattoos.’ And back then, there were three [tattoos]. They did the same thing with what to write or what not to write. And it was exhausting. The most important thing we can be as an artist, or as a bandmate, as a songwriter, as a human being, is ourselves. The other person I was trying to be was absolutely exhausting.”
Trying to become a unique artist mirrors much of the life that art is intended to portray. Successful companies have some identifiable trait that sets them apart, from a logo to a product to a market niche they’re filling. Successful people invariably battle the voices of their parents, their teachers, society and even themselves to find their path. The threat of being outcast is large, but so is the threat of not being an individual, as Garth Brooks found when he released the risky “We Shall Be Free,” which advocated for nontraditional relationships, in 1992. It failed to match the No. 1 status his singles typically earned in that era — though over time, it has become one of his signatures.
“You can’t be somebody else,” he said in a Billboard Q&A. “You got to be yourself.”
That idea was underscored by Lily Rose, who admitted that walking an uncharted path is difficult.
“Every single song that we’re cutting and putting out, it’s like, ‘Are we doing the right thing for me first? And then for the LGBTQ community? And then just country music in general,’ ” she said during the women in country panel. “It can be kind of heavy, but it makes up for it every single time … a mom or dad comes up with their 13- or 14-year-old, and they say, ‘Because of you, they decided to tell me who they really are.’ It’s like, ‘Yeah, I wish I had that.’ ”
In that way, it’s important for artists to continue owning their unique place in the world. Not every act will be successful — that’s not the way it works — but those who do break through inspire other artists, and other people, to more fully explore their own individuality. “Know thyself” is one of the biggest challenges ever issued to humanity.
“Betting on yourself,” McBryde said, “is the right move.”
