A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention
-Herbert Simon
If you’re reading this article, odds are, you’re somewhat familiar with the CC50, the monthly artist power rankings we recently launched on Instagram. You’ve also probably seen the massive 50-artist tables we post with the monthly voting results.
Don’t get me wrong, as someone who works with data professionally, I love a giant data table as much as the next guy. But here’s the thing with numbers: they’re only as interesting as the stories they tell us, and it can be hard to see those big-picture stories when we’re overwhelmed by a wall of numbers.
In this monthly column, we’ll take a closer look at that dry table of raw vote totals and try to decipher what it’s telling us about the current state of country music. Looking forward to seeing where this takes us, glad to have y’all along for the ride!
| Artist | Agree % | Disagree % | Not Sure % | Monthly Change in Agree % |
| Zach Bryan | 78.41% | 15.69% | 5.91% | -8.06% |
| Cody Johnson | 77.46% | 11.83% | 10.72% | -0.71% |
| Luke Combs | 77.13% | 15.74% | 7.13% | 6.82% |
| Chris Stapleton | 75.31% | 14.37% | 10.31% | 1.01% |
| Morgan Wallen | 74.54% | 19.95% | 5.51% | 1.01% |
| Riley Green | 64.25% | 21.27% | 14.48% | 5.93% |
| Tyler Childers | 59.55% | 27.50% | 12.95% | -5.05% |
| Megan Moroney | 55.89% | 29.43% | 14.68% | 0.41% |
| HARDY | 55.27% | 31.71% | 13.02% | -5.42% |
| Lainey Wilson | 53.75% | 30.33% | 15.92% | -3.91% |
| Bailey Zimmerman | 53.14% | 33.18% | 13.68% | -1.86% |
| Jon Pardi | 52.52% | 28.88% | 18.60% | -2.03% |
| CWG | 49.53% | 25.25% | 25.22% | 0.30% |
| ERNEST | 49.19% | 30.28% | 20.52% | -2.11% |
| Eric Church | 48.84% | 31.42% | 19.75% | -3.91% |
| Parker McCollum | 47.56% | 22.24% | 30.19% | 0.00% |
| Colter Wall | 45.24% | 20.89% | 33.87% | 0.00% |
| Zac Brown Band | 44.32% | 33.74% | 21.94% | -6.37% |
| Flatland Cavalry | 44.20% | 26.33% | 29.46% | -2.59% |
| Oliver Anthony | 43.37% | 35.45% | 21.18% | -9.22% |
| Turnpike Troubadours | 42.50% | 28.58% | 28.92% | -5.00% |
| Noah Kahan | 40.30% | 26.50% | 33.20% | 0.00% |
| Sam Barber | 39.29% | 30.50% | 30.21% | -5.43% |
| Muscadine Bloodline | 37.18% | 29.13% | 33.69% | -4.43% |
| Thomas Rhett | 36.82% | 36.06% | 27.12% | 0.79% |
| Koe Wetzel | 36.02% | 33.07% | 30.91% | -0.92% |
| Jason Aldean | 35.03% | 41.48% | 23.49% | -2.53% |
| Kenny Chesney | 34.70% | 37.63% | 27.67% | -4.76% |
| Wyatt Flores | 34.56% | 32.99% | 32.45% | -2.88% |
| Midland | 33.19% | 32.16% | 34.66% | -1.42% |
| Dierks Bentley | 32.08% | 38.61% | 29.32% | -6.96% |
| Cody Jinks | 31.73% | 28.64% | 39.63% | 0.00% |
| Jordan Davis | 31.24% | 38.65% | 30.11% | -4.96% |
| Chase Rice | 29.85% | 35.88% | 34.27% | -2.73% |
| Kameron Marlowe | 29.72% | 30.38% | 39.90% | 0.00% |
| Tim McGraw | 29.69% | 39.20% | 31.11% | -4.25% |
| Luke Bryan | 28.56% | 43.43% | 28.01% | 0.52% |
| Warren Zeiders | 27.87% | 36.76% | 35.37% | -1.08% |
| Jelly Roll | 27.14% | 45.47% | 27.39% | -7.77% |
| Larry Fleet | 26.84% | 34.59% | 38.57% | -3.64% |
| Darius Rucker | 26.32% | 38.93% | 34.74% | -3.95% |
| Old Dominion | 25.61% | 41.32% | 33.07% | -6.74% |
| Lee Brice | 25.25% | 39.64% | 35.11% | -5.71% |
| Hailey Whitters | 21.67% | 40.22% | 38.11% | -1.11% |
| Brad Paisley | 21.61% | 43.41% | 34.98% | -3.70% |
| Ian Munsick | 21.53% | 40.42% | 38.05% | -6.24% |
| Kelsea Ballerini | 21.20% | 45.58% | 33.22% | -6.86% |
| Carrie Underwood | 19.87% | 47.38% | 32.75% | -3.43% |
| Cole Swindell | 19.74% | 45.44% | 34.83% | -6.79% |
| Miranda Lambert | 18.91% | 46.48% | 34.61% | -5.56% |
This month saw continued dominance from ZB and CoJo, two huge debuts from Parker McCollum and Noah Kahan, and a big surge in support for Luke Combs. We also saw the departures of the one-time leading ladies of country music: Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert. Let’s start by looking at the artists with the biggest gains in upvotes (public interest in their new music).
