Sam Hunt’s “Body Like A Backroad” Shatters 55-Year-Old Leroy Van Dyke Chart Record
Sam Hunt’s smash single “Body Like a Backroad” has already made history, and is set to make more. By now logging 20 weeks at #1, “Body Like a Backroad” and Sam Hunt break a 55-year-old record on the 59-year-old Billboard Hot Country Songs chart previously held by Leroy Van Dyke’s “Walk On By” as the longest-running #1 song by a solo artist in country music history.
The Hot Country Songs chart combines sales, streams, and radio play, including from non-country stations to determine the most popular song at a given moment in time. The only song that has ever logged more time on the chart is “Cruise” by duo Florida Georgia Line. It logged 24 weeks at #1 from 2012 to 2013—a record which also finds itself in peril of being broken as the momentum for “Body Like a Backroad” remains strong.
This is all foreboding news for true country music fans, and fans of keeping at least some semblance of country influences in radio singles. “Body Like a Backroad” is about the most boundary-pushing, non-country song to ever crest the charts, let alone to set historic records.
READ: Sam Hunt’s “Body Like a Backroad” (A Rant)
And though the song reached its peak at #1 on country radio weeks ago—an event that is usually proceeded with a precipitous fall off in spins in subsequent reporting periods—“Body Like a Backroad” still sits at #4 on the Country Airplay charts tabulated by Nielsen. It has been in the Country Airplay Top Five for 13 consecutive weeks now, which is unheard of in the churning, slushy nature of the current country radio cycle. The song previously held the #1 spot on radio for 3 consecutive weeks.
“Body Like A Backroad” also continues to lead Billboard’s Country Streaming Songs and Country Digital Songs charts, symbolizing that the appetite for the summer smash remains solid, and it continues to receive play on Adult Contemporary radio channels, crossing over to pop to keep its momentum going.
Meanwhile Chris Stapleton’s “Either Way” is already done at radio. The lead single from his sophomore album From A Room, Vol. 1 never reached past #26, and this mark was only due to recurrent airplay preceding the release of the new record. In recent weeks, the single floundered mightily, and this week his label Mercury Nashville pulled support from it and announced “Broken Halos” would be his next single. This is despite From a Room, Vol. 1 becoming the first country record to be certified Gold by the RIAA in 2017.
Also on the charts, we keep waiting to pronounce Miranda Lambert’s latest single “Tin Man” dead and let the fury fly for radio not supporting female artists, but it continues to hold on, just barely. This week “Tin Man” actually gained four spots on the Billboard Country Airplay chart, though this was addition by subtraction. In plays, it lost four on the week, and remains clinging to life at the moment.
But the big story remains the resounding commercial success of “Body Like a Backroad,” and the very likelihood it will inspire years worth of doppelganger songs into the future, launching a new era in country similar to how Florida Georgia Line’s “Cruise” success ushered in the Bro-Country era.
June 29, 2017 @ 7:18 am
Sam Hunt is awesome! Waylon who?
June 29, 2017 @ 8:30 am
Someday people won’t even ask ” Jerry Who “?
June 29, 2017 @ 12:46 pm
Fuck you Trigger
June 29, 2017 @ 1:31 pm
Hard cuss me all you want, I’m used to it. But we can’t have racial or sexual epithets here. I know the line is in a different place for different people, but I just don’t want us all represented by one offhanded comment.
June 29, 2017 @ 2:37 pm
I can respect that
June 29, 2017 @ 6:19 pm
Stay classy, Jerry.
June 29, 2017 @ 7:21 am
The monogenre wins again. We all know this is what they want to push, and it’s not going to stop here. I hesitate to think what the next big manufactured trend will be, but the one thing we all know about it is that it will have less to do with the traceable roots, traditional instrumentation and personal artistry that many of us appreciate in real country music.
