Just go ahead and listen to Ella Langely’s record-breaking song so you have some frame of reference.
I’ll admit, I do feel like part of some weird club being that I knew who Ella Langley was before this song started breaking records. I have a few different morning playlists that I put on before work while I make my latte and do my little old man stretches, and one of them is Sad Girl Country. Sometimes I’ll let it shuffle with suggested additions, and that’s how Ella Langley got thrown into the mix last year.
I like her music. And I like that she works with Miranda Lambert, who is my favorite songwriter in Nashville (and a co-writer on “Choosin’ Texas”). Do I think she has anything that should be number one for 20 weeks in a row? Well…no, but it has never been more evident than now that our relationship to entertainment is so fractured that you could conceivably be a normal person, out and about in the world, and never hear any of the top ten during any particular Billboard week. How many of these songs do you know from the current week?
For myself….
- Choosin’ Texas: Ella Langley
Heard. Spotify suggested one of her songs, so I’ve heard most of them. - Boston: Stella Lefty
I only just heard of this young lady when I looked up the Hot 100 today. - I Knew It, I Knew You: Taylor Swift
I both enjoy Taylor Swift and saw Toy Story 5, and I have no recollection of this song. - Been By Now: Morgan Wallen
I’ve never heard a Morgan Wallen song. - Hate That I Made You Love Me: Ariana Grande
Heard. The internet was talking about her eating disorder, so the clips of the song were served to me on various platforms. Not exactly the most positive way to find out about a song. - Dracula: Tame Impala & JENNIE
Heard. Both Tame Impala and JENNIE will pop up on my Spotify when they release new music, because I listen to both of them fairly regularly. - So Easy (To Fall In Love): Olivia Dean
Heard. Other than my own personal listening, this is the one I’ve heard the most out in the wild. I’ve heard it so often that I can’t even recall a specific time or location. - I Can’t Love You Anymore: Ella Langley & Morgan Wallen
I’ve never heard a Morgan Wallen song. - Man I Need: Olivia Dean
Heard. YouTube pushed this one to me when I had videos playing for a party. - Be Her: Ella Langley
Heard. I’ve heard most of her songs, thanks to Spotify.
So, technically, I have heard 60% of the top ten, but that is wild to me as a child who came of age in the 90s and fully knew the majority of the songs in the top ten word-for-word and could casually sing along to the top 50, so what is happening here? The simple answer is we’re not consuming the same media anymore, because there are many more ways to not only find exactly what you want but to also block out anything new.
Radio Days: 1980s to early-2000s
I grew up listening to the radio, and that’s where you found new music. You would turn on your favorite radio station and the DJ was the tastemaker and the gatekeeper. They decided what to push and they created the culture around new releases. Your song would not pop if the DJs didn’t want to play it, so the press tour for radio stations was really important. Your favorite artists would be up at the crack of dawn to talk about their new music and sing impromptu on the mic on live radio. It was a great way to see who had the goods and who didn’t, but the radio was on all the time. At home, at work, in the car — we were all listening to the same handful of radio stations.
TV Advertising: late-1980s to late-2000s
TV advertising really blew up right when I was starting to notice pop culture and you had it coming at you from three directions.
Product Advertising: Stars were signing huge checks with various brands to tie in with the launch of a new album. This still happens to a certain extent, but nowhere near the same scale, because people no longer watch broadcast television in huge numbers. There are no monoculture events where a full third of the country is watching Dallas to find out who shot JR Ewing. When my sister was in school, they took a break and brought a TV into the classroom to watch Luke and Laura get married on General Hospital. With that many eyeballs, the payday was huge when a brand found the right star to promote their product with new music. Madonna famously signed a $5 million deal with Pepsi that lasted less than a week. Her music video for “Like a Prayer” was released with a Pepsi commercial featuring the same song, and the religious imagery did not fly with Pepsi’s board, so they pulled the ad, but she got the keep the money. Many songs were pushed to the masses through a television commercial for a product.
TV Shows: Your favorite singers were up at 4am to get ready to belt their face off for the 6am morning shows. You cannot understate the impact of the morning show in those days where this is the only venue for entertainment you had when you were getting ready for work or school in the morning. I have not seen Good Morning America in over two decades, not because I’m still asleep, but because I can simply stream something else instead. Also, those same stars would randomly drop into sitcoms singing their current single, especially in Black sitcoms. From Bell Biv Devoe on the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air to Tracie Spencer on Family Matters, it was not uncommon for you to hear a song for the very first time when a singer popped up in a guest spot on a TV show.
