Take this, for lack of a better word, "jam" for example. I haven't heard this in a while, so I looked it up and this song just tumbled out of the Top 40 this week. And Florida Georgia Line's newest hit that I covered just this week is already falling fast as well. And I don't see any new country music rushing in to replace it, either. What the hell is going on?
Well, let's go to this latest entry on the Heatseekers chart, Sam Hunt, and see if we can get any answers from him.
This is "Leave the Night On", which is currently the highest country single on the Heatseekers chart. It's... okay, I guess.
Honestly, that's how I feel about a lot of recent country music. Occasionally you get the odd song that really impresses me or the odd song that really pisses me off, but most of the time it operates at just a 6/10 for me. That is to say, meeeeeeh.
There's nothing bad about this song. Nothing at all. Technically, it's perfect. But oh god, is perfect boring.
And I don't mean perfect is boring like Freddie Mercury belting his heart out is boring. I mean when you just go for a perfect-sounding song and nothing else, then it's boring. I mean perfect in the sense that only record companies would find it perfect.
And I feel that record companies would find this song absolutely perfect. But I don't. I find it completely average. It's like if generic pop music punched country music in the face. There's nothing here that makes this guy stand out at all. Jesus Christ, Taylor Swift was once more country than this guy.
Not that I think country music has much of an identity anymore. And that might actually be the problem. Country music listeners are getting fed up with this poppy country music, and pop music listeners already have enough to select from, so they don't need a nobody like Sam Hunt coming in on the scene. Maybe two years ago this guy might have been all the rage, but he came in at the wrong time, and I think everybody's tired of this sound.
Hot 100 Success:
Will he have it?
The noticeable lack of country on the charts, and the failure of other country artists to make their impact this year tells me "no".
Should he have it?
He seems like a nice enough guy. But asking me if he should have success on the charts is like asking me if I want watered-down tomato juice on my burger instead of ketchup. No thanks. I'll stick to artists with personality. Take that, record companies!
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