June 29, 2017 @ 4:05 pm
It’s fucking musical globalism man
June 29, 2017 @ 7:27 am
Well this made my morning suck. The sad fact of the matter is, this isn’t even good Pop music. I mean, there have certainly been influxes of pop influence entering country multiple times throughout its history, and hell, I’ve liked a lot of it. However, it’s never been done to such a degree to where you couldn’t detect even a hint of country influence. Obviously quality is hard to judge, but this song along with several other mislabeled songs out there just aren’t good no matter what you call them. I know this comment has popped up from others multiple times before and will continue to do so, but as we “celebrate” milestones like this…..well damn, it needs repeating.
June 29, 2017 @ 7:35 am
Having recently returned from a trip to Nashville for the first, visiting the usual sites like the Hall of Fame/Museum, I loath the day when Sam Hunt and his ilk are featured in that noble lineage. Or inducted into the Opry. It’s a tragedy for those of us who care about these institutions.
June 29, 2017 @ 8:17 am
You’re right, and that’s something I’ve thought of several times whenever Trigger posts about these guys.
I’d rather see the whole place just close down and disappear than start celebrating music like this. It’ll never happen though.
June 29, 2017 @ 7:41 am
Since turning 40 this year I’ve thought on numerous occasions: ‘You know, maybe it has always been like this.’
I remember my old man at my age. He wasn’t staying current with music much. He was listening to classic rock on the radio and occasionally popping in an old eight-track in the AC Delco radio of our old ’79 Cutlass. Meanwhile, we kids were keeping up with “contemporary” music, for better or worse. For instance, the good: De La Soul; and the bad: Garth Brooks.
I look at today and how I take my kids into the back yard and try to play Dom Flemons and all my daughter wants to hear is Katy Perry “Firework”. I guess that’s commentary on how juvenile the pop product is, but what are we gonna do?
Besides what we’re trying to do: Be the curators and caretakers of quality art.
June 29, 2017 @ 7:59 am
I never thought the day would come when I wouldn’t keep up with current country music, but I gave up on country radio about 10 years ago, figuring I would go back when things improved . In the time since then, things have only gotten worse. It’s not a just a matter of getting older. I can listen to and enjoy country music from just about any era from the very beginining right up to the early 2000s and find something to enjoy. I cannot find anything to enjoy on country radio today.
I can remember the Urban Cowboy days when people were complianing — with a good bit of justification — that country was becoming too pop. I will still take the most watered down, overproduced examples of country from that era over anything that is on the radio today.
June 29, 2017 @ 8:41 am
I’m 29 and the only music I can listen to on the radio is the classic rock station. I gave up on country radio back in probably 2003 or 2004. You’re right about being the curators and caretakers of quality art. But there’s just so few left that see it that way in the grand scheme of things. The general public doesn’t view it as art anymore and the record labels have obviously taken notice, for some time now.
June 29, 2017 @ 9:21 am
Same here. I only listen to classic rock on the radio. I just hate it when my chick fucks with my truck radio and leaves it on the Christian station. I swear it sounds like Nashville pop. I can’t tell the difference.
June 29, 2017 @ 8:36 pm
De la Soul was and is awesome. They were trailblazers, both from a lyrical content standpoint and sonically. You aren’t just getting old….they are objectively better than Sam Hunt. For that matter, so is Katie Perry. And, she is unapllogetically and proudly performance pop (not to mention a pretty good singer) and is promoted by pop radio and other pop mediums. Pop “country”, on the other hand, is shallow crap that ALSO happens to be at the forefront of erasing what used to be a medium for real county music artists to thrive…..that is, country radio. Huge difference.
July 3, 2017 @ 12:08 pm
Ooooo this is a hot button issue I love to discuss.
You and I are pretty much the same age and for me I always loathed what my peers were into even in HS. It wasn’t interesting to me. Being an old soul I listened to oldies radio but unfortunately at the time places like Wherehouse Music and Tower Records were not carrying any of the old stuff (outside some lame greatest hits comps). So I had to resort to recording songs off radio onto to tape. I took those tape to HS where I had the art teacher play them while we worked. LOL! Did not make me cool…
At any rate I have noticed some changes in music that I find interesting (outside the decline of production value thanks into part to lack of dynamic range and auto tune) that I think reflect society as a whole.
