COUNTRY ON TOP.
Between July 2023 and July 2024, there were 8 country songs that occupied the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Morgan Wallen - "Last Night"
Jason Aldean - "Try That in a Small Town"
Oliver Anthony Music - "Rich Men North of Richmond"
Zach Bryan (ft Kacey Musgraves) - "I Remember Everything"
Brenda Lee - "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree"
Beyoncé - "Texas Hold 'Em"
Post Malone (ft Morgan Wallen) - "I Had Some Help"
Shaboozey - "A Bar Song (Tipsy)"
I guess there's debate as to just how "country" each song here is. I'd put 'em all in the same boat, myself.
The dinky trap beat on "Last Night" isn't enough for me to confuse it with anything outside your standard country pop song. Jason Aldean has been a country radio staple for 20 years. Oliver Anthony's look suggests he might be more of a folksy bluegrass guy, but to entirely separate that from country is a stretch. Zach Bryan is an Americana purist, which means he's just country for people who drink PBR. Gotta include Brenda Lee's 1958 hit "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," as Wikipedia classifies this song as "rockabilly," therefor sharing more in common with early Johnny Cash than anything by Blake Shelton. "Texas Hold 'Em" is a fun little backcountry stomper. "I Had Some Help" sounds like it could have been a country hit in any of the last 20 years. And that Shaboozey song seems to take from multiple genre influences to ultimately create something that's unmistakably country.
As I write this, Shaboozey's "Tipsy" is reigning as the #1 song in America for the 14th week. Still not caught up to the 16 weeks that Morgan Wallen's " Last Night" spent at #1 last year. Heck, Morgan Wallen is actually the king of the mountain right now. His last 2 albums have combined to sell 13x Platinum in the US. All since January 2021.
For context: Within this same amount of time, Taylor Swift has released 2 new albums and an additional 4 re-recorded releases of her older albums. All these releases have combined to go 9x Platinum.
Unlike Swift, Wallen is far from the American icon status of Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley. Per Spotify, he sits at a relatively scant ranking as the 92nd most-streamed artist in the world. But in America, people are paying money for his songs. And that doesn't happen to people in 2024.
While it can't be denied that country music is having its own moment right now, I don't get it when people call it a "comeback."
Individual artists can make comebacks, for sure. But a genre? Heck no. Especially with country, where its popularity and cultural relevance has always been super difficult to measure. Like, when was country's heyday in the first place? Are you referring to Garth Brooks going 108x Platinum with a decade's-worth of album releases? Are you an American Millennial reminiscing about the post-9/11 country marketing boom from your childhood? Are you an old-head talking about how much better the genre was before it went pop? Are you realizing that even at its most popular, country was never actually on top?
What's happening with country right now has never happened to the genre before. The run has been too successful to call it a fad. But it's too stupid to call it a revolution.
LET'S TALK ABOUT COUNTRY.
I personally find country fun to talk about. In fact, it's more fun to talk about country than it is to listen to it!
I've technically been listening to country my whole life. Country music is the soundtrack to hanging out with friends who won't give me the aux cord. On my own time, I pretty much never listen to country. And yet so many of my favorite artists are influenced by it.
Bands like Wilco tend to take the steel guitar twang and gritty folk elements of country to make some depressive indie rock. Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, these guys have all toyed around with it. Zach Bryan draws the most obvious line between my favored "boring white guy" music and country's chart-conquering moment in America right now. But if I'm being honest with myself, my relationship with traditional country is more like appreciating it from afar rather than being a real fan.
Country is one of the most purely American-born genres of music. It's been around for like 100 years. Like anything culturally significant, it originates from the voices of people in poverty. Any US state that struggles with tornadoes or hurricanes, that's where country comes from. You're out there writing songs based on experience, and your experience says that nature is working against you.
So are Americans playing more country songs in 2024 because we finally get a chance to connect with these distinctive voices?
Haha nope.
I'll get some things out of the way here. It's not like I only acknowledge a country artist's validity if they have a lower-class upbringing. This is more the conversation people have been having about rappers for years. If you're not black, don't pretend to be black. If you're not from the hood, don't pretend like you're from the hood. I believe these chart-topping country songs come from artists who are genuine fans of the genre. Nobody's pretending. Ever-profitable pop superstar Post Malone is out there making some generally accessible country songs that don't sound too forced. And the new Beyoncé album kinda works as a musical museum for every angle of country.
