Every so often, a song comes along that exposes the gap between what people want and what radio is willing to try. Right now, that song is “Choosin’ Texas” by Ella Langley.
While some pop radio decision-makers are hiding behind the phrase “brand expectation,” Ella is out here doing the exact thing radio brands are supposed to do themselves: win consumer attention.
“Choosin’ Texas” is in its sixth week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. She has both of the top two streaming songs in America with “Choosin’ Texas” and “Be Her.” And yet “Choosin’ Texas” is only No. 20 on Pop Airplay, while “Be Her” may never be heard. That’s a bar.
Please spare me the “it’s too country” or “it doesn’t fit pop radio” talking point. Did we forget pop is short for popular (long for popularington)?
How widespread is it? Start at A and keep going. Atlanta. Baltimore. Chicago. Dallas. Detroit. Las Vegas. Miami. Minneapolis. Milwaukee. Phoenix. Pittsburgh. Salt Lake City. San Francisco. Seattle. From A to S, Top 40 keeps finding reasons to ignore the biggest record in America.
And let’s not pretend country is a Top 40 disqualifier. See Morgan Wallen. See Shaboozey, Jelly Roll, or Luke Combs.
If Ella Langley were a man, would “hit” programmers still be clutching their pearls over “fit”? Could it be that when male artists show up with country swagger, radio calls it texture — but when a woman shows up with those same qualities, they mutter brand alignment?
Radio shows it can bend when it wants to. See Tame Impala. See BTS. Or Freya Skye.
This is not a shot at Freya Skye. She is not the problem. Math is — you’re welcome, everyone who ever took math.
“Silent Treatment” by Freya Skye is the No. 9 song at Top 40 today, despite averaging roughly 64,000 streams a day. Ella Langley is doing nearly 5 million a day.
To put that in perspective, Ella generates more streams in 30 minutes than Freya does in about a day and a half.
Is mainstream radio still occasionally guilty of manufacturing chart position while holding back the songs audiences are clearly choosing? I thought this was a trick only rhythmic radio — and ironically, country radio — still pulled.
Modern Top 40 should be about identifying the records people don’t want to escape. The songs taking over cars, bars, social feeds, and group chats. It should be a reflection — not a projection — of what some playlist prince thinks the format is “supposed” to be.
There are still programmers who love to say, “What you don’t play can’t hurt you.” That sounds like 1974, pre-internet logic, but fine — let’s run with it.
If what you don’t play can’t hurt you, then you have to agree that what you do play can.
Every time you pass on Ella, you’re actively choosing a lesser song, then wedging that lesser choice into an hour with 20 minutes of commercials, a weather report nobody needs because windows exist, and a traffic report nobody needs because we have Waze — and then wonder why your AQH is down. Has to be Nielsen’s fault, right? It couldn’t possibly be that some stations are choosing not to play the two biggest streaming records in North America.
Ella Langley is both a Stagecoach-level and Coachella-level artist at this point — an artist women can relate to and men can admit to liking.
The irony is that Ella is becoming so big so quickly, she may soon face the same problem artists like Zach Bryan run into: once you outgrow more than one format, the old PD handbook kicks in, and people start arguing over whether you belong in any of them.
If you’re not choosin’ “Choosin’ Texas” this week, then you’re choosin’ the wrong song.
Phil “Ella Fella” Becker
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. Sign up for our newsletters to stay updated and get the latest information right in your inbox.
Phil Becker is a weekly music columnist for Barrett Media who has built his career at the intersection of creativity, strategy, and operations leading brands, marketing, and content teams across more than 200 radio stations worldwide.
Known for being ahead of the curve, he was the first to integrate social influencers into broadcast brands, launch station apps years before his peers, and pioneer AI air personalities before anyone else in the world.
With leadership roles at Clear Channel, Citadel, Cox Media Group, Alpha Media, and international ventures—as well as owning and operating stations—Phil blends entrepreneurial vision with operational discipline in the messaging and marketing space. He also hosts the Phil-Osophy podcast.
For all the people who scream “that ain’t country”, there’s a proportional crowd of radio people who will scream, “that’s ain’t CHR”.
Love this!!!!! Play Ella!!!!
This is the perfect post to show why radio is dead. It doesn’t influence culture, hell, it’s not even chasing culture! Just a bunch of gatekeepers holding on to the old days of being kingmakers… but literally nobody cares what they think. They’re spending their time with Spotify, etc., because that’s the future.
RIP.
“an hour with 20 minutes of commercials, a weather report nobody needs because windows exist, and a traffic report nobody needs because we have Waze — and then wonder why your AQH is down. Has to be Nielsen’s fault, right?”
SAY ALL THAT LOUDER AND AGAIN PLZ