In the 60s and early to mid seventies there of course was plenty of hit protest songs but also there was a number of songs about loving each other, coming together, and general positive world view. ere are just a few off the top of my head.
Love The One Your With – Stephen Stills
Come Together – The Youngbloods
All You Need Is LOve – The Beatles
What The World Needs Now Is Love – Jacki Deshannon
People JUst Got To Be Free – The Rsacals
Joy To The World – Three Dog Night
One Love – Bob Marley and the Wailers
Love Train – The O’Jays
Let Your Love Flow – The Bellamy Brothers
But I have found that by the 80s most mainstream music was becoming more about the party and the money not so much a social political message. Then somehow in the 90s music got real whiny and bratty (more so than it ever had) and immature and by the 00s you didn’t have much if any in the way of popular songs about unity at all but you did start to see a HUGE crop of songs all about being yourself, loving yourself, and fuck everybody else. And it is still rampant. And think it does reflect a culture where we have coddled and praised kids to be unique and special (starting with our generation) to the point that unique and special hold no meaning AND in a weird twist create a society at large that is now more divided than ever on all levels. I notice that many people round me see others not so much as unique or special but just different or other. Or more directly NOT ME and therefore on some level the enemy or opposition.
Just look at all the infighting with various groups like say the democratic party or the GBTQ or certainly this crazy race war we’ve got going on. I mean the 60s and 70s had TONS of integrated bands in the mainstream (both racially and gender wise) with multiple hits. Now there are no almost no integrated mainstream acts and we this lazy “Party Anthem” (feat. so and so) cash grab business going on. People used to actually work together in more authentic way. I remember learning that Robert Palmer of all people played drums on Talking Heads remain in Light and so Chris Frantz then played drums for his album “Looking for Clues”. THAT kind of music sharing and collaborating I do not see existing within the mainstream in a way that is not about money. Also as a side note the number of songwriters per mainstream hit has skyrocketed, which say a lot too.
Another thing I see in music along with the being special songs, and songs being a lot whinier, is an an infatilism in music. For example: Destiny’s Child had a great song “Independent Women” but not too long ago Beyonce released a song, “Who runs the World (Girls)” and “If I were a Boy”. or Madonna had a fairly recent song “Girl Gone Wild”… Look MAdonna you are a grown ass woman sing about being a grown ass woman (the gay will folllow you anywhere). Funny enough Cher’s last “hit” was “Woman’s World” and it really stuck out to me at the time because somebody was singing about WOMEN in a see of girls and boys. So we have more “mature” acts in some ways refusing to grow up. Where is the current “I’m A Woman. W-O-M-A-N”, or “Love Me Like A Man”, “I Need a Man”, “This Woman Work”… Sure we’ve always had song about boys and girls but it was also coupled pretty evenly if not more so with songs about men and women… And yes we’ve always had bad and even whiny music in the mainstream but I argue and have been for some ten years now that the percentage of shite music in the mainstream is MUCH higher and less diverse that it used to be. Trigger even had a post a while ago now about lack of diversity in music and the mono-genre and I agree.
And I think we’ve gotten here in part because people, especially young people do not want to pay for music what it’s worth. And if people are not buying why would mainstream music makers spend the money and effort on a quality album or song or artist anymore when you might not make your money back It has basically become assembly product much like the late 1950s. Talk about similar sounding songs! Doo-wop and rock ‘n’ roll and R ‘n’ B certainly had their assembly line going on. But hey it was a new medium and at least the artists had to be able to sing because there was no technology to fix it.
