Sam Hunt – The Favorite “Country” Toy of Pop Writers
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Beyond making a really bad amalgam of derivative and formulaic rap pop by ripping off the styles of Drake and trap beat artists to only then turn around and sell it as country to the gullible masses, Sam Hunt is also superlative at turning hip-hop, pop, and indie rock writers into certified country music experts by the sheer release of new shitty music. When you see phrases such as “I never knew I liked country until I heard Sam Hunt” alongside vociferous praise for his forward-thinking and critically-important version of evolved country, you know you’re consuming the opinions of a dupe whose completely out of their depth.
Another tell tale sign is when they label a site like Saving Country Music as “purist.” That’s what both Slate and Pitchfork did while slathering their praise upon Sam’s most recent monstrosity, Southside. How could two separate writers both come to the same conclusion of Saving Country Music’s place in the country world in the first couple of paragraphs of their Sam Hunt reviews? Because they’re both working off the same cheat sheet versions of country in media echo chambers.
In truth, most actual country purists can’t wait to see this site throw a 404 Error forevermore. Sorry, but country purists don’t praise artists like John Moreland and Caitlyn Smith. Besides, “purist” is more a code word for “conservative,” which is just as much of an assumption. Last time I checked, I was still blocked by Toby Keith on Twitter.
But anyway, it’s always fun to watch the outside music media fawn over a “country” artist that in their minds undermines rural norms in the ignorant agrarian swaths of dumbfuck America. We saw this a couple of years ago with Kacey Musgraves of course, and last year with Lil Nas X. Sometimes the praise is warranted, which was true in some part with Musgraves. Other times it involves looking the other way over clear and present reductive hogwash and even outright misogyny, objectification, and theft of intellectual property like with Lil Nas X—traits these socially conscious critics would otherwise admonish.
One of the few outside critics who got their assessment of Sam Hunt’s new album Southside right was The Needle Drop, and not just because he gave it a grade of “1.” He called Sam Hunt, “Someone who grabbed my attention thanks to the positive praise he’s been receiving in sections of the music press that usually reserve their pixels for indie bands and trap mixtapes. The average Bro-Country peddler isn’t usually the type of thing that would turn a coastal music writer country curious.”
Something else The Needle Drop got right (and even most country “critics” got wrong) is what a creep fest Sam Hunt’s new song “That Ain’t Beautiful” is. “I’m not sure what about this track is more gross, the tone of the corny spoken word intro, or is it the lyrics that feel like you are gaslighting some girl into liking you.”
Carl Wilson writing for Slate was right on this point as well, calling the song “utterly winceworthy” where “Hunt patronizingly lectures some young lady friend (that seems the appropriate term here) about her drunken misbehaviors at bars and destination weddings … Given all that Hunt is acknowledging he has to repent for—and need I mention his own arrest on a DUI as recently as November?—it’s a bizarre choice to turn around and cast stones. It gives me pause about the new-leaf, family-man stance that Hunt strikes on the majority of Southside. The work of self-reform doesn’t give you license to judge everyone else’s fun, and certainly not, for Christ’s sake (and I invoke that cheek-turner’s name deliberately), in a goddamn country song.”
Listen, if you praised the new song from the Dixie Chicks “Gaslighter,” but somehow side stepped the inherent issues in Sam Hunt’s “That Ain’t Beautiful,” you’re a hypocrite.
Slate is in the clear on this point though, even though their piece which is titled, The Drake of Country Music is Back with a More Thoughtful Take on That Old Town Road is too wrapped up in the writer’s disillusioned Catholicism, and an obsession that Sam Hunt is the direction country music needs.
“For those of us who were rooting for Hunt to really push the bounds of what country is capable of, ‘Southside’ may sound like it barely goes the distance. But by turning its musical hybridity from a novelty into a vehicle to convey that kind of grown-up content—with all the dirt and noise and hurt it implies—it does something better. It proves that fork in the road can lead to someplace a person (or a genre) might want to settle in and stay awhile.”
But why is this reviewer, in their own words, “rooting for Hunt”? And especially to “push the bounds of what country is capable of”? Is that really their place, or is it their place to analyze the music objectively, and as country? And why is it that they only review and advocate for artists like Sam Hunt, and ignore other important artists trying to push country music forward like Ashley McBryde who also just released a new album?
Pitchfork comes to a similar conclusion. “A little off-center is exactly what commercial country, with its endless aesthetic complacency, so desperately needs … [Sam Hunt] proved, once again, that those genres are only as disparate as music marketers would have you believe, and that there’s still plenty more fruit to be borne of their inevitable cross-pollination.”