| Artist | September | October | Public Interest Increase |
| Luke Combs | 70.31% | 77.13% | 6.82% |
| Riley Green | 58.32% | 64.25% | 5.93% |
| Chris Stapleton | 74.30% | 75.31% | 1.01% |
| Morgan Wallen | 73.53% | 74.54% | 1.01% |
| Thomas Rhett | 36.03% | 36.82% | 0.79% |
As you can see from this list, outside of Combs and Green, this was a pretty quiet month. Very few major releases and a lack of breaking stories in the country music world gave us a lot more downvotes and unsure voters this month across the board compared to last month. But that makes artists with positive growth this month that much more impressive.
Luke Combs is riding the wave from his extremely successful Growin’ Old album released earlier this year, with “Where the Wild Things Are” being pushed to radio this month. It may not be the most obvious “radio hit” on the album, but I think it was absolutely the right pick, as a heartfelt story is a standout track that resonates with listeners.
Elsewhere, the early releases from Riley Green’s album seemed to be well-received; it will be worth watching his numbers next month to gauge the public reaction now that “Ain’t My Last Rodeo” has been released in full. Stapleton, Wallen, and Rhett round out the top five gainers, all with modest increases in public interest.
| Artist | September | October | Public Interest Decrease |
| Oliver Anthony | 52.59% | 43.37% | -9.22% |
| Zach Bryan | 86.46% | 78.41% | -8.06% |
| Jelly Roll | 34.91% | 27.14% | -7.77% |
| Dierks Bentley | 39.04% | 32.08% | -6.96% |
| Kelsea Ballerini | 28.06% | 21.20% | -6.86% |
All good things come to an end, and it seems the Oliver Anthony hype train has begun to finally cool off. While his viral hit “Rich Men North of Richmond” may stay on our playlists for years to come, public interest in his new releases dipped by almost ten percentage points since September.
There also seems to be some Jelly Roll fatigue, after a summer where he seemed to be everywhere in Nashville.
Perhaps the most surprising number of the month is seeing ZB here on the list of biggest droppers. This is a great example of how a table of the top 50 artists ranked doesn’t tell the whole story. ZB is still ranked #1 in terms of upvotes, but what was a huge lead over the send and third artists last month has shrunk to a razor-thin margin. Keep an eye out for CoJo and Combs next month; they’ll both be making strong pushes for the top spot.
Quick Hits
-Noah Kahan and Parker McCollum both debuted in unsurprisingly lofty spots. Kahan’s inclusion seemed to start a lot of discussion of whether he’s “country”. I’ll be honest, I get the argument both ways, but hey, this is a lot more fun with a bit of controversy, right?
-After hanging on by a thread in the golden 45th ranking (the last slot to avoid elimination) last month, Hailey Whitters repeated her Houdini act, sliding ahead of six artists to survive in 44th place. Can the “Everything She Ain’t” singer pull it off a third time in November?
-As sad as it was to say goodbye to some legends that missed the cut in October, that’s also a sign that these rankings are working as intended. Carrie and Miranda are two of my all-time favorite artists, but the reality is that the public enthusiasm for their new music just isn’t what it was a decade ago. That said, go listen to “Carousel” by Miranda if you haven’t already; it topped my 2022 Best Releases list.
Wildcards to Watch
As he continues to release songs for his upcoming project, keep an eye out for Sam Hunt who might break through as a wildcard next month. Charley Crockett, Justin Moore, Jake Owen, and Colby Acuff were some of the other wildcards who just missed the cut this past wildcard voting. Make sure to get out and vote on the wildcard round that runs about a week after the main voting; that’s how to get artists you want to see on the CC50!
There’s a lot more we could go through, but keeping the intro quote in mind, we’ll keep it short and sweet this month. Hope to get into more of the details of the methodology in future columns and start showing more historical trends and graphs as we compile more data. Let me know any things you’d like to see covered in this column; catch y’all back here in November!
