A Country Music singer from Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
Christopher Alan Young (June 12, 1985-) performed locally before getting his break on the CMT singing competition Nashville Star. This also resulted in a contract with RCA Records.
Although his debut album got some critical buzz, it sold horribly and the singles failed to crack the top 40. His third RCA single, "Voices", also bombed — but then came "Gettin' You Home (The Black Dress Song)", which sparked a string of five straight #1 hits on the country charts (including a rerelease of "Voices"). His next four RCA discs all achieved RIAA gold sales, along with further hits such as "Aw Naw", "I'm Comin' Over", "Think of You", "Sober Saturday Night", and "Losing Sleep".
While his first few albums showed him to have a neotraditionalist country bent replete with cowboy hat, his sound began to shift more toward pop and he lost the hat.
He is not to be confused with the film and television composer of the same name.
Albums
- Chris Young (2006)
- The Man I Want to Be (2009)
- Neon (2011)
- A.M. (2013)
- I'm Comin' Over (2015)
- It Must Be Christmas (2016)
- Losing Sleep (2017)
- Raised on Country (2020)
- Famous Friends (2021)
Tropes present in his work:
- Advertised Extra: Vince Gill provides a barely noticeable backing vocal and brief guitar solo on "Sober Saturday Night", but the song was credited as a full-fledged duet.
- Christmas Songs: It Must Be Christmas
- Drowning My Sorrows: "Drinkin' Me Lonely"
- Early-Installment Weirdness: His first three albums have an old-school honky-tonk sound with prominent fiddle and steel guitar. Starting with A.M,, the fiddle was dropped and his overall sound became slicker and more pop/rock influenced.
- Genre Shift: From about A.M. onward, he began moving away from the neotraditional sound he started out with in favor of a country-pop sound.
- Little Black Dress: "Gettin' You Home (The Black Dress Song)" is about wanting to take one of these off his lover.
- Loudness War: One of the pitfalls of his work from I'm Comin' Over onward is Corey Crowder's overblown and amateurish production. This is especially notable on "Think of You".
- New Sound Album: A.M, his last album with James Stroud as producer, was significantly more pop-influenced than his first three albums. I'm Comin' Over, his first album with Corey Crowder, completed the transition.
- Re-release the Song: "Voices" only got to #37 on its first release. But after he broke through with the #1 hits "Gettin' You Home" and "The Man I Want to Be", he persuaded the label to give "Voices" a second chance — resulting in his third straight #1 hit.
