Country Is Surging in Country Music. But Pop Stars are Confusing the Signal
Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour officially started Monday night (4-28) in Los Angeles, with some surmising this will finally be the catalyst for the “shift in pop culture” they’ve been waiting Queen Bey to enact through her big country move. But that’s not going to happen. As The Independent and others have reported, fans who initially paid hundreds of dollars for tickets are now angry as tickets are going for as low as $30-$50, while most of the stops on the tour have yet to sell out.
Similar to how the Cowboy Carter album itself that saw a cratering in sales and consumption that can only be characterized as catastrophic from a performer that was recently named the “Greatest Pop Star of the 21st Century” by Billboard, the Beyoncé tour is already a big financial disappointment. And let’s not forget, even Beyoncé said “This ain’t a country album,” despite it winning the Best Country Album Grammy, and the Grammy for all-genre Album of the Year.
Though many in the media bubble continue to proclaim Beyoncé and Cowboy Carter‘s dominance over country, in truth it’s decidedly a non-factor. At some point, folks are going to have to reconcile with the fact that the entire “Beyoncé goes country” narrative was one giant canard, and perhaps, a Waterloo moment in her career. It’s already a commercial low point.
However, the trend of pop projects being pushed to the country market that started in earnest with Beyoncé is beginning to look less like a short-lived trend for 2024, and now becoming endemic.
Many were wondering if Post Malone would be one and done when it came to his 2024 country album F-1 Trillion. Now we know the answer is likely “no.” Posty revealed earlier this month that he’s recorded about 35 new songs in Nashville. He made the revelation in an article in Billboard that reads just as much as an advertisement for Poppi soda as it does a profile of Post Malone.
Meanwhile on April 22nd, British pop star Ed Sheeran showed up to Nashville’s dive bar Santa’s Pub with Noah Kahan to perform a few songs amid Sheeran recording his own “country” album. Yes, Ed Sheeran is going country as well. He’ll be joining indie rockers Julien Baker and Torres, who released their supposed country album on April 18th called Send a Prayer My Way. (Spoiler alert: it’s not that country.)
Chappell Roan recently had the #1 song in country with “The Giver.” Post Malone currently has the #3 album in country with F-1 Trillion.
All of this was the setup for last weekend’s Stagecoach Festival in Indio, CA—the country music version of Coachella. What was the big news coming out of Stagecoach 2025? It wasn’t Zach Bryan’s headlining set, nor Jelly Roll’s. It was that Lana Del Rey confessed to kissing Morgan Wallen while performing her song “57.5,” and supposedly “shading” him afterwards.
Monitoring social media and the press coming out of Stagecoach 2025, you would have thought that Lana Del Rey was the biggest name performing at the event. She certainly got more press than anyone else. In fact, the biggest news out of Jelly Roll’s headlining set was how Lana Del Rey made an appearance. And let’s not forget that just a few years ago, Jelly Roll was a rock and hip-hop artist himself.
Lana Del Rey has been teasing her new “country” album, or at least, a country-inspired album. The album was originally to be called Lasso. The title has since been changed to The Right Person Will Stay. So far, there is no release date for the project, but the early singles sound much more like folk, or acoustic Americana as opposed to country.
As a country music fan, you don’t want to be completely territorial and adversarial to anyone from outside the genre deciding they want to try their hand at country. People love to throw out accusations of “gatekeeping” whenever you question why a performer is “going country,” and if the music is indeed country. But when performers from outside the genre bring their celebrity status to country, they shade out all of the artists native to the genre who’ve been working their whole lives and careers to find traction.
Beyoncé might have won two big Grammy Awards earlier this year, but Sierra Ferrell won four. She also performed at Stagecoach, but could only garner passing mentions from the national press, despite coming out on stage in a feathery costume, and as always, slaying the audience, and participating in big collaborations with Nikki Lane and Shaboozey. All Lana Del Rey had to do is say she kissed Morgan Wallen, and she sucked up all the attention, because she’s Lana Del Rey.
It might be easier to stomach some of the encroachment by pop stars into country if they weren’t hogging all of the oxygen, the Grammy Awards, the accolades, and the press. It’s not performers like Beyoncé and Lana Del Rey being gatekept out of country. It’s massive superstars moving into the country space, and gatekeeping actual country performers from worthy attention.
