Chris Stapleton is NOT a country singer

[Skeptic Bob]

I like all kinds of music. Rap, country, rock, blues, R&B, classical...all of it. And Chris Stapleton is definitely a favorite of mine.

But I dont understand why he is classified as “country music”. I get that he was a song writer before he was a performer and that he has written a ton of songs for country singers. But when I hear HIM sing, I don’t hear country. A couple popular examples for people not familiar with Chris:





I mean, he plays a steel guitar and sometimes wears a cowboy hat, but when I listen to him I hear blues and southern rock WAY more than I hear country. Leave everything the same except change his skin color to black and nobody would be calling that country.

Im not complaining, mind you, I actually like it when music doesn’t easily fit into a genre box, but I find it interesting. Does anyone disagree with me? Any music experts (I’m not one) who think it is clearly country?

 

[MovingPictures]

I like all kinds of music.

country ...

Lost me.

And I'm from Dallas.

 

[Skeptic Bob]

Lost me.

And I'm from Dallas.

As a fellow Texan I must inform you that your position on country music probably violates multiple state laws.

 

[MovingPictures]

As a fellow Texan I must inform you that your position on country music probably violates multiple state laws.

I would literally not be surprised.

 

[Kobie]

The only thing country about Chris Stapleton is his hat. He's definitely more blues/bluegrass/southern rock than country.

That said, I tend to worry less about the genre and more about the artist. Lots of artists transcend genre.

 

[Crovax]

I like all kinds of music. Rap, country, rock, blues, R&B, classical...all of it. And Chris Stapleton is definitely a favorite of mine.

But I dont understand why he is classified as “country music”. I get that he was a song writer before he was a performer and that he has written a ton of songs for country singers. But when I hear HIM sing, I don’t hear country. A couple popular examples for people not familiar with Chris:





I mean, he plays a steel guitar and sometimes wears a cowboy hat, but when I listen to him I hear blues and southern rock WAY more than I hear country. Leave everything the same except change his skin color to black and nobody would be calling that country.

Im not complaining, mind you, I actually like it when music doesn’t easily fit into a genre box, but I find it interesting. Does anyone disagree with me? Any music experts (I’m not one) who think it is clearly country?

 

[Crovax]

Lots of artists transcend genre.

Lots of artists hop genres very few transcend them

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

I like all kinds of music. Rap, country, rock, blues, R&B, classical...all of it. And Chris Stapleton is definitely a favorite of mine.

But I dont understand why he is classified as “country music”. I get that he was a song writer before he was a performer and that he has written a ton of songs for country singers. But when I hear HIM sing, I don’t hear country. A couple popular examples for people not familiar with Chris:





I mean, he plays a steel guitar and sometimes wears a cowboy hat, but when I listen to him I hear blues and southern rock WAY more than I hear country. Leave everything the same except change his skin color to black and nobody would be calling that country.

Im not complaining, mind you, I actually like it when music doesn’t easily fit into a genre box, but I find it interesting. Does anyone disagree with me? Any music experts (I’m not one) who think it is clearly country?

It's where Leon led a lot of people and where Waylon was headed once upon a time, it's all outlaw.
What passes for country on the radio today is the same four songs all of which sound like truck commercials.

 

[Skeptic Bob]

Lots of artists hop genres very few transcend them

Deep stuff.

 

[Skeptic Bob]

It's where Leon led a lot of people and where Waylon was headed once upon a time, it's all outlaw.
What passes for country on the radio today is the same four songs all of which sound like truck commercials.

Huh. I never thought of categorizing Stapleton as outlaw country, but I can see it. Might explain why I like him so much as my favorite country singers make up The Highwaymen.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Lots of artists hop genres very few transcend them

Well said. Leon Russell was an example of that, and no matter how much some folks hate them, The Eagles were another.
Well said, sir.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Huh. I never thought of categorizing Stapleton as outlaw country, but I can see it. Might explain why I like him so much as my favorite country singers make up The Highwaymen.

The country radio business has ruined country music, it ruined it twenty years ago, maybe more.
And even with terrestrial radio on life support now, the damage remains.
To be classified as "country" now, the restrictions are so tight that everyone sings about the same crap, makes the same riffs and licks, carves out the same two minutes and eighteen seconds of monotonous blather and invokes the same tired old tropes.

Johnny Cash couldn't even get an audition today if they didn't know he was Cash, and neither could Willie.
Yeah yeah yeah I know folks are going to smear me about old school for old men, but Garth Brooks can't sing his way out of a paper bag or find his own ass with a roadmap and a flashlight. He doesn't even actually care about the music, his whole goddamn show is one long beer commercial. And Blake Shelton has dissed Leon Russell on every single episode of The Voice where someone sings "A Song For You" by letting them get away with calling it a Donnie Hathaway song when Leon wrote the damn thing, and Blake is an Okie, so it is unforgivable.

Country today is "pop country" and it is nauseating.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

The only thing country about Chris Stapleton is his hat. He's definitely more blues/bluegrass/southern rock than country.

That said, I tend to worry less about the genre and more about the artist. Lots of artists transcend genre.

When Nashville became Nash-Vegas, that's when people started booting all the greats out of the business because they "weren't country", sort of like how "xxxx didn't leave the Republican Party, the party left them." Same damn thing.
Chris is where country would have evolved, and has evolved despite being cast out of the genre.

Fifty years from now no one will remember Big and Rich, but people will remember Chris Stapleton.