These reviewers aren’t rooting for Sam Hunt because he’s good or because he’s country, but because he’s decidedly not country, and as non country music fans, they see this as appealing, or some sort of version of progress. Sure, commercial country is stuck in a malaise. But making it sound like other genres is no panacea. It’s a prescription for the monogenre, and a version of cultural appropriation that is an insult to country (and to hip-hop as well) that should be guarded against for reasons that of all things the recent Trolls movie illustrated perfectly, but many of these publications don’t.
In a recent New York Times podcast with Jon Caramanica and sports writer Natalie Weiner (who Caramanica describes as a “Sam Hunt-phile”), the duo once again takes a jab at Saving Country Music (which they’ve done before), before lavishly fawning over Sam Hunt’s brilliance.
But with all due respect, their assessment for Sam’s appeal among country fans is completely wrong. Caramanica asks sports writer Natalie Weiner about Sam Hunt fans, “Do you think those people are people who crave country music innovation, or what he did was kind of access a country music listener that maybe hadn’t been adequately served by everybody else in the genre?”
Natalie Weiner concludes it’s the latter, but this is so completely shortsighted. If we’re being honest, both assessments are probably slightly true, meaning there are some country fans that do crave a little EDM/hip-hop influence in country, and were just waiting for Sam Hunt to come along. But the vast majority of Sam Hunt fans are not native to country. Instead, they’re migrants from white hip-hop and pop who are listening to Sam Hunt in spite of the fact that he’s labeled as “country,” because they deem him safer. It’s like what Steve Earle once said, “They’re just doing hip hop for people who are afraid of black people.”
These aren’t country fans. They’re Sam Hunt fans. Because if you’re an actual country fan, you hate Sam Hunt, or at least you hate Sam Hunt as country, because he isn’t, even if you can appreciate his music for what it is, which is Southern EDM/hip-hop.
Even if you absolutely love Sam Hunt, you can still take the completely intuitive, objective, and correct stance that he is in no way a product of country music. And doing so doesn’t create cultural conflict or friction, it alleviates it. Let Sam Hunt be Sam Hunt. But let country actually be country. Problem solved.
In other words, Sam Hunt’s country fans are the “I never knew I liked country until I heard Sam Hunt” crowd, of which both Jon Caramanica, Natalie Weiner, and many other pop and hip-hop music writers assigned to cover country fall into the category of, which makes them perfectly unqualified to analyze Sam Hunt’s music and his place in country music objectively, yet they’re speaking for what is supposed to be the “newspaper of record.”
Yes, this article is once again Saving Country Music lashing out at other music writers. But these opinions and perspectives are offered respectfully and constructively, and frankly, with a lot more respect than some of these respective writers bring to country music and its fans.
It would be awesome if outlets like Pitchfork and The New York Times wanted to cover more country. When you combine country music with the market share of Americana and Texas/Red Dirt, it is a massive swath of culture that should have more coverage in nationally-oriented periodicals and is going unfairly ignored. But putting pop writers on the case is only going to result in bias and misunderstanding, specifically when it comes to the incursion of pop into country, which is an important topic that deserves more educated analysis, and on both sides of the cultural divide.
But when you push Sam Hunt as an innovator and the future of country music, you’re just proving your lack of understanding. Southside sold decent upon its debut, but is currently being bested in the country album charts by the now nearly 3-year-old record from Luke Combs, This One’s For You, along with Luke’s latest record, What You See Is What You Get, and a 2-year-old album from Morgan Wallen called If I Know Me.
“Innovation” in mainstream country music right now is being defined by actual country music, and songwriters who despite still showing room for improvement, are moving more in the direction of the roots and meaning in music, and away from the vapid era defined by Sam Hunt derivativeness and Bro-Country of the previous decade.
April 30, 2020 @ 10:55 am
Good write-up. It’s amazing how many people that know nothing about the genre think they can talk about it in length. And seeing you mention “TheNeedleDrop”, did you see this 20 minute takedown from Spectrum Pulse?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gojplbRhbEs
April 30, 2020 @ 5:37 pm
Spectrum Pulse does some good stuff. One of the few all-genre critics that understands the country music environment.
May 10, 2020 @ 4:21 pm
yep
April 30, 2020 @ 12:02 pm
When they rely on lazy generalizations, and are constantly trying to stand on some sort of moral high ground, it’s not surprising that they misappropriate certain “code” words like “purists,” to help their cause.
