That was a darkish time in nation music.
Everyone knows what was occurring again within the mid-2010s, after we had been knee deep within the crap that was the bro-country period of nation music. Florida Georgia Line and Sam Hunt had burst onto the scene a pair years earlier and pioneered a brand new sound that may dominate nation radio, leaning into pop and R&B sounds and overdone cliches about driving down a mud highway together with your lady, consuming Fireball and partying in the midst of a area.
Sound acquainted? It ought to, as a result of it was just about each nation music popping out of Nashville for a stable 5 years.
However all that modified in November 2015, when a then-relatively unknown artist named Chris Stapleton carried out alongside Justin Timberlake on the CMA Awards. His music “Tennessee Whiskey,” which was a canopy of a music that had initially been recorded by David Allan Coe and George Jones, shot to #1 on the charts, and so did his debut album Traveller, which was launched 10 years in the past right this moment.
Abruptly, there was a brand new standard-bearer for nation music, and the bro-country sound fell out of favor as extra genuine songwriting took over. (And never solely that, however Chris Stapleton proved that not each male artist needed to seem like a supermodel).
Now, Stapleton was removed from a brand new identify in Nashville when he seemingly blew up in a single day. He had already written a number of hit songs for different artists, together with “By no means Needed Nothing Extra” by Kenny Chesney, “Come Again Track” for Darius Rucker, George Strait’s “Love’s Gonna Make It Alright,” “Drink A Beer” by Luke Bryan and Josh Turner’s steamy hit “Your Man.”
However in the identical 12 months that he blew up and have become a family identify, Stapleton was truly already on the nation charts…with one of many largest pop nation hits of 2015.
In April 2015, Thomas Rhett launched “Crash & Burn,” which was written by Stapleton together with Jesse Frasure. And Stapleton not solely wrote the music, however he additionally offered background vocals for the music, even supposing it sounded…nicely, not like something he recorded himself.
In reality, the Bruno Mars-sounding hit even had Thomas Rhett involved that it leaned too pop and R&B for nation radio, with the singer admitting on the time that he was nervous to launch it:
“I might be mendacity if I advised you I wasn’t extraordinarily nervous about what the suggestions was going to be. But it surely was the right choice for us, and I’ve been utterly blown away with the way in which followers have been responding to it.”
Effectively the music was successful, even supposing there actually wasn’t something “nation” about it. “Crash & Burn” peaked at #2 on the Billboard Scorching Nation Songs chart, and was #1 on Nation Airplay. It ended the 12 months because the #5 music on the Scorching Nation Songs chart…a full 84 spots forward of “Tennessee Whiskey.”
However how many individuals lately are nonetheless listening to “Crash & Burn,” versus how many individuals are listening to “Tennessee Whiskey?” You’ll be able to’t stroll right into a bar in Nashville with out listening to a band cowl Stapleton’s model of the traditional music…and the music he wrote for Thomas Rhett…nicely, it’s simply one among many pop nation songs that had been shortly forgotten after Stapleton got here alongside and altered the sport.
