Roots, Toots n' Hoots Blog

iHeartRadio Music Festival opens ears

Jeffrey Remz  |  July 9, 2012

The announcement today of the iHeartRadio Music Festival line-up today refreshingly included country music.

Superstar Taylor Swift will be joined by her country compadres Brad Paisley, Miranda Lambert and Jason Aldean at the two-day festival being held in Las Vegas in September. As for other genres, the line-up includes the likes of Aerosmith, Usher, Lil Wayne, Swedish House Mafia, Deadmau5, Pitbull, Linkin Park, Pink, Mary J. Blige, Calvin Harris, No Doubt, Bon Jovi Lil Wayne and Shakira. In other words, it's quite varied.

This marks the second straight year that country acts have been part of the proceedings. In 2011, Carrie Underwood Rascal Flatts and Kenny Chesney were part of the two-day line-up that also included Lady Gaga and Coldplay.

I liked what Swift had to say in an interview about the upcoming event. She said she couldn't make it last year because she was touring, but promised herself she would do it in the future (of course, that means she was expecting to be asked to be part of the festivities!). "The idea that you could bring so many formats and genres of music together and have everybody appreciating it, it highlights the differences between musical acts and makes that a cool thing," Swift said.

The key aspect here is that country and the other various genres of the artists performing reaches different and new audiences. In this day and age, people seem pretty open to hearing different types. For the country acts, it's not exactly preaching to the converted, so they shouldn't and can't take anything for granted. While Paisley sticks to country, the other three veer towards pop and rock. But here's hoping that the iHeartRadio Music Festival crowd will open its ears to these artists, like them and explore it further.