Whether it’s Lana Del Rey, or Beyoncé, or Ed Sheeran, it’s important that country fans, and country media don’t take their eye off the ball on what’s most important in country music. Ed Sheeran might have performed at Santa’s Pub, but country artist Kristina Murray has been performing at Santa’s Pub in Nashville every Sunday for going on a decade, and is finally releasing her label debut Little Blue on May 9th. What’s wrong with making sure she gets some attention to?
It’s really hard to assess where country music truly is at heading into the summer of 2025, because the pop incursion is confusing the signal. The genre is clearly still going through a traditional country resurgence led by Zach Top and others. But then you have so much attention in country music moving to pop stars, it’s quite problematic. Because as soon as these performers decide country music is uncool again, their departure will potentially leave a vacuum.
Country music never has desired to want to be the most popular genre of music. It’s only desired to want to be country. To quote a Ricky Skaggs song, whenever country “gets above its raising,” that’s when things go wrong. Continuing to be so welcoming to pop stars while country ones go overshadowed runs that risk.
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April 29, 2025 @ 9:14 am
Was listening to the radio and “I ain’t coming back” by Wallen and Post Malone was announced as a country song. We’re living in surreal times, because they used to call that shit pop music.
April 29, 2025 @ 9:20 am
I would rather listen to Sunny Sweeney, Katlin Butts and Zach Top than any of the pop acts mentioned. But I will check out the
Kristina Murray album.
April 29, 2025 @ 10:25 am
Yeah, this wasn’t to recommend the pop stars mentioned in the article. Though you are more than welcomed to check them out.
April 29, 2025 @ 9:23 am
1. that poppi ad / post malone article was so disrespectful to the intelligence of anyone reading it. it made me nauseous. journalism is all but dead
2. the current popularity of country is due to the indie, cool, underground feeling of the artists who have blown up (mainly on tik tok) in the last few years (tyler, zach, zach top, red clay, wyatt flores, etc.). Very soon the overwhelming popularity of country will hit a tipping point where its mainstream presence makes it inherently uncool and it will fall off a cliff in terms of popularity, especially with younger generations. It is burning way too hot right now and people are going to tire of it quickly. I’m lookin forward to it
3. jeremy pinnell rips need new music from jeremy pinnell who rips hard
April 29, 2025 @ 10:32 am
Music journalism is in shambles at the moment, and the Penske properties (Billboard, Rolling Stone) are the worst. So much of their content now is just straight product placement. That Post Malone article is aggressively insulting to anyone who dares to read it, like we don’t understand what’s going on there, which as a quid pro quo for access to Post Malone, you have to push his dumb soda.
April 29, 2025 @ 10:43 am
We have entered the post-Post Malone era.
April 29, 2025 @ 4:39 pm
Jeremy Pinnell is the man.
April 29, 2025 @ 9:30 am
Lana Del Rey performed with Sierra Ferrell and Nikki Lane back in 2022, a song called “Prettiest Girl in Country Music.” Sang “Unchained Melody” with Paul Cauthen at Stagecoach 2024. So even if she doesn’t make a full on country album, she has given attention to country artists before (which is more than I can say for other pop star interlopers).
April 29, 2025 @ 10:36 am
I want to like Lana Del Rey. I want to respect her music, and remain open minded about whatever “country” music she chooses to make. You get up on stage and name drop Morgan Wallen because you know it will cause the media to go wild, then all of a sudden you’ve decided to put the art and the music second.
We need to stop acting like country artists are second class citizens that need to be feted by pop stars for relevancy. No different than Diplo, it’s not Sierra Ferrell and Paul Cauthen that need Lana Del Rey. It’s Lana Del Rey that needs Sierra Ferrell and Paul Cauthen to goose her country credibility.
April 29, 2025 @ 11:01 am
Whoever said they were second class citizens. I was merely pointing out that Lana has performed with country artists before, it’s not some Grammy bait thing like Cowboy Carter.
April 29, 2025 @ 12:32 pm
I can’t listen to Lana Del Rey without thinking about an absolutely horrid ex-girlfriend who was obsessed with her.
