As you take a look at the Billboard Hot 100 or scroll on social media, you are likely to be met with country and folk songs. Artists such as Morgan Wallen, Luke Combs and Zach Bryan run rampant through the charts and the radio waves. People are putting on their cowboy boots, hats and learning line dances on TikTok like never before. But where did this rustic renaissance come from?
According to Luminate Data’s Year-End Music Report, Country was the third highest-growing genre by U.S. on-demand audio streams, with an increase of 23.7%, amounting to 20.4 billion streams. In general, country is the fastest-growing streaming genre in the U.S., with Gen Z fans boosting most of the genre’s popularity.
In terms of folk music, indie folk has also seen the same success as country music, with big names like Noah Kahan and Faye Webster gaining fame on a whole new level. Kahan’s most recent tour is sold out in all but two stops, and Webster has released a new leg of her tour after her success in the fall. Webster’s song “I Know You,” which recently blew up on TikTok this past summer, is from her self-titled sophomore album released in 2017. With the help of social media, Gen Z is rediscovering music from country and folk artists old and new.
Many of Gen Z’s favorite artists appear to share a love for the art that is country music. Lana Del Rey released a cover of “Take Me Home, Country Roads” by John Denver last fall. In 2022, Harry Styles performed with Shania Twain on the Coachella main stage, uniting fan bases and generations together for epic duets of “Man! I Feel Like A Woman” and “You’re Still the One.” However one of the most notable and controversial collaborations would have to be the one between The Chicks (formerly known as The Dixie Chicks) and Beyoncé when they performed the Houston-born singer’s “Daddy Lessons,” a country track from her album “Lemonade” at the Country Music Awards in 2016.
Ahead of their performance, country music fans and viewers were flooding social media with negative remarks about both Beyoncé and The Chicks for both acts’ previous political comments and social activism. People were calling for boycotts, denouncing the two for even associating themselves in the country music sphere, and unfortunately, the all too common sexist and racist hate comments also came flooding in.
Extreme criticism and discrimination are not foreign to female country musicians. In 2013, after the release of her debut album “Same Trailer Different Park,” Kacey Musgraves was the receiver of the conservative country curse. The third song of the album, “Follow Your Arrow,” has lyrics encouraging listeners to live their lives authentically, regardless of what people will say about them. In the same song, Musgraves most notably mentions same-sex relationships and the recreational use of marijuana. Musgraves was completely blacklisted from country radio play. Even so, she never asked for forgiveness or rebranded to appeal to the country music masses, and more than a decade later, she remains loyal to the values she shared on her album and is now a Grammy award-winning artist.
You would expect the same consequences to occur to the men in the same genre as Musgraves, but they do not. In 2021, a video surfaced online of Morgan Wallen yelling out racial slurs and other berating words. While Wallen was dropped from his label following the release of the video and had opportunities retracted, his fall from grace was short-lived. Although he mentioned in his apology that he would continue to further educate himself and focus on self-improvement, when invited to a meeting with the Nashville chapter of the NAACP, Wallen was a no-show. Today, in 2024, Wallen’s racist actions have seemingly been forgotten, and he is still getting airplay, awards and accolades after the incident.
However, the year 2024 is going to be full of women in country music, whether people like it or not. Musgraves has just released her most recent album, “Deeper Well,” and is already reigning triumphant with a subsequent tour later this year. Beyoncé released two country singles, “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” and “16 Carriages.” “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” created history as she cemented herself as the first Black woman with the number one single on the Hot Country Songs chart and topped the Billboard Hot 100. The songs are a part of her album “Cowboy Carter,” which was influenced by an experience where she felt unwelcomed and as a result, drove her to further dig deeper into the roots of country music. Although not confirmed, many assume the experience she is referring to is the backlash following her CMA’s performance.
Other big female names in the mix are Del Rey and Taylor Swift. Del Rey is said to release a country album later this year in the fall titled “Lasso.” Swift is nearly done completing the re-recordings of her albums, her self-titled debut album “Taylor Swift” is one of the two left, leaving her return to the country music scene imminent.
Women and people of color have been at the forefront of much of the music, culture and trends people enjoy, but also at the expense of intense assessments as to whether they belong or are entitled to share the same space as white male creatives. This year, things are changing.