You also did not have the technology to stand there and film or take selfies to so to fill time at concert people danced and sang along and were generally in my experience more connected to the performers and the moment. And I speak from experience since my Uncle ran a very large venue in my area and I remembered the vibe at shows in the 80s and 90s, that vibe at most big shows I see now is dead. People are to into themselves there own personal experience not the universal experience of being with others…same for watching or going to movies.
June 29, 2017 @ 7:48 am
One of the worst things about this tune to me is that “body like a backroad” is such a weak and disingenuous analogy.
June 29, 2017 @ 8:43 am
I always figured it meant you’re bumpy and dusty on the outside but it’s what’s on the inside that counts. And to me, that’s really sweet of Sam Hunt to say.
June 29, 2017 @ 9:31 am
I don’t think it’s that well-meaning or deep, haha.. I think it just means he knows the curves on her body blind-folded, like he knows every curve of the “backroad” he drives on every week to pick up more Axe body spray.
June 29, 2017 @ 10:23 am
You probably figured as much, but I always obviously joking. The song’s title is practically gibberish. It’s one thing to be clever but “Body Like a Backroad” makes no damn sense. It’s not even a clever reach.
June 29, 2017 @ 4:09 pm
I still prefer the title my brain sometimes registers it as: “Body Like a Bathrobe.” It probably makes a little bit more sense, too.
June 29, 2017 @ 7:54 am
Where is rock bottom? How much further can they take this?
June 29, 2017 @ 8:36 am
Who knows where rock bottom is these days, but I’d bet you could get there following that backroad body.
June 29, 2017 @ 8:05 am
You scared me.
I thought you were going to say that it had displaced Paul Anna’s Having My Baby as the worst song ever.
June 29, 2017 @ 10:29 am
I joke with my wife as to when Jimmy Buffett will sing “Having My Baby”. I remember when this song was in rotation on the radio. Sadly, it ground many of its words into my mind. For me, “Spinning Wheel” by Blood, Sweat and Tears is the worst.
June 29, 2017 @ 11:51 am
Yeah, I remember having the odious Spinning Wheel indelibly implanted in the frontal lobe of my brain back around 40 years ago.
Let’s hope Jimmy never covers Having My Baby.
I went to a disease ball (e.g. Heart Fund Ball, Kidney Ball or something like that ~20 years ago and Paul Anka was the entertainment for the evening.
I went to the bathroom when he started with Having My Baby.
I never did breed my wife (either of the actually), perhaps in part due to the negativity associated with Anka’s song.
June 29, 2017 @ 8:34 am
What a sad damn shame.
June 29, 2017 @ 8:34 am
We can talk about this Trigger until we turn blue i the face, but where is the plan of Action to combat this crap? Will it take State CMAs to denounce this and pull out of the CMA all together? What’s the plan ? It will take something revolutionary to break this cycle. More than I-heart and Cumulus going belly up..
June 29, 2017 @ 8:35 am
Blue in the face.. sorry
June 29, 2017 @ 12:24 pm
I think we have made incredible inroads into restoring a bit of balance in country music in the last two years with the success of Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson, and others. But this is the reason radio is so important as a battlefield. It is the last holdout in restoring some sanity to country music, and that’s why I have been writing about it more and more about it, and started running regular chart updates such as this. Beyond that, we just need to continue to push better music, and speak up when things such as this happen and let our viewpoints be known.
June 29, 2017 @ 5:26 pm
But what you are counting as W’s are not country is it? Stapleton a lot more blues than country, last Sturgill album more soul than country and Jason Isbell has never been a country artist. I love the music of Jason Isbell, but I do not see where his combo of americana and Beatles melodies help saving country music.
June 29, 2017 @ 7:29 pm
The truth of the matter is that it is all but impossible for any artist who calls themselves “country” NOT to also be influenced by other styles of music. It is HOW they mix those influences that we often debate, and rightfully so. It’s true that Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell, and Sturgill Simpson are probably not PURE country, but who is? It seems to me that they are honest about it, and they are good at what they do with their unconventional approaches, as opposed to the Bromeisters (Metro-Bro, etc.) like Aldean, Bryan, and Hunt, who do what I call “Fad Country”, something that Nashville is, unfortunately, not apt to let go of anytime soon..
