Accidentally made a big ole hit.
Despite country music being the biggest (and arguably best) it has ever been on a broad scale, there’s still a lot to be desired when it comes to what’s being played on the radio. With Parmalee’s “Gonna Love You” sitting at #1 on Mediabase along with Keith Urban’s “Messed Up As Me” rounding out the Top 10, there’s no denying that there are some major misses quality-wise still experiencing radio success.
It seems as though this has been the case for the better part of the decade. Though we’ll get rare diamonds in the rough experiencing radio play, namely Chris Stapleton, Zach Top and Cody Johnson as of late, there’s a seemingly endless stream of mindless, copy-and-pasted songs that will find their way to the top of the charts regardless of quality.
Up-and-coming artist, Mitchell Ferguson, clearly understands the issue surrounding pop/radio country and decided to poke fun at it a couple days ago when he uploaded a video to TikTok with the caption, “This is legitimately how most pop country songs are born.”
In a tongue-in-cheek parody of today’s pop country, Ferguson starts the half-written song with “I got a truck and a cold beer/ used to be a bad b*tch sitting right here/She gon’ take me out on the town” before ending it with “So I drank a beer” with a clearly exaggerated southern accent and guitar riff that would sound right at home on a Morgan Wallen chart-topper. It goes without saying that it is a perfect encapsulation of mainstream country, and yet, still a damn good parody.
The comments were quick to point out how, despite the intentionally dumb nature of the incomplete song, it would easily top the charts on the radio today.
“Bro just wrote a top 10 radio hit accidentally 😳”
“Morgan Wallen been real quiet since this dropped 🫣”
“except this is much too complex and interesting”
“Close enough drop the album with Morgan wallen and post Malone”
“Bro just kickstarted a country career out of spite.”
After hundreds of comments, many of which were clamoring for a full version of the song, Ferguson returned with a completed version of the first verse and chorus which he titled simply, “DRINK A BEER.”
As mentioned earlier, it’s incredibly funny (and kind of sad) that Ferguson’s parody of pop country is both more interesting and marginally better than the majority of what’s being played on the radio today. It’s also abundantly clear that he’s drawing inspiration from the likes of Morgan Wallen and a plethora of other radio stars with his choppy flow on both the verse and the chorus, and yet it’s being done better on a TikTok video. If nothing else, it goes to show that interesting chord progressions coupled with raw vocals can elevate even the most cliché song archetypes, something country radio has yet to learn.
Despite the parody song being his most popular video on TikTok, Ferguson has a long history of producing incredible original songs since his debut single, “Cry” in 2018. Though many of his tracks lean more toward the alternative genre than country, the Texan singer/songwriter has displayed a lot of versatility throughout his limited discography, and it’s well worth a listen.
Ferguson also has a brand new country cover of Frank Ocean’s “Thinkin Bout You” along with an EP coming out this Friday, and judging by the teaser he shared to TikTok, it won’t disappoint:
Stream Ferguson’s music here: