Inside the CC50 – April ‘24
Just two months after lightning struck for the first time, it has happened again; an artist other than Zach Bryan occupies the top spot in the CC50. This time, though, it isn’t Wallen but none other than the pride of North Carolina, Luke Combs. Luke has been in the top 4 since the inception of the CC50 and has come close to the top spot several times, but finally broke through here in April. The other big headline from this month was the evident popularity of splitting the voting into two days. Fifty artists is a lot of voting to do at one go, so we split it into 25 artists per day, and the result was the largest vote total in CC50 history.
Looking further down the chart, a few things stand out. First, there are a lot of green and big numbers in the Monthly Change in Interest column. Part of this is the annual cycle where interest in the country rises in the summer and falls in the winter, but part of this is the new voting format driving more interest and engagement. It will be interesting to see if that carries over into next month. We also saw some jumps from artists with recent/upcoming releases, like Oliver Anthony, Riley Green, and Zach Top. Notably, though, neither Chesney nor Rucker seem to have gained much interest in the aftermath of their lower-profile releases in the past couple of months.
Biggest Risers and Fallers
Well, well, if it isn’t old friend Oliver Anthony making an appearance, but this time on the biggest risers list. While he had seen a precipitous slide down the rankings since we launched the CC50 back in August, to his credit, he managed to stay on, and this month, he was rewarded with a 4% bump in interest. His interestingly-timed album release on Easter drives this, and it will be interesting to keep an eye on next month to see if it proves to have any staying power or if it will be a flash in the pan. Whiskey Myers, RCS, and Zach Top round out the top 5 here, making it a good month for former wildcard entries.
On the faller side, we see five entries, interestingly, all from the top 20 of the overall rankings. Kahan appears for the 3rd straight month as the buzz around his acclaimed “Stick Season” project dies down, and listeners continue to wrestle with whether to classify him as a country. HARDY also appears to be taking his career in an experimental direction that not all his fans seem to be in love with. All five of these artists are popular enough that they will be just fine in the long run but face a setback this month.
Quick Hits
Zach Bryan remains strong near the top of the chart, even though Combs overtakes him. However, there are some concerning signs. Not only has he lost the top spot in two of the last three months, but his interest has largely stagnated or even declined in the early months of 2024. Of course, all that could change if he releases successful new music in 2024, but the enthusiasm seems to be slowing down for now.
However, that may be part of a broader pattern rather than something unique to ZB. If you look at this month’s worst performers (relative to last month), it reads like a who’s who of the trendiest artists of 2023: ZB, Meg Moroney, Noah Kahan, Sam Barber, Bailey Zimmerman, etc. Like Zach, these artists all remain very popular, but coverage fatigue does exist, and there may be an appetite for other new names to step up here in 2024.
As mentioned earlier, overall engagement in April spiked significantly, with an average interest percentage of 40.0%, nearly 3 points over last month’s average. Even more significantly, the overall vote count sat at 547,823, the highest total to date (narrowly edging out October 2023). Let’s keep the momentum rolling into the summer!
Wildcards to Watch
Not a single wildcard managed to stay up in this month’s voting for the first time ever. This really wasn’t too surprising, as four out of the five have been (to use a baseball analogy) AAAA artists. They’ve shuttled back and forth, too good to be left out (AAA-level minor leagues), but not good enough to be permanently included (MLB regulars). So, for now, we bid farewell to Miranda, Scotty, and Kacey, anticipating their inevitable return in the next two or three months. The two wildcards from last month had a good performance, with Zach Top jumping two spots up to #34 and Blake Shelton hanging on to #45 to live to fight another month.
In this month’s batch of incoming wildcards, we see three familiar faces (Marlowe, Kent, Fleet) and two new ones: Willie Nelson and Tucker Wetmore. Wetmore and Nelson make for quite the dichotomy, as one is a new artist with only two songs on Spotify and the other is one of the most prolific artists of all time. I could see either of them potentially sticking in the CC50, although it may take a few attempts.
Lyric of the Month
“I remember waitin’ by the curb with Mr. Murphy
When Daddy picked me up from school, his eyes were red
We drove to the hospital in a hurry
Where my family gathered around my grandpa’s bed
He was my best friend; he taught me how to fish
And I cried listenin’ to my daddy pray
For one of those I’ve loved along the way.”
Eric Church, Those I’ve Loved
This month’s lyric spotlight lands on the Chief, whose catalog contains many lyrical contenders worthy of highlighting. But for this, I want to look at one of his deeper cuts, Those I’ve Loved. The final track off his phenomenal Carolina album back in 2009, this song looks past the pure sentimentality that this concept could have easily devolved into. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good sentimental song, and this track still has plenty of it, but it builds off of it into more mature themes of how the people in your life shape you, even after they’re gone. The ability to elevate a common trope into something uncommon is a hallmark of good writing, and this is an excellent example.
The writing and musical style very much call to mind Kenny Chesney’s Where I Grew Up, another deep cut from a country legend that subverts your expectations (spoiler alert: it’s only a matter of time before it appears here). Looking specifically at the excerpt I’ve included here, we see the richness of the writing in the specificity. Sure, we may not have had a Mr. Murphy. Still, the evocative imagery of the uncertainty of being picked up from school during a family emergency is very relatable and powerful. Good writing puts the listener in the storyteller’s shoes, and we see that here.
On that note, we’ll wrap up April’s column and the first third of 2024. As promised, UT basketball painfully bowed out of March Madness a week after I wrote last month’s column, so Kentucky fans, feel free to take a victory lap (at least until Tennessee baseball dominates the top-5 matchup in Lexington this weekend). Anyways, y’all seemed to like the new 2-day voting format, so we’ll run it back in May; be on the lookout for voting and cast your ballots both days! Until then, enjoy the spring weather and dream of the upcoming summer lake days listening to Chattahoochee!
