Why Country Music is Topping Charts and Filling Arenas Country has exploded in popularity as new artists-and fans-flood in.
By
Alexander Gelfand
December 10, 2024
Illustration by Calef Brown
Country music is having a moment.
Country artists regularly top the Billboard Top 100 chart, which tracks the most popular songs in the US. The genre is the fastest growing in America, and 2023 was its best year ever, according to entertainment data firm Luminate. Pop stars like Post Malone and Lana Del Ray have been rushing to put out country albums. And global interest in country has been surging, with listenership rocketing in Germany and the UK, and festivals from Sydney to Stockholm attracting both homegrown and American talent.
I have been mind-blown by the European country fans. That, to me, is where I can say, Dang, that is crazy,' singer-songwriter Catie Offerman BM '13-who has played the Highways Festival at London's Royal Albert Hall and the C2C Festival, Europe's largest country event-says of the genre's rising popularity.
Catie Offerman BM '13
Image by David McClister
It's become cool, says Bob Stanton, a guitarist and associate professor at Berklee. In recent years, Stanton has seen growing numbers of students enroll in his country music class, through which generations of players-including guitarist Clay Cook '98 of the Zac Brown Band and Americana luminaries Gillian Welch PDM '92 and David Rawlings BM '92-have already passed.
The changing demographics of country musicians and fans, as well as the broadening of the genre, is driving this surge.
Much of the current demand is coming from Millennial and Gen Z listeners; and there are signs that the country music industry, which has historically sidelined women, people of color, and the LGBTQ+ community, is becoming more inclusive. This year's AmericanaFest in Nashville featured a celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, along with OUTLaw Queer Country, a showcase for queer country performers.
Associate Professor Bob Stanton
Image by Lisa Stanton
I don't know how long it's going to take for there to be true acceptance. But I know it's getting better, says singer-songwriter Andrei Garthoff BM '13, whose experience as an Asian American country artist has veered from having hostile encounters with the KKK to playing AmericanaFest and the first Asian and Pacific Islanders Night at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena. (Though he sees definite signs of improvement, Garthoff continues to encounter industry professionals who don't quite know what to make of an Asian American country artist; and he is now considering leveraging country's growing international appeal to build a following in Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, and mainland China to help garner industry support back in the US.)
At the same time, country's sonic palette is expanding, with more artists fusing traditional country elements with the sounds of contemporary rock, pop, and R&B-and breaking records in the process.
This year, Beyonc became the first Black female artist to top Billboard's country album chart with the wildly eclectic Cowboy Carter, which threw everything from Patsy Cline to Chicano rock into the mix. And the Nigerian American artist Shaboozey made history by simultaneously dominating all the major radio-airplay charts-including country, pop, and rhythmic, which tracks hip-hop and dance music-with the country-meets-hip-hop track A Bar Song (Tipsy), based on the 2001 song Tipsy by rapper J-Kwon.
Country has experienced spikes in popularity before, with artists such as Dolly Parton, Garth Brooks, and Taylor Swift achieving mainstream success by appealing to broad popular tastes. Today, however, the entire genre seems poised to achieve newfound cultural prominence as it reinvents itself along multiple axes.
So what exactly is behind the rise of country music? And what does it mean for the future of the genre?
Andrei Garthoff BM '13
Image by Michael J. Patton
No BordersMembers of the Berklee community play many roles in the contemporary country scene, from performers and songwriters to producers and coaches.
Many say that the current ascendance of country music has as much to do with musical and technological trends as it does with country's traditional strengths. And as several point out, some of what appears to be new-namely, country's recent embrace of Black artists and contemporary R&B-has deep roots.
The people who invented country music were Black, says Stanton, referring to the many pioneering Black artists who helped develop the genre's musical repertoire and techniques in the 1920s and 1930s.
Indeed, what we now call country (and what record executives in the 1920s called hillbilly music ) emerged from a stew of African American and European American music that included English ballads, Appalachian string band tunes, spirituals, and the blues. Even the banjo, that quintessential early-country instrument, can be traced to West Africa.
Over time, country continued to draw on a range of sounds, from big-band swing to Mexican ranchera music, orchestral pop to arena rock, all while retaining an emphasis on narrative storytelling and relatable themes like heartbreak and loss.
Country music is storytelling, says Amanda Williams BM '99, a second-generation Nashville tunesmith (her late father, Kim Williams, is in the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame) who provides coaching and career counseling to aspiring country songwriters through her Songpreneurs program.
According to Associate Professor Joel Schwindt, a musicologist at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee who is writing a book about authenticity in country music, there has long been a tension between the country community's desire to maintain a distinct musical identity apart from ma
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
06/07/2026
Long-developed relationships and informal access, three production models, and c...
06/07/2026
The deal follows Lumine's recent acquisition of Synamedia's video-networ...
06/07/2026
This former SportsCenter producer is shaping local-team studio coverage to surro...
06/07/2026
IMS Productions and FOX Sports deployed more than 100 cameras, 32 onboard feeds,...
06/07/2026
Lumine Group Inc. has announced the completion of its acquisition of the Video Network Business from Synamedia. The business will operate as a standalone compan...
06/07/2026
NASCAR has announced a content and commercial partnership with Motorsport Network, a motorsports and automotive media platform, to distribute NASCAR original co...
06/07/2026
Versant Media Group has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Full Swing, a sports technology company, from Bruin Capital and a group of minority investor...
06/07/2026
DAZN has announced global broadcast rights to 3ICE, a professional hockey format featuring three skaters and a goalkeeper per side, with no power plays or offