Chris Stapleton Proves Why Awards Shows Matter
“Awards shows don’t matter.”
This is the bill of goods fans of true country music, and fans of independent music have been forced to sell themselves for years as a consolation prize for continuously being overlooked, losing in bulk, and being generally embarrassed during the moments when America and the world crowds around the boob tube for the spectacle of a televised award show like the CMA’s or the Grammys.
But we’re lying to ourselves when we say these things don’t matter, just like we lie to ourselves when we say radio doesn’t matter. It may not matter to you, or to us as music fans who care about the quality of the music, or the content of the character of the performers, and not just the commercial success behind them. But that doesn’t mean awards don’t matter in the grand scheme. Undoubtedly, the truest artists in music don’t need the validation of the industry or some awards apparatus to feel fulfilled. But that’s beside the fact that nominations and wins at award shows can help get an artist heard, or aid the more overreaching effort to improve the lot of popular music if the right people win.
The Grammy Awards certainly mattered in 2002 when the soundtrack to the movie O Brother Where Art Thou walked away with Album of the Year, and Dr. Ralph Stanley was awarded the Best Country Male Performance for “O, Death.” The album had already spurned a resurgence of interest in bluegrass and roots music, but the Grammy accolades helped it spread to other sectors of American society. Soon music schools across the country were adding bluegrass to their curriculum, and ever since, bluegrass has become one of the most grassroots-supported genres in the United States and beyond.
The Grammy Awards don’t always pay attention to country music, aside from their country-specific categories. Take away nominations for questionably country-designated artists such as Taylor Swift and Lady Antebellum, and country has been virtually ignored for the top awards over the past 15 years and beyond. But the 2016 Grammy installment could be much different. Chris Stapleton’s Traveller will be up for Album of the Year, and it could be country music’s night to win big.
Awards shows may not matter to some, but they mattered massively when it came to Chris Stapleton and the CMA’s this year, spiking his sales 6,400%, and shooting him straight to #1 on both the country albums and songs charts. And here a month later, he continues to fly high. In fact for this upcoming week, Stapleton is projected to have the #1 record in country music yet again, aided in part by his four Grammy nominations. It’s a month removed from the CMA’s, the Grammy’s don’t transpire until February 15th, and Stapleton is still riding a wave of recognition connected to awards shows.
But of course, not everyone is happy. Those who see Stapleton as a fraud—as a maschination of the mainstream to fool traditional country listeners—now have another chance to bellyache. “Awards shows are all rigged,” they tell themselves, because this is what they use to justify why their favorite artists got snubbed for so many years. Start rooting for Stapleton now, and how would that look to your friends on Facebook? A loser’s mentality set in years ago for many independent and classic country fans, and for some it has been difficult to re-calibrate to the new reality of artists like Jason Isbell, Blackberry Smoke, Willie Nelson, and Aaron Watson scoring #1 records, and Chris Stapleton being nominated for the biggest distinction in recorded music.
It’s a new day, but some of us have become so hardened and jaded in our fights over the years, we’re untrusting of anything that’s successful, and we praise other things for being unsuccessful as a badge of honor. It’s come to the point where we identify so much with losing, we don’t want to win and we don’t want things to get better, because it means the erosion of who we are, and what we’re supposed to stand for. Chris Stapleton can’t be quality music, and be commercially successful at the same time. That’s not supposed to happen.
Nothing’s assured though, and many are betting on Stapleton becoming the afterthought of the Grammy evening. Famous music critic and columnist Bob Lefsetz said on Tuesday, “As for Chris Stapleton”¦ He won’t win, you’ll forget he was nominated, we’ll see if he can follow up this publicity bump with a hit album, unlike Kacey Musgraves”¦”
But Stapleton already has followed up his publicity bump with a hit album, and a hit song, and a single that is surprisingly breaking through the country oligarchy to slowly work its way up the radio charts after his CMA wins. Saving Country Music said similar things to Bob Lefsetz’s comments about Stapleton’s chances at the CMA’s, and eventually had to eat those words. However Lefsetz is right about Musgraves. Her numerous awards show wins resulted in some elevated sales bumps, but nowhere near the Stapleton level. It probably doesn’t help that Kacey’s a woman in a country man’s world. What’s different about Stapleton is that he’s not only winning as a traditional country and critical favorite, but those wins are translating into tremendous sales spikes unseen in country previously.
