{"id":2096111,"date":"2025-10-16T20:06:29","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T20:06:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2096111"},"modified":"2025-10-16T20:06:29","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T20:06:29","slug":"zach-top-is-opening-new-doors-for-artist-young-and-old","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/zach-top-is-opening-new-doors-for-artist-young-and-old\/","title":{"rendered":"Zach Top Is Opening New Doors for Artist, Young AND Old"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Country music has always been a copycat business. When one thing is working, many others rush to mimic it. That can be bad when it comes to trends like Bro-Country and trap beats in country. It can be a good thing when actual country music catches back on, and folks are finally allowed once again to make country music that sounds country. <\/p>

Saving Country Music\u2019s reigning Artist of the Year<\/a> Zach Top<\/strong> has opened that opportunity back up once again with his surprising success. Building off the work of mainstream predecessors like Jon Pardi and his early records, slowly but surely the decision makers on Music Row could see a path opening up for preservationists of the country sound as opposed to the folks undermining it. This has given opportunities to all kinds of up-and-coming artists who are helping to create a new neotraditionalist wave in country. <\/p>

But it\u2019s also opening up new opportunities for older artists, many of whom were put out to pasture during the Bro-Country era, or forced to capitulate to the current sound. There might not be a better example of this than Joe Nichols. With an excellent country voice brought to a traditional country sound, he had some iconic hits in the 00\u2019s before having to resort to more pop-oriented, and then more Bro-oriented material to keep his label happy. <\/p>

Recently while on Dillon Weldon\u2019s Driftin Cowboy Podcast<\/a><\/em>, Joe Nichols talked about this very thing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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You know, I always get people who say, \u2018I used to love his older stuff. I wish Joe would go back and do \u201cBrokenheartsville,\u201d and \u201cWhat\u2019s a Guy Gotta Do,\u201d \u201cTequila.\u201d You know, over the years, I agree. I want to do that stuff too. But as the format changes, as everybody changes, leadership at record labels changes, you know, personnel and radios always made the world go round.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Made it really hard to walk that tightrope of \u2018I want to be the guy I feel like being,\u2019 which is traditional country. But man, you\u2019ve got to find that place that you can fit an old school sound like that into fresh, today\u2019s radio.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

But as Joe Nichols goes on to explain, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I think the younger guys have helped me. For me to break through with something traditional country would not be nearly as easy as it is for like a Zach Top who is doing some traditional country stuff. In a weird way, it\u2019s opened doors back up for me.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When they tell me, \u2018You\u2019re too country for radio, you\u2019ve got to compromise, you\u2019ve got to sing the \u201cSunny and 75,\u201d\u2018 which I love that song by the way. But I can\u2019t have a catalog full of those because I don\u2019t feel like it represents me. So when I put out songs like \u201cBilly Graham\u2019s Bible,\u201d and some of the real country stuff that I\u2019ve done, that\u2019s the resistance right there, immediately it\u2019s just \u2018too country.\u2019<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s just not a format that has traditional country anymore, and Zach Top\u2019s kind of kicked that door down for us, and it\u2019s kind of let this old guy back in.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

And letting the old guy back in is exactly what\u2019s happening. It\u2019s not like Joe\u2019s latest albums didn\u2019t have some country songs on them too. But you could also tell there was still the attempt there to court country radio. With his new song \u201cGoodbyes Are Hard To Listen To\u201d released on October 10th, it\u2019s pure country. And Joe Nichols also says there\u2019s more where this came from. His upcoming album will be more like his first few, and he more excited to be making music than any other time in the last 15 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n