May 1, 2025 @ 4:26 pm
Lana Del Rey is who people will still be listening to in the not-too-distant future when those same people will be wondering what in the Elon Musk’s Twitter feed (a synonym for “what in the world” suggested by DeepSeek) people of our age saw in Taylor Swift beyond her million-dollar looks.
April 29, 2025 @ 9:18 pm
These insurgents ( just a word) that are around country music, are around it for the money..I don’t know really, but sometimes it looks like they are trying to either give their careers a little boost or maybe a refreshening..Sometimes it feels like they are trying to diversify for their future..The thing i know is this..Its the progressive country crowd that opened the door and let them in..And it makes progressive country look rather cheap, uneducated, and looking rather desperate to me..There was the Big & Rich thing and others before them I’m sure..And there’s always a few “valid” performers in country supporting this new stain, or strain, if you will..Look at Hank Jr…But whatever these artists are trying to prove..Their music is hollow and the lyrics a mostly comical..They fit right in with the progressive crowd..Spoon fed who and what to listen to..And only the top 4 or 5 tunes from each artist..I don’t care what they do anymore..You can’t stop it because it’s massive money..For all we know, the suits in Nashville will start thinking that Zulu music from Zambia is the coolest thing on earth..And the masses will eat it up like it’s Vinalla Ice Cream…Sorry, I’m totally rambling..But I couldn’t care less about the damage the 1% is doing anymore..But i DO have tickets for the Sturg in Asheville coming up ! I’m excited as hell too ! Lol
April 30, 2025 @ 8:50 am
She has a pretty decent cover of Stand By Your man as well. And she recenly married a Louisiana gator tour guide so she may get down south and get to experience some living
April 29, 2025 @ 9:37 am
I don’t mind pop stars making country music if they make country music. Making pop music people call country is what sucks.
When the birds made sweetheart of the rodeo it was actual country and then Chris hillman spent the rest of his career making great country music. If someone wants to do that it’s fine with me. But we don’t need more cowboy Carters
April 29, 2025 @ 11:16 am
Rock artists making Country music has helped out Country as a genre. The Eagles were massively influentual for following Country artists yet you would never hear their songs on Country radio – only the covers from that tribute album. Elton John had some good Country songs – Honky Cat being one of them. Tom Jones even had a Country album.
I think that it is possible that Pop artists today could have the effect of sucking the air out of the room but I tend to think that they are bringing extra attention to the genre that it wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. I can see how Lana Del Ray or Ed Sheeran could dip their toes into Country. The Jelly Roll thing still baffles me because his first non-rap music was that “sad sack of shit tear in my Jagermeister shitty rock music” like Staind and Three Days Grace. It was the shit factory workers put on the jukebox at 1am.
May 15, 2025 @ 8:05 am
Actually, The Eagles’ Lyin’ Eyes was on the country charts and played on country radio at the time. Tom Jones actually had several country albums and a lot of his material from the start and especially a lot Engelbert Humperdinck’s material consisted of country covers and Engelbert’s After The Lovin’ did get country airplay.
April 29, 2025 @ 9:54 am
Motion to add a new ‘Country Cosplay’ category on your Dewey Decimal Classifications list. This is starting to come off as music geared toward California Coachella darlings using mommy and daddy’s money to play dress up and pretend to be cowboy while trying to be an influencer. Meanwhile (love him or hate him) I recently saw Oliver Anthony involved in a ‘Rural Revival Project’ that actually sounds like something country artists should get behind. When these crossover artists start doing stuff like that, Farm Aid, and playing rodeos instead of Coachella and Stagecoach maybe I will take them more seriously. When they start collaborating with independent country artists who are trying to claw their way into a meaningful opportunity, I will take them more seriously. My main beef is that they call it country and that they edge out actual country artists trying to make it (radio, awards shows, etc…). John Mayer crosses genres on albums (Born and Raised, Sob Rock) but he stays in his lane – he doesn’t pull a Beyonce – and I respect him greatly for that. He could have done this with the Born and Raised album and didn’t. I would say that album is way more country than the Beyonce one. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for collaborating, but read the room and do it in a respectful way. If Lana wants to do a country album, then I sure hope she takes a butt load of country women on tour with her. Maybe even turn it into an annual thing and connect with Nikki Lane and Sierra Ferrell as headliners (but please not Margo Price). I’m pretty sure they are all friends and have played Stagecoach (Nikki even having a market there for several years). Time to take action and make things happen because the labels and radio sure aren’t gonna do it. Sorry for the rant. I’m just tired of this whole game. Also just listened to the Bobbycast where Maggie Rogers talks about being dropped from Big Loud (and hardly notified by the way) possibly because of Morgan Wallen’s unhappiness at that label. Plus watching and hearing all the behind the scenes details of the Justin Bieber case… the business of the music business seems to be completely insufferable. Why anyone would want a record deal is beyond me at this point.