The other distinctive flavor of the 2016 Grammy Awards is that country females are well represented, contrary to the environment in the country mainstream. Ashley Monroe scores big with two nominations, including in the Best Country Album category for The Blade. Lee Ann Womack walks away with two awards, and newcomer Cam, Kacey Musgraves, Brandy Clark, and others received nominations as well.
And the other unheralded winner buried in the nominations is the importance of Americana in nurturing and launching future stars in multiple genres. The Grammy Awards have their own Americana categories, and wouldn’t it be nice if country award organizations did the same thing since Americana grows and inspires so much of country music’s talent, with no better example of this phenomenon than Chris Stapleton.
Before The Alabama Shakes were receiving a nomination for Album of the Year at the Grammys just like Stapleton, they were recognized as the 2012 Americana Music Awards Emerging Artist of the Year. They also performed at the 2012 Americana ceremony. Leon Bridges, who is regularly slotted under the Americana distinction, and originally hails from the Texas scene, recently played Saturday Night Live, and received a Grammy nomination under the R&B category.
– – – – – – – –
Fans of classic country and independent music know all too well the foolhardiness of getting your hopes high. If you want to be a fan of good music and pay attention to awards shows, you have to learn how to lose with grace, and deal with disappointment. But America loves losers, and so does country music; so much so that we fear what might happen when our favorite losers actually win, to the point where we are timid to relinquish our loser’s identity, or root for worthy artists, or pretend that things like awards shows matter.
But they do matter, and they already have mattered tremendously when it comes to Chris Stapleton. And whether he wins or loses on February 15th, he will be our winner, or loser, and we will love him just the same. Because in the end we all know he probably doesn’t even belong there, even though he might be the most deserving in the field.
READ: Chris Stapleton and Jason Isbell Come Up Big in 2015 Grammy Nominations
December 8, 2015 @ 7:49 pm
All very true. Hopefully people will in fact stop lying to themselves. I do think the album is overhyped because it pulls the reigns on what has taken in the last number of years and the CMA’s put the stamp on that. If this album comes out 15 years ago it is definitely not blazing any trails. But be that as it may his accomplishments are undoubtedly deserving in 2015 so I’m excited to see what happens.
December 8, 2015 @ 8:38 pm
I found it fascinating how Stapleton is the critical darling that this finally happened to. It just as easily could have happened to Ashley Monroe. She could’ve been nominated for album, song and female artist and won all three deservingly.
Or it could have happened to Jamey Johnson’s double-album a couple years back (he could have won 3 awards for that album). Or it could have happened to The Mavericks’ “In Time” album (they could have won 3 major CMAs). All of these artists are signed to major labels.
I think it happened to Stapleton because Warner knows that he will be involved in Timberlake’s upcoming album and knows that they could make a ton of money off of him because of that. Plus, they may feel he has earned it since he’s written so many hit songs for other artists.
The Stapleton thing could happen every single year with a different artist. There is plenty of good country out there. But Stapleton is the first time a label sees big profits as a possibility from a critical darling.
December 8, 2015 @ 8:54 pm
Some good points and some poor points. The artist isn’t the problem and making money on a major label, it’s the labels way of thinking and doing business. Thousands upon thousands across the country make a living out of being independent artists on a budget. Times may be tight but they certainly make it work. It’s the labels backwards thinking and doing business like they’re used to is why it hasn’t happened. It may not be on the best production level but you can make a pretty good record for less than what a single demo costs (that they’re used to paying).
His writing side of music has nothing to do with the label. I don’t know exactly who he is signed with or not but he’s most likely with a publishing group or independent at this point. On a draw and renewable contract usually by year. Label wouldn’t get any part of his writing royalties or his cut for that. Unless they cut one of his writes like they did with his album or for other artists on the labelthat do well. They may get a bigger percentage of the increase in streaming percentages as its been semi reported, not a fact label gets 76%, artist 17%, and writer the last 7%.
