Shaboozey, Lainey Wilson, Beyoncé. Getty Images (3)
Country music has been on a steady rise for the past several years, but in 2024, the genre soared to heights that would have been unimaginable less than a decade ago.
It was once a common refrain to hear music fans say that they listen to “everything but country,” but as Lainey Wilson sang in her first single of the year, country’s cool again. Artists like Beyoncé and Post Malone released full-length country albums, Shaboozey had the biggest hit of the year and Stagecoach sold out before Coachella for the first time ever. Twisters, one of 2024’s most massive blockbusters, had an all-country soundtrack featuring songs by the likes of Miranda Lambert, Luke Combs and Thomas Rhett, while pop stars including Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars and Sabrina Carpenter incorporated country sounds in their music (see “Die With a Smile” and “Slim Pickins”).
Even the hot gossip of the year involved a country star: Zach Bryan, whose messy split from Brianna “Chickenfry” LaPaglia inspired Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy to record multiple diss tracks about the “Something in the Orange” singer.
It’s all a dramatic turn of events from last year, which saw no less an eminence than Dolly Parton releasing a rock album as artists like Maren Morris publicly distanced themselves from mainstream country amid political controversy. So how exactly did we get here?
Post Malone. Astrida Valigorsky/WireImage
For starters, strict definitions of genre have been breaking down across the board, thanks in part to how people listen to music now. Say you heard Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” on a pop radio station and decided to look him up on Spotify afterward — your algorithm now sees you as a country fan and will start recommending artists and tracks in the same vein that were liked by your fellow Shaboozey fans. You might never have considered yourself a country fan before because you’d never heard any, but streaming really lowers the barrier to entry.
Taylor Swift and Beyoncé dominated entertainment headlines this year, but their latest albums — The Tortured Poets Department and Cowboy Carter, respectively — were just two of many bright spots in an overall great year for music. Charli XCX ruled the summer (and the color green) with Brat, a rollicking album that dared to ask […]
“I think that’s something that I had in my head, that fans did care about genres and then zooming out and really just talking to the fans, [I realized] they literally don’t care,” Tiera Kennedy, who appeared on Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, exclusively told Us Weekly earlier this year. “I was playing a show and I ran into this fan and she was like, ‘I don’t really care if you have a record deal or if you don’t, I don’t really care if this is country or if it isn’t. I love the music and that’s all that matters.’ … It’s just about good music and whether or not it meets you in the moment.”
That was definitely the case for Shaboozey, whose breakout single tied the record for most consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It’s worth noting that the song he tied with is Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” remix with Billy Ray Cyrus, another track that defied genre convention and blended hip-hop and country sounds for something new.
American Idol winner Scotty McCreery and more country music artists are embracing the new voices finding success in the genre. “I love it!” McCreery, 30, exclusively told Us Weekly at the 2024 People’s Choice Country Awards on September 26. “Obviously, I’m an old school kind of guy so I love the traditional sound, but I […]
Unlike Lil Nas X, however, Shaboozey (who also appeared on Cowboy Carter) made an entire album that leans country but still has elements of rap and pop as well as Americana. At the 2025 Grammys, he’s nominated for both Best Country Song and Best Melodic Rap Performance — and he has no plans on staying in one lane in the future.
Jelly Roll. Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images
“It would be cool for people to just see the person, see the versatility and the taste palate,” he told People in June. “I want people to look at that, listen to it and be like, ‘Man, what was he inspired by when he made this stuff?’”
Post Malone and Morgan Wallen’s “I Had Some Help” was another major hit this year, debuting at No. 1 on the Hot 100 and paving the way for the success of Malone’s F-1 Trillion, which dropped in August and featured collaborations with such country luminaries as Tim McGraw, Chris Stapleton and Jelly Roll. His hot streak continued well into December when he joined Beyoncé for her instantly iconic Cowboy Carter halftime show on Christmas Day, singing their duet “Levii’s Jeans” for an impressive 27 million viewers (nearly 3 million more than watched the actual games on average).
Lainey Wilson is welcoming Beyoncé to the country music world with open arms. “I love it. The more the merrier,” Wilson, 31, told Extra in an interview published on Monday, February 19. “[Country music] is about that storytelling, it’s about making people feel at home. And everybody wants to feel at home.” Beyoncé announced her […]
While Cowboy Carter was notably snubbed at the 2024 CMA Awards, Beyoncé’s influence on the genre this year cannot be overstated. The album debuted at No. 1 on both the Billboard 200 and Top Country Albums charts, making Beyoncé the first Black woman to top the latter since its 1964 creation. It also scored a Best Country Album nod at the 2025 Grammys alongside Malone and country stalwarts Stapleton, Wilson and Kacey Musgraves, the last of whom returned to her Texas roots on this year’s folk-tinged Deeper Well.
This year is coming to a close, but the odds are high that country stands to get even bigger in 2025. Beyoncé revealed on Christmas that she plans to announce something on January 14, Lana Del Rey has teased that her next album, now titled The Right Person Will Stay, will be country, and Malone is headlining his Big Ass Stadium Tour with Jelly Roll and Sierra Ferrell. Superstars including Wilson, Rhett, Keith Urban, Blake Shelton and Kelsea Ballerini are all planning spring and summer tours, as are up-and-coming artists like Megan Moroney and Tanner Adell. The future looks bright — and it’s wearing cowboy boots.
