Tag Archives: Justin Timberlake

Commentary

Dear Award Shows: Stop Making Chris Stapleton Your Token Traditionalist

1 Comment

Chris Stapleton has done to country award shows what Clemson college football did to Alabama–seemed new and fresh for a second, until you began to hate Clemson with the same equal passion you hated Alabama with before Clemson came along.

On November 4th, 2015, Chris Stapleton shocked the world at the CMA’s when, out of nowhere and with virtually no industry support, he won three awards, including Album of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year. His debut album, Traveller, rocketed to the top of the iTunes charts as people sought to find out who this unknown bearded country traditionalist with a voice infused with soul could possibly be. Add to all that, his performance of “Tennessee Whiskey” with Justin Timberlake was one of the most memorable award show events in recent history and helped to make him an overnight superstar. Two days later, I wrote a piece entitled Who the Hell is Chris Stapleton: Answering the Question in the Minds of Millions of Sam Hunt Fans, an explanation that basically, the CMA voters knew what many fans and traditionalists had known all along, that Chris Stapleton had talent and potential, and he only needed a chance to be heard in order to fully realize that potential.

Fast forward to 2018, and Stapleton’s selling out arenas with almost no radio support. All three of his albums have sold remarkably well and regularly sit atop the Billboard album charts. In an era where streaming is king, Chris Stapleton’s selling records. In a time when country stars in the mainstream rely nearly exclusively on radio, Stapleton’s proven it’s not the only viable format. And best of all, he’s proving this all with quality music, and music that is somewhat traditional-leaning, if infused with blues and Southern rock at times.

But at this point, his nominations and wins at these award shows have become predictable, and we’re all going to become sick of Stapleton sooner rather than later. I was afraid of this in November at the CMA’s when I cautioned them to add more traditionalists, and it’s come to fruition with the ACM’s. “Whiskey and You,” while a great song, came from his 2015 debut album and had absolutely no right to be nominated for this year’s ACM Song of the Year. Instead of opening the door for other traditional and independent artists to walk through, Stapleton’s become the token traditionalist, nominated and winning to keep our crowd happy. Sure, he’s obviously better than the rest of the garbage the ACM throws out here, and the ACM is a joke at best these days anyway, but where the historic wins of Stapleton were once seen as a great stepping stone for other deserving artists not molded by country radio and the mainstream format, now they just seem as tired and predictable as the wins of FGL once were for Vocal Duo. And when you take into account the other crap, you still root for Chris Stapleton–because next to them, he deserves to win, and not only that, he deserves to win by miles. But he’s not the only artist out there who deserves recognition.

Furthermore, if he’s going to continue to win awards automatically now, this diminishes the value of the awards he actually deserves to win. It’s like what we’ve seen happen with Miranda Lambert; we are sick of her winning Female Vocalist of the Year because she’s the only token female these establishments will recognize, so that when she did deserve a win for an album cycle like that of The Weight of These Wings, we actually wondered if she wouldn’t get it this year because Carrie Underwood would beat her out simply from years of spite from Carrie Underwood fans. Miranda was deserving of the award at the CMA’s, but it hardly seemed significant when she had won the same award for doing virtually nothing in years past.

I don’t want to see it become this way with Chris Stapleton. When he won all those awards at the 2015 CMA’s, we all hailed it as a turning point for the state of country music–and for Stapleton himself, it has been, as he’s managed to become a star with virtually zero help from radio. But for the rest of the industry, it has done little, and he’s becoming nothing more than the token traditionalist.

I like Chris Stapleton. I think he deserves his success. I think the CMA took a huge step when it chose to give a deserving artist a chance in 2015, and because of the willingness of that organization to vote for someone who didn’t fit the normal mainstream mold, an artist’s life and career was changed forever. But it can’t stop there. This has to be a foundation, and Chris Stapleton has to be the first of many artists to receive this opportunity for it to signal any kind of true change. And right now, he’s starting to seem like an anomaly. Let’s change that before he becomes a cliché.

Commentary

“Who the Hell is Chris Stapleton?”: Answering the Question in the Minds of Millions of Sam Hunt Fans

1 Comment

Who is Chris Stapleton? This is a question on millions of Google searches and in the minds of Sam Hunt fans everywhere since Wednesday night (November 4th), when their beloved Sam Hunt was shut out at the CMA’s by this guy they’d never heard of. It was a huge upset when Stapleton beat out Hunt, Thomas Rhett, Kelsea Ballerini, and Maddie & Tae for New Artist of the Year. But then he went on to win Album of the Year for Traveller, so the Sam Hunt fans were forced to admit this Chris Stapleton might be a name worth knowing. Later, he even won the Male Vocalist of the Year award, breaking Blake Shelton’s five-year winning streak and causing Luke Bryan’s Entertainer of the Year win to look at best like an afterthought and at worst completely comical. Eric Church, predicted to be a front runner for the top awards, was shut out except for a joint win with Keith Urban for Event of the Year for “Raise ’em Up.” Little Big Town’s three wins looked unimportant compared to Chris Stapleton’s sweep. Both Luke Bryan and Miranda Lambert thanked Stapleton in their acceptance speeches, and Luke noted that seeing Stapleton “have this night is so uplifting.” To add to all of this, Chris Stapleton and Justin Timberlake took the stage for what was undoubtedly the best performance of the evening, singing “Tennessee Whiskey” and “Drink You Away.”

So naturally, the million-dollar question among the masses is, “Who the bloody hell is Chris Stapleton?”

In an effort to answer this for themselves, the country community has launched Chris’s only album, Traveller, straight to the top of the iTunes chart. He has never had a hit crack the top 40 on Billboard Country Airplay, but that could all soon change. Chris Stapleton will now be a household name. Traditionalists everywhere are dancing in the streets, some even calling Chris Stapleton our “country music savior”–rest assured that Country Exclusive does not hold this view–but this will certainly change Chris Stapleton’s life forever.

So aside from the 2015 CMA’s making Chris Stapleton an overnight superstar, what has this actually done for our beloved country music?

The sweep of Chris Stapleton has finally begun to put mainstream artists and independent artists on equal footing, in terms of recognition. Stapleton is widely respected in the industry for writing others’ hits, both traditional and otherwise–in fact, on many traditionalist blogs, Chris Stapleton is often ridiculed for having taken part in such pieces of shit as Thomas Rhett’s “South Side.” Although Traveller is his debut album, Chris Stapleton is a name that has been around Nashville for many years, and the news that he was making an album was welcome and long overdue to many dedicated fans. The CMA took notice of all this. It didn’t matter that Stapleton has had little to no commercial success. If there was ever a time when the comments of Gary Overton–“If you’re not on country radio, you don’t exist”–rang false, it was Wednesday night. This is a statement that radio cannot ignore. Country radio is no longer the only way to gain attention and recognition–in fact, radio-supported Sam Hunt, Thomas Rhett, and Kelsea Ballerini left the CMA’s empty-handed. It may be that country radio will take notice of this and start to play artists like Chris Stapleton and Kacey Musgraves–album sales and declining radio ratings in 2015 have suggested country radio’s loss of relevancy, and this was the ultimate indicator. Country music may look back on this day in its history and find that the victories of Chris Stapleton, traditional country, and music of substance marked the beginning of the returning of country to its roots. Chris Stapleton is no “savior”–country cannot be saved overnight. His music blends country, blues, and soul, and so many have been quick to complain that he is not “strictly” country, so we should not be so excited about this victory. But we are music fans first, and Chris Stapleton has brought a huge victory, both for country music and for music in general, and for this we should all be forever grateful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADuUQT_fPCw