Nate Smith and HARDY not only work together as country music artists in Nashville, they are friends. That is part of what makes their latest releases so awkward.
They both teased new songs at the exact same time that sound (almost) exactly the same. It does not help the narrative that all mainstream country songs are alike.
This is not the first time this kind of thing has happened and it is not specific to country music. There are only there are 12 unique notes in the Western musical alphabet (C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B). There are only so many ways to arrange those 12 notes.
However, most of the country music songs that play on the radio today follow a similar algorithm. And there is a lot of crossover in Music City when it comes to songwriters, producers, etc. It is very possible that two different artists could work with the same group of people to write a song, which leads to the sharing of the same ideas, which eventually leads to two different songs in the same general style.
I am not sure if that is what caused the similarities between Nate Smith and HARDY’s new singles. I reached out to a few people around Nashville who might be in the know but they do not know either.
This whole thing started last Monday when HARDY teased a new song on Instagram.
Four days later, Nate Smith previewed his new summer anthem ‘Nights These Days.’ It sounds eerily similar to the song HARDY performed just four days prior.
HARDY either recognized the melody to Nate Smith’s song as his own or somebody tipped him off. Either way, he dropped a video to address the similarities without mentioning the other artist by name.
A few days ago I teased a new song that I’m putting out called ‘Favorite Country Song,’ and I’m really excited about it. You know in Nashville a lot of songs get written and sometimes, many times, there are two songs that sound very similar. And this morning I woke up to a buddy of mine who teased a song that sounded very similar to ‘Favorite Country Song.’
It is what it is, it’s been that way a long time, but I don’t like being beat to the punch. I actually hate it. And since he teased his today, I’m going to tease mine full on.
— HARDY
Sure enough, the studio version of his new track ‘Favorite Country Song’ bears a striking resemblance to ‘Nights These Days.’ Especially the chorus.
I don’t think there is any beef between HARDY and Nate Smith. They, like HARDY said, are buddies. They recently dropped a song and corresponding music video together. They’ve toured together in the past.
Even if the two country music artists are not mad at each other, there is no way they are thrilled about this situation. Assuming my hypothesis about Nashville crossover is correct, whichever musician had this melody first must be furious that the other got ahold of the same tune. It sure feels like it was HARDY…
Either way, both artists are going to release a song that sounds very similar to another. Only one of them will get play on the radio (probably the first to be released) if they don’t cancel each other out. Not ideal!