May 13, 2025 @ 1:23 pm
Beyoncé didn’t do anything. The people loved her and you’re mad about it. She said it’s a Beyoncé album. Are we not allowed to talk about Black rodeo, feature the banjo which has African roots, she can’t show off Texan pride(Beyoncé never hid being southern and proud, you just don’t like that she added more country music flair to it from our Black perspective). I’m not supposed to get to learn about the first Black woman to breakthrough on the country charts just so you can keep Beyoncé from being number 1 on them. What if I want the history and culture you all don’t share with us in schools knowing we can’t always get it at home from years of forced assimilation and erasure(and claiming of what’s ours for yourselves-I didn’t even know the banjo was my heritage until I was an older teen, I’d only ever seen y’all play it in overalls with dirty faces so yes Rhiannon Giddens-the best banjo player alive, playing it with nylon strings and no frets like it’s supposed to be-being featured on Cowboy Carter was big for me).
For some reason you all still don’t get that we don’t care if you respect what we do..because you never respected us in the first place. You were racists towards Beyoncé for singing a song at the CMAs to the point some older white man walked out like she had no right to sing about lessons from her father while Black..she doesn’t need to be a full time country artist. We don’t do that in our culture because your ancestors made sure everything we do is a fusion anyway. And we do it well and no one has the right to cut us off from it. What? Some Black Country starlets who do it full time and often get snubbed from so much as a red carpet sang Black Bird with Beyoncé for our hope and to meditate on the progress we’ve made and can make if we keep our heads high…that bothered you? I don’t deserve women I relate to doing country our way. Newsflash. We always have had country that is steeped with Black tradition since you pushed us out of the mainstream with racism(deny it and you’ll be a liar who hasn’t educated themselves about Linda Mattel’s abuse that ended her career). Then you think if you have one singular man you call on every time you need an example we exist, that it rectifies everything. Beyoncé not staying in her lane-I wish some white woman would tell me or her what our lane is, you better redirect yourself back into yours- helped acts like Shaboozey, Rhiannon and Tanner get a lot of missing recognition. So in context of all that and no I didn’t give you a whole free lesson on the significance of Cowboy Carter(find a university syllabus online and stay in your lane about what academics should look up to as well), do you really think anyone owes you the loss of the reclamation of country for Black people too and not celebrating our historic southern traditions just so you can avoid the greatness of Beyoncé? I said great, you all don’t decide your feelings as a small group of white people(it’s suspicious when one group hates an album that was known for bridging community/cultural gaps)get to outweigh the majority and the people it was made for.
I haven’t owed you anything since I was born and won’t. You owe a liveable plant and having worked to dismantle institutional, systematic, and (your) interpersonal racism. But don’t tell Beyoncé about her lane like anyone gives a damn about Mayer the creep who dated a teen as a very grown man, when Beyoncé works to uplift, teach and challenge her people, without sacrificing love for everyone else
And you’re so ridiculous, you’re not in a damn game. No one is racists towards you for having the right to make country how you please and then doing so. What tf are you even mad about? Not struggling and being in celebrity business by choice. I had to have your spawn tell me what was and wasn’t for me growing up,and then we get someone who turns the ugly reaction yoj had to her over a single performance-into a landmark album and you’re still bitching. You didn’t listen to that album and study it like she recommended. You made up your mind early and decided it’s just a game for her. Well Beyoncé saying it’s a Beyoncé album meant it’s country but like any album of hers she is gonna do something no one else does. We don’t just assimilate into you anymore like you have whips at our backs. We innovate. And that makes you upset because you’re clinging to the past like you don’t already get enough between our museums being attacked and most of the hundreds of book bans happening yearly now being aimed at Black people and other marginalized groups. Luckily they have to keep record. But you’re worried about genre crossover and not the world you’re contributing to with this ridiculous behavior. Get a damn grip and a real problem. Some of us have to deal with you every day. Oh it’s cool if Lana does country and takes white women. But Beyoncé features country legends, a forgotten essential, and modern Black Country stars …and she did it wrong? But you’re not racist and we should totally give a damn and not compare you to the bigots who walked out of her CMA performance years ago and then trashed her in the comment section until it was erased.
