Hit songwriter Tayla Parx, one of only a handful of Black women to co-write a country Number One, shares her experiences in Nashville and weighs in on Luke Combs' cover of Tracy Chapman's classic.
While celebratory — “I never expected to find myself on the country charts, but I’m honored to be there,” Chapman— the milestone was also a stark reminder of the historical precarity and lack of opportunities for Black women as songwriters in Nashville: Chapman is just one of a small group of Black women to ever receive a writing credit on a country Number One.
The only other songwriters to co-write country Number Ones include Donna Summer , Alice Randall , Ester Dean , and, more recently,Over the last decade, Parx has written songs in a variety of genres for everyone from BTS to Haim — she cowrote Ariana Grande’s monster “Thank U, Next.” In country music, she’s had songs cut by Kelsea Ballerini and Maddie & Tae. She’s also a recording artist in her own right, and in 2019, released the song “Fight” featuring Florida Georgia Line.
“It’s a boys club,” Parx says of writing country music. “But there are a lot of people who are awesome and understand that, and you have lots of artists that speak out on that too. I’ve been working with Mickey Guyton and Brittney Spencer, and all these incredible people and they want to make people know [about the genre’s history]. But it’s not just Black artists, it’s artists of every color who are really trying to make sure they diversify.
The fact that the number of Black women with writing credits on country chart-toppers can be counted on one hand illustrates how much Nashville has to do to become more welcoming.
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