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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Pop-country has made superstars out of acts like Rascal Flatts, Taylor Swift and more, but the term is not particularly endearing in Nashville, even to the artists who have come to define it.
“I hate saying pop-country – I hate using that,” Carrie Underwood says during a recent interview while talking about some of her favorite artists.
Underwood, who has sold more than 10 million albums since her 2005 debut with hits that have appealed to both the MTV and CMT set, prefers to describe such music as “contemporary.”
But she acknowledges the sonic shift between some of her childhood idols and today’s country stars.
“I loved Alan Jackson and Brooks & Dunn, those were the people that really first made me love country music. Then there were people like Bryan White who were like coming on the scene,” the 26-year-old Oklahoma native explains. “And he was like one of the people that was like ‘OK, they don’t have to all sound like this.’ People can sound all kind of ways. And he was young and hot.”
“I’ve had people tell me, ‘I never listened to country music until I saw you on “American Idol,” and now I’ve been to a Rascal Flatts concerts, and I went and saw so and so,’ ” she adds. “And it’s wonderful that we all kind of have our place in country music and we all pull listeners in for different reasons, and because of that we can hear everything.”
Her third album, “Play On,” stretches her country boundaries even further. Not only did she re-team with “American Idol” judge and pop hitmaker Kara DioGuardi, who worked with her on her multiplatinum sophomore album, “Carnival Ride,” she also worked with producers known for producing smashes for the likes of Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson and Katy Perry (Max Martin), and Eminem (Mike Elizondo).
“I love all kinds of music, and I think it’s all kinds of fun when you take a slightly different element and you bring it to you and incorporate that into your music,” she says.
There are high expectations for “Play On.” Underwood, whose debut CD “Some Hearts” sold about 6 million copies and whose second album sold nearly 3 million, is expected to debut at the top with this record.
But not everyone was happy about her choice of collaborators on “Play On.”
“I think everybody kind of freaked out at first. And it was something that we did take into consideration, that people would be like, ‘What’s going on here?’ ” she recalls.
“Everybody kind of flipped out over Mike Elizondo, who I really like,” she says of the producer and songwriter, who co-wrote the CD’s first single, “Cowboy Casanova,” a country and pop hit. “They’re like, ‘He’s a rap producer.’ And it’s like, well, yes, he has done that, but he’s also worked with Nelly Furtado and Pink and Fiona Apple.
“I’m just another name he’s adding to his resume of all different kinds of music.”
“Play On” is still very much country – there’s banjo, pedal steel and mandolin – but Underwood has added different musical textures, which points to her maturation as an artist.