In today’s world of derivative and shallow artifice, why is it that purity should only be valued in other things, but not country music? I’d question any “forward thinking” critic that reviewed Tang as an acceptable, or a better version of actual, organic, freshly squeezed, PURE orange juice. Sam Hunt WOULD BE the Tang of country music, IF he was country…but he’s more like the homogenized skim milk of rap. And watching these dupes drink their glass of homogenized skim milk while, with a straight face, calling it orange juice, is indeed fun.
April 30, 2020 @ 12:21 pm
Slate and Pitchfork are an example of lazy journalism. Click, paste, and post with a few added comments to make it appear original on a subject matter they know little about. Kind of describes journalism as a whole today.
I will repeat the comment from Coach Bobby Knight when replying to a sports’ writer who probably never wore a jock in his life, “Your profession is one step above the profession of prostitution.” Such is the state of most journalism today.
Thank God for SCM site.
April 30, 2020 @ 6:59 pm
Yep.
Thank God for Trigger
April 30, 2020 @ 12:33 pm
The far left’s culture warriors are as adept at picking their battles as Gomer Pyle is at freestyle. Sure is fun to watch though…
May 1, 2020 @ 3:53 pm
If this cat is the future of country, you can count me out.
May 14, 2020 @ 11:50 am
Well people have their opinions and that’s fine. I’m not a fan of Sam hunts take on country and im not placing his songs alongside the greats. But some of his songs are fun to listen to. His newest song hard to forget I really like. The first time I heard it I was in the car returning on a long trip and I thought it was garbled because of volume being low and station going out of range. Upon more listening I was delighted to see that wasn’t the case. It also sounds like a take on Akon on his song Mr lonely. I enjoy that kind of stuff for what it is. The funny thing it reminded me also if seeing Charlie Daniels last year and he opened up by having a Patsy Cline song sung by her played, crazy I believe, then jump right in at the end with his stuff. It’s just as jarring as this but I thought it was cool.
April 30, 2020 @ 12:45 pm
The new single that samples Webb Pierce was interesting the first time I heard it. Now, it is fingernails down a chalkboard.
April 30, 2020 @ 1:27 pm
I agree. Sam Hunt’s songs have catchy boring generic melodies that grab your attention the first time you listen but soon get irritating. The best country songs have more subtle interesting melodies that grow on you and make you keep playing that song again and again. For example some Don Williams songs aren’t (at all) attention grabbing but they’re fantastic and the more you listen the more you appreciate the subtly in the music and lyrics – pop country would just immediately label it boring.
April 30, 2020 @ 1:01 pm
There are two artists that I have heard consistently the line “I never knew I liked country until I heard…” Sam Hunt is indeed one of them, and the other is Chris Stapleton.
May 4, 2020 @ 2:10 pm
You can be right Joe but to my ears they’re not even in the same category.
May 4, 2020 @ 2:38 pm
They might be different types of music fans, too. My guess is that people who say it about Hunt have more of an affinity for pop music and those who say it about Stapleton have more of an affinity for rootsy rock music.
April 30, 2020 @ 1:09 pm
I have no issue with artists creating whatever sound they like. But for goodness sake, promote it under its correct genre. Taylor Swift decided country was not her thing, and she completely abandoned the format (granted she passed off some poppy music as country for a couple years). Sam Hunt, Maren Morris, Dan & Shay, etc. can record anything, but market it as what it is.
April 30, 2020 @ 2:44 pm
There are some pop leaning artists out there over the years who still have a deep appreciation for country, but Sam doesn’t exactly strike me as the type of person who has an appreciation for the true country predecessors who came before him. I cringe whenever I hear people who really don’t have a clue about the country music industry rave about how much they love Sam Hunt- and I have several friends who are this way.
April 30, 2020 @ 4:20 pm
That is a lot of writing over someone who deserves about two words, spefically “you suck.”
When you stay with music, you are very good. When you try to veer in to social commentary…
April 30, 2020 @ 5:36 pm
I’m not really sure this is social commentary. Three major periodicals who normally don’t cover country music decided to cover this Sam Hunt release, and it happens to be that all three of them also decided to cite this website specifically, and with a sort of loaded term. I respect their opinions, and that’s one of the reasons I linked to them and includes quotes. But since my name was brought up, I felt the need to offer a little bit of context. Saying “you suck” would be taking the easy way out on what is a nuanced argument on an important topic.
April 30, 2020 @ 4:58 pm
Sam Hunt is a (big) part of the problem…& he will never ever be a part of the solution.
April 30, 2020 @ 9:09 pm
Pitchfork is such an awful hipster sewer. I question whether their writers actually enjoy music or if they just revel in the meta.
However, you do seem to have a truck load of Sam Hunt hate posts. Could probably be dialed back.
April 30, 2020 @ 10:26 pm
I’ve posted about Sam Hunt twice in the last three months, which is one less time than non-country music critics mentioned me in their reviews of Sam Hunt. That seems like a truck load. And he just released his first album in six years, so there was probably going to be a post or two.
And I wouldn’t call this a Sam Hunt hate post. This is a much deeper and involved topic.
April 30, 2020 @ 6:15 pm
Didnt that beard mustache combo go out of style with the avengers movies?
April 30, 2020 @ 7:25 pm
I won’t get an answer, but I replied to the Slate author’s tweet on his feed regarding this article with a simple request: Please explain, in detail, what makes this country music.
I did it respectfully, without being a jerk. Said I was genuinely interested.
He won’t answer, but I wanted to pose the question.
April 30, 2020 @ 8:20 pm
Ah, the woke dilettantes at the New York Times strike again.
I can’t figure out why people still turn to that newspaper for anything other than an occasional crossword puzzle and all the fun-to-read takedowns of Famous American Hero Jared Kushner.
May 1, 2020 @ 2:53 am
In these circumstances it’s inevitably country, rather than any of the genres or styles the artist is badly riffing off, which is being enacted upon, where in actuality it’s very light country elements (a choppy banjo sample etc) that are being introduced into a commercial R&B or trap or whatever soundscape. I really do love the headline of that Pitchfork review: ‘a marker of what modern commercial country can do at its heights’ – if those are the heights, it’s a very forgiving fall.
May 1, 2020 @ 5:34 am
Sam is the most greatest singer of ever times and he IS country! If you dont like his vary amazing music then dont ever listen! I wood like to sea you people do better at songrighting and singing! I no about real country, I had been listening to Garth Brooks before most of you we’re even born!!
My own grandmother used to say “if you never have something mean to say about someone nice then dont say everything at all even once”!!
May 3, 2020 @ 7:34 am
I have a lot of things to say that aren’t “nice” about Sam Hunt. I am still going to say them anyway, because I do not give a single Sezchuan Stir-Fried Shit about what you or your grandmother thinks, Karen…uhhh, I mean INDK.
Sam Hunt is trash, and he is an insult to real country music fans everywhere.
May 1, 2020 @ 5:38 am
I have a brother who looks like this guy.
May 1, 2020 @ 4:30 pm
if you can’t say anything nice about your brother ………(.you know ….what INDK’s gramma tried to say above )
May 1, 2020 @ 9:06 pm
I don’t have much nice to say….
May 1, 2020 @ 6:01 am
I believe we called the likes of Sam Hunt, once upon a time, “country music for people who don’t like country music.”
It’s still true.
May 1, 2020 @ 6:34 am
is this a review of reviews? 1.5 sentences about scm gets a 1,000+ word rebuttal? guess they touched a sore spot.
May 1, 2020 @ 9:10 am
Yeah, it’s a strange observation to say this post is so long, which you’re the second to point out. It’s long because I included full quotes from other critics, because I didn’t want to pull quote them opportunistically, and wanted to share their full opinions to hopefully generate discussion. It’s not like I was rage typing until my fingers bled. I write long stories, and not every article is for everyone. If it’s too long for you, don’t read it I guess.
May 1, 2020 @ 7:25 am
Trigger, would you say Taylor Swift (through Red) a fair comparison to Sam Hunt in terms of their place in Country music? I tend to think that she at least had the intention of being pop-country in her early albums. Was there much talk of her pushing genre boundaries at the time?
Side note: Interesting to see Sam Hunt put “2016” as the lead track on the album. It’s likely the only country song on here. Given that and it’s slower pace, I’d expect it to be buried at the end.
May 1, 2020 @ 9:06 am
Taylor Swift was much bigger, and more critically-acclaimed than Sam Hunt at this point in her career. She won the CMA Entertainer of the Year twice. Sam Hunt is continuously snubbed by awards. No doubt, there were MAJOR squabbles about Taylor Swift being pop throughout her country career, and the existential threat she posed by being so successful, though it was always with the caveat that she was a quality writer. That is why she left, just like Sam Hunt should. Taylor said it was important to be honest with fans, and I think she got a lot of respect from country for that.
