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| Gary Overton |
Sony made the abrupt announcement on Tuesday morning, leaving vacant one of the top music industry jobs in Music City. The decision was announced by the company as a mutual agreement between Overton and Sony. Along with Warner and Universal, Sony is one of the three major record label companies.
"Working at Sony Music has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career," Overton said in a prepared media statement. "I will deeply miss the talented team at SMN, but I am also excited about starting the next chapter of my career. I want to thank the amazing staff for their tireless commitment to supporting our incredible artists."
Overton arrived at Sony in 2010 after working 15 years as executive vice president and general manager of EMI Music Publishing. He once served as manager for Alan Jackson, as head of A&R for BNA Entertainment and as vice president of Warner/Chappell Music.
At Sony, Overton launched newcomer Tyler Farr, propelled the career of Chris Young and oversaw a star-studded artist roster highlighted by Kenny Chesney, Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley.
Overton generated significant industry conversation when he told The Tennessean before the annual Country Radio Seminar that he believes country radio is essential to creating superstar artists.
Overton said he regularly told his staff that if an artist is not on country radio, they don't exist. In the same interview, Overton was effusive in complimenting new Sony artists such as Cam and Old Dominion, and expressed excitement about upcoming music from Young and others.
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Although rumors of Overton's departure have been circulating around Music Row for many months -- with Shania Twain/Kacey Musgraves manager Jason Owen reumored to take his place, a role sources say he turned down.
According to Billboard, he was the target of negative comments from Love and Theft, a group formerly signed with Sony label RCA, who were dropped in the middle of recording their second album. Overton responded, "We spent more than a million dollars trying to break Love and Theft... They were making some great new music, but there was no excitement for them at radio or with the listeners."
The Nashville music machine has worked long and hard for more than 50 years to dilute country music to what it is today...pop, rock and yes, hip hop with a twang. The purpose has been to get as much crossover airplay as possible. When I worked at one of the top country radio stations in the midwest, we were a major reporting station for Billboard,
ReplyDeleteR&R and we were bombarded by record promo people hyping their latest creation and they would stop at nothing to get it done. Sad to say but influence is a powerful thing and the listening public often follows like cattle to slaughter and it's done over a long period of time. It's like the frog in the boiling pot of water. Our music director and program director succumbed many times and played records that were nowhere close to being country. Remember this famous quote..."you're too country". What? You the listener allow Nashville to get away with what it does. I had an e-mail exchange recently with an air personality at one of Nashville's oldest stations asking for an opinion on a local contemporary bluegrass singer and mandolin player who is extraordinary and deserves airplay. Like a good lawyer, I knew the answer before I asked the question. The answer was country radio hasn't played bluegrass in 50 years and unless you are with a major label or are a major name, forget getting any airplay. We don't recognize bluegrass. Sad, but true.