Her Country: How Women Reclaimed Country Music

Marissa R. Moss.

'Moss delivers a masterclass on the startling inequities in country music, introducing us to the modern-day pioneers, the rebels, the risk takers, the marginalised, and the misfits.' Brandi Carlile 

In country music, men might dominate the radio waves - but it's women like Kacey Musgraves, Maren Morris and Mickey Guyton who are making history.

For the women of country music, 1999 was an entirely different universe; a brief blip in time when musicians like Shania Twain and the Chicks topped every chart and made country music a woman's world. However, at the dawn of the millennium, the industry had begun to prefer its female stars more neutral and obedient.

Her Country is the story of the rebels and rulebreakers who resisted the oppressive norms of the country music industry, achieving both critical and commercial success in a male-dominated genre. When the rules stopped working for these women, they threw them out, made their own and took control, changing the genre forever.

Award-winning Nashville journalist Marissa R. Moss powerfully documents how in the past two decades country's women have fought back against systems designed to keep them down, creating entirely new pathways to success.

First published in 2022, Her Country anticipated the massive crossover and chart-conquering success of singers such as Ella Langley. Yet in 2024, female country artists received just 8.4 per cent of radio play, a decrease from 10 per cent in 2021, making Moss's prescient analysis as essential and urgent as ever.

More than a story about inequity in the music business, Her Country offers an illuminating and astute examination of American society as a whole: how gender, race and class dynamics are manifested within art forms and how political power structures shape everyday life.

'The book is deeply researched...[a] history of the kind of industry - and world - that the white men of country music have always hoped to maintain and the women who wouldn't let them.' Pitchfork

'[Moss] examines the past two decades of country music through the distinct careers of Guyton, Musgraves and Morris – exploring how women, queer people and people of colour have charted space for themselves in an industry that was never built for them.' The Washington Post

'I can’t think of a better person to be leading this much-needed conversation than Marissa R. Moss.' LeAnn Rimes

'Moss goes deep into the archives and shares the often tumultuous journey of countless women trying to pursue a music career in the male-dominated industry. Her Country is an eye-opening account of the gender bias...[and] Moss unpacks each singer's story with precise detail and often harrowing accounts of sexism and racism.' Forbes

'Excellent highlight of the women who have paved the way for this genre.' Orville Peck

Publication Date: 24.09.26
ISBN: 9781917274043
Extent: 320 pages
Format: Paperback

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