There’s no denying that HARDY is one of the most successful songwriters in Nashville at this point. Having a plethora of #1 hits cut by the likes of Morgan Wallen, Blake Shelton, Florida Georgia Line, Kenny Chesney and Cole Swindell (to name a few), he has a laundry list of commercially successful singles over the past decade.
Last November, HARDY appeared on Barstool’s Bussin’ With The Boys podcast hosted by former NFL players, Will Compton and Taylor Lewan, and discussed everything from the NFL season, his career and the current state of the genre and how it’s shifted over the years.
When asked about the prominence of non-country artists, mainly Post Malone, transitioning into the genre, HARDY noted a shift in what listeners wanted to hear, especially coming off of a decade dominated by bro-country acts, “I do feel like I am a part of a class of artists, me, Jelly [Roll], Morgan, Ern [ERNEST], Lainey Wilson, that have altogether been a part of a shift in country music that brought a wave of just normalcy. Like normal people singing a little bit more about normal sh*t and that sort of resonating with a huge, mass crowd of people.“
HARDY then pointed out the aforementioned bro-country phase of the genre which dominated the better part of the 2010s, calling it “larger-than-life,” “If you look at bro-country, which no disrespect at all, FGL [Florida Georgia Line] put me on the map as a songwriter, that was this larger-than-life persona.”
He finished by highlighting how Chris Stapleton and Luke Combs have resonated with so many people, “Even guys like Stapleton and Luke Combs and these people that were just kind of normal-looking people started singing songs that were a little bit more of a different subject matter. And I think there’s so many people from small towns that really resonated with that, and that’s kind of the movement I think that’s happening now. It’s kind of gone from this giant, larger-than-life thing to people just singing songs about life and sh*t, and it’s really cool. ”
Overall, I think this is a classic case of a good message by the wrong messenger. There’s no denying that HARDY has a ton of talent – the sheer amount of hits compiled over the last decade speaks for themselves. With that being said, however, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that his music, along with Wallen’s, can essentially be boiled down to “bro-country lite.” Sure, he packs his songs with more substance and better storytelling compared to the dreaded “beer, trucks and women” approach to the genre that dominated the previous decade, but it’s a bit of a stretch for him to say that his subject matter is radically different.
HARDY is absolutely correct in his assessment of country fans wanting more substance and normalcy out of the genre, but some of the artists that he points out as being the “faces of normalcy” leave a lot to be desired, in my opinion.