Americana Debuts New Songs & Albums Charts
On Tuesday, January 16th, The Americana Music Association launched its brand new charting system with the help of technology company CDX. The new system will more easily and more accurately report the activity on Americana’s radio stations and shows across the Americana reporting network. Previously all reporting was done by hand, which left open the possibility of human error and oversight, and was a labor-intensive process. The Americana charts were also solely based around albums, and didn’t report on songs at all. So if Jason Isbell’s “If We Were Vampires” was played on an Americana station, the spin would not count towards that particular song, it would count towards Jason Isbell’s album, The Nashville Sound.
Now that has all changed. The CDX-Traction system listens to a minute of each song played using the online streams from the websites of Americana radio stations, and through song identification technology, logs the play into the system. Through this system, CDX is able to track plays of Americana songs in real time, and then aggregate that data into weekly charts. The company is currently operating a similar system in the Texas Music space, and offers a similar service for mainstream country.
Along with composing the new Americana radio chart, the CDX-Traction system will also allow industry professionals such as artists managers, record labels, booking agents, and journalists to access to spin data in real time. This will allow these industry professionals to see where and when songs are being played—invaluable information for an artist who may want to see what markets are playing their music to know where to route a tour, or to gauge the appeal of a certain track. The new approach could also allow Americana artists to have a more singles-based approach to releasing music if they so choose.
One of the concerns from some about the new chart system was if it would be a fair representation of what Americana is, which is sometimes a difficult debate point. Looking at the new songs and albums chart, it appears the way many would likely expect an Americana chart to look like, with Chris Stapleton, Margo Price, and Jason Isbell coming in with the top songs for the week, and Chris Stapleton, Margo Price, and JD McPherson coming in with the top albums. You can see the full charts below.
The CDX Traction system seems to have jumped the biggest hurdle, which is navigating the sometimes murky waters of which artists should be considered Americana. Some were worried big names in the AAA radio format, or major rock stars like Ryan Adams, could dirty up the results. Unfortunately, this is still a dilemma Billboard seems to be grappling with after rebranding the folk chart to Americana in 2016. In the Top 20 of Billboard‘s Americana chart at the moment you can find Ed Sheeran, Hozier, back catalog albums from Simon & Garfunkel and Jim Croce, and a gaggle of other albums that confuse exactly what Americana is supposed to be as opposed to helping define it like the new radio charts do.
Pinning the talent pool to what is represented by the new and improved Americana radio charts would be a great way for Billboard to bring their Americana chart back into relevancy where it can be a useful tool for industry and fans as opposed to a confusing mess of names assembled together simply because performers play primarily acoustic guitars.
What may make the situation for Billboard even more difficult in the coming weeks is pop superstar Justin Timberlake calling his new record Man of the Woods, “Modern Americana with 808s” in a recent teaser video. The “808” is in reference to a popular drum machine console. So will Billboard put Man of the Woods on the Americana charts?
Americana continues to grow as a healthy and commercially relevant alternative to mainstream country, and not just where newer artists get their start, and older artists get put out to pasture. The new, improved charts will help the genre better measure who is excelling, give fans a much better reference point of what they should be checking out, and maybe most importantly, help put parameters around a genre whose biggest obstacle is often how to define itself.
January 17, 2018 @ 9:36 am
Sorry but all I care about is that new Kim Richey record being advertised on the Albums Chart.
Billboard rankings haven’t meant anything to me in years.
January 18, 2018 @ 10:25 am
I’m with you. I jumped on the pre-order for the Kim Richey album.
January 17, 2018 @ 9:42 am
Is there a seperate chart for blues music? Thats the only thing that stands out to me is that there are alot of blues albums on there.
January 17, 2018 @ 10:26 am
There are some blues albums, Samantha Fish for example. Shes great, no doubt. But why a token blues album almost at random and then ignore the heavyweights of blues?
Blues has its own organizations, award programs, fan base, radio and satellite programming etc. So why does Americana wanna provide token coverage of it? Ultimately, blues will survive without the Americana charts. There is no easy answer to any of it. At its inception Americana provided a home for alt- country. Since then, the organization increasingly expands it to include a seemingly limitless amount of genres while conspicuously ignoring others. Maybe it’s because the name Americana implies American music, which covers about everything. The more I ponder it, the more pointless and confusing the whole thing becomes.
