Billboard – 2/18/12

Just as a refresher, here are the HDD projections again going into the weekend:

With the Grammy Awards on Sunday night and the last
weekend before Valentine’s Day upon us, there is a lot more conjecture
than usual in this week’s midweek projections. The show’s performers
typically see substantial increases after appearing, as evidenced by the
remarkable spike seen last year by Mumford & Sons. Can Adele, who is performing and favored to win Album, Record and Song of the Year, see a big enough lift to keep Van Halen from scoring next week’s #1 record? Here’s how it looks headed into Grammy weekend:

*Van Halen (Interscope) 180-195k
Adele 21 (XL/Columbia) 175-190k
*Now 41 (Capitol/EMI) 130-140k
*The Fray (Epic) 85-95k
*Paul McCartney (Hear Music/Concord) 65-70k
*Dierks Bentley (Capitol Nashville/EMI) 55-60k
2012 Grammy Nominees (Universal Republic) 55-60k
LMFAO (Interscope) 30-35k
Drake (YM/CM/Universal Republic) 30-35k
Lana Del Rey (Interscope) 28-32k
Kidz Bop Kids (Razor & Tie) 27-30k
Rihanna (Def Jam/IDJ) 25-28k
Adele 19 (XL/Columbia) 24-27k
Tim McGraw (Curb) 24-27k
Mary J. Blige (Geffen) 24-27k

*Debuts (2/9p)

HDD

Supposedly Mr. Know It All (country version) was added by a big country station and is moving up the country chart.  Everything is going great for Kelly this time round.

CHR/Pop
18 13 KELLY CLARKSON Stronger (What Doesn… 6583 4680 1903 45.344
+257 Spins
+14 Bullet
+1.846 AI

45 47 DAUGHTRY Crawling Back To You 459 424 35 1.615
-1 Position
-3 Spins
-16 Bullet
+0.005 AI

HAC
13 5 KELLY CLARKSON Stronger (What Doesn… 3299 2574 725 21.927
+88 Spins
+2 Bullet
+0.723 AI

5 7 KELLY CLARKSON Mr. Know It All 2908 3198 -290 18.295
-48 Spins
+18 Bullet
-0.443 AI

7 9 DAUGHTRY Crawling Back To You 2761 2991 -230 13.583
-59 Spins
-36 Bullet
-0.411 AI

36 33 ADAM LAMBERT Better Than I Know M… 426 325 101 2.077
+13 Spins
0 Bullet
+0.061 AI

45 42 JAMES DURBIN Love Me Bad 228 200 28 0.252
-1 Spin
-11 Bullet
+0.008 AI

AC
5 5 KELLY CLARKSON Mr. Know It All 1498 1437 61 12.681
+27 Spins
+42 Bullet
+0.019 AI

16 14 DAUGHTRY Crawling Back To You 296 271 25 0.97
-2 Spins
-6 Bullet
+0.015 AI

25 24 KELLY CLARKSON Stronger (What Doesn… 103 81 22 0.522
+5 Spins
+5 Bullet
+0.068 AI

36 37 CLAY AIKEN Bring Back My Love 28 31 -3 0.02
+1 Spin
+3 Bullet
+0.001 AI

84 48 ELLIOTT YAMIN 3 Words 13 3 10 0.01
+2 Positions
+4 Spins
+4 Bullet
+0.003 AI

Country
19 20 SCOTTY MCCREERY The Trouble With Gir… 2428 2282 146 15.53
-1 Position
-23 Spins
-65 Bullet
+0.145 AI

31 28 CASEY JAMES Let’s Don’t Call It … 1102 1033 69 5.681
+15 Spins
+1 Bullet
+0.113 AI

36 35 LAUREN ALAINA Georgia Peaches 743 679 64 3.864
+18 Spins
+31 Bullet
+0.107 AI

Urban
54 40 JENNIFER HUDSON Think Like A Man f/N… 449 213 236 2.228
+1 Position
+40 Spins
+36 Bullet
+0.279 AI

Urban AC
17 14 JENNIFER HUDSON I Got This 533 478 55 2.897
+6 Spins
0 Bullet
+0.116 AI

26 22 RUBEN STUDDARD June 28th (I’m Singl… 265 215 50 1.277
-1 Position
-2 Spins
-8 Bullet
-0.007 AI

