Can Laura Bell Bundy break the curse that plagues women in country music?

Let me tell you what I mean: In its early days, the country music industry ignored female artists, dismissing them as “girl singers,” refusing to book them for concerts, and declining to play them on the radio. Things improved, of course, but for every Dolly Parton or Loretta Lynn who managed to strike it big in the genre, there were six or seven men who were doing just as well.

And then came the late nineties and early aughts, when it seemed things were turning around. There weren’t any female producers or anything, but more and more women were writing hit songs. Meanwhile, loads of female artists dominated the radio, the charts, and the touring market. “Legacy acts” like Reba McEntire and mid-career artists like Faith Hill and  Trisha Yearwood were maintaining their popularity, and new stars like Jo Dee Messina, the Dixie Chicks, Shania Twain, Deana Carter, and SHeDAISY were enjoying multiple hits.

And then… boom. The glass ceiling fell back into place, especially at country radio.

Consider this: Since 2005, only five women have had a number one single on Billboard’s country songs chart, which is based entirely on airplay: Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, Reba McEntire, Hillary Scott, and Jennifer Nettles. (The last two are part of the coed acts Lady Antebellum and Sugarland, respectively.) Since 2007, only ten women have made the top ten—the five chart-toppers, plus Miranda Lambert (twice), Kellie Pickler, Faith Hill, Miley Cyrus, and Kelly Clarkson (all once.) And Clarkson and Cyrus are pop stars who were just doing one-off country duets, so their hits can hardly be considered breakthroughs for new artists in the genre.

That’s crazy, especially when you consider that women are almost always the country artists who crossover into the mainstream. A male country act hasn’t won an album of the year Grammy since 1969, for instance, but Taylor Swift, Allison Krauss, and the Dixie Chicks have all done it in the last five years. Swift and Lady Antebellum have had top ten hits on pop radio in the last few months , and a male country act hasn’t done that since Lonestar rode high with “Amazed” in 2000.

Even people within the country music industry seem to be feeling the love. Since 2007, Swift, Underwood, Lambert, and Nettles have all earned at least one of the top awards—album, song, and entertainer of the year—from the two major country music associations.

And yet despite this proof that there’s a hunger for female country artists out there, country radio continues its general freeze-out. It’s as though there are only a handful of slots for women in the entire genre, and until Carrie Underwood rejects music for Buddhism or Jennifer Nettles jumps ship for Broadway, no one else gets a chance.

Record companies keep trying, though, and talented women keep dropping records on us. Holly Williams, Julie Roberts, Sarah Buxton, and Meghan Linsey of Steel Magnolia all jump, though none of them have exactly broken through.

Given all this, I’m intrigued by the hat that Laura Bell Bundy has thrown into the ring. From what I can tell, she’s taking a different approach to making herself heard. Will it work? Should it? Let’s discuss it after the jump.

For those who don’t know her, Bundy has had a major Broadway career. She was the original Amber Von Tussle in Hairspray, and she got a Tony nomination for playing Elle Woods in the Legally Blonde musical. In 1993 she also starred as a murderous little girl in the twisted Off Broadway musical Ruthless, for which her understudies were Britney Spears and Natalie Portman.

Bundy has been angling for a country music career for some time. Way back in 2007, I wrote a New York Times story about Longing for a Place Already Gone, her self-released (and pretty excellent) album of country and bluegrass tunes that she mostly co-wrote.

At the time, I was struck by how old-school Bundy’s country persona was. Sure, she did a kicking bluegrass cover of “Dancing With Myself,” but for the most part, she was following the twang-and-heartbreak example of Kitty Wells and Patsy Cline.

You can imagaine my surprise, then, when I saw the video for “Giddy On Up,” the first single from her major label debut album Achin’ and Shakin’. (I can’t embed the video, but you can watch it here.)

This is less Patsy Cline than Christie Lee Aguilera or May Donna or some other name that suggests Bundy is being positioned as country music’s number one hoochie. I mean… damn. You see that promo shot over there? Ride the champion, indeed. And in her music video? When she’s wearing that little leather vest and those chaps, and then she shoots the clothes off her no-good boyfriend? And he’s all buff and naked, and she’s all “look at my a tummy,” and then she does that pop-star choreography with a posse of skimpily clad saloon girls? That is not the story that Taylor Swift is telling. Or Reba. Or Miranda Lambert. Or really, any female country star since Shania Twain. And even Twain didn’t push her sexuality like that.

Will this work? It might. After all, none of the other current female stars are playing the sex kitten card, so it make Bundy stand out.

But if it does work, is that a good thing? Bundy is a great singer and a good songwriter, but if “Giddy on Up” becomes a hit, will she ever be taken seriously? Or will she always be that trampy girl who had that one catchy song?

Another problem I’m having is that this type of persona really does seem like a pop music thing. Country music may not make room for many women, but when it does let a woman through the door, it rarely asks her to behave like a tramp. Miranda Lambert and Jennifer Nettles and even lil’ Tay-Tay all seem like real, approachable women, not the booty-shorts creations of a horndog executive team. And while Gretchen Wilson always came across kind of fake to me, at least her b.s. was centered around being a badass, not being a ho. If Bundy breaks through with this persona, which is nothing like the persona she was sporting back in 2007, then part of me will be glad another woman has made a mark on the genre, but part of me will be disappointed that she had to sell a bit of her credibility to get there. Part of me will be sad that even country music is not immune to the tarting of American womanhood.

Granted, it’s not like sexual objectification is totally alien to country music. The improbably titled song “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk” did hit number two, and beefcake singer Billy Currington appeared in Playgirl. But when you’ve only got a handful of female stars in your field, it seems extra damning to have one of them behave this way. Am I right? Wrong? Overreacting?

As of this writing, “Giddy on Up” is #60 on Billboard’s Country Chart. I’ll be interested to see where it goes from here and what its success or failure might mean.

And also… um… there’s the problem of… wait. Wait. I’m distracted. Remember how a few seconds ago I mentioned Billy Currington? Now I keep thinking about how pretty he is. Pardon me as I wrap this up and go swoon.