January 17, 2018 @ 11:19 am
There is absolutely no argument that Samantha Fish’s name is all but cemented in the blues realm. However, her newest album, “Belle of the West”, is overall a very pleasant and detour from her normal playground and is about as rootsy Americana as it gets. This stripped down acoustic work complete with fiddle (Lillie Mae Rische plays on the album – Rebecca Crenshaw plays at the live show) and fife is very reminiscent of the days when people would gather on their porch and play. Take a listen and I think you will agree that Belle of the West is rightfully placed on the Americana chart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxNF3AAGtX8
January 17, 2018 @ 12:09 pm
Reasonable take there 62 mls55.
January 17, 2018 @ 11:21 am
Trigger, can you explain the distinction between the albums and singles chart here? If I’m reading this right, it looks like the albums chart basically functions the same as the old airplay chart and it just folds all singles airplay up to the album level. So it will probably look a lot like the singles chart, but I guess if an artist (like JD McPherson) has a bunch of songs getting airplay, it could explain why his album would be placed higher on the album chart.
January 17, 2018 @ 11:57 am
Yeah, basically nothing changed with the old albums chart, except for the reporting now has less chance for error, and more accountability. The feasibility of reporting on radio activity through albums I believe was a pretty flawed approach in the first place, though I think the intent was to attempt to focus the attention on the bigger picture, and not have Americana become susceptible to the mood swings that singles promotions can cause. Frankly, I’m not sure there’s much use in keeping the old albums chart around, except for there were a lot of fears of what would happen if it went away completely, and all of a sudden Americana just became a singles game similar to what has happened in the mainstream.
January 17, 2018 @ 12:26 pm
You should do an article about how messed up the billboard charts are. Its a joke really, it getting to the point where there is no distinction between them, and 99% of the songs don’t even belong in their catagory
January 17, 2018 @ 1:42 pm
Stapleton’s song is a rock song. I have never understood what Americana is. It seems to me that Americana is a format for singers who do not chart, or chart well, on mainstream country. There are a lot of great songs that are “Americana”, but I have never read a definition that makes sense to me.
What in the world distinguishes Stapleton’s song as Americana?
January 17, 2018 @ 3:05 pm
I’ve said it before and will say it again. Americana is an undefinable mess of a format, and is not a distinct genre.
I say that as someone who enjoys a lot of stuff that gets categorized as Americana, but I refuse to use the label for my own organization of music. To me, the problem is that Americana ends up watering down a number of well-defined, distinct genres, such as blues, folk, roots rock, retro R&B and gospel, and lump them in with what I would call alt-country, mixing it all together. Nice combo, to be sure, but the problem comes when it acts as an amoeba, absorbing those strong traditional genres and making them less commercially viable on their own.
January 17, 2018 @ 4:50 pm
As an Americana fan, I get what you’re saying. My problem is my mind goes a little on the fritz trying to define by genres a lot of music that falls under this umbrella. I was a huge fan of the original Blasters especially when they had Lee Allen Zeno, Steve Berlin and Gene Taylor with them. They combined blues, r+b, rockabilly to come up with music I absolutely loved, but I could’t slip it into any singular genre. I find this true for many groups and artists in Americana. Some you can definitely say they are Appalachian/Old Timey, Bluegrass,Cajun, Western Swing Etc. But it seems to me a huge percentage of the acts draw from several wells. I too want to maintain the integrity of the roots, but I also enjoy acts taking chances with pushing some boundaries and unexpected collaborations. That being said, I don’t want anything like “Country” acts performing Hip Hop. The respect for the integrity of the roots may be key, whether it’s one or a blending of roots. My usual worthless two cents
January 17, 2018 @ 3:49 pm
I don’t know the first thing about the Americana Music Association, but I have to say that from afar it appears to be providing its members with an amazing range of services. I subscribe to its news feed, which is very well-done.
January 17, 2018 @ 4:05 pm
It is a great organization. I became a member last year and it’s been nothing but good. I love the new charts and you’re right, they do provide great services. The Fest is amazing too.