45 50 JENNIFER HUDSON Think Like A Man f/N… 55 60 -5 0.573

Christian AC
4 5 MANDISA Waiting For Tomorrow 817 887 -70 3.323
-13 Spins
-12 Bullet
-0.01 AI

Smooth Jazz
0 49 KELLY CLARKSON Mr. Know It All 14 0 14 0.079

Canada-CHR/Pop
30 30 KELLY CLARKSON Stronger (What Doesn… 450 360 90 3.188
+13 Spins
+7 Bullet
+0.15 AI

33 31 ONE DIRECTION What Makes You Beaut… 445 303 142 2.822
+14 Spins
-6 Bullet
+0.078 AI

Canada-HAC
11 7 KELLY CLARKSON Stronger (What Doesn… 714 585 129 5.195
+1 Position
+40 Spins
+33 Bullet
+0.242 AI

30 29 DAUGHTRY Crawling Back To You 217 214 3 0.906
+15 Spins
-15 Bullet
+0.079 AI
 
35 32 ADAM LAMBERT Better Than I Know M… 202 170 32 1.524
-2 Positions
+4 Spins
-3 Bullet
+0.037 AI

84 42 ONE DIRECTION What Makes You Beaut… 149 37 112 0.568
+2 Positions
+18 Spins
+12 Bullet
+0.075 AI

Canada-Main AC
5 8 KELLY CLARKSON Mr. Know It All 267 287 -20 2.501
-2 Positions
-12 Spins
-14 Bullet
-0.062 AI

18 18 DAUGHTRY Crawling Back To You 158 147 11 1.426
0 Spins
-5 Bullet
-0.01 AI

53 28 KELLY CLARKSON Stronger (What Doesn… 71 33 38 0.389
+3 Positions
+8 Spins
+0.045 AI
 
Canada-Country
42 45 SCOTTY MCCREERY The Trouble With Gir… 115 118 -3 0.44
-1 Position
-6 Spins
-8 Bullet
-0.025 AI

There are 12 different Idols represented on the charts today:

Breakdown by season: S1: 1  S2: 2  S3: 1  S4: 0  S5: 3 S6: 0 S7: 0 S8: 1 S9: 1 S 10: 3

It’s kind of cool that the Original Idol is still the biggest winner on the charts today.

According to the add board, no stations in the US or Canada have added it yet.  Maybe a station started playing it this week, and we will see it show up on the add board next week.  I don’t think a lot of country stations are going to give it a chance, Kelly may be very popular right now, and she’s worked with a few established country artists, but process trying to turn a song country by changing the instrumentation isn’t popular among country music insiders.

It’s not just any station, it’s Chicago’s WUSN-FM that has started spinning this, one of the biggest country radio stations.
It will be interesting to see if Country radio is open to this sort of thing. It happens with remix editions of country songs going to pop but the contrary almost never happens (maybee that Bon Jovi/Sugarland collab a few years back or that Kid Rock’s “All Summer Long” song).
Kelly is kind of the ideal candidate if this has a chance to happen.

It’s not just any station, it’s Chicago’s WUSN-FM that has started spinning this, one of the biggest country radio stations.  

Are you saying that because it’s in a large market, or because it has a lot of pull in the industry, and other stations will copy its playlist, like Z100 has in the pop genre?

