Neither aspires to be the girl in a country song, but newcomers Maddie Marlow and Tae Dye have begun making significant waves with a track of their own.
A recent focal point of attention for country music journalists and fans, Maddie and Tae’s debut single “Girl in a Country Song” is off to an early–and impressive–start at radio.
The song, which references actual “bro-country” lyrics in condemning the genre’s current portrayal of women, ranked as country radio’s eighth-most-added track this week. And it did so one week before its official impact date.
After scoring only a few adds last week, the song won support from fifteen stations this go-around. An impressive total for any debut single, the add count is particularly noteworthy given the fact that it came ahead of the song’s official impact and during a week in which anticipated releases from Florida Georgia Line (“Dirt”), Chase Bryant (“Take it On Back”), Jerrod Niemann (“Buzz Back Girl”) and Brett Eldredge (“Mean to Me”) all formally went for adds.
While the early radio impact effort is rarely an apples-to-apples game, it is worth noting that the reception to “Girl in a Country Song” dwarfed that given to Maggie Rose’s new “Girl in Your Truck Song.” A similarly structured tune that offers the contrasting viewpoint — Rose wants to be the girl in a truck song — the tune landed at 5 country stations this week.
Florida Georgia Line’s “Dirt” ranked as the week’s most-added new tune with 155 total pickups (127 from Mediabase’s monitored stations). Luke Bryan’s “Roller Coaster” (77, 66 from monitored) and Chase Bryant’s “Take it On Back” (34, all from monitored) also had strong weeks.
Set to formally impact country radio on behalf of Dot Records next week, “Girl in a Country Song” debuted on iTunes and Google Play Music this Tuesday.