Fact is they hit a home run. Praise them for it and taking a chance on him. Previously I bet radio wasn’t a major part of the plan as he said it was never talked about. Things change and they rewarded him. Both made a lot of money now. It could’ve been easily the other way around and he could’ve been dropped. He still did fairly well his first week of sales. I would think better than expected.
I love the plight of the indie artist. Whether they’re truly independent, on thirty tigers, or finally on some major labels.
One more thing I believe it’s been since Alison Krauss in the mid nineties at the cma that someone came out of nowhere and won a bunch of awards. I truly think social media played a major part of his post award success, and almost instantly.
December 9, 2015 @ 1:35 am
It’s in part because Chris Stapleton has a similar appeal to that of Adele.
Both vocalists have distinctive voices that transcend the timbre and identity of genre (Stapleton’s vocals are especially indebted to Southern soul). Like Trigger said, Adele’s appeal comes largely from stripping down music to its fundamental building blocks to the extent fans of music can appreciate it from all genre corners, and Stapleton’s album has that same appeal. And both, as personalities, hail from working class backgrounds and have traits and appearances that defy traditional celebrity archetypes and are relatable in their realness and humility.
That’s why “Traveller” will prove to have especially lengthy legs commercially much like Adele’s releases have and are. He possesses a voice and personality of the people, not just a particular demographic.
December 8, 2015 @ 10:37 pm
Hey, Trig! Have you given a listen to the latest Alabama Shakes album? It’s nothing like their Americana, roots debut. It’s very R&B.
December 8, 2015 @ 11:14 pm
I have. I agree. I still the Americana support was vital to them getting where they are today.
December 9, 2015 @ 12:09 am
Great article. It does a nice job of putting the Grammy nominations into a broader perspective. I had forgotten that the O Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack won Album of the Year back in he day, but it’s interesting to draw a link back to that time. I’m pretty critical of the Grammy Awards overall, but I have to give them credit for doing right by non-mainstream country occasionally over the last couple decades, by giving awards to records like Van Lear Rose, and a couple of the Rick Rubin-produced Johnny Cash albums.
My question is, is Bob Lefsetz considered to be an insightful guy? I’m not really familiar with his work, but I read the blog post linked here, and it kinda came across like a rambling, disjointed rant. Uh… no disrespect. His initial point seemed to be that the Grammy nominations prove that pop music is dominant in today’s music culture, which may be true, but his example of the ‘Album of the Year’ nominations doesn’t really support that, considering that three of the five albums nominated are not really “pop” records. However, I guess it’s true that none of them are truly rock albums, which may be what hes trying to get at. Also, Chris Stapleton may not walk away with any major hardware, but I’m not necessarily taking Lefsetz’s word for it. As the article states, he doesn’t seem to have noticed that Stapleton already has a hit record.
Regarding Kacey Musgraves, one thing Chris Stapleton clearly has over her (and even Jamey Johnson, in my opinion) is absolute, raw talent. And I’m knocking Kacey by saying that. Her main appeal is her quirky personality, songwriting perspective, and style. (I also think her personality and perspective opens doors for her to go places country artists don’t always get to go, which makes her a good ambassador for the genre in my opinion.) But the more I think about it, she is probably more of a niche artist than someone like Stapleton. I know people have already made the comparison between Stapleton and Adele, but I think it holds true.
I will add that Ashley Monroe also has the potential to make people melt vocally, albeit in a slightly different way.
December 9, 2015 @ 12:18 am
Having said all that, I still absolutely think there should be a place for Kacey Musgraves on country radio, and that programmers are idiotic for not playing her stuff more. She may not have Chris Stapleton’s raw vocal talent, but she still has a lot going for her, especially when compared to Kelsea Ballerini, Jana Kramer, and the like.
December 9, 2015 @ 1:51 am
Kacey is amazing. I miss hearing her on country radio.