i-tunes

Singles
2. Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You) – Kelly Clarkson (Deluxe version)
3. Set Fire to the Rain – ADELE
13. Someone Like You – ADELE
18. Rolling in the Deep – ADELE
29. Moves Like Jagger (Studio Recording from “The Voice” Performance) [feat. Christina Aguilera] – Maroon 5
40. Sexy and I Know It (Glee Cast Version feat. Ricky Martin) – Glee Cast
44. Stereo Hearts (feat. Adam Levine) – Gym Class Heroes
51. La Isla Bonita (Glee Cast Version feat. Ricky Martin) – Glee Cast
65. Smooth Criminal (Glee Cast Version) [feat. 2CELLOS (Sulic & Hauser)] – Glee Cast
71. Mr. Know It All – Kelly Clarkson
72. Drink On It – Blake Shelton
89. The Trouble With Girls – Scotty McCreery
100. Bamboleo / Hero (Glee Cast Version) – Glee Cast
104. We Are Young (Glee Cast Version) – Glee Cast
111. Rumour Has It – ADELE
114. Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You) – Kelly Clarkson
144. Human Nature (Glee Cast Version) – Glee Cast
146. Remind Me (Duet with Carrie Underwood) – Brad Paisley
171. Make You Feel My Love – ADELE
178. Let Me Be Your Star (SMASH Cast Version) [feat. Katharine McPhee & Megan Hilty] – SMASH Cast
192. Beautiful (SMASH Cast Version) [feat. Katharine McPhee] – SMASH Cast
203. Don’t Wanna Lose You (Glee Cast Version) – Glee Cast
211. Oh! Darling (The Voice Performance) – Juliet Simms
221. Fly Over States – Jason Aldean
232. Turning Tables – ADELE
253. Chasing Pavements – ADELE
254. One and Only – ADELE
266. Trouble (The Voice Performance) – Tony Lucca
271. A Little Less Conversation (Glee Cast Version) – Glee Cast
288. Don’t You Wanna Stay (with Kelly Clarkson) – Jason Aldean
289. Black or White (Glee Cast Version) – Glee Cast
295. Far Away (feat. Chris Richardson) – Tyga
304. Bad (Glee Cast Version) – Glee Cast
322. Georgia Peaches – Lauren Alaina
334. Breakaway – Kelly Clarkson
354. Camouflage – Brad Paisley
357. Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ (Glee Cast Version) – Glee Cast
378. Think Like a Man (feat. Rick Ross) [from the Motion Picture “Think Like A Man”] – Jennifer Hudson & Ne-Yo
441. Since U Been Gone – Kelly Clarkson
448. Respect – Melanie Amaro
463. Lovesong – ADELE
495. Without You (Glee Cast Version) – Glee Cast
529. I Love You This Big – Scotty McCreery
550. Seven Nation Army (The Voice Performance) – Jamar Rogers
557. Before He Cheats – Carrie Underwood
578. Bad Day – Daniel Powter
586. Already Gone – Kelly Clarkson
594. Let’s Don’t Call It a Night – Casey James
624. Cowboy Casanova – Carrie Underwood
644. Crawling Back to You – Daughtry
654. Undo It – Carrie Underwood
669. Better Than I Know Myself – Adam Lambert
736. Don’t You Remember – ADELE
774. Good Morning (feat. TobyMac) – Mandisa & tobyMac
795. Because of You – Kelly Clarkson
803. Rumour Has It / Someone Like You (Glee Cast Version) – Glee Cast
826. Complicated (The Voice Performance) – Jermaine Paul
852. Never Can Say Goodbye (Glee Cast Version) – Glee Cast
858. I Just Can’t Stop Loving You (Glee Cast Version) – Glee Cast
877. Jesus, Take the Wheel – Carrie Underwood
889. Scream (Glee Cast Version) – Glee Cast
911. Stronger – Mandisa
949. Temporary Home – Carrie Underwood
970. We Found Love (Glee Cast Version) – Glee Cast
987. My Life Would Suck Without You – Kelly Clarkson (Single)
996. Because We Believe (The Voice Performance) – Chris Mann

Albums
1. 21 – ADELE
12. 19 – ADELE
15. Stronger (Deluxe Version) – Kelly Clarkson
104. Clear As Day – Scotty McCreery
194. Wildflower – Lauren Alaina
197. Break the Spell (Deluxe Version) – Daughtry
217. Duets II – Tony Bennett
229. iTunes Festival: London 2011 – EP – ADELE
232. iTunes Live from SoHo – ADELE
248. 100 Proof – Kellie Pickler
270. Break the Spell – Daughtry
278. Stronger – Kelly Clarkson
311. Sing You Home – EP – Xenia
313. Red – Dia Frampton
415. Glee: The Music, Vol. 7 – Glee Cast
440. What If We Were Real – Mandisa
444. Memories of a Beautiful Disaster – James Durbin
602. Come Through for You – Javier Colon
623. Breakaway – Kelly Clarkson
643. Play On – Carrie Underwood
710. Some Hearts – Carrie Underwood
755. Glee: The Music Presents The Warblers – Glee Cast
767. I Remember Me – Jennifer Hudson
789. Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You) [The Remixes] – Kelly Clarkson
804. Daughtry – Daughtry
881. Glee: The Music, Vol. 1 – Glee Cast
917. Soul Surfer (Music from the Motion Picture) – Various Artists
999. Glee: The Music, Vol. 5 – Glee Cast

It really is cool, because it shows American Idol can launch careers with staying power.  Let’s see how all these other singing shows do in the long term with launching artists into actually having music careers before we declare any of them the winner of singing competitions.  I’m looking at you – The Voice.

