Joshua Slone, and the Emerging World of Contemporary Folk Pop

Random Notes 32 Comments


On Tuesday afternoon, October 28th, word proliferated online that Kentucky-based songwriter Joshua Slone’s debut album Thinking Too Much would be released at midnight, making for a rare, Wednesday album release. To say the album came highly anticipated by certain fans is sort of a quaint understatement. To those in the new folkish, countryish, popish singer/songwriter world seeded by Zach Bryan, Joshua Slone’s debut album was perhaps the most anticipated release all year.

Slone’s career was given a jump start when he appeared in a handful of collaborative videos with Zach Bryan in April. This subsequently blew Slone up on TikTok and Instagram where he’s been posting videos of himself singing songs or snippets of songs, and building up a strong social media presence. It’s sort of the stereotypical, new school way many young songwriters build their career, only Slone benefited from a Zach Bryan turbo boost.

When Joshua Slone’s debut album was released, it shot up the iTunes charts to #2 in country, only behind Morgan Wallen’s latest release. Requests started flooding into Saving Country Music to review or feature the new album. Incidentally, no other outlet had reviewed Thinking Too Much until Country Central posted one recently, nor was there really any press coverage for Slone or the album at all.

Thinking Too Much cover art


Aside from playing some shows in September—including a sold-out date at The Burl in Lexington, and opening Zach Bryan’s record-crushing mega concert at Michigan Stadium on September 27th—Slone doesn’t have a lot of touring experience either. He currently doesn’t have any future show dates on his calendar.

But in this current TikTok-driven environment that Joshua Slone occupies, none of this conventional music business stuff really matters, verified by the success of Thinking Too Much. In some respects, this new paradigm is advantageous to performers since they can side step certain gatekeepers and take their songs and message directly to listeners. But in other respects, this has resulted in some unseasoned performers wilting under pressure when big opportunities do present themselves, and can also enter into the seedy world of paid-for TikTok boosting and influence.

Interestingly, delving into the behind-the-scenes situation with Joshua Slone, you find his music is being distributed by Interscope, even though the copyright for the music is attributed to Slone himself. He’s also being represented by the big talent agency WME, though none of this is being broadcast publicly. Does this mean Slone’s career is being “astroturfed”? Not necessarily. But Slone is definitely part of the new approach to music that pays no attention to media, publicists, radio, or even really touring.

But the most important takeaway from Joshua Slone’s album Thinking Too Much is that it’s not a country album whatsoever. Where Zach Bryan might occupy a space that singer/songwriter-based folk intersects with country through certain sonic similarities, Joshua Slone veers straight into the folk pop space that was seeded by Zach Bryan’s popularity in part, but since has bounded well beyond anything resembling “country,” with pop production and sensibilities being the most obvious signifiers of the music.


This is not a criticism of the music specifically. But it is fair to criticize the characterization of this music as country. On Apple Music where they show the genre metadata information, Joshua Slone’s Thinking Too Much is categorized as “Alternative Country.” But really where this album fits is in the emerging “Contemporary folk” or “Folk pop” realm, which might be one of the biggest emerging categorizations in all of music, not just from the volume of new artists or how prolific they are, but the incredible commercial success these artists are finding.

A few months back when a fan was criticizing Zach Bryan on X/Twitter as a “country” artist, Zach clapped back saying that he was “folk.”



The next performer on the folk pop totem pole would be Noah Kahan, who’s also famously said he doesn’t want to be considered country. Kahan has also put together insane numbers in his short career.

In October, Folk Alliance International sent a survey out to its members to ask if they believe they should petition for a new category in the Grammy Awards for contemporary folk, kind of like what happened with country this year with the splitting of Best Country Album into Traditional and Contemporary categories. There used to be a contemporary folk category at the Grammys. Albums like Emmylou Harris’s Wrecking Ball were winners in its era before merging with traditional folk.

With artists like Zach Bryan, Noah Kahan, and Joshua Slone—along with other massively successful artists like Gregory Alan Isakov and Jessica Pratt releasing albums in this folk pop space—a new designation seems to be warranted. Even former One Direction member Zayn Malik’s last album fits this profile, and was produced by Dave Cobb. Last year, Zach Bryan recused himself from Grammy consideration, in part because he didn’t feel he fit anywhere and didn’t want to be a distraction in country. If there was a “Best Contemporary Folk” category, Zach Bryan would probably be perfect for it.

Joshua Slone is a great songwriter, and just like in the early stages of Zach Bryan’s ascent, it’s heartening to see younger audiences connecting with music that’s so intentional, expressive, honest, and enriching as opposed to pure, superfulous pop. This moment we’re experiencing in music is the reason Zach Bryan might be one of the most important artists of a generation.

But what Joshua Slone is doing is not country. Saving Country Music was going to review the album, but frankly, it doesn’t feel like it qualifies, and instead should be recognized among its peers in this new contemporary folk pop universe. And just as importantly, the music universe should make a conscious effort to recognize this important, quickly growing, and already commercially relevant folk pop scene, and give it the autonomous recognition it deserves.

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