How about you sit down and don’t tell us shit about what runs in our veins? I’m so tired of being told what’s right and wrong from you ignorant types of white people. I don’t want to be a clone of you.! You won’t tell us we didn’t grow up with country when your country is based in everything from our gospel to the rock you kicked us out of. Again, you’re gonna have the racist urge to deny it. But you all left a nice paper trail and it’s hard to ignore recent history so just read instead of contradicting me like I didn’t grow up reading the history books, watching the movies, and seeing/listening(very revealing podcasts with people who’ve been through it) all the ways you made genre on your own terms to the point even gangasta rap is from white executive minds. Beyoncé is like a lot of Black southern people in that we grew up with gospel, line dancing(our ancestors called steps for your during slavery), someone in our recent family worked your fields(my gran and her kids but I gotta hear from YOU we aren’t country), we cook soul food(…you have casseroles. I actually like some but you don’t know what it’s like to make heaven out of scraps), we don’t have farms(because of documented repossession by white people so not sorry we can’t say we raced tractors/4 wheelers and killers ourselves doing it like some of you, country style!), etc etc Beyoncé has a deeper southern accent than many of your favorites and was told to tone it down. She started out on the road being underpaid. Very typical with us. Staying rooted in faith and family. I’d that’s not country then I don’t know what is. It’s almost like me built the south off our backs so you can’t be country if we aren’t. No matter how blind is you try to be in order to make what’s ours white. You won’t ever have southern identity to yourself and you certainly won’t define it nor country music. Because the very idea you should is an admission of racism. You don’t get to push us out and say only you make the rules cause you said so. You best get over yourself and that white supremacy
April 29, 2025 @ 10:27 am
Lana Del Ray loves to be where ever the optics are on maximum. In plain talk, that means she loves exposure, wherever she can get it. Thats all you need to know.
It’s easy to become Yesterday’s news in the pop realm, and then they come a calling to the country…” oh I’ve always loved country music, I had an uncle that liked Garth Brooks, so im super nostalgic about it… reminds me of my childhood.”
Uh huh…
April 29, 2025 @ 10:33 am
It’s all about the flavor of the week, cultural tourism, and playing dress up for these people. That bubble will burst soon enough and they’ll move on to the next thing. I doubt it’ll affect the independent country music scene one iota which is, frankly, where the lifeblood of true country music has been for the last decade and more.
Artists like Sturgill, Isbell, Childers, Crockett, Ferrell, Zach Bryan and Zach Topp rose to the top organically, keeping the genre’s flame burning brightly. As much as it irks fans and stewards of true country music, whatever Beyonce, Lana, and Chappell Roan do ultimately won’t matter. Every genre has its charlatans and carpetbaggers. I can’t help but think it’s wasted energy worrying about them.
April 29, 2025 @ 10:34 am
This is merely the lingering stench of the decaying corpse of rap, which subsumed pop for almost three decades.
That this type of degenerate “diddy pop” is now feverishly trying to subsume country music is comical.
Yeah, I know, Cowboy Carter invented the banjo.
And Silas House with his Brokeback Coal Country motif is going to shoehorn it all in flawlessly.
Don’t be surprised if they revive Hee Haw.on the Disney Channel hosted by Jelly Roll and Trailer Swift.
April 29, 2025 @ 10:55 am
Do you remember when pop music was Steve Winwood? A guy who could actually sing, arrange a song, and had an actual band that could play instruments?
April 30, 2025 @ 11:36 am
Do you remember when pop music was Frank Sinatra, who never played an instrument, never arranged a song, just sang. The whole “you can’t be any good if you can’t play an instrument” thing is so elitist.
May 1, 2025 @ 4:06 am
How many people today have a voice like Frank had?
