Classic female country artists like Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline, and Faith Hill, along with modern-day musicians like Kasey Musgraves, Carrie Underwood, and Shania Twain are pioneers of the genre. 

Despite their influence and hand in elevating country music to the heights it’s reached in the modern era, only 10% of country music airplay and awards are granted to women. 

This is one of the astonishing facts in Tami Neilson’s latest show ‘The F Word’, which combines music with the research of musicology professor Dr Jada Watson. 

The two first met on Twitter, both very vocal about challenging inequality in the country music industry. 

“I followed her because she wrote, you know, these incredible articles," Neilson told Francesca Rudkin. 

“What I loved about her work was that for an artist, she was kind of giving us the tools to feel validated I guess, you know, vindicated.” 

Neilson says she wanted to tell the story of women in country music through song, backing it with the black and white statistics of Watson’s research. 

Despite country being one of the largest genres of music in the United States, women are disproportionally represented, an issue Watson says has historic roots. 

“We have to remember where country came from and the time in which it was developed, and this was 1920’s United States, racially segregated country.” 

“Most cultural institutions were racially segregated and then sort of built into that framework was also different forms of discrimination or oppression,” she said. 

One of the stories they tell in ‘The F Word’ is that of the Carter Family – one of the founding families of the country music genre. 

Watson says that in the recording sessions including people like Jimmie Rodgers, the Carters said that a woman in the lead would never sell. 

“We think of them as the founding family of country music,” Watson told Rudkin. 

“And so that idea of women not selling, or not being possible to sell has really been baked into the fabric of the institution that is country music.” 

The ‘F Word’ will be performed on Saturday, March 8th at Auckland Town Hall. Tickets are available at aaf.co.nz/ 

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