And just for the record, besides spending a whopping 20 weeks at #1 on the country chart in 1961, “Walk On By” was a sizeable crossover hit too, hitting #5 on the Hot 100 that fall. It was at a time when country music had managed to survive the greatest existential threat to its being because of rock and roll, and was now thriving anew because of its willingness to be both grounded in tradition while also moving forward.
June 30, 2017 @ 2:12 am
Influence is a must of corpse. Not sounding or feeling like country music is much bigger problem.
June 29, 2017 @ 8:48 pm
Doesn’t much matter whether Stapleton or Sturgill are straight down the fairway traditional country (I believe that A Sailors Guide is very country, but that’s another article!). Just having real artists on the national stage like Sturgill winning the Grammy and getting the SNL gig, or Stapleton getting the CMA spots is a big deal for the industry. It causes many people to wake up and realize there are contemporary artists out there who aren’t complete pop crap. Look at Sturgill’s Facebook page after the Grammy and SNL performances. Comment after comment to the effect of “damn, I had lost all faith in country music until I heard you”. These type of people, and many others, start searching around for similar artists….end up on sites like SCM, etc., and slowly become enlightened. Now, is this going to change things overall as it relates to shitty pop music ruling the mainstream? Time will tell. But it sure has had an impact over the past several years.
June 30, 2017 @ 1:16 pm
You’re also talking about a very targeted demographic, and I don’t think that needs a lot of in-depth explanation. (FM stereos in pickup trucks, rednecks don’t Spotify, etc.) Lucky enough here in Frankfort, KY to have a classic country station and a station that, while they do play some of the pop-country, also mixes in some oldies and offshoots. We also have WFPK in Louisville and of course Michael Johnathon and WoodSongs. Jug Band Jubilee in Louisville. So as far as the battlefield goes, we’ve got a groundwork here. Just getting people involved is the hitch.
And obviously Sturgill and Stapleton are revered here.
June 30, 2017 @ 4:38 pm
The SCM crowd is growing for sure, and the return to authentic country music is making it’s huge comeback. It’s over full speed on Illinois flatland now. If you cannot find good country music now, than you will never find it. People are hungry for the sound SCM advocates and promotes. The rise of Sturgill, Isbell, jinks Stapleton, turnpike, Margo price, the remmergence of the Lubbock sound,
and the continued growth of East Nash and Americana rooted artists proves just that.
But we still have a long ways to go. Bobby Bones said just yesterday on twitter with his anyone who tries to defene Country has no idea what it is dribble.. more and more people are calling Bobby out on it on twitter especially with the body like a backroad EDM run we are seeing and the Keith and Carrie pop song crap they are pushing.
I appreciate everything you do Trigger. I have been following you since 2008, and always appreciated your honesty even if that means pissing off some in Tx country. I am glad you are calling out the TX bro Country sector now.
June 29, 2017 @ 8:42 am
what are u going to do when consumers like crap?
June 29, 2017 @ 8:53 am
I feel like I have to play Devil’s advocate for a second on something that I have said before, and its not to say by any stretch that this is Country, thats a different conversation that I agree on, Buttt somethin that you have said several times Trig, is that one of the reasons that Sam Hunt’s music is released in Country is because it would fail miserably in Pop. But it kinda seems like it wouldn’t lol
June 29, 2017 @ 10:28 am
Whether it would fail on pop radio or not, I triple dog dare them to try. At least then they’d be playing it on the right station.
June 29, 2017 @ 12:39 pm
Right now the song is hovering in the 20’s on the Hot Country Songs chart. It has been moderately successful in pop, but it hasn’t been a huge hit. I’d say it’s still inconclusive if Hunt would be as successful in po as country at the moment. Compared to Taylor Swift, who had #1’s in pop while still in country.
