Two artists that were influential in shifting mainstream attitudes about the genre's more pop-inflected sound were Sam Hunt and Maren Morris. As "NPR Music" wrote, "Sam Hunt and Maren Morris arrived on the scene in the years that followed, each of them possessing fluency in the postures and cadences of millennial pop that turned heads and blurred boundaries. "Modern country singers love to flaunt phrases and attitudes borrowed from hip-hop, but Hunt's borrowings are softer and sneakier," noted Kelefa Sanneh. Jon Caramanica said: "Think of all the ways dissenters have tried to upend country in recent years: by sneaking in rhythmic vocal tics learned from rappers, by thinning out the genre's musical baggage, by pledging inclusive values. Ms. Morris, an astute synthesizer, has studied and perfected them all." In an article published in 2019, "Time" called Morris "the future of country music." In November 2020, Morris won three Country Music Association awards, including two for her 2019 single "The Bones"; it also received a Grammy nomination for Best Country Song. The year previously, she won Album of the Year for her sophomore effort "Girl," signifying a critical, mainstream shift in attitude about what constituted the country sound.