May 1, 2025 @ 8:34 am
I never said any of that, but feel free to ad lib as you like. Steve Winwood is every bit the singer that Sinatra was. Frankly, of the crooner-era guys, I’d much rather listen to Robert Goulet than Sinatra. Objectively, Winwood is a better musician, considering that he can sing, write, arrange, play instruments, etc. Hard to argue otherwise. Of course, if you want to argue “cultural impact” or something else, you could be correct. The larger argument, relevant to pop music today, is that most of the poptartlets of this era possess almost none of these skills and the “music” itself is dreadful.
April 29, 2025 @ 10:45 am
It’s the easiest genre to play and write for musicians and artists and the fan base easiest to successfully pander to (see New England’s Aaron Lewis) thanks to their low overall IQ, expect more to come
April 29, 2025 @ 10:46 am
Out of all the projects mentioned, I think Post Malone’s is by far the most successful. People are actually listening to it, and he even seemed to have fun with it too.
April 29, 2025 @ 10:58 am
I saw clips from Zach Bryan’s set and him and his band sounded much tighter. I can only draw the conclusion that he listened to outside voices and made a conscious decision to be more polished. Also his choice of doing the Warren Zevon song ‘Lawyers Guns and Money’ was such a suprisingly good and unique choice. Hank Jr covered it in the 80’s but no one remembers that.
April 29, 2025 @ 11:20 am
I remember Jr’s version of Lawyers Guns and Money. It was on the Five-O album. Strong cover by Bocephus. Good stuff.
April 29, 2025 @ 11:05 am
“As a country music fan, you don’t want to be completely territorial and adversarial to anyone from outside the genre deciding they want to try their hand at country.”
I DO.
April 29, 2025 @ 11:24 am
I really don’t think there is an issue with these artists using country influences in there work. Post Malone record was a pop country that was better than some of those pop country peers, but not my thing. Beyonce’s record has some country influence, but wasn’t a country record, and Lana’s seems to have some classic country influence, but still sounds like Lana. Thats fine. We love it when Sturgill infuses all different styles into his work.
I think the only issue I find with any of this was the Beyonce record winning the Country grammy when it wasn’t a country record on balance (also some of the hubub around it not being on country radio was disengious – but also who cares, country radio sucks).
April 29, 2025 @ 1:52 pm
I think it’s cool and fun when pop stars go country. No one makes me listen, and usually after a couple of minutes I don’t. Tina Turner’s Tina Turns the Country On, Bob Dylan’s John Wesley Harding and Nashville Skyline, and Ray Charles’ Modern Sounds in Country Music as well as Friendship in the 80’s are all great records. Some of my favorite. I liked aspects of Beyonce’s record, but I haven’t listened since it came out. Post Malone’s F1-Trillion sounded like generic 00’s country to me but it was interesting to listen to once. I listened to the Ernest and Snoop song once, and am glad I did. I don’t understanding the hysteria. Is it dumb Beyonce won Country album of the year? Sure, but the Grammys seem pretty silly as a whole. The other day I listened to Elton John’s Tumbleweed Connection and Ringo’s Beucup of Blues. I may listen again, a may not. But I like it all more than than the shit they play on the radio. I know the argument is “Post and Beyonce are no Bob Dylan and Tina Turner” which is true but it’s cool to try. And a few of the songs from the Beyonce album were real good and if she wanted to make it more country she could have and it would have been been better, maybe she will someday. I was never a huge fan of Taylor Swift’s country but my wife has gotten me into her later albums, and i’ve gone back and listened to her country again and what I really can’t wait for is when she she does a country record again. I hope Miley Cyrus does as well. Oh yeah, I really like the Chappell Roan song and hope she does a whole album. I think Lady Gaga and Billie Eilish would be interesting.
April 29, 2025 @ 3:37 pm
I like Hot Dog by Led Zeppelin.
April 30, 2025 @ 8:24 am
Cool song, thanks.
I’d take any other recs people have. the Rolling Stones, and Grateful Dead country stuff I am familiar with.
April 30, 2025 @ 2:49 pm
Led Zeppelin had a few songs that would be considered country today. There’s “Bron-Yar Stomp” from III, “Down By The Seaside” from Physical Graffiti, there’s even a pedal steel in “Your Time Is Gonna Come” from the first album. I wonder why Allison never tried to get Robert Plant on the Opry?