June 29, 2017 @ 9:13 am
It’s still *gaining* plays on the Billboard Streaming Songs chart (and I think streaming is about 30% of the Hot Country Songs chart). So folks are still *increasing* their listening on this song on Spotify, Youtube, etc.
Oddly, it has a bullet on the Streaming Songs chart but not the Country Streaming Songs chart. Anyone know why?
June 29, 2017 @ 9:49 am
Sam Hunt is the gay man’s Dave Dudley.
June 29, 2017 @ 10:59 am
Not sure what you mean by that. I’m a gay man and want nothing to do with Sam Hunt or his vanilla flavor of urban contemporary.
June 29, 2017 @ 6:02 pm
Would you like a medal?
June 29, 2017 @ 2:31 pm
I thought that was CB Savage?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu62FmBtfNE
June 29, 2017 @ 9:50 am
Face it. The man has the jawline for country radio posters and album art. And the arms. Never seen his butt but I bet it’s good too. If he can carry a tune in a bucket with a lid on it, he’s golden. Welcome to Nashville.
June 29, 2017 @ 9:55 am
I’m not saying the song isn’t popular with some, but I know a lot of country music fans and nobody ever talks about Hunt or his songs. I know FGL fans and a lot of Blake and Luke fans and they go crazy over their dumb songs, but I don’t know anyone who has said they love Body Like A Backroad, whose acronym is BLAB by the way. I just wonder if in a digital era if we are going to see computer inflated numbers. I’m curious to see how he sells tickets.
June 29, 2017 @ 10:12 am
This song has been huge and without the benefit of being released when it could be performed on one of the big crossover awards show, which in my opinion would have made it an even bigger crossover hit.
June 29, 2017 @ 10:29 am
Just stop listening to the radio and ignore the charts already. You can’t win the battle against these dicks…Good music is alive and well, just not in the mainstream for the most part.
June 29, 2017 @ 12:43 pm
Country music belongs to the people, not them. I’ll never give up, especially when it comes to the rewriting of the history books like this.
June 29, 2017 @ 1:12 pm
I think your fight is a noble one. No doubt. I didn’t mean to come off as a 2 liner dickhead ; ). You do a fantastic job of it. You’re also a hell of a writer to boot that introduces me to a lot of good music (BIG THX). I just get frustrated when something is destroyed by certain people beyond what I feel is repairable. My instinct is to say “fine, have it your way and go create something new with like minded people over here”.
In this case, a new (mainstream?) country genre that is appropriately deep and wide (including men and women), but not a dumpster for all kinds of music that sells. I’m not sure how you get different mainstream country radio stations back that would serve this type of concept except on satellite radio.
I love good country music, but I have to turn my face away from the wreck at this point. It bums me out way too much. It’s like a previously great restaurant, under terrible new management. After awhile, people will start to forget how it was, when it was good and the brand is crushed permanently. If mainstream radio continues to sully the genre known as “country”, I think there will be no chance of going back to how it was. How much time is left to save the genre I guess is what I worry about.
June 29, 2017 @ 8:52 pm
It’s still a good battle to fight. These dicks are occupying spots on country radio that should be filled by deserving artists.
July 4, 2017 @ 5:32 am
Yep.
June 29, 2017 @ 10:32 am
Sam Hunt aside, makes me happy just to see Leroy Van Dyke’s name in a headline in 2017.
June 29, 2017 @ 10:38 am
Revelations 23:2
“And the end times will be evident to those who will have to endure the songs of one Samuel Hunt.”
June 29, 2017 @ 12:21 pm
As a large fan of Leroy Van Dyke, this makes me sad.
June 29, 2017 @ 12:26 pm
Where is your God now???? BWAAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA!!!!!!
June 29, 2017 @ 1:53 pm
I’m not gonna lie, I laughed a little at this.