I don’t know this station or country radio well enough to make a comparison with Z100 and Pop, but from what I’ve see it’s the biggest (or one of the biggest) country stations in terms of AI so it must have some kind of influence.

I think RCA may be testing the waters to see wheter MKIA remix is well accepted or not by country listeners before putting an official add date.

How do The Voice contestants do in other countries? Did the show launch any local stars in other countries?

Uh, nevermind. According to Wikipedia, the franchise is still really young. The show is going into 3rd season in Holland, but in most countries, first season is yet to start. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Voice_%28TV_series%29

And looking at the list of coaches in other versions, they definitely like to use current stars because I recognize a lot of names.

 I have no idea how the australian version got Keith Urban on their panel (and Delta Goodrem, Joel Madden and Seal aren’t bad either), the guy must be in the USA over 6 months per year.

The producers must promise a lot of exposure for these artists along with minimal time commitment to get them on board.

Love seeing Kelly at #1 on the Hot 100

Someone who met Kelly at a m&g said MKIA was “being tested in a few markets” whatever that means.

Also:

67. Say Aah (The Voice Performance) – Lindsey Pavao

Hi jpfan- Quick question- Was that an official country version, by the label and her team? I wasn’t sure if the country version was some amateur version someone created or not.. Thanks

Thank you!

I think Kelly has done a great job of promotion and marketing this era but she’s gone down a few notches with this silly countrified version of a pop/hac song.  Now if she re-recorded another song from the album or put a country tune on her album with the intent on releasing it to country I probably wouldn’t bat an eyelid…but this song with its horrible country backing track just seems such a blatant attempt to money grab from a country fan base that has treated her with respect and welcomed her Jason Aldean duet with open arms.  For me, not the classiest Kelly & company move.

It’s official.  Besides the new instrumental arrangement, Kelly’s vocals were also redone.

Pop/HAC songs redone country is not new not even for Kelly (Because of You as a duet with Reba peaked at n°2 on the country charts).
I’m not Windmills but I remember Reba releasing a country version of If I Were a Boy and the first single for Faith Hill big return was a countrified version of a One Republic song. That’s just in the past two years and from someone who has a very limited knowledge of country music, I’m sure someone else could provide others exemples.
So if two of the biggest female stars in country history can do this, I don’t understand how Kelly is being disrespectfull of the country listeners.

elliegrll: Are you saying that because it’s in a large market, or because it has a lot of pull in the industry, and other stations will copy its playlist, like Z100 has in the pop genre?

Like Valentin432 said, it’s one of the biggest country stations in terms of AI. But, country doesn’t really have leader stations a la pop’s Z100. The slower stations to add songs follow the charts, not any particular station. 

Valentin432: I think RCA may be testing the waters to see wheter MKIA remix is well accepted or not by country listeners before putting an official add date.

Yes. It’s not that WUSN has added the song. It’s spun it 23 times putting MKIA at #30 on its rolling playlist:

0 30 KELLY CLARKSON Mr. Know It All 23 0 23 0.6018

Those AIs from WUSN alone will be enough for MKIA to chart at Billboard this week and if it’s being tested at other stations (which I’m sure it is) then it could chart between #51 and #55 at Billboard. 

I’m just going to put this out there. I love Kelly and truly believe she can sing country. Bluesy, gritty country a la Reba’s Why Haven’t I Heard From You is her country sweet spot. She cowrote a song called Mrs. Right that had a more Western swing country feel and that fit her great too. But MKIA is a big DNW on country for me. I am disappointed to see Narvel/Kelly attempting a crossover to country with MKIA. I think that takes advantage of the good will Kelly’s earned with the country audience and it’s a lazy, half assed way to try to gain more sales. Kelly’s popular with country fans but I believe a real push for MKIA would be short sighted and lose Kelly support among the edgier country crowd that digs Miranda Lambert/Pistol Annies. Right now it’s cool to like Kelly but trying to get more mass appeal in country with this would make it less cool.