December 9, 2015 @ 1:51 am
Comparing Stapleton to Jamey Johnson is a damn good joke, maybe Stapleton is in the same talent category as Alan Jackson but get out of here with comparing him to Jamey Johnson. Kacey Musgraves is another average singer that has a unique sound, her voice is right inbetween Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood.
December 9, 2015 @ 10:15 am
Regardless of your opinion of their music, Jamey can’t hold a candle to Stapleton, simply in terms of having a “who is that guy?!” voice.
December 9, 2015 @ 2:59 pm
Chris Stapleton’s “who is that guy” voice wore off on me within a couple months , now all I hear is a voice thats very good and not great. I don’t consider his music in the top 5 of today although it is great. His songwriting is better than his voice for sure.
December 9, 2015 @ 7:31 am
Lefsetz is Mr. Zeitgeist. The few times that I’ve read him, I’ve wanted to slap him, this letter included.
December 9, 2015 @ 10:39 am
Bob Lefsetz is a case study all to himself. There’s a lot of folks that love to hate him, but I do think he offers and interesting perspective at times, if you can get through his screed-like writing style. He’s abrasive by being honest, but he also has a lot of respect for being very right at times. He was the main guy who was screaming at the industry that they needed to get with the program when it came to MP3’s and then streaming, and a lot of his theories proved to be right.
December 9, 2015 @ 8:00 am
I agree that they are important, however it seems they are only important if you are part of the system. Stapleton is an anomaly, he is an insider that has not really compromised his music and was allowed to do what he wants. These show are never going to really give anyone a shot that is not an insider. You could not get more critical buzz for an independent artist than Sturgill got over the last few years, however country music did not extend a hand to him for a slot which I don’t think any of the artists in attendance would have minded, especially considering a lot of the love he has gotten from some of them.
December 9, 2015 @ 10:30 am
Outsiders are beginning to become insiders. Chris Stapleton was an outsider for years. Then he won three major CMA Awards when nobody was giving him a chance. Now he’s had the #1 album in country for a month. Brandy Clark was an outsider, and she received multiple nominations. Sturgill Simpson wasn’t recognized because he wasn’t on a major label. Now he is. And the difference with these artists from what we’ve seen in past years and past generations is they aren’t compromising their sound to getting these bigger opportunities. Chris Stapleton made the record he wanted to make, cut live with Dave Cobb. And now it’s the CMA Album of the Year. We all know Sturgill Simpson would rather shoot himself than not make the album he wants to make. The industry is trying to incorporate these guys because they know they have to to survive.
December 9, 2015 @ 8:01 am
My argument has never been that awards shows and country radio don’t matter to me; rather, my argument is that I don’t matter to them. So I do cheer when an artist I like gets well-deserved recognition, but I don’t assume that an artist is no good because the Grammys or radio pass them by. In other words I don’t accept the idea that Grammy nods or radio airplay should be my guide for who to listen to.
December 9, 2015 @ 9:04 am
That’s right, only one sandwich can be named Sandwich of the Year, but there are so many good sandwiches to choose from that we can still enjoy them all.
December 9, 2015 @ 9:07 am
Exactly! And I can enjoy an awesome sandwich even if Subway doesn’t carry it.
December 9, 2015 @ 10:22 am
“My argument has never been that awards shows and country radio don”™t matter to me; rather, my argument is that I don”™t matter to them.”
Good point.
But I think what we’re beginning to see is they do care, if for no other reason than they have to now because if the shifting economic realities and the gaining of market share by traditional and independent artists.
Country awards shows and the Grammys are two completely different animals. The Grammy Awards let the voting process determine who gets nominated, who gets to perform, etc. etc. They also have way more categories (though most are not televised), so everyone making music at least gets a chance to be recognized if they’re tops in their field. I actually think the Grammys make ridiculous efforts to be inclusive to all music fans.
As far as the CMA’s, over the last few years, I think they have been making strong efforts to be more inclusive of all country music fans. We saw that in November, we saw that last year, we saw that with the awarding of George Strait of Entertainer of the Year. The ACM’s may be a bit of a different story, but I think in April they will be forced to pay attention to Chris Stapleton and follow suit.
