Step aside Drake, there’s a new sheriff in town.
Morgan Wallen’s One Thing At A Time album is shaping up to be one of the biggest in music history.
It already had the biggest streaming week of any country album in history, but now it’s on par with some of the absolute biggest stars in all of music.
All 36 songs on the album are currently on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, which ranks the most popular songs of all genres, taking into account streaming and physical sales.
Just on face value, this is crazily impressive.
Music has long been absolutely dominated by rap and pop stars, and while there’s certainly a conversation to be had on if most of the songs on this album really belong in “country music”, it speaks volumes on how far mainstream music audiences have grown to appreciate country music, in any of its various forms.
In having all 36 songs on the chart, he sets the record for most places on the list by one artist at the same time.
The previous record was Drake back in 2018, who put 27 tracks on the chart simultaneously. Taylor Swift came close in late 2021 with 26, but neither one can compete with Wallen, who beats them both by 9 and 10 songs, respectively.
Of course, something has to be said for the size of albums lately. Hell, just the 9 songs Morgan beat Drake by would be long enough to qualify as a full album just a few years ago, but the age of streaming has forced artists to reconsider their strategy and not make many, or any, cuts when recording a new project.
I’m sure the first mega-star to drop a 40-track album will break Morgan’s album in the coming years.
Regardless, hats of to Morgan… it’s quite the accomplishment to be in the company of artists like Taylor Swift and Drake.
Even if I wish he’d just make music that sounds like the acoustic sessions he drops…