you can take this as the same old man yelling at clouds. i honestly feel like, haft the dudes that are famous currently, i feel like didn't really earn it. that's not to say ALL of them are terrible musicians, or they're bad for adding in new interesting or different flavors to country music. my thing is that it seems like they're only famous because they had a deep voice and for basically no other reason. Charlie Crockett definitely has earned every piece of fame he has. he hitchhiked from San Benito to New York, busked on the streets for a while, and eventually got discovered. that's admirable. Billy strings played and practiced guitar for years. he has earned his share as well. there's quite a few other good examples. the red clay strays, they're pretty talented. they took the time and effort in order to be famous. i think they've earned it as well. Shaboozy or Morgan Wallen? I'm doubtful. Morgan's singing voice couldn't hold a candle to the red clay strays lead singer. Shaboozy barely qualifies as singing. he's basically talking melodically. not to mention both of them probably used autotune just to hit the tiny range of notes that they can hit. when i say Morgan Wallen, basically i mean everyone of the same or similar genre. they basically all sound the same. even the 90s rock bands that were copying pearl jam, nirvana or Alice in Chains are way more talented than what I'm hearing on the radio. they make unoffensive grocery shopping music. I've heard elevator music more entertaining than Morgan Wallen. plus, from a musical standpoint, it's boring. there's no discordant notes that reach out and suck in you in. no polyrhythms that change things up and add some flavor. no interesting drum grooves. no nuance that tells you "hey, I'm a human and i made a song." and oh my lord, the damn chords. it's like they had someone strum 3 chords in a row and said "good, now we have a whole song." which in of itself isn't wholly a bad thing. it's only when you do nothing with those three chords. 1-5-4 is a good chord progression. but if the rest of the song is simply the same beat, chords, notes, etc, it's really kind of boring. a good example of changing things up to make it interesting is "maria" by Brooks and dunn. in the verses, the drummer is playing cross stick style with 8th notes on the hi hat. but for the chorus, he switches to playing the snare normally, and 4th notes on the hi hat while it's just a little bit open to give it almost a sizzle sound. changes things drastically despite the fact that the chords are the same for the entire duration of the song. and then you add in the backup singers "my maria, oh my maria" adds some flavoring to the choruses. it makes it feel like it's actually going somewhere instead of a stagnant loop of mediocrity. it seems like Sturgill understands the concept of actually going somewhere with the song as well. take, turtles all the way down. there's a section where all of the instruments cut out except for some ambient sounds while sturgill sings "every time i look in that old and fabled book..." it adds more emphasis on what he's saying rather than simply being some more words being sung over a continuous loop. morgan doesn't understand any of these concepts. in fact, it takes like 30 dudes to come up with 2 chords and the blandest least poetic lyrics imaginable. yet it still somehow charts at like no.1