It seems like crossovers are all the rage these days. In fact, most American auto companies decided to stop making cars and dedicated a whole product line to crossovers. I'm almost a little ashamed to say I own one myself.
Music is kind of the same way. Crossovers have been happening for quite some time now. In the 70's it was even more common. The funny thing is for the most part it is more of a one way street. What I mean is, you have country artists who tend to have some success and then they cross over into the pop scene.
Taylor Swift is a perfect example of this. While some artists like her make a full move away from country, others tend to keep one foot in both worlds. Carrie Underwood for example, going back even further, Eddie Rabbit. There is a long list of artists who live in the country world, but have had hits on the pop charts.
On rarer or occasions, though it seems to be more common with each passing day, you get artists who aren't country jumping on the country bandwagon. If you are up with the times, you probably already know who I am talking about.
Sure, there are artists like Kelly Clarkson who may have done a duet with a country artist that gained some recognition. Of course there is also Bon Jovi who after their success with Jennifer Nettles decided to go to Nashville and record their own "country" album called Lost Highway. It's actually a good album, but still not what I am talking about.
No, in this case, I am talking about none other than Post Malone. His recent foray in to the country world will be the focus of this #threetunetuesday sponsored by @ablaze.
Post's latest album F-1 Trillion is a deep dive into the world of country music. I'll be the first to admit, that I really didn't know a lot of his music before this besides the bigger hit "Circles". My niece who likes country music, but prefers R&B confided in me the other weekend that she wants the "old Post back". She isn't a fan of this new adventure he is embarking on.
Personally, I kind of dig it and I think he did a really good job with it. Like Taylor Swift who dropped a massive double album earlier this year, F-1 Trillion follows in the same vein. The first half of the double album is mostly duets with other famous country artists. The second half is more of Post just doing his own thing.
"Missin' You Like This" is one of the several duets Malone does with Luke Combs. I think it's a good song. It does have a lot of country music cliches', but honestly, pretty much every country song has that these days.
What I do like is the fact that Malone seems to have really taken a deep dive into country music. It's one thing to write or sing a country song, but it's another to actually dig into the world and understand the music and the influences that make it what it is. His inclusion of slide guitar and things like that make this album an homage to what makes country music great in my opinion.
The fact that he included Hank Williams Jr. on "Finer Things", is a real testament to him understanding the genre. For example, if you are just trying to reach current country fans, his duet with Moran Wallen takes care of that. However, if you are including Hank Jr. on a song, then you are speaking to a whole different subset of country music fans.
It could have been easy for me to throw one of his duets with Jelly Roll out there, since that is all the rage right now, but honestly, I am not a huge Jelly Roll fan. I think he is talented and his story is interesting, but sadly, he got overplayed and overhyped for me. The magic has kind of worn off.
Finally, I'm going to leave you with one of the songs that Malone does solo. "Back To Texas" is just a really good country song. I'm not saying the lyrics are anything deep and meaningful, but it's got a fiddle and quite honestly, for some country fans, that's all it really needs.
Post Malone was born Austin Richard Post on July 1995 in Syracuse, NY. According to Wikipedia, he came up with the name Post Malone by putting his real name into a "rap name generator". He has achieve quite an array of success before taking the dive into country music. If you are a fan of all genres and you don't know his earlier work, I definitely suggest you dig into it a bit.
It's going to probably surprise you just how different it is from the songs I share here today.
Apparently in his very early career, he was also in a heavy metal band. It would appear there isn't a genre that Malone hasn't dipped his toes into!
Again, according to wikipedia, Post Malone made his first mixtape using the free software program Audacity when he was 16 years old and I guess the rest is history.
Malone is probably one of the best examples of how marketing yourself on SoundCloud and YouTube can get you noticed.
Despite my nieces hesitancy to enjoy this album, I am all in on the country Post Malone and I look forward to hearing what else he can come up with in the future.
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