The Ballad of Lainey Wilson and Jessie Murph

Switched on Pop

Vox Media Podcast Network

Music Interviews, Music History, Music, Music Commentary

4.6 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 25 June 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

There's often an unspoken (and deeply misogynistic) rule on country music radio: never play two female artists back to back. In this episode of Switched On Pop's country week, we aim to do just that. Looking at two artists on opposite ends of the country music spectrum – traditionalist Lainey Wilson, and genre-bending Jessie Murph – Nate and Charlie try to understand the state of female country through their respective songs "4x4xU" and "Blue Strips." Songs discussed: Lainey Wilson – 4x4xU Jessie Murph – Blue Strips Lainey Wilson – Country's Cool Again Lainey Wilson – Heart Like A Truck HARDY, Lainey Wilson – wait in the truck Jessie Murph – Gotta Hold Jessie Murph – Gucci Mane Jessie Murph, Sexyy Red – Blue Strips (Remix) Zach Top – I Never Lie Carrie Underwood – Before He Cheats Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Port for Switched on Pop comes from Sonos.
0:02.6	Take it from us podcasters and music fans.
0:04.8	When you've been wearing headphones for hours, your ears and head can start to ache.
0:09.7	Well, if you're looking for a pair that's designed to deliver excellent sound for your long listening sessions, then check out the Sonos Ace headphones.
0:16.9	They're soft, adjustable, and offer up to 30 hours of battery life so you can comfortably listen for ages without having to worry about frequent charging.
0:26.0	Ready for better listening, go to sonos.com to learn more.
0:33.5	Welcome to Switchsham Pop. I'm musicologist Nate Sloan. And I'm songwriter Charlie Harding.
0:41.9	Charlie, it's Country Week, y'all.
0:44.0	Hiya! Do you mean yaha? What did I just say? I just said hiya, Charles. Not the most
0:50.1	suspicious start. And yet I hope we've managed to elucidate throughout Country Week that
0:55.2	country is at a crossroads, right? We've been exploring the different tensions and schisms
1:00.3	within the sound and the culture of country through different artists like Big X the
1:05.5	plug and Bailey Zimmerman, Morgan Wallin, Post Malone. We have not given enough credence to the women who are at the forefront of
1:14.3	shaping this new sound of country. And that's a longstanding issue within the world of Nashville,
1:19.6	Charles. Yeah, there's sort of this adage in country radio that two women are never played back to
1:24.4	back because there's a fear that listeners will change the station.
1:28.1	It's completely ridiculous. Let's upset that narrative right now and play two women back to back,
1:32.7	Charles, two women who give us two opposing visions of the future of country music, one that's
1:39.4	more reaching back to tradition in the past and one that's firmly looking to the future and incorporating
1:46.1	other contemporary genres. I want to listen to two chart-topping country acts from
1:52.3	2025, Lainey Wilson, with her song Four by Four By You.
1:56.5	In a four-by-four by you play from the bay to Kentucky
	...

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