And yet I see America's rise in country music sales as a "fake" movement. It has hardly anything to do with the artists making it. It's the speculated "cultural impact" of it all that's absolute horeshit.
In a piece I wrote about music of the Trump Era back in December 2020, I claimed: "The musical landscape has simply turned into a big fat meme." I should have known. This is just how it's gonna be from now on. The new country music boom hasn't changed anything. Not a strong enough force in musical innovation to overpower our iconic pop stars. Not enough revolutionary ideals to change anyone's political perspectives. But it's fun and it's in your face. So it's a meme.
Going back to that Trump Era quote from myself... That was in the middle of a paragraph where I talk about a song that has proven to be kabillion miles ahead of its time. The song that still holds the record for most weeks at #1 on the Billboard chart. That's right: "Old Town Road."
Its first week at #1, this song was 113 seconds long, just a simple banger trap beat and some lightweight banjo, led by a gay 19 year-old black man using a comically country-tinged voice; some guy we've never heard of named Lil Nas X. While the listening experience comes off pretty harmless, everything surrounding this song's existence and its popularity says it's an anomaly. So how did he extend his place at #1 another 18 weeks? He further meme-ified it. Added a goofy rap verse from goofy country tabloid star Billy Ray Cyrus. Nothing about "Old Town Road" is serious, yet everything about it is brilliant.
Meme music and mainstream music had officially become indistinguishable. I found this easy to embrace at first. Making dumb pop songs dumber. I'm kinda all for it. And I wouldn't call any of these new country hits "meme music." It's just that the way we see the genre itself has become a meme.
Dolly Parton has practically become a meme hero.
I remember Beck being my favorite artist when I was 17. Genres were a joke to him back in the 90s. The dude was ironically rapping over a big fat buffet of cheeky weird instrumentals that would be sure to make your parents worry about you. In a way, one can say he was ahead of his time. But I would dare go in the opposite direction.
We figured out that making music in a bunch of different genres is easy. You ask someone what type of music they listen to, everyone just says "everything." And they're not lying. We have access to it all. Sometimes we feel like unleashing our inner gangsta rapper. Sometimes we feel like dressing up in tacky bright 80s outfits. Sometimes we just wanna sweat it out to some EDM. Sometimes we wanna put on a cowboy hat and drink Budweiser.
I find this all kinda cool. Aside from the fact that none of it matters.
The deal with country is that everybody likes country. It's easy to market and easy to make. It's been that way for a long time now. You can go on YouTube and find people who just take any given 4-chord song, add a twang, sing it in a Southern accent, and boom: Sound like Dierks Bentley. "U2 but make it country" Instagram reels like, yeah. That shit's easy. And you can make a buck off that.
Even the other way around, John Michael Montgomery's 1994 country hit "I Swear" made a seamless transition into an R&B hit by All-4-One. Pretty much all pop-centric genres that have their own circle of radio airplay have been fair game since the 60s. Country is not exempt. And for those of you who've always been into it, I think country culture was best described to me by an unintentionally wise kid named Alex: "Country isn't a lifestyle. It's a state of mind."
Country doesn't necessarily have gatekeepers either. Heck, I don't think there's any other genre that takes more pride in branding itself as "music for people who don't think about art." You can ask any country fan to name their favorite country artists, and they'll all name the same five people. It's all chill around these parts.
I guess there technically are country music gatekeepers. I try to take up their recommendations, but I think gatekeeping a genre just as much preserves the music's purest forms as it limits its boundaries. You'll never meet a hardcore country fan the same way you'll meet snobs that represent metal or punk or jazz. "That's not REAL metal!" "That's not REAL punk!" "Jazz is NOT dead, it's just not profitable!" Ok, that last one is true, but still.
America has always been full of casual country fans. There's nothing wrong with that. It's just that any time I've tried to take this year's country boom seriously, I'll ask myself: "Why country? Why now?" And the answer is always: "Why not?" 🤠
OH YEAH, THE SONGS.
