Cassadee Pope has had a major musical shift in the past year and she could not be any happier about it. 

As anyone who cares to read this article knows by now, Pope won Season 3 of "The Voice" on NBC and it has helped launch her new solo career. 

What most people also know by now if they are interested in Pope is that she was the singed of the pop/punk band, Hey Monday, and had just started to branch out into a pop/rock solo career before she auditioned for "The Voice". 

Pope ended up choosing to be on Team Blake during her stay on "The Voice" and many think that it was his influence that pushed her in a more country direction. 

Her drastic change in musical direction in such a short time has been a very interesting thing to watch for people that have followed her for a while. 

Despite being paired with Blake Shelton, Pope claims it was her choice to move into the pop/country direction saying, "On the show I was the pop-rock girl and as soon as I decided to cover a country song, I saw this undeniable reaction from the fans. I couldn't ignore it, so I continued to do country songs I could relate to that lyrically spoke to me. That totally ended up turning into something that I've felt really comfortable doing. It really feels good."

Pope started out "The Voice" season doing mostly pop/rock songs but two of her best performances of the season were when she did country songs, "Over You," by Miranda Lambert (Shelton's wife) and "Stand" by Rascal Flatts (who she is ironically touring with now). 

So whether it was her coach Blake's advice or her feeling she got singing the songs, it looks like this is the direction that Pope is choosing to take and is not looking back. 

Her first single, "Wasting All These Tears," went to No. 1 spot on the iTunes Country Singles Chart and over 125,000 downloads in its first week. Sales numbers like that will even more prove to her that she has made the right choice. 

Now, with her being out on a major tour with Rascal Flatts and The Band Perry, she is winning over thousands of new country fans per night. 

Even though the ratings for "The Voice" get stronger and stronger each year, the knock on the show has been that it is not producing any long lasting music stars like a Kelly Clarkson or Carrie Underwood from "American Idol". 

It seems though that the show just took a few seasons to get warmed up, because Season 3 had Cassadee Pope who is doing great and Season 4 just crowned Danielle Bradbery winner and she too has the voice and star quality to have a long career in the music industry. 

Pope spoke to that saying, "So I'm hoping I'm the first to breakout into the mainstream world (from "The Voice" and have a career after it."

Cassadee Pope's debut album is scheduled to be released in October 2013.