WE GOT A NEW NEPO BABY! (With a song that is climbing the charts, actually.) The headline on Primetimer reads: "Nepo baby cries erupt as billionaire's daughter Stella Lefty storms into Billboard Top 10 at breakneck speed."

Lefty's being called a nepo baby after people are finding out about her billionaire father. She is a country singer-songwriter, comes from the midwest, and has a song that is going crazy right now that is actually called "Boston." In my opinion, it's very in line with this new generation of pop country slop. Boring guitars, uninteresting vocals — it just feels like dentist office country music to me. While it's not quite as overly stupid, dumbed down, and soulless as I would say bro country from the 2000s is, spiritually, it's landing in a very similar place. Fans of that shit will show up to one of these concerts as well, so believe me, it's not that vastly different. What makes it additionally weird now is that not only are we getting pop country slop — more of it forced down our throats — but it has to come by way of people who are already coming into the industry with means and a leg up.

I've said this before; I'll say it again. If you have rich parents, if you have parents who have a background in music, ultimately, all that really matters is whether or not you're making songs that people like, care about, and enjoy listening to. But what's becoming more and more upsetting and disheartening is that it feels like every new artist that we're seeing pop off in the industry at multiple levels — be they on the indie side, the underground side, or the mainstream side — is coming into the industry with the means to be able to tough it out for however long it's going to take to either not make it instantaneously. Because your average person cannot afford to make no money making music for three to five years. Your average person has...less than $400 in their bank account. That's your average person! Nobody has money lying around to be like, "Well, I guess I'll just try to make it as a commercial artist, writing my little country songs about how I love it when people are nice to me...!"

On top of that, if you have the means to be able to enter into an industry where money talks if you're doing it fully independently, you can afford a manager. You can afford PR. You can afford the means of pushing you and your music out there. You can afford people who will strategize on your behalf and figure out ways to make what you're doing more popular on social media. And now there are all sorts of other options when it comes to making your music get juiced. (Algorithmically, though, and I'm not accusing Stella specifically of that.) As long as you have some of these stars aligning for you, you're better off than the average Joe Schmo, who is coming into the industry with no money whatsoever. And even if they do well or do manage to build some kind of audience, from there — unless they get signed to a label and build up more buzz, get a boon of media attention, and achieve a really big platform opportunity — you're probably still years away from making a legit wage off the music that you release out there into the world, especially if you're primarily hoping to make a living off whatever it's doing on streaming.

"The Needle Drop doesn't care about country, and this is about getting views rather than honest criticism of a genre..." –Commentor on Original Twitch livestream

I'm not talking about country as a genre. This is not a discussion about country. This is a criticism of the way the music industry is working because it feels like every new face that we're getting are exposed to is coming into the industry with this almost guarantee of success because they have the ability to put themselves in the right studios, connect themselves with the right producers, pay for the right PR, and have the money and means to make themselves (by an order of magnitude) "luckier" or at least more likely to be successful. It's rare these days to see somebody popping off in the industry who was just a regular fucking person. With that, we're seeing less and less relatable music in my opinion, or music that addresses the times that we're living in. The music industry these days is being handed these stars who don't have to think about the times we're living in because they're shielded from it...Because they grew up with billionaire parents. I care about country music insofar as I care about all popular genres that I cover, but this is not a country music discussion.

I'm not talking about this because I'm worried about the state of country. I'm talking about this because our Billboard stars, our Top 10 stars, our industry stars increasingly are coming from families and coming from means that are very established, are very rich, are very well off, are very well connected. I've made this point before, and I'll say it one time because this is the place to say it: this is not so much the fault of these people, but the fault of the fact that we live under a system and we live in an economy where your average person has zero to no chance of making it in the industry because they're economically blocked out from doing so. When you talk to musicians now, a lot of their time is not even necessarily spent writing and recording music, but finding different ways to promote the music and then going out and touring because performing is where you're actually going to end up making your money at the end of the day. It's just very disheartening and unfortunate because it feels like more and more regular people are being blocked out of the opportunity to make and have a music career.

It's not something that is limited to any one genre; again, this is not a country thing. We're seeing this in all avenues of the music industry. It's nothing new, or rather, it's nothing specific to one genre.

What's new is that it's becoming increasingly the case that that is the background you need to come from in order to more or less guarantee your success.

"It's sad local venues are filled with bands who will never make it." –Commentor on original Twitch livestream

Local venues are filled with bands, but a lot of them aren't filled with locals. Unfortunately, a lot of people don't go out and support their local scenes like they should. I think for a lot of people, it's just easier to be spoon-fed by whatever the algorithm is going to give you, and it reminds me a lot of the 2000s in terms of the consolidation of radio and how difficult it was as an independent/underground artist to get your music any sort of attention on the airwaves, or at least get it in front of people. Traditional media was just so consolidated, and it made it difficult to break through.

"My underground and hardcore scene went from 10 to over a hundred average show goers in three years, so it definitely works. (For the worst, sometimes; large audiences can also dilute scenes.)" –Commentor on original Twitch livestream

I feel like we're in a place right now where it's more difficult to really get a local scene assembled and excited. I would say the one good thing about right now is that wall between a healthy scene where everybody's involved and one where only three people are showing up to a show is not material. It's not a physical wall. It's really made up. It's just people needing to wake up to what's around them and realizing that the internet isn't everything and doesn't offer everything.

Social media these days can actually be quite boring, and the algorithms that surround you happen to pen you into certain perspectives and sounds. Sometimes you need to break yourself outside of that to actually hear something interesting and exciting, and getting people to realize that can be difficult. Getting people to act and think more locally — because the algorithm is so stimulating for a lot of people — can be difficult. Even if every single person isn't in it, dilutes things, doesn't all have the same taste, or maybe isn't all on the same page about everything, a hundred people in the same area that routinely show up to a space to support something and are passionate about it is a good thing. Always embrace that. Stories are told about how there were less than half a dozen people at the first Sex Pistols show; shit has to start somewhere.

"Prof is claiming that he got blacklisted from Billboard after being independent, even though he had over 30,000 in sales." –Commentor on original Twitch livestream

That's crazy. He's not even the only artist who has said stuff like that.

I do think Billboard does not exist to look out there for the little guy like, "Oh yeah, who are the cool, little independent artists that are doing sales?" Billboard does not take kindly to smaller artists, independent artists, and non-industry artists finding ways to gain the sales system in the same way that major label artists do. There have been artists who have been spanked or not counted for selling their albums in a certain way or doing bundles, and they haven't been embraced in the same way that artists like Khaled and many others have for doing exactly that same shit.

I know that there are country artists out there that are real, actual people with real, actual backgrounds and lives and no CEO parents who are billionaires. There are people like that in all genres of music. All I'm saying is that what it takes a lot of the time to be the most successful in these lanes, unfortunately, is the means to be able to juice your music, pay for the best PR, pay for the best producers, and get those industry connections. Doing that quickly, efficiently, and in a way where you're going to maximize your results is increasingly accessible only for people with rich parents or industry connections. It's just getting upsetting.

I would like to see more artists — not just in country, but generally — topping the charts who are relatable and real. People who feel like they're speaking to an experience that normal people come from.

Stella Lefty makes country music, but her music isn't even appealing specifically or solely to a country audience. Country music is maybe the biggest it's been commercially in a long time. And that's because pop music listeners are getting into the genre. Casuals are getting into the genre. So, it just is what it is.