Going back to the songs at the top of this blog post, there's a reminder that it's the music scene as a whole that's become meme-ified. Over the last 5 years, one of the biggest hits of our time is a little holiday treat made back in 1994. Mariah Carey. "All I Want for Christmas Is You." 13 collective weeks at #1 in the US. In the world of memes, you don't even have to be new or trendy. You just have to be mem-eable. This 1994 song is the first song that comes to mind when we think of Christmas in 2024. And what the hey, let's throw "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" in there. It's a party now.
Despite his massive success, I don't consider Morgan Wallen as part of the new country movement. His 2021 release Dangerous: The Double Album was an immediate Nashville smash. Country albums have always sold millions within their own market. The Billboard Hot 100 chart just functions differently now. With niche radio stations becoming obsolete, there's new emphasis on charting what's getting streamed the most by the people. For example, Garth Brooks' album sales rival the likes of Michael Jackson. Yet "Friends in Low Places" did not even chart in the Billboard Hot 100. Absolutely insane.
So we get "Last Night" as Wallen's signature generic megahit. Somebody has to take the crown as The Face of Country, and Morgan's the man right now. I think the his brand of lyrically-conscious and pop-friendly country appeals to people from multiple generations. I actually think his reign will last for the whole decade. I have no idea who's #2 in the radio country kingdom. They're so far behind, people have forgotten that country airplay still exists as its own entity. If country is selling, Morgan Wallen is carrying that world on his back.
Then of course we've got the 1-week wonder "Try That in a Small Town" by Jason Aldean.
The first song I remember hearing (and liking) by Jason Aldean was a song called "Amarillo Sky" back in 2006. I remember later moving to Idaho and listening to the song "Big Green Tractor" with my friend Kori. She told me, "Scott, if you ever want to win over a girl, get your guitar and play her this song." People who actually like country have known Aldean's name for like 20 years now. His 2023 single "Try That in a Small Town" doesn't sound much different than anything else on country radio. Its brief spike in nationwide popularity had more to do with the lyrical content becoming a discussion piece among people who hate the song.
Honest to god, I heard more negative press than positive about this song. This probably could have been avoided if he didn't shoot the music video in front of an old lynching site. Every benefit of the doubt you want to give its violent lyrical context is suddenly shattered. So look out all you rebel-rousers! Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Paycheck, guess that includes y'all too. The "Big Green Tractor" guy is out to lynch you. Yikes.
Then of course we've got the 2-week wonder "Rich Men North of Richmond" by Oliver Anthony Music. Again a song that's more powered by discourse than airplay.
Oliver Anthony Music was a new face with a rather meteoric rise to popularity. An acoustic field recording of a song that could have been written by Dale Gribble himself. Its lyrics were discussed at the first Republican primary debate in the summer of 2023. Oliver Anthony Music condemned the Republicans for their use of his song, distancing himself from any association with the party.
This response made sense to me. Even in the realms of far-right libertarianism, even the right-wing folks in DC are still part of the controlling government machine you disgust. Might I suggest, to anyone out there who wants to write political music: If you don't want certain people to agree with you, stop saying things you know they'll agree with.
Then of course we've got the 1-week wonder "I Remember Everything" by Zach Bryan, featuring former-Grammy darling Kacey Musgraves.
The charts are weird sometimes. Bryan had the #1 album of the week. Often times a huge album means its most popular song shoots to #1. While "I Remember Everything" still stands as Bryan's only #1 hit, it feels more like a consolation prize for his actual most popular song. From 2022, his single "Something in the Orange" has gone 7x Platinum. Wow.
Anyways, yeah, I consider myself pro-Zach Bryan. I love this dude's voice. A younger Millennial who grew up in Oklahoma and served in the Navy. I wouldn't consider him very "fun." Like, at all. I think he's trying to distance himself from the country pop world and wanting to be a critically-acclaimed Americana figure like Jason Isbell. He just has to work on being a bigger asshole.
Then of course we've got the 2-week wonder "Texas Hold 'Em" by Beyoncé. I can spill a novel's-worth of ink about the album this comes from, Cowboy Carter. Some good words, some bad. The song itself? There is nothing to say about this freaking song.
It's not bad. It's fun. I'd call it country. The actual song's not all that memorable. I know there's a part where she invites the listener to dance by saying "don't be a bitch." That's, like, a really weird thing to say, right?
