Jumping the shark?
There’s really no way around it; Morgan Wallen is equally the most successful artist in country music history as he is the most controversial. From a charts and sales standpoint, he’s truly unmatched. Scoring four all-genre #1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 over the past few years and recently dethroning Garth Brooks to become the highest-selling country artist of all time (3rd all-genre), the “Whiskey Glasses” singer has experienced unprecedented success in terms of crossover success, unlike anything we’ve ever seen so far.
With that being said, however, there’s a plethora of criticism baked into that said success. Even ignoring the slew of off-stage controversies over the years, Wallen has cemented himself as one of the most genre-irreverent artists country music has ever seen.
Upon his debut in 2018 with If I Know Me, it was clear that the Tennessee native was never going to be a staunch traditionalist or anything resembling that, leaning on a slew of outside influences, including the bro-country stylings of Florida Georgia Line, pop influences and the most controversial of all: rap/trap elements in the form of snap tracks and 808 beats.
Wallen has only doubled down on these non-country influences over the years. While If I Know Me, for all intents and purposes, was a country album with pop elements implemented throughout, the likes of Dangerous and One Thing At A Time continued to blur the lines between genres.
If you thought his first three albums were all over the place stylistically, 2025’s record-breaking, 37-song album, I’m The Problem, solidified Wallen’s status as a pop star first and a country singer second. While, of course, you have quite a few relatively country tracks present, such as “I’m a Little Crazy,” “Jack and Jill,” “Number 3 and Number 7” with Eric Church and “The Dealer” with Ernest, there was an even heavier emphasis on both pop and rap stylings throughout the album.
This was undoubtedly highlighted by the inclusion of his all-genre #1 hit, “What I Want,” with Canadian pop star, Tate McRae, his highly-controversial interpolation of Keith Whitley’s “Miami, My Amy” on “Miami,” which ended up getting a remix with rappers, Lil Wayne and Rick Ross, and the track “Interlude,” which was by all intents and purposes a short, 44-second snippet of a rap song.
While there was no doubt that the “I Got Better” singer was always itching to explore pop and rap stylings, it increased tenfold on I’m The Problem. Looking back, it’s pretty safe to say that it has a lot to do with his new producer, Charlie Handsome.
In the past, Wallen was working with long-time Florida Georgia Line and Nickelback producer, Joey Moi, predominantly. However, as the 33-year-old singer/songwriter continues to stray farther from country, Handsome has become a more prominent force in the production of his tracks, especially the pop and rap-focused ones.
It shouldn’t come as a huge surprise give the fact that Handsome has a long-history of working with some of the biggest artists in the rap and R&B world, producing for the likes of Kanye West, Drake, Lil Uzi Vert, Travis Scott, Chance the Rapper, Khalid, Lil Baby, Young Thug and many more.
However, if you’re a fan of Wallen when he’s centering on country music, Handsome’s influence should raise some concerns, especially after his latest comments during a sit-down with the Country Music Hall of Fame.
In a brief video posted in tandem with their “American Currents: State of the Music” exhibit, in which Handsome is featured, the Grammy-nominated producer would express that his end-goal with Wallen is to have a #1 pop song without features from the likes of McRae or any other artist. Furthermore, he’d note that he wants to continue to “merge more of the things that people consider pop.” In other words, it sounds like Handsome simply wants to turn Wallen into a full-blown pop star.
“One of my goals moving forward is for Morgan to be able to have #1 pop songs with no features. So even though his voice is definitively country, I feel like it could be the #1 song on pop radio. And obviously, we did that, but we did that with Post, who had done it before in that space. So I think moving forward, I’m gonna merge more of the things that people could consider pop and find a way to do that. I don’t know. There’s a lot of things to it.”
Overall, it seems as if Handsome is saying the quiet part out loud here. While it would be remiss to say that Wallen has completely abandoned all elements of country music in his recent releases, there’s absolutely no doubt that he’s continuing to stray further and further away from what most people would point to when they hear a “country” song.
Given the immense amount of controversy surrounding Wallen over the years, I don’t see him making a full transition into pop à la Taylor Swift. With that being said, it’s something worth keeping an eye on when he eventually starts gearing up for his next album.
“What I Want” (feat. Tate McRae)
‘Still The Problem’ Tour Dates
July 17 || Baltimore, Md. || M&T Bank Stadium w/ Brooks & Dunn, Gavin Adcock, Jason Scott & The High Heat
July 18 || Baltimore, Md. || M&T Bank Stadium w/ Ella Langley, Gavin Adcock, Jason Scott & The High Heat
July 24 || Ann Arbor, Mich. || Michigan Stadium w/ Thomas Rhett, Hudson Westbrook, Blake Whiten
July 25 || Ann Arbor, Mich. || Michigan Stadium w/ HARDY, Hudson Westbrook, Blake Whiten
July 31 || Philadelphia, Penn. || Lincoln Financial Field w/ Brooks & Dunn, Hudson Westbrook, Blake Whiten
August 1 || Philadelphia, Penn. || Lincoln Financial Field w/ Ella Langley, Hudson Westbrook, Blake Whiten
