"Taylor Swift. It's two words," says Phyllis Stark, executive editor of country music for Radio-Info.com, who dubbed the new crop the "Clearasil Brigade" in a recent column.
New acts include Tyler Dickerson, a 16-year-old traditionalist signed to Disney's Lyric Street, Capitol Nashville has signed 17-year-old Jennette McCurdy, who stars on Nickelodeon's "iCarly." And then there's Shel, four sisters ranging in age from 16 to 21 have a deal with Republic Nashville.
A lot of this is about radio: "We react to what the needs are in the marketplace," says Citadel Media senior vice president of programming Carl Anderson. "Country stations, like a lot of formats, want to make sure they play to their core, but they always are looking for a way to attract that new, young audience into their tent." Citadel (formerly ABC Radio Networks) owns Country station WKDF and sports talker WGFX in Nashville.