If I see an adds date with a Sony Nashville push for this country version of MKIA at the same time Sony Nashville can’t be arsed to put together a push for Kellie’s 100 Proof (which is a much better song, and actually country), it will say a lot about the state of Sony Nashville and the big companies that run the country industry. It’ll say they just don’t care about the soul of country music and what makes country country. And, that’ll really make me sad.

Valentin432: I’m not Windmills but I remember Reba releasing a country version of If I Were a Boy and the first single for Faith Hill big return was a countrified version of a One Republic song. That’s just in the past two years and from someone who has a very limited knowledge of country music, I’m sure someone else could provide others exemples.
So if two of the biggest female stars in country history can do this, I don’t understand how Kelly is being disrespectfull of the country listeners.

Well, it should be pointed out that Reba’s If I Were A Boy cover killed all the momentum for her current album at country radio and didn’t make t20, and Faith’s One Republic cover failed to make t25, forcing her album to be pushed back. Sara Evans’s last single was a Rod Stewart cover and didn’t make t20, and Martina has a cover of Train’s Marry Me on her album. It basically seems like the older country women are all trying to incorporate pop moves but country radio’s eh about it. Why should Kelly act like an older country woman? She’s a young pop star.

But also, there’s a difference between having established your country roots and expanding outwards and establishing yourself as a pop act then making your move towards country. If you’re a pop act like Kelly who wants to make a dent in country, I think there needs to be more of an effort to actually make country music instead of figuring “Hey the market’s poppy, let me just redo one of my clearly non country songs!”

For those that are curious, the RIAA now has the platinum certification for CAD listed in their database even though we already knew about it.  The date given for the certification is 1/6/12. That is of course 2 days after the 3-month anniversary of the release date. Sometimes they are slow about getting certifications (Gold and Platinum) listed in their database.

Faith and Reba are country artists…they aren’t blatantly trying to win country favor, they have it.  

I’m a country music fan and a Kelly fan. I’ve been begging for a country album from her for years. She’d be a natural. But, in my opinion, if they are interested in the country market, they should have put a country song on the album and released that to radio. To me, this song sounds like exactly what it is: A watered down version of a very good pop song that doesn’t translate very well to country in spite of the instrument changes.

Still waiting on that country album, which she has said she will do some day. I have no illusions it will be a true country release, but I’d be willing to bet it would knock all the other pop/country efforts out of the water. Country fans already love Kelly, but if they’re like me, they’d like more from her than this half-baked attempt to hit the country charts. I’m not at all mad about it. I just don’t think it lives up to what she is capable of doing. The pop version comes much closer to that.

I really, really hope this isn’t a sign of things to come.  I love Kellie’s 100 Proof album and really get annoyed when there is an attempt to disguise pop as country…and I do those Radio Track surveys, etc.  My comment on Faith’s attempt was, “um, where’s the country?” 

Country artists have done pop versions of their songs, If I Die Young recently or Amazed over ten years ago are two exemples of cross over smashes that got a pop an edit.
Kelly is a pop artist trying to have a cross over hit on country radio.

It’s simple, if the pds and listeners don’t like MKIA the remix, they won’t spin it, request it and that would be it.
We’re not talking about winning CMAs, being inducted into the GOO or any other big honors from country music. We’re talking about getting airplay on country radio which also plays a number of “uncountry” songs like Country Girls shake it for me, Red Solo Cup, etc.

Country artists have done pop versions of their songs, If I Die Young recently or Amazed over ten years ago are two exemples of cross over smashes that got a pop an edit. 
Kelly is a pop artist trying to have a cross over hit on country radio.

This happens all of the time, but the reverse pretty much never happens.  Pop PDs are going to play what’s popular, so if an act or song from another genre, it doesn’t matter if it’s Triple A, as we are seeing with Gotye and Adele, or r&b, rock or country (Lady Antebellum) is getting a lot of buzz and attention, they are going to jump on it.    That’s not the case with any other genre.   Most of these other genres, but especially rock and country, would not be very welcoming to artists who did this.

I am so happy to see Casey J. moving up his chart.  His AI seems pretty good to me though in reality I know almost nothing about country radio.  He is my personal test case of the premiss that talent and star power will win in the end.

