As far as Gary Allan goes, I definately thinks he’s an amazing artist that should be recognized more. I actually went and saw him when he opened up for Rascal Flatts last year and he put on a great show. My favorite songs from him would be Man to Man, The One, Man of Me, Smoke Rings in the Dark, and Life Ain’t Always Beautiful.

But I definitely get where you were going with the Gary Allan comparison, Kevin.

It’s interesting to me that, currently, there’s really not such a huge disparity between the sales figures for major radio darlings and some artists who generally struggle with radio airplay. Brad Paisley’s Time Well Wasted had three #1s and a #5 single and still has moved just under 2M units (certainly no small feat these days), and Josh Turner’s Your Man has sold just over 1.8M copies on the strength of two #1s. On the other hand, Big & Rich’s first two albums, and Miranda Lambert’s Kerosene both sold over 1M copies with a lone #11 hit being the highest charting single among them. Lord knows I can’t fathom why, but Taylor Swift’s album is closing in on 1M copies without a top 10 hit. And I’d say Allan’s Tough All Over lands in that company– there’s a much bigger fanbase there than radio stats alone would suggest.

When you take out the sales figures for artists who’ve made successful crossovers onto pop radio– Rascal Flatts, Carrie Underwood, Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, Dixie Chicks– there’s really not such a strong linear correlation between radio success and album sales these days. If I were a suit at one of the major labels on Music Row, I’d be asking why that seems to be happening moreso now than even five years ago. Because file-sharing alone can’t account for that trend.

Quite the opener there, Kevin! I don’t agree with the assessment entirely– I think Gary Allan is a vocalist of far superior breadth and range, and older Brooks & Dunn singles would’ve made a strong case for Ronnie Dunn, as well– but it’s an interesting take nonetheless. I’d make the argument that Toby Keith has the most singular, fully-rounded persona of anyone who gets consistent airplay (since radio still isn’t going anywhere near Miranda Lambert, and Dwight Yoakam is years removed from his commercial heyday). Though I don’t think I’ve ever entirely bought one of his ballads, I can say that he writes and performs songs that literally no one else in popular country music could either write or perform, and there’s absolutely something to be said for that. I don’t like Toby Keith or his persona in the least, but I grudgingly respect him. The word “artist” gets thrown around far too liberally, and he’s someone who’s actually earned it.