December 9, 2015 @ 10:52 am
It’ll be nice if they stick with it. Not that I’ll ever watch any awards show on TV; takes too damn long! But once upon a time I would look at the awards themselves as a way to find new music I might like; maybe they’ll get back there. In the meantime, that’s what I use your lists for! Your “best of” lists always include some great artist I’ve never listened to before…bwah, it’s costing me a lot of money, buying all those records! 😉
December 9, 2015 @ 10:43 am
I group “media coverage” together for the most part, whether it is radio or TV (inc. award shows). It’s possible to find success other ways, but exposure really helps in general.
I can’t recall having ever watched a Grammy show, but I’ll be interested to see what performance slots are afforded to any country and Americana artists.
Entertainment is a fickle beast. I’ve seen rises and falls and stalls and everything else – whether it is sports or acting or music or any of the rest of it. I’m just glad Chris and the others are getting these opportunities now.
December 9, 2015 @ 11:29 am
Confession time: the last real time I had an award show matter to me as a fan of Country, was when Jack Ingram had that out of nowhere win for ACM’s Top New Male Vocalist of the Year back in 2008, beating out people like Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean (I could be wrong). Mostly I rooted for him because I was still thanking him for saving my life 9 years ago.
Other than that I basically had not tuned into an award show since last years ACMs because I was pulling for Garth to win Entertainer of the Year.
December 9, 2015 @ 2:51 pm
I mean, we do have to remember we’re about 2 years removed from Justin Moore winning an award that he was not even qualified to be nominated for. And FGL has won several Duo of the Year awards in a row when there were much more deserving duos to be awarded. And songs like “Over You” win awards left and right because they are considered to be “deep.”
These award shows only matter if they shine the spotlight on artists that are deserving. When they shower praise on artists like Luke Bryan, Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton, they completely discredit themselves.
But I do think they could be beneficial when they “snub” crappy popular artists like Jason Aldean or FGL. These shows only matter if they decide they want to try to change the current environment.
December 9, 2015 @ 5:07 pm
As I was pulling up somewhere, I heard “Nobody to Blame” come on the other day and was so excited, I sat in my parked car to finish singing to it.
December 9, 2015 @ 8:54 pm
Speaking of eat their words, what are you gonna say to defend stapletron when he is in the Justin Timberlake video doing a choreographed dance number. Or maybe they’ll be on a porch with the sun setting and two acoustic guitars and a couple beers flipping from black and white to color to look artsy yet traditional. I know you have heard George sing Tennessee whiskey, but you must like timberlakes version better. Well if he opens the door for sturgill, then he’ll be the hero you claim.
December 9, 2015 @ 9:39 pm
If Chris Stapleton does choreographed dance moves, I will criticize it, just like I expressly criticized him when he wrote bad songs with Thomas Rhett and others. Timberlake did a version of “Tennessee Whiskey?” Actually, I like David Allan Coe’s version the best because it was the very first one I heard.
A lot of anger in this comment.
December 10, 2015 @ 7:31 pm
You comepletely ignored Carrie Underwood’s well deserved Grammy nom in your mention of the female nominees. Was that an intentional diss? She is a great artist and deserves that nomination.
December 10, 2015 @ 8:43 pm
I also didn’t mention Little Big Town, and the majority of artists up for country, folk, roots, and bluegrass nominations. This isn’t 2nd grade where if I bring a birthday invitation for one, I have to bring a birthday invitation for all. I think Carrie Underwood will do just fine, even though I failed to mention her in a post about Chris Stapleton. Not everything is a conspiracy.
December 12, 2015 @ 10:16 am
As much as I admire Stapleton, I don’t get the hype about “Traveler” being one of the best country albums this year. It had so many whiskey clichés I was getting sick. They may not have been bro-country clichés, but they were clichés nonetheless. Is one type of cliché really better than another? I’m not trying to be rude, but “Traveler” just seemed like it had every traditional country cliché in the book.