I’m not a fan of country music, but I don’t see any problem with country singers trying to cross-over into pop or vice versa.  Kelly and Reba have already been successful with recording “Because of You” for country radio, and Kelly has now re-recorded MKIA to test the waters for radioplay on country stations.  Personally, I don’t like MKIA very much, either as a pop, or especially a country song, but if listeners of country music like it, then I see no difference in singers of any genre trying to/crossing over to other genres.  It’s the same regardless of what “direction” the crossover attempt comes from, and I don’t have a negative opinion of any artist who does/tried to do this.

Valentin432: We’re not talking about winning CMAs, being inducted into the GOO or any other big honors from country music. We’re talking about getting airplay on country radio which also plays a number of “uncountry” songs like Country Girls shake it for me, Red Solo Cup, etc.

True, but we’re also talking limited space at country radio (especially for women) and limited resources for label pushes. I look at Ashton Shepherd losing her record deal, Lee Ann Womack not being able to make a mark at country radio, Sunny Sweeney and Kellie struggling at country radio despite well reviewed material and I worry. It’s beginning to feel like there’s a centralized decision to cater to pop fans and ignore traditional country fans. The problem is there’s already a place on the radio to listen to pop music but it feels like there’s less and less space to get any traditional country. I don’t need or want country radio to become the new HAC radio.

To expand this to include men, Alan Jackson’s released by far his best song in years but he has very little momentum lately and there’s no telling how it’ll do. Ronnie Dunn released a relevant song about the economy that should be sweeping the country song of the year category at awards shows and it should be nominated for song of the year in all genres at the Grammys. But Ronnie’s song struggled to make t20 and didn’t make t15. Even the younger guys with traditional voices like Chris Young and Scotty, they didn’t make traditional country albums with the stuff they released last year even though where they really excel is in the traditional country pocket.

I think there should be room for country/pop and even some pop/country, and country/rock and rock/country, and country/soul and soul/country. I’m not saying country shouldn’t be a wide umbrella. But there should be room for traditional country under that umbrella, and I don’t like people putting out outright pop songs and pretending they’re country (Taylor & Lady A included). I’m at the point of thinking people trying to package pop songs as country to take advantage of the wide umbrella are taking up space and crowding out traditional country. 

I know Kelly’s so versatile and like I said, she can sing a country song. I love that Stronger does the best job of all of Kelly’s albums of letting Kelly showcase all her musical influences in the way she sings. There’s no pretense there and one of things I think people love about Kelly is how there’s no pretense there. Except, the MKIA country mix feels like a pretense. It actually feels like Kelly pretending to be something she’s not, which makes no sense to me because there are so many better ways for her to show her real country influences.

I listened to the country version and I actually like it, really like the mandolin in the background.  Pop songs are remixed all the time so kudos to Kelly for being a pioneer and remixing a pop song to country.  Kelly has country roots coming from Texas and is managed by Reba’s husband, a country musician himself.  Her duets and performances with Reba were very well received by both country and non-country artists and fans and her duet with Jason Aldean was very successful and is up for a Grammy award.  The one thing about Kelly is that she can sing any musical genre, Pop, Rock, R&B, Country, etc.  She is one of the best artists to come out of American Idol and good for her to be extending her musical vision.  Either people will like it or they won’t, but I don’t think that she is in any way disrespecting country music.  I am very excited for Kelly as a musical artist because I believe she will be around for a very long time and eventually be an icon in the musical field.

I agree. Kelly isn’t trying to become the next country darling like Miranda or Carrie. I don’t think she will ever truly leave pop (at least anytime soon) so at best she may try to be a pop singer that gets played on country radio. I know a lot of hardcore country fans are not here for that, so maybe it won’t work out, but that’s probably the whole point of this “testing” phase. At the end of the day it comes down to how the public responds.

I would have a problem with this attempt at getting some country spins IF they went half-assed with it and just slapped on a lame instrumental track behind the original vocals (I feel the same when songs try to crossover the other way as well).  They didn’t and the whole thing has been completely rerecorded, for the better IMO, and there was effort put into it.  I do think the timing is a bit odd, but I’m not one to make the decisions.  Kelly did say that they were just testing it out in some markets first before deciding if it was going to be pushed any further.