May 1, 2020 @ 3:35 pm
I’m a big country fan and let’s just say just because some songs don’t have that country twang doesn’t mean it ain’t country. I think Sam’s music is wonderful and don’t give a rip if some songs don’t have a country tune. There’s so much Sam Hunt bashing lately, makes me wonder how he’s rubbed y’all wrong. When you can produce/perform a song in all genres, you’re a musical genius. Country or not. He came out as a country performer and will remain country. Maybe country is changing a little bit and y’all are afraid of change.
May 1, 2020 @ 11:45 pm
I’ve come to terms with the fact that country music will (and has to) evolve, but where do you draw the line? Lines can be blurred to an extent but take it too far and we may as well do away with genres altogether and just call everything “music”.
May 10, 2020 @ 8:52 am
What country music are you a fan of? The question was raised earlier if Sam Hunt is country what about it makes it country? I’d be interested in hearing your answer Tracy. From my point of view, no one is afraid of change….it’s the direction that it’s going in we don’t like. Mainstream country music was charting hit after hit being formulaic with their 4 wheel drives, tailgate sittin’ beer drinkin’ hot girl in her daisy dukes songs meanwhile Sturgill Simpson is winning a Grammy for the best country music album of the year. Tyler Childers, Cody Jinks and Whitey Morgan are touring the country and playing every night…playing real country music!
May 1, 2020 @ 4:34 pm
I can’t help wondering where country music would have to go before people started saying ” remember when we had sam hunt …THAT was country music . ”
not gonna happen
May 4, 2020 @ 6:59 pm
I find people use Sam Hunt and other as a way to sound more inclusive in their listening tastes. Sam Hunt allows they to say they like country music without actually have to like it or really listen to it. It’s like a genre loophole or backdoor.|
Ironically many of these same people when I press them about actually country they will say the do not like it until at the end I bring up Johnny Cash, Patsy Kline, and Dolly Parton and they’ll ramble off several song the enjoy and not just the pop leaning stuff either.
Genres labels to me are a mixed bag. IMO. So I tend to go with sound if somebody hears Dwight Yoakum and say I want more of that sound I know the direction to go. If the hear Jean Shepard and sat that’s the stuff I know know to go more that era style.
But in the debate at hand my first question to ANYONE who calls Sam Hunt country is, “OK. What about his songs make in country music?”
The amount of tripping over themselves people do it amusing and sad.
May 5, 2020 @ 9:07 am
I am not a regular listener of Popcast, but will listen to episodes here and there. I typically like it especially when they go deep on Pop music that I like that is sometimes written off.
HOWEVER – I could not finish the Sam Hunt episode. At one point they said “Hard to Forget” minus the sample sounds vaguely Keith Urban-ish and could be done by any number of the countless males in the genre (true) – BUT THEN when they listed the guys who this song sounded like it could have gone to they included Charlie Worsham. Really? I think the song could have been something reasonably enjoyable by someone else, but thinking it sounds like Charlie Worsham proves they have no idea what they’re talking about.
May 5, 2020 @ 9:09 am
I hate when coastal elites talk about middle America.
May 10, 2020 @ 8:56 pm
First off it’s TRACI. Just let it be. He’s country. I think your wife is hot for him so you men don’t like him. Who fucking cares if he came out as country and sometimes sounds more like pop or rap. Shit, Tim McGraw did a song with Nelly.. Is he not considered country now too? Shania Twain/ backstreet boys, rascal Flatts/Christina Aguilara, Sugarland/ Beyonce It’s called music evolution. We as country music lovers love all genres of music. Collaborate away.. it’s fantastic.
May 14, 2020 @ 11:56 am
I liked some of his stuff. Some of it is very fun to listen to even if not really country but it’s close. His new song hard to forget I really like cause its in the same style as Mr lonely by Akon. Again it’s just fun. I saw Charlie daniels do the same thing with a Patsy Cline song in concert last year. Kind of neat if not jarring.
August 26, 2020 @ 12:29 pm
“you know you’re consuming the opinions of a dupe whose completely out of their depth”
This is irony, right? It’s “who’s”.
Regardless, this seems to be your central concern:
“Let Sam Hunt be Sam Hunt. But let country actually be country. Problem solved.”
I think you overstate (by a country mile, no less) the “problem” and how many people truly care about this. Music and genre are fluid – erecting barriers to country and creating some kind of Dewey decimal system whose gatekeepers are, well, you, seems like the kind of structures/strictures any artist worth their salt would instinctively rebel against.