Posted Tue Aug 3, 2010 4:32pm PDT by Wendy Geller in Our Country
I've written numerous times over the past year about how country is the powerhouse of the music world these days. In an industry that's facing no shortage of challenges, country music continues to stand out and chug along.
Sure, Nashville's seen its own share of dips and valleys, but for the most part, it's continuing to churn out tunes, packed venues, and Taylor Swift-sized personalities with daunting regularity in the face of a recession.
And here's yet another piece of information to support country's strength. According to Nielsen BDS--the service which tracks and reports all airplay of songs on radio, TV, and Internet--a country musician had the most airplay of any artist, in any genre, in the past decade.
Which musician are we talking about? Well, there are certainly plenty of country entertainers with mega-amounts of airplay under their Stetsons, so this might be a tough one to guess.


However, in this case--the winner is Tim McGraw. The singer, actor, and husband to Faith Hill's airplay numbers are truly staggering: He racked up a mind-boggling 7,965,000 radio spins over the period spanning January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2009. This ranks him ahead of such chart toppers as Beyoncé, Jay-Z, and Britney Spears.
Nielsen presented McGraw with a commemorative plaque to mark the feat, with company president Eric Weinberg commenting, "[McGraw's] career and songs have resonated not only with his fans, but has become part of the fabric of America, evidenced by his unprecedented airplay.” Not a bad way to put it, eh?
Aside from this latest accolade, McGraw has plenty to boast about regarding his work in the entertainment field. Since he debuted in the early '90s, he's sold more than 40 million albums; scored 30 number-one hits; and has three Grammys, 14 Academy of Country Music Awards, 11 Country Music Association Awards, and 10 American Music Awards to his name.

way to go Tim!!

nd33 said:

....in the USA.

you caught that huh??

I would've guessed phil FUCKING collins. (seems like it)

Another reason why I love Sattelite Radio, and not liking modern country music.

[Edited 8/4/10 23:32pm]

Eh, when you think about it it's not really surprising. Country artists are about the only ones that still manage to churn out an album every year or two so I would expect the top country artists to have more singles on radio than artists in other genres who average 3-5 years between albums. I wonder who averages the most spins per song? Seems like McGraw may have won this due to quantity and not necessarily quality. Either way it doesn't change my opinion that modern country music is 99.999% garbage. I'll take Merle Haggard or Willie Nelson over Tim McGraw every time.