Momin
Well-known member
https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/country/8516500/country-music-network-television-history
Here's the relevant part:
Reba McEntire became the genre's first lead star in a sitcom beginning in 2001, and Idol -- during its initial years on Fox -- quickly discovered America's appetite for country, in great part through Carrie Underwood.
"They started to make her a pop star, if you remember that first single ["Inside Your Heaven"]," says Grand Ole Opry host Bill Cody, who annually delivers an overview on the history of music in TV to participants in the Nashville-based professional education program Leadership Music. "When ‘Jesus, Take the Wheel' came, there was no looking back, and I think that probably helped. She's really beautiful -- I mean, she could never have sung a note and been the next cover girl -- but coming off that show, she obviously had people beating a path to her door."
Underwood epitomizes the developments that helped country garner new respect on TV. In addition to emerging from a talent show, her songs have a pop-crossover sound, while her appearance and the material's subject matter veer more toward heavily populated urban and suburban lifestyles, reflecting changes in the country audience and in America at large.
"By far, the population of the U.S. was out on the farm," says Cody. "That's obviously not the case now."
Here's the relevant part:
Reba McEntire became the genre's first lead star in a sitcom beginning in 2001, and Idol -- during its initial years on Fox -- quickly discovered America's appetite for country, in great part through Carrie Underwood.
"They started to make her a pop star, if you remember that first single ["Inside Your Heaven"]," says Grand Ole Opry host Bill Cody, who annually delivers an overview on the history of music in TV to participants in the Nashville-based professional education program Leadership Music. "When ‘Jesus, Take the Wheel' came, there was no looking back, and I think that probably helped. She's really beautiful -- I mean, she could never have sung a note and been the next cover girl -- but coming off that show, she obviously had people beating a path to her door."
Underwood epitomizes the developments that helped country garner new respect on TV. In addition to emerging from a talent show, her songs have a pop-crossover sound, while her appearance and the material's subject matter veer more toward heavily populated urban and suburban lifestyles, reflecting changes in the country audience and in America at large.
"By far, the population of the U.S. was out on the farm," says Cody. "That's obviously not the case now."