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.
- Better Partner Assertion: "Alone Tonight." Her boyfriend's a jerk who only calls her when he's drunk, and he wants to treat her better.
- Christmas Songs: ''It Must Be Christmas," "Under the Weather"
- Dance of Romance: "Hangin' On," about being infatuated with the girl the narrator's dancing with; combined with a Double-Meaning Title, as he's "hangin' on" to every word she says while she's literally "hangin' on" to him while they dance.
- Drowning My Sorrows: "Drinkin' Me Lonely," "Where I Go When I Drink." Subverted in "Sober Saturday Night," in which the singer's feeling all sorts of hungover, but from a break-up.
- 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.
- Heartbeat Soundtrack: "Heartbeat," which is Exactly What It Says on the Tin, and its snare-drum heartbeat-esque bass line.
- Intercourse with You: "Losing Sleep," with the idea that because of the intimacy, they're "winning when [they're] losing sleep."
- 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.
- Not Big Enough for the Two of Us: "Town Ain't Big Enough," a duet with Lauren Alaina, about the inability to get closure after a break-up because you keep running into your ex. Rather than duel for it as is typical for the trope, the lyrics wish they could "draw a line through the city" so they didn't have to see each other.
- Relationship Revolving Door: Loves this trope.
- "I'm Comin' Over," in which it's a mutual desire despite being broken up, and he's right out the door in her direction the minute she texts him.
- "Tomorrow," in which he recognizes there's a reason they broke up in the first place and this cycle is toxic, and he'll stop it—but not tonight.
- "Right Now" in which he admits he's just looking for a reason to call her and is willing to be the one to reach out because he is positive she feels the same.
- Subverted in "When You're Drinking" and "Don't Call Me," which are, oddly, nearly identical songs about how he desperately wants to stop being her drunk-dial booty call, and begs her to stop calling him. In the first, they have a relationship outside of when she's drunk, and he even magnanimously tells her she can call him anything except then. In the latter, he tells her to just find someone else altogether and to basically lose his number.
- 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.
