History of Country music videos

Unlike the pop genre, country music videos didn't come around until the mid-80's. Partly because country music has a much more loyal community and as the music is very raw, there wasn't a need for music videos. Live performances were well respected by fans and they acted for the substitute for music videos. Artists as classic as Hank Williams Sr performed on TV and awards shows, these satisfied the audience. The Grand Ole Opry was also a regular performance space for country artists.

In 1983, Country Music Television (CMT) was launched. CMT is a an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by the MTV Networks Music & Logo Group. Programming on the channel includes country music videos, taped concerts, movies, biographies of country music stars, game shows, and reality programs. The rising popularity of CMT demanded the need for music videos. In 1984, Hank Williams Jr released premiered a music video for his song "All my rowdy friends are comin over tonight" and it premiered on CMT. 

Furthermore, the late 80's and 90's saw the increase in Country-pop (a crossover of pop and country music). Which also saw the increase in music videos for country, this is because pop music has always had a need for music videos due to the further success it can bring. If a popular song has a music video, the song is usually in the charts for longer. For example, Michael Jackson released a music video for his song, "Thriller" known independently as Michael Jackson's Thriller. At fourteen minutes the video is substantially longer than the song, which ties together a narrative featuring Jackson and actress Ola Ray in a setting heavily inspired by horror films of the 1950s. The video was immediately popular and received high critical acclaim, to the point where the music video outshone the song. It has been voted as the most influential pop music video of all time, and is also proved to have a profound effect on popular culture It is also the most watched music video of all time, seen by more than four billion people all over the world.

So when the Country-pop movement started in the early 90's, the demand for music videos increased to the point where videos were being made for just Country music. As a result, country music is now much more mainstream. To this day, music videos are a common part of country music. Some of the country-pop artists that started this revelation include Shania Twain, Faith Hill and Sara Evans.

Over the years, it is obvious that there has been a switch over in terms of which gender has the most authority over the country music industry. Throughout the early 20th century, country music was dominated by male artists such as Hank Williams, Red Foley and Roy Acuff, mainly because they had many female fans and it is common knowledge that sex appeal plays a huge part in selling records even today. 

Since the rise of Dolly Parton in the 80's, the demand for young and attractive female country singers increased. This increased even more during the pop crossover period in the 90's. The "good-girl" attitude of the female country artists made them role-models and created a very loyal fanbase target audience for them, young girls. This proved successful as the teenage girls are so desperate to be like them, that they buy anything that will get them closer to the artist. Shania Twain's album, "Come On Over", sold over 40 million copies and today it is still the biggest-selling studio album of all time by a female artist and the biggest-selling country music album ever.

Still today, country music fans (that are prominently female) are choosing the female country artists who are their role models, in favour of the male country artists that have some sex appeal. Another reason male country artists aren't as popular now is because a small percentage of the country music audience are male. Because of this, there aren't many males that idolise male country artists, so the male country artists don't that get the a huge boost in sales that the females get. There are only a few exceptions with male country artists like Luke Bryan, Blake Shelton, Jason Aldean, Brad Paisley and Hunter Hayes.

The country-pop success with female artists continues today with Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood, and their videos are successful also. Another thing that is supporting the continued success is the artist's direction with their songs and image. Now their audience of females (mostly teens and young adults) who idolise them and see them as their role model has been established, the artists are able to adjust and compose their music to the audience's needs. For example, most of Taylor Swift's songs are about her experiences at as a teenager, which include love, break-ups, family issues, body and image issues, teen angst etc. The audience of teenage girls are able to strongly relate with the topics Swift is singing about, so the audience's fondness of her is more likely to grow extensively. Especially as they will think that the artist is just like them and they may be inspired to develop ambitions to become successful like them. Their image is another part of it, by not dressing provocatively like R&B and Pop artists (Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry etc), they are able to not only maintain their "good-girl" image but also encourage young girls to not be influenced by the way these other artists dress, in fear of being inspired to dress like them. So they are contradicting Laura Mulvey's 'Male Gaze' thoery. So they are killing two birds with one stone. This technique in selling both their image and their music is one of the things that gives country music its respect, as the audience are never influenced to do anything bad due to the lack of provocativity, the admirable presentation of themselves and the realistic and relatable topics they sing about.