Country music turns up a cultural renaissance

The Future. As country fans catch up to the streaming age, the genre is exploding in global popularity, topping the charts and selling record numbers of tickets. If the trend continues, country music may overtake hip hop as the most-listened-to genre in the US by the end of the year.

Stars and streams
Artists like Zach Bryan, Morgan Wallen, and Lainey Wilson are selling out international arenas just a few years after playing clubs, while country-hip-hop artist Shaboozey simultaneously topped the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Country Songs chart with “A Bar Song (Tipsy).”

A little insight into how country got here:

• As Gen Zers and millennials put a premium on authenticity, the genre’s penchant for songwriting and emotional storytelling has appealed to people.
• Country fans are now listening to more music on streaming than physical media, with listenership increasing 23% across US-based services (making it the fastest-growing genre).
• To highlight how pronounced country music fans’ move to streaming is, Spotify shared that while the genre’s listenership in the US has grown 110% in five years, it’s grown 700% in places like Columbus, Ohio.
• Additionally, country radio has historically had an iron grip on which artists broke out. But the internet has allowed more non-traditional artists (who are mixing genres) to find followings.

These factors have allowed country to rapidly expand its fanbase. Case in point: this year, AEG Presents reported that Stagecoach sold out before Coachella and artist George Strait broke the record for most tickets sold at a US concert after more than 110,000 attended his concert in College Station, Texas.