There Is Something Happening. Evidence Is Building. More Than That, A Tribe Is Moving

This week I watched Kelsea Ballerini walk through the bullet train that Taylor Swift opened-up at country radio years before. How did what I saw Wednesday night actually happen?

?I went to Dallas to speak at the NRB and this date lined up with my wife’s travel (a very unusual occurrence). Theresa (my wife) was working a Kelsea Ballerini headlined concert in Fort Worth, Texas. She told me, “You have to see the show.” I didn’t know what to expect. I knew that Kelsea was having success and I knew she was connecting with an audience, but my perception was wildly off-base because Kelsea’s tribe is wholly different than what I thought.

In fact, I thought of Kelea as a sort of pop artist in the country lane. I learned I’ve miscalculated.

I thought it was young girls. But something much bigger is stirring.

And What Did I See?

14,000+ largely adult women singing Kelsea’s songs so loud you could hear them wash over a vibrating Dickie’s arena in Fort Worth, Texas. Not just singles – many songs. They sang every word. It was like being at a legacy artists’ show where the public knows all the words so they just “let er rip.” This was a tribe in Fort Worth. These individuals were coming together as a very large group empowered, motivated and on-the-move.

You could feel female power rolling! You could feel the movement. And what I saw on stage was connective.

She’s The Tribe Leader

Kelsea was charming, engaging, fun and she created an intoxicating swirl of the power she was connecting with her audience. And the show production was every bit as creative and exciting as the 1990s Reba shows across the country. This was the 17th show on the tour. I count 19 more shows yet to come. All of these shows she has done have been either sold out or very nearly sold out and she is not playing small venues.

Wednesday night she said from the stage with a big smile, “I hear everything’s bigger in Texas” but this show is selling everywhere.

Major Dollars

You might ask: What about the price? These seats at a Kelsea Ballerini show are not cheap seats. These women are slapping down major dollars to see their girl belt out their powerful songs.

What About Radio?

Radio can always benefit when a country artist emerges at this level, right?

At some point you have to ask why country radio doesn’t recognize Kelsea Ballerini for the tribe building underneath her feet and how popping her on for earlier and bigger airplay can benefit country radio directly. More than that, Kelsea Ballerini has a big and active tribe that is allowing her to play big arenas as a headliner all across the country right now. All those women and all that money can’t be wrong.

The 25 – 34 Women In Your Market

What made all this so stunning for me was I thought about the radio battles I have been a part of in my life as a programmer, a marketer and a consultant and how important 25 – 34 year old women are between country stations, Top 40 stations and several other formats trying to occupy the same exact position of power in their local markets. That immediately brought to my attention something really curious.

How important are your 25 – 34 women right now?

A Huge Country Radio Opportunity

Where is Kelsea Ballerini on local country radio playlists? I mean, where is she really? Think about this. Kelsea Ballerini is on The Voice on NBC every week. She’s been on TV, she’s written a book and she has for a long time had major national endorsements. What do they know that country radio hasn’t discovered? I pulled up Spotify and see that Kelsea has songs with 208,115,032 streams, 655,257,069 steams, 113,842,314 streams, 166,658,696 streams, 119,990,777 streams and 142,232,525 streams. And that’s just on Spotify alone.

Kelsea Ballerini has billions of streams in digital. As Brooks & Dunn used to sing, “Mamma don’t get dressed up for nothing.”

I’ve heard some of the talk. When will Kelsea become a superstar in this format? Here is potentially a much scarier question: What if she is already emerging as a superstar without local country radio?

Some country stations are playing Kelsea overnight and waiting to see when she “tests.” They may miss the opportunity you can now recognize.

It’s obvious for you to see Taylor Swift, right? What Taylor has done is so big it is creating economy. That’s not great; it’s exceptional. But Taylor has long departed for the land of Top 40.

Boy, wasn’t it great to have a strong female leading a visible tribe on country radio?

Evidence Is Everywhere

So many smart programmers look at streaming, they look at tribe-building, they look at concert success, they look at country artists on TV and they consider what that high visibility means. The smartest of them zero-in on having meaningful country artists that are often exclusive to country radio and can drive local radio’s success in a their market.

Oh, this isn’t about how you should break music. It’s about being included.

Crowd Reaction

If you’d been to any of these shows, you would have seen what I saw: 25 – 34 year old women dressing like Kelsea Ballerini. The singalongs. The connection with Kelsea is becoming obvious like Taylor Swift. And it isn’t just big – it’s growing.

The Next Morning

The next morning after the concert I was in a hotel restaurant and heard a women behind me talking about the Kelsea Ballerini concert “last night.” I turned and asked her how long she has been a fan. She said, “Not that long. I didn’t like her old stuff, but she wrote that heartbreak album and it’s my life. I just love her. She understands me.”

Country radio is doing a great job in so many ways, but we need every advantage in complex modern markets where women vote with their feet and their pocketbooks.

What’s your next move?

Thank you.

Loyd Ford