June 29, 2017 @ 12:29 pm
Jesus!!! This is never going to stop, is it??? The evil forces of McAnally and Borschetta will not stop, ever, until Country Music is destroyed and remolded in their image!!! MY GOD MAKE IT STOP!!!
June 29, 2017 @ 1:26 pm
so what????????!!!! does this mean we can’t listen to something else?
no?
then guess what??!! I’m going to listen to something else!!!!!!!
I’m going to spend my time posting Isbell videos on facebook, y’know something that actually introduces somebody to new music rather than just angrily repeating the same thing over and over again.
Sam Hunt isn’t a Country Singer, what else is new?
at this point arguing about that is as old as the hills.
can we all hear about a new artist we didn’t know about before today please?
because we all know about Sam Hunt.
we won’t accomplish anything by balling up our fists about his stupid song.
in fact I’d like to make this post a little less negative by mentioning some amazing artists that maybe y’all haven’t heard of.
Rin Blackbird.
Melissa Lee
Jud Strunk
Carolina Chocolate Drops
Dave Kirby
Lionel Cartwright
Clinton Gregory
June 29, 2017 @ 8:54 pm
The issue is that crap like this has overtaken spots on “country” radio that could and should be used to promote and expose worthy county artists to new fans.
July 2, 2017 @ 8:32 am
I like the new, positive, Fuzzy.
July 2, 2017 @ 11:51 am
sarcasm?
June 29, 2017 @ 5:13 pm
Fuzzy,
You say the same shit on every post, it’s been old. I think you secretly have a crush on Sam Hunt or something.
June 29, 2017 @ 5:37 pm
Isbell is great. But not country music. Listen to northsouthern or eastnorthern. Close to perfect pop music.
June 29, 2017 @ 6:54 pm
I would love to have been around in 1968 when “Cocaine Blues” was released and to observe the same type of comments everyone on here is making.
“Oh my gosh!!!!!” “Can you believe he said cocaine in a song?!?!?!” “What is this genre coming to?!?!?!”
At least Sam isn’t getting death threats for using “nigger drums” in his music like Bob Wills used to get.
The only thing that has been common in Country Music since its inception is the traditionalists complaining about it and spouting out an INSERT ARTIST HERE isn’t country music like INSERT NUMEROUS ARTISTS HERE were.
Country Music always has and always will push the boundaries. Period.
ps I love this website and Trigger whoever he/she is writes amazingly detailed articles but these analogies and similes about the past have got to go. Not directing that comment to Trigger but to the commenters.
June 29, 2017 @ 10:46 pm
I have thought this since I found this website. But it’s “in” now to rebel against “pop” or whatever you want to call it…hipster, if you will. But whatever, either way, I totally agree. I have been hearing this same argument my whole life in relation to country music. I’m kind of over the whole thing. I don’t care for a lot of what’s on the radio right now, but really I don’t feel like it has to do with how “country” I deem it to be…I just don’t like it…but to each their own. I enjoy Trigger’s writing and respect him for what he does (which seems to be *mostly* genuine) but I don’t necessarily agree with his crusade. However, I love to learn about new music and I always enjoy a good opinion. For those reasons, I am still a SCM reader.
June 29, 2017 @ 11:56 pm
So I’m the only real fan of country music in the family. My wife likes jazz; my 11 year old daughter listens to a lot of the latest, trendy pop music. We recently went on a road trip for more than 8 hours. We switched up the music quite a bit, perusing various Sirius XM channels. Sam Hunt’s song came on one of the “contemporary” country stations that I happened to check. I can’t remember which one (I normally only scroll between Sirius Outlaw, my iPod and comedy stations, but 8 hours of driving…). My daughter was watching me flip the stations and when Body Like A Backroad started, she immediately and emphatically piped up, “This isn’t COUNTRY music!!” She figured it out in a matter of a few beats, literally a few seconds. It was a proud moment for Dad, but definitely a mixed emotion as I was a bit disappointed that I had to finally hear the song; I had avoided it so well for so long…
I have never tried to seriously educate my daughter about what country music is or is not supposed to sound like. She’s just grown up hearing it (the good kind). And she can figure out how “country” Sam Hunt is in a few beats…end of anecdote.