Maybe they are trying to test the waters for a future release off the album to country radio which could happen but they’re trying it first with a song that has some familiarity already?  I don’t know, sounds good in my head.  :)  She’s been flirting with the country crowd for 6 years now so it’s not like it’s something that’s coming out of the blue and there’s some momentum there from the super success of DYWS.

I wholeheartedly agree with all of this. Country is catering more towards country/pop. While I like country/pop, I want to hear other things besides that. I think country is losing it’s roots. But I’m not shocked. Radio’s going to play the most popular artists & right now most of them are country/pop with some country/rock. Also, many of the current artists say they’ve been influenced either by the newer country artists like Shania who leans towards country/pop or they are influenced by artists in other genres like Lynyrd Skynyrd, John Mellencamp, etc. Fewer country artists say they were influenced by the country legends like Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Glen Campbell, etc. And even if some of the current country artists are influenced by the greats their sound is not like them at all & sounds just like all the other music out there.

I agree that Ronnie’s song should have been nominated for at least something. It’s an amazing song. Female country artists are having a really tough time right now. It’s always been a male-dominated genre, but currently the country genre is very male-dominated much more than usual.

scorpiokat: Pop songs are remixed all the time so kudos to Kelly for being a pioneer and remixing a pop song to country.  

This isn’t a pioneering move. A recent example was Train remixing Hey Soul Sister and it actually being promoted by Columbia Nashville to country radio. Thank Jeebus it went nowhere. 

scorpiokat: Kelly has country roots coming from Texas and is managed by Reba’s husband, a country musician himself.

Kelly does have some country roots but the irony of the MKIA and the remix is they don’t show them. That’s why I don’t like the choice for Kelly nor do I like it from the standpoint of what I want to hear on country radio. And, I disagree with you about the remix too, I think Kelly’s way more effective on the lyrics in the pop version. She doesn’t sound country in the remix, just weak in personality (which is NOT Kelly at all).

And, while Narvel is an excellent manager whom I give a lot of credit to for how smoothly this era is going, I look at Reba’s career and see he goes too far sometimes. He was the one who really pushed for Reba to include her cover of If I Were A Boy on her last album and thought it should be a single. They sent it out after the lead single hit #1 and it turned out to be a huge mistake – it failed to make the t20 like I already mentioned, and turned country radio against Reba to the point that even when she followed with a good single (When Love Gets A Hold Of You), it barely made t40, and the follow up single didn’t make t40 at all. Now, Reba’s chosen to lay off music for the timebeing and focus on TV work (she has a pilot that’s been picked up by ABC).

I never heard Train’s country version of Hey Soul Sister, but can’t even imagine them singing country.  I heard him sing Beautiful on INXS’ new CD and I did not like it at all. 

As I said, some people will like it and some will not like it and that makes perfect sense in a diversified music world that seems like it is trying to find a connection with different genre’s of music.  We can agree to disagree.  Have a great day.

You’ve already laid out excellent points for why this is a bad idea for Kelly, so I’ll just say +1 and leave it at that. But as someone who likes (a) Kelly, (b) MKIA, and (c) country music, I am really, really offended by this whole thing. I am so offended that it has made me look charitably upon Taylor Swift, so yeah. Never mind the implicit assumption that, as someone who listens primarily to country radio, I’m too stupid to figure out how to flip over to the local HAC station or to download MKIA on my iPod if I want to hear it. The hell?

I don’t like people putting out outright pop songs and pretending they’re country (Taylor & Lady A included). I’m at the point of thinking people trying to package pop songs as country to take advantage of the wide umbrella are taking up space and crowding out traditional country.

I know you weren’t referring only to them, but I don’t think it’s fair to lump them in with the other pop/pop-country artists because while they’re the most successful, they also are (or are fronted by) women. And to me, the gender disparity is a lot more problematic than the lack of diversity in genres, especially because there’s a lot of diversity in the women that can’t break through (Ashton Shephard, Sunny Sweeney, Mallary Hope, etc.), so solving the gender issue would also work toward solving the genre diversity issue.

I haven’t been paying much attention to the industry, but based on what my local stations play in the morning, I don’t know that it’s so much Taylor and Lady A that are pushing out traditional country as it is the straight-up bad music of all sub-genres sung by men. Ours came on the radio the other day, and I realized that I really enjoy it, and that I’d much rather listen to that than the 394873984th white guy clone who takes third rate songs that other people write and sings them the exact same way that all the other lookalike white male country artists do. I really, really hate Sparks Fly, and yet  I am so frustrated with the lack of diversity on the radio that I would rather hear that than 99% of songs sung by men.

