Welcome to the first round of voting in Country Perspective’s 2016 Worst Country Artist Tournament. We continue our first round with voting in the Good ‘Ol Bros Region. Remember that you have until Friday 1 PM ET to vote, so get your votes in! If you have any questions feel free to ask in the comments below.
Polls are closed! Thank you for voting and be sure to check out the updated bracket.
Country Perspective 
This is a wonderful idea . . . but Chase Rice is badly under-seeded. :-)>
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I would have rated him higher if his music had a bigger impact. It took him over a year to get a top five on country radio. Guess he’ll be Cinderella in this tournament
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This is the first category where two of my votes went to the current underdog in the results.
Prior to now, all of my votes sided with the majority at the time of voting. Half of them here break from the current leaders.
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If you don’t mind me asking, who did you vote for between Chris Lane and Kelsea Ballerini? Because I’m shocked Lane is pulling off the upset.
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I voted Kelsea Ballerini.
“Fix” is the worst individual song between the two of them. However, what my vote came down to was net impact.
Chris Lane doesn’t have the stage presence, charisma or distinctive chops to ascend to mainstream longevity. He’s just kind of there. “Fix” is already struggling badly below the Top Twenty as is, and is unlikely to move much higher due to the uneventful, middling sales. The amount of damage he’s inflicting on the format in the grander scheme of things is near mute.
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With Kelsea Ballerini, however, it is a much more disappointing story.
We KNOW she is capable of writing a solid, nuanced pop song. We also KNOW she has a very likeable and, I would say, self-aware personality. Those should, theoretically, amount to a potentially compelling entertainer that could advocate on behalf of disenfranchised females.
Instead, she’s been pandering to the lowest common denominator in attempting to gain any commercial appeal or reputation. Granted she may be a new artist, but that excuse ultimately doesn’t hold much water when Cam has emerged with comparatively better material and her breakout hit being solid. And it isn’t like her lead two singles have done her much favors in terms of sales, either, as her singles have only sold average and her album has sold terribly.
And, like it or not, that’s counterproductive for the females of the format. It is consequential.
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So, yeah, that’s why I voted Kelsea Ballerini for “Worse” among the two.
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Well said and thanks for sharing. Pretty much how I feel. I doubt Lane is even in the tourney next year. Ballerini will be back though.
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And the potential is there, at least as far as pop music is concerned.
“The First Time” has its fair share of decent individual songs that reveal Ballerini can be a sharp songwriter when she wants to be, most notably on the title track, “Secondhand Smoke”, “Peter Pan” and “Stilettos”. Nothing she has released yet convinces me she belongs on country radio even in the longer term, but I can appreciate effort outside of the genre and Kelsea at least has signs of promise if she wants to go mainstream.
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If you’re all wondering how the Blake Shelton vs Justin Moore matchup went from 70-30 Blake winning to a dead heat, Blake Shelton super fans have found out about the poll and are sharing it like crazy. They’re flooding the poll. But it might balance out as Miranda Lambert fans who hate Blake are finding the poll too. And to the crazy Blake Shelton fans: this is not a Miranda Lambert fan club site. Both have been criticized heavily on the site.
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I legitimately think they don’t care, at all. They’re just really bitter about Miranda especially after “Came Here To Forget”. I just want new Miranda Lambert music myself. Blake Shelton rabid fans drive me insane. They are all just so hypnotized by anything he says,
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Hahaha, it’s remarkable how thin-skinned fans can be to the extent they feel they MUST “freep” an online poll! =P
For the record, I think Justin Moore is clearly the worst between the two even despite Blake Shelton’s recent banal track record. His current single may be better than Shelton’s, but Moore has been much more cringe-worthy as a whole to my ears as a whole.
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One thing I want to note and did not foresee happening when I set this up is the possibility of a tie. It is currently a real possibility in in one poll. In the event a tie should occur, I will be the one who breaks it and determines who advances to the next round. I hope it does not come to this, as I want you the readers to decide. But if it comes to pass this is what will happen.
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