June 30, 2017 @ 8:40 am
Such a shame, especially because “Walk on By” is such a fun song.
Dean Martin especially sings it well.
And despite the fact that Dean was a Rat Pack member and a traditional pop crooner, he is still more Country than Sam Hunt will ever be.
June 30, 2017 @ 10:10 am
I have the Walk on By vinyl album. Among the tracks: Sea of Heartbreak and Heartaches By The Number. Great album.
July 1, 2017 @ 9:24 am
I understand the sickness everyone feels, but where does all of this ultimately end? We want all of these artists to do great on their own without writing cheesy songs. I get it. But at the same time, is no one at all perturbed that Kacey Musgraves has sunk to the level of touring with Harry Styles next year? He’s a pop star. Is her opening for a pop star okay? When she explodes next year and ends up on pop radio, then what (which I think she will given she will be performing in front of a 90% female audience each night). If Simpson or Stapleton opened for Harry Styles, would that be cool? I suppose it depends on where you draw the line in all of this popularity vs. integrity talk. I think we all want these artists to be successful, but to what end?
July 1, 2017 @ 10:16 am
Regardless of how you about rap in country music, you could easily apply the theme to Mistadobalina by Del Tha Funkee Homosapien as a testament to the corporate pollution of country music today!!
July 1, 2017 @ 10:40 am
Seeing Cody Jinks, Sunny Sweeney,and Paul Cauthen tonite..Will make me feel better
July 1, 2017 @ 11:31 am
Sucks how this garbage can be super-duper successful, meanwhile great artists like William Michael Morgan are struggling on radio yet again. Makes me so sick.
July 1, 2017 @ 6:08 pm
Funny thing is, “Walk on By” was a totally pedestrian single by a pedestrian singer.
I don’t think it had much staying power. I’m willing to bet that Leroy Van Dyke would tell you that he owes his 5-decade-long career as a TV performer and concert draw to one song–but that song is not “Walk On By”, it’s “The Auctioneer”!
July 1, 2017 @ 10:11 pm
No one gives a shit, man. Save that shit for the dinner table, not here.
July 6, 2017 @ 12:10 pm
sure it’s a new age in music…but also it’s a new age in listening…like internet among other sources…there will always be a new way of listening to music…when that time comes…the taste we have in music can only be thought of not put in a mouth to actually eat…that technology has yet to be developed but in meanwhile it’s good to taste what’s bad and what’s good…so that we know the difference in thought…everyone has a different palate..it just all depends how much salt are we willing to spill to get the taste that we all long for to acquire in life’s music…music is for everyone to enjoy Bad or Good…
July 27, 2017 @ 8:23 am
Body Like A Backroad sounds like ten different John Mayer songs.
August 24, 2017 @ 7:20 am
See,Sam Hunt is a handsome good ol’ boy over whom female Country fans slobber,and they’re likely 90% of the reason “Body Like A Backroad” has topped the charts for TWENTY-EIGHT FREAKIN’ WEEKS!!!!!(Also,lady artists,why you can’t chart;the women you want to support your songs are all buying “Body Like A Backroad” and dreaming of being Sam Hunt’s babe.And while we’re at it,perhaps 87-year-old Leroy Van Dyke,84-year-old Willie Nelson and 83-year-old Charlie Pride can beat up Hunt,the PDs and DJs for programming and playing this crap!!!!!)
August 24, 2017 @ 7:22 am
Luckyoldsun,can you guess why I know quite a bit about auctioneers? (Actually,”Auctioneer” is a cool song.)
August 24, 2017 @ 7:24 am
The Realist,you mean that slobbering rather than singing can get you 28 weeks atop the Country charts?