Basically, I’ve come around to the view that it’s good that Taylor gets radio play because I am 100% certain that if they weren’t playing her, that slot would not go to a traditional country song (and especially not one sung by a woman), it would go to a white male singing an overproduced, generic song that sounds like all the other songs on the radio. The generic white guys are taking up 90% of the radio real estate while the women singing pop are taking up, IDK, 7%. (Numbers scientifically pulled out of my ass.) So my complaint isn’t with the pop/country artists putting out pop, I guess, but with the white male country singers who get a pass while women are expected to go above and beyond: be attractive, write and sing their own songs, and have the potential for mainstream success. (Imagine if they applied all those criteria to the men. Their ranks would be decimated!)

Also, going back to Kelly for a minute, while I prefer Kelly as an artist, I think in this case I’d rather Taylor get whatever airplay country!MKIA might garner. I might just be feeling generous because I like Mean and Ours, and if they are indicative of the direction in which Taylor wants to take her music I would love that. But even if she wants to put out songs I hate, I would much rather have country artists taking up radio slots with pop songs than have pop artists put out a crappy, remixed country version of a pop hit. At least Taylor paid her dues (as much as I hate that phrase) in the genre in a way that an artist like Kelly hasn’t. Despite her mainstream success and what I’m sure were opportunities to put out pop on a pop label, she stuck with Nashville. Yes, they’ve done a lot for her, but she’s done a lot for them, too.

(To be clear: I don’t have a problem with Kelly putting out a country song, I have a problem with releasing a country remix of a song to try to capitalize on perceived goodwill.)

I agree Kelly can sing country if she wants to but MKIA is just not the song to try to countrify. I can’t think of a song on her album that might work better (except maybe the Kara song “The Sun Will Rise” with different instrumentation) but if she really wanted to do this, she should have recorded a song that could have easily transitioned.

I see this move as more an afterthought attempt to capitalize on the resurgence in her overall popularity as well as to dovetail with the huge success of DYWS.

I am a pop listener and when Lady A comes on my pop station I get a little annoyed that a country song is playing.  To my untrained in country ears they sound very country as does Taylor.   I have noticed a country twang in Kelly’s voice but to me she is pop at its best.

I don’t listen to country music at all, but Breaking Your Own Heart sounded a little country to me when I first heard it.

Some of the talk about reworking MKIA as a country song seems to be more about worrying about displacing more traditional country songs, and the place of traditional female artists on radiio.  Maybe not even so much about Kelly, who is no pretender and does have some country roots, and certainly there are many people wanting more country from Kelly.  Maybe this isn’t the vehicle for it, but it’s certainly not a deal breaker if she tried.  There seems to be alot of underlying resentments that seem not to have much to do with Kelly or this song.  

Yes and no. There are a lot of issues beyond just this one song, but that doesn’t mean that a country version of this song, on its own, is any less of a bad idea IMO. Regardless of the meta issues about the state of country radio, I think
it is a stupid idea for many reasons, and Kelly’s amazing voice or her
history with
country music does not make it any less so.

For me personally, part of it is that I just don’t get the point. I understand why a country artist would want to put out a more mainstream version of a song; if the song can be transformed, there’s a bigger market to be tapped. But why would someone want to release a genre-specific version of a song that is already a mainstream hit? Imagine a producer taking a TV show back to cable access after it succeeds in a primetime slot at CBS. It’s ridiculous, right?

This isn’t like Blake Shelton hearing Home and deciding to do a country version, or Mark Wills doing a country version of Almost Doesn’t Count. This is the same artist taking a song that is already (currently) a mainstream hit and changing the instrumentation for country radio. (And not for the better IMO.) Why? Is this supposed to sell records? The album is already out there without this version on it, so no. Is this really a better idea than just recording a country song and releasing it to country radio? (It’s not.)

At the end of the day, what it comes down to is that, of all the
things on which they could have squandered her country music cachet, they chose
this. Which, as far as I can tell, is pointless. That does not indicate stellar decision-making ability IMO.

(Is this for-sure getting released to radio, though?)