Anyways. For anybody who thinks Beyoncé is just a non-country artist trying to capitalize on the country meme, I don't think that's the case. She absolutely does the genre justice throughout Cowboy Carter. It's a grandiose project with hundreds of writers and performers involved, full of songs that I'm never in the mood to listen to. I appreciate the presentation, but I feel like Queen Bey further trades off her conviction for production with each album.
I think we've now reached the threshold of just how far the meme-able country movement can go. These final #1 hits I'm about to get into are much stronger certified hits than than the brief chart-toppers I just mentioned. I think things can only descend from here. And I'll expound on that.
If you were wary about Beyoncé going country for a cash grab, I'm not sure how you were less wary about former-rapper Post Malone doing the same thing a few months later. He spent a few weeks at #1 this year with his hit " I Had Some Help," featuring some help from The Face of Country himself, Morgan Wallen.
What's sad is that this song is undeniably country, but it's also just super flavorless. When I say I'm not a big country fan, I'm talking about this stuff. This song makes me feel like I'm watching a Chevy truck commercial in 2004. And I have to realize that this is why people like it.
The song is selling, the album is selling. Anyone who watched Post Malone sing "America the Beautiful" at the Super Bowl this year knows that he has respect for the genre. Ah. "Respect for the genre." Something critics didn't say about him back when he had his breakout rap hit "White Iverson."
So has Post Malone found himself a home in country? Will he settle with it? I think he could. But I know he won't.
The current #1 song in America is "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" by Shaboozey. Its 14th week at #1. Still behind Morgan Wallen's 16-week reign with "Last Night." But I actually think Shaboozey will pass him up. I even think this song can break the 19-week record set by "Old Town Road." This will be the song that people see as the height of the country movement. And it's the song that will make us all tired of it.
There's just something so simple and relatable about this guy's approach. An acoustic guitar, some handclaps, a chorus that's easy to sing along to. It's a newly established anthem for every American ready to get their beer-driven swagger on at the local bar this weekend. Without using much, it's got everything.
BECAUSE NOTHING MATTERS.
So now I believe we've finally crossed beyond the threshold. The next time a pop star announces they're doing a country album, it will be seen as a sellout move that's behind the times. In fact, just this weekend, Ringo Starr announced that he's releasing a country album. It's the beginning of the end, folks.
I think Morgan Wallen will still sell. He'll live on as "the country guy" among America's biggest superstars. There's this weird thing with Morgan Wallen fans, by the way. Has anybody else noticed that everyone who's super into his stuff, their favorite genre of music is EDM? I can't make the connection. It's just a weird fact unrelated to anything.
I've written a lot about country here. Because while I find the movement unimportant, there's something really funny and fascinating about it all. Who would think there would be a time where pop stars could start making country music, and it would be seen as an act of selling out? I thought it was supposed to be the other way around. People are using the exact opposite career strategy that we once witnessed from the biggest artist alive: Taylor Swift.
My biggest stretch of an opinion here is that the meme-ification of the modern music scene originated in 2016. 100% in line with the US presidential election.
A lot of Millennials who had associated with the Democratic party started pulling towards actual socialist ideals. A lot of the usual Republican Millennials voters found a truer sense of identity with libertarianism. But it was then made clearer than ever in our adult lives that what actual people believed never mattered. The administrative funding was always gonna be between Clinton and Trump. We always knew that, but we held onto false hope. And there was this conundrum as to whether these 2 candidates were ideological planets apart from each other, or if they were technically the same thing.
As far as making this music-related, the guy who won this election had to settle for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir as the big-ticket musical performance for his inauguration. The eternally left-wing music scene was not pleased with the election outcome. Over the last 8 years, now with some quarantine experience added into the mix, younger artists have given themselves more questions than answers.
Do the things that I believe in even matter? Does it matter who wins a presidential election? Then again, how are these elections even close?
Is it a big deal if country music comes from a black woman who started off as an R&B artist? Should we keep buying country music from a guy who gets caught saying racial slurs in public? Why is that even a question?
Should I get less political? Should my music career go county? Should I take cheap CBD tablets and flip through TikTok while I work from my apartment?
Perhaps the answer was always to put on a cowboy hat and ignore anything important all along. It's been fun watching the country meme reach its peak. I have no idea what musical genre will win America's next fake "culturally-significant" lottery. But like everything else, I will probably only be able to enjoy it ironically.