Last spring, while I was working with Post Malone on his upcoming country album, the studio's hired songwriters took a break. Malone started jamming on the guitar. “He would play, like, old B-sides, Toby Keith songs, that nobody knew,” he recalls. Chase McGilla Nashville veteran who has written songs for Morgan Wallen, Kenny Chesney and many more. “But he knew everything.”
When Malone's F-1 Tris released in late August, the pop and hip-hop star had an edge missing from previous country crossovers. He immersed himself in the country music business and in Nashville, working with respected local songwriters (such as McGill, Taylor Phillips and James McNair), playing gigs at key local clubs (Tootsie's Orchid Lounge and Bluebird Cafe), working with veterans (he performed with Dwight Yoakam on SiriusXM) and recording duets with other stars (the album includes Hank Williams Jr., Dolly Parton, Blake Shelton, Luke Combs and Wallen).
“That's the difference when someone tackles the genre versus someone immersed in the genre,” he says Randy Chaseexecutive vp programming for Summit Media, the Birmingham, Ala., broadcaster that owns nine country stations. “When people try to cross into the country from other genres, a lot of times it's on their terms and they want to put their foot in the pool. He went all in, even at the risk of hurting him on the way.” He adds Tom Polemanhead of programming for flagship broadcast chain iHeartMedia: “He understands country music. It's not like he's trying to learn how to become a country artist overnight.”
Post's duet with Wallen, “I Had Some Help,” debuted at No. 1 on Hot Country Songs and the Hot 100 in late May with 76.4 million streams and, earlier this week, reached No. top Bulletin board's Songs of the Summer chart.
Adding “I Had Some Help” to heavy rotation was “unacceptable,” he says Steve Stewartcountry content director of Cox Media Group; “Morgan continues to be one of the hottest artists on the planet, so he immediately gave us the green light.” Similarly, Summit's country stations played “I Had Some Help” twice an hour during its debut day, then once an hour the next day, and repeatedly over the weekend. “I heard the song about two weeks before it came out,” adds Summit's Chase. “I said, 'This is a country record that's going to be pop.'
last week, F-1 Tris topped the Billboard 200, Post's first No. 1 since his pop album Bleeding Hollywood in 2019. (The new album also hit No. 1 on Top Country Albums in its debut week.) “There are legitimately 15-plus songs that could be radio singles,” says Scott Donato, program director and director of operations for WGTY. country station at York, Penn. “It reminds me of late '90s, early 2000s country. He was able to capture every corner of the format.”
Before Post Malone rose to fame as a hip-hop artist with 2015's “White Iverson,” he performed at a Dallas-area Italian restaurant where he worked during high school and later covered songs by Hank Williams and Bob Dylan in videos he posted on the internet. He became an established star who could fill American arenas, and then began to cross country around 2018.
The marketing teams at Big Loud Records and major label Mercury/Republic Records, already collaborating on Wallen's releases, soon began collecting Post Malone's marketing plans from the conference room at Big Loud's Nashville headquarters. (The two labels collaborate on radio promotion—Big Loud for country, Mercury for Top 40 and other formats.) “Post ingratiated himself with the creative community—open to writers, collaborators, and session musicians—that was the main line of this campaign,” he says Patch Culbertsonexecutive vice president and general manager of Big Loud, adding that his company has helped land introductions to Parton, Shelton, Williams and others. “They had a great vision from the beginning.”
Big Loud execs convinced Mercury's team to kick off the album campaign earlier than planned so he could set up a headlining performance at CMA Fest, in which Post and Shelton performed “Pour Me a Drink.” “He took the hit on TV, which is a completely different show than what he was used to serving,” he says Candice WatkinsBig Loud's senior vice president of marketing. “He needs to know the industry.”
In April, Post appeared at the Stagecoach festival, where Jordan Pettitthe Grand Ole Opry's director of artist relations and programming, was in attendance. Pettis spoke later Alex Kosloffexecutive vice president of Mercury Records, and “there was immediate interest on their part in pursuing his Opry debut as part of the launch plan,” Pettit recalls.
Post performed at the Opry for the first time in mid-August. “It started to feel like he wasn't just a pop artist leaning into country music for a moment,” Pettit says. Coslov added to Bulletin board: “Our core strategy was built around demonstrating the authenticity of Post's entry into country music by highlighting his time in Nashville.”
Several country programmers say Post is the type of artist who will be able to switch between genres depending on his musical impulses and may not be missing from Top 40 radio and hip-hop playlists long after F-1 Tris. (His first three albums combined for 11 billion to 12 billion on-demand streams each, according to Luminate, but dropped in 2022 twelve carat toothache, with just 1.88 billion streams.) “This is a guy who said, 'This is my art, here it is,'” he says Tim Robertsvp of programming and head of format for the Audacy radio chain. “Could he do a whole pop album next year? Absolutely.” Post's tour kicks off this Sunday in Salt Lake City, and “it's really all over the country,” according to Big Loud's Watkins, though she's also expecting pop hits.
So far, Post's pop-to-country transition has far outpaced similar moves by Sheryl Crow, Jessica Simpson, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, or even Beyoncé, whose Cowboy Carter The album was a cult-dominating hit earlier this year, but it didn't stay on country radio formats. “Beyoncé's songs weren't great country songs. they were wonderful Beyoncé songs,” he says Nate Deatongeneral manager of the country web station KRTY.com in San Jose. “Sheryl Crow's country record was very good, but she didn't have any hits – she didn't have 'Pour Me a Drink'. She didn't have one of those songs that stood out and got away.”
Deaton calls on Hootie & the Blowfish frontman, 2008 country debut album Darius Rucker Learn to Live a more apt comparison: “He did the exact same thing Post Malone did. He went to Nashville and ingratiated himself with the Nashville songwriters. Darius got on a bus and went to all these radio stations, even though he was a big star.” Of Post Malone, Deaton adds, “It wouldn't surprise me at all to see a continued country career, a la Darius.”
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/pro/post-malone-country-radio-crossover-success/