May 1, 2025 @ 3:20 am
tumbleweed connection is a masterpiece
April 29, 2025 @ 1:56 pm
If I any say in any matters, I would like to see the return to one chart for measuring country song success. As it stands, we have two. One just for airplay and one for hot singles. Shaboozey still has the #1 “country” song while Morgan Wallen has the #1 airplay song. The list was split back in 2012 to cater to Taylor Swift to put her song “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” back at #1. Since she left the genre, the need for the split became unnecessary, in my opinion, it has allowed more non-country acts to achieve #1 songs there, including a guy with a marshmallow for a head.
In short, we need any resurgence in traditional and indie country. I will forever support Dale Watson with his Ameripolitan movement, but we need similar movements to coalesce and grow to truly being country back to where it needs to be.
April 29, 2025 @ 3:26 pm
Everyone should be welcome if they play country music. Those lines have been so grossly obscured that you put a fiddle against a computer rhythm section and put a cowboy hat on and all of a sudden you are George Strait. Gross
April 29, 2025 @ 4:11 pm
Lana Del Rey’s “Stand By Your Man” was shaky until the last 4 words. Which she sang very well. If that was in Nashville, though, final grade, D-
On the other hand, Sierra Ferrell – singing Connie Smith’s “Ain’t Had No Lovin’ ” – in high-pressure Nashville – I would even say “in higher-standards Nashville – sang the soul of it.
Post Malone’s regrettable choice of a song “Never L*** You Again” ??? May as well call it “I’ll Never Forget Whats Her Name” or either “Never F*** You Again” Corporate collabs, smh.
April 29, 2025 @ 5:46 pm
No one mentions Mitskis 2023 the land is Inhospitable and so are we
Ahead of the curve
April 29, 2025 @ 7:38 pm
I think you’re right. But looking at the situation with the most rose colored glasses, I think we’re setting up a perfectly timed situation for a real country superstar to emerge.
1. In the eyes of the general public and current political climate, Country is cool. It’s not a mainstream genre making dated pop music – which is where we were a decade ago.
2. The Big Loud shift (CWG, most notably) shows that the majors are paying attention. They’re looking for that future star to dig their claws into.
3. Current method of distribution and information dissemination is ripe for artists to build their own following and maintain all artistic control stepping into those major contracts.
I’m not naive enough to ignore the power those institutions still have with their own built in PR machine and streaming platform shenanigans. I’m just saying it’s possible.
There have been a number of recent acts that have come close. IMO, Childers probably came the closest, but life happens.
April 30, 2025 @ 6:18 am
“And behold the anti-christ emerged and rose to power and anyone who lacked his mark ‘Chris Gaines’ could not buy food or housing.”
April 30, 2025 @ 1:15 pm
this made me legit chuckle Strait hahaha
April 30, 2025 @ 9:41 am
Pop artists have often tried to move into country music with varying degrees of success. The media has always given them far too much attention. I cannot see Ed Sheeran being too serious about his album being called country. Beyonce made her view on her album clear and many media outlets continue to call it country as did the Grammys! Post Malone’s ‘country’ album is (in my opinion) pretty poor quality music. I suppose the advantage of ‘pop’ stars going ‘country’ is that it brings more attention to country music and there will be some that get into exploring and enjoying the ‘real’ country sounds. I am not sure ‘real’ country music has ever really got the media attention it deserves but its fan base continues to grow.
April 30, 2025 @ 11:30 am
“As a country music fan, you don’t want to be completely territorial and adversarial to anyone from outside the genre deciding they want to try their hand at country.”
Yes, I do. A nation without borders isn’t a nation and a genre without borders isn’t a genre.
April 30, 2025 @ 11:42 am
Then you never get Waylon Jennings, Conway twitty, Charlie Rich, and a host of other artists. Any artist should be able to make any type of music that they wish. The problem is when they dominate the narrtive, win Grammy awards, and define an era when their music isn’t even really country.
April 30, 2025 @ 1:20 pm
I get your stance Trig but I struggle with this topic . You could always argue its two lanes in every genre of music . The battle of the pop star or band and the underground artist is a tale as old as time. At times they are sworn enemies and other times its a mix of influence and admiration on both sides. How artist are covered or not covered in print and on social media is a loaded discussion that again unfortunately hits every genre of music. I would much rather listeners check out Zach Top than Jelly Roll any day of the week but the powers that be say otherwise. I think Pop artist will always innovate or mimic current trends and soundscapes. I think its somewhat unfair to decipher if the change to country among pop and indie artist is from an artistic or profit motivation. I also understand our roles on this topic are different here . As a fan of country I’m not threatened by the outsider . I will continue to hit play on the country artist I love and if they are in town I will support them on tour. As a singular fan I don’t feel the impact of the pop outsider. I could be wrong but I think the more I read your work your actual beef isn’t with the pop artist interest in country music but how its being documented and shared across media platforms. On that point I fully agree with you. I think a country influenced album is not a country album . I think the artist have been clear in that description but music and pop journalist have not.
April 30, 2025 @ 3:02 pm
Obviously pop country vs. traditional/independent country is a tale as old as time. The difference now is you have outright established pop stars making country albums, and then sucking up all the attention not just from more independent/underground artists, but established pop country artists as well. Most pop country fans don’t even consider Beyonce’s album country.
May 3, 2025 @ 9:40 am
Alex, I appreciate your thoughtful comment, but (if I understand you correctly) I don’t agree with the last sentence: “I think the artist have been clear in that description but music and pop journalist have not.” I think it’s a good bet that some pop artists are doing country-ish music because that’s what they’re sincerely drawn to it as artists and others are hoping on a bandwagon. Like you, I stick with straight-ahead country so I’m not in a position to guess which is which.
May 1, 2025 @ 8:54 am
Trigger, just curious, do you have any thoughts on how the powers to be in Nashville are feeling these days? Are they still arrogant and think they still control everything or are they feeling nervous now that radio is mostly irrelevant? It seems to me they are still earning profits but most of it coming from Combs and Wallen. Outside of Lainey Wilson they haven’t really produced a true star in 6/7 years. It also has to bug them that of the few artists that can still sell tickets like Combs and Church prefer to offer opening slots to artists like Jinks, Whiskey Myers and Wilder Blue. Also, has to bother them that a TV show like Yellowstone can have such an influence on what artists get listened to.
May 1, 2025 @ 12:29 pm
The major labels are definitely still clinging to the radio model, though they would have to be mad to not see radio’s relevance is rapidly declining. That said, the major labels are also now major stakeholders in independent music through distribution deals. They are signing artists not on the radio left and right to deal where the performer still has autonomy and keeps their publishing, but get major label distribution behind them. This is true for Tyler Childers, Colter Wall, Flatland Cavalry, Zach Bryan, and so on and so forth. So the picture is somewhat muddy when it comes to labels, though there is still a clear delineation point between artists being played on mainstream country radio, and artists who are not.
May 1, 2025 @ 10:48 am
Looking forward to when country music or being country is no longer in. I like all kinds of music, but too much crap is being considered country music that is taking attention away from real country music
May 1, 2025 @ 3:30 pm
Country Music and the term “Country Music” has been bastardized. I haven’t heard a true country song for decades. It’s over. Never again will we have George, Tom T., Merle, Waylon, Kris, and countless others. It was about true life experience then. I grew up on it. And it will live with my insides until the day I die. The Legends commented on this a long, long, long, time ago. Sorry to be cynical, I think the 80’s was the end of the true genre. Sad.
May 2, 2025 @ 7:02 am
Sierra only won Americana Grammys and I personally think America is a BS genre created when real country got shoved out by bro-coutry.
She should win the country Grammys and let Beyonce have Americana or better yet pop.
May 3, 2025 @ 8:03 am
I’m sure this not an original thought, but it seems likely that pop stars are looking to country in hopes a bit of country “authenticity” will rub off on them. We all know that a lot of country is about as authentic as a rhinestone, but a lot of the best of it does genuinely come from the heart. I’m not saying pop can’t ever be sincere (Taylor Swift may have succeeded there), but from what I can see (from a great distance), in recent years it seems to have veered more and more toward extravaganza at the expense of truth.
May 15, 2025 @ 3:46 pm
That’s a really good point that actually I haven’t seen made that much. For sure at least for some of these “interlopers” (maybe those of a more indie variety) that’s a big part of the attraction.