One of my favorite albums to this day is by Aslyn, who I first saw on Charmed.
Music Commercials: Advertising was made specifically for new albums. If you are under the age of 30, you probably have no frame of reference for a commercial like this at all. I haven’t seen one in almost 30 years.
Music Videos: 1980s to mid-2010s
Music videos can still be an event when the star is big enough. Lady Gaga premiered her video for “Abracadabra” during the Oscars and the YouTube livestream leading up to Cardi and Megan dropping “WAP” broke records. Still, it pales in comparison to the actual music video channels we grew up with where everyone you knew rushed home afterschool to watch TRL and 106 & Park. I so viscerally remember the premiere of Jennifer Lopez’s “If You Had My Love” because I knew immediately that she had a smash on her hands and nobody believed me the next day when I said as much in the courtyard of my junior high school. Oracle that I was, that music video kicked off a career we’re still celebrating and complaining about in equal parts.
Music videos were so big that there were multiple TV shows dedicated to different facets of the product. You had the behind-the-scenes shows like Making the Video where you could see your favorite star learning choreography, being fitted for outfits, and filming the clips. They put Janet Jackson in a harness and hooked her up to a tilting floor to make “Doesn’t Really Matter,” and I only know that because I watched Making the Video. In the video for “POP” by NSYNC, Joey isn’t actually dancing, because he got injured. That’s Wade Robson filling in with the same highlights in his hair. We all knew these things because we were watching the same shows.
You also had informational shows like Pop Up Video where the videos play, but little nuggets of information pop up on screen while you’re watching it. TLC stood in a tank filled with 8 million gallons of water when they filmed “Waterfalls.” They bought 750 cock rings to have enough variety to make Janet Jackson’s outfit in “What’s It Gonna Be?”
Ambient Sounds: 1980s to late-2010s
I can’t actually pinpoint the end of this one because I’m not sure when we so fully made the decision to spend most of our time outside with headphones lodged into our ears. Whether you’re actually listening to music, having a phone conversation, or just blocking outside noise, so many people walk around within a sound bubble of their own making that they we don’t passively intake as much music as we used to. The first time I heard MC Lyte’s “Keep On Keepin’ On” I was in the parking lot of an Advance Auto while my sister was inside buying something. A car pulled up next to me playing the song, and I fiddled with the radio until I found the right station.
This wouldn’t happen today, because I would be sitting in the passenger seat with my headphones in, listening to what I want to listen to. Walking through the mall, I would hear “California” by Phantom Planet pumping out of Abercrombie & Fitch or “Say OK” by Vanessa Hudgens walking by GAP Kids or “Maybe” by Emma Bunton outside of Bath & Body Works (I used to basically live in the mall, these are real songs that I heard from those stores). That life is gone.
So for all of the people wondering how this song has been number one for 20 weeks and you’ve never heard it, ask yourself how you would have heard it? When would you have the opportunity to hear, not only a new song, but a new country song, in our fractured reality of entertainment consumption?
And comparing “Choosin’ Texas” to the monoculture hits of our youth isn’t a fair match, because those were smashes across the board. Compare the sales of this song to Whitney’s version of “I Will Always Love You.”
| Choosin’ Texas | I Will Always Love You |
| #1 in 9 countries | #1 in 31 countries |
| 6 million sold in US | 11 million sold in US |
| 600K sold in UK | 2.89 million sold in UK |
| (no other impressive sales tallies) | 800K sold in Japan |
Ella Langley has the biggest song because she has the biggest share of ears from a market that has way more options. More people are seeking out that song than any other song right now, but it doesn’t compare to the number of people who both sought out and organically heard previous smashes.
And, country music is the biggest format at radio, because, of all genres, they have the most traditional listeners who are the least likely to get their new music from a streaming algorithm or social media. It’s not a coincidence that the previous “mystery hit” was also a country song when people were wondering how Shaboozey was number one for 19 weeks. Before that? Lil Nas X with “Old Town Road.”
The youth do not drive monoculture anymore because they are in their self-reinforcing ecosystems where they are being served things they might like based on things they already like, with no opportunity to engage with other media. “Mystery hits” will continue, and in all likelihood, they will probably be country songs more often than other formats because as a genre it has a clearer identity and therefore a clearer target audience. The line between pop and R&B and hip-hop has been blurred over time and it’s harder to market This Music to This Audience. With country music, they have the radio stations and they have the right marketing to an audience that is easy to pinpoint. In that sense, “Choosin’ Texas” really isn’t a mystery at all.
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