Country music has always been one of the most divisive music genres. Most people either love it or hate it. After a small rise to fame in the early 2010s from Taylor Swift and Lady Antebellum, country music’s popularity died down and there weren’t truly any mainstream artists. Recently, however, the country genre has been on the rise again. “If you can’t already tell by our award winners and our performers, the music business is going country. We’re going country. It’s happening,” said Lana Del Rey when she announced her upcoming country album, Lasso, at the Billboard x NMPA Songwriter Awards earlier this year.
Country music was developed from folk songs and ballads from the Irish, Scottish, and English settlers. The genre originated in the Appalachian Mountains and other areas of the South. In the 1920s, country music began to be commercially recorded. In 1923, Fiddlin’ John Carson released country music’s first hit. Country music spread nationwide during the Great Depression and World War II when many Southerners moved to industrial cities. Other notable artists that have made a significant impact on the genre since its inception include Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton, and Taylor Swift.
In the past few years, country music has regained popularity. Singers like Zach Bryan, Morgan Wallen, Jason Aldean, and Luke Combs have all become near musical sensations and are all currently touring. Notably, Zach Bryan has cracked numerous attendance records, like when he sold out the Desert Diamond Arena in 2023 for the first time in eighteen years. Billboard reported a 58% increase in country music streaming from 2019 to 2022. In 2023, the Billboard Top 100 saw their top three spots occupied by country songs for the first time in history.
With this astronomical rise in country music sales and streams, many famous pop artists have decided to go country. In 2022, Beyonce started her country album trilogy with RENAISSANCE and most recently released COWBOY CARTER. Her song TEXAS HOLD ‘EM even went viral on TikTok. Post Malone, who gained his popularity through rap and pop, released the country album AUSTIN in 2023. Most recently, Lana Del Rey announced her tenth studio album, Lasso, which will be a country album as well.
Some people who dislike country music have created controversy around its recent rise to fame. However, music is constantly evolving. Around the fifties and sixties, rock was the hottest genre. In the seventies, rock, and disco both reigned over the music industry. With the eighties came the rise of new wave and pop, and in the nineties, alternative music and rap thrived. Even if you don’t like country music or much of the newer music nowadays, you still have the freedom to listen to music from different periods. Regardless of the current lovers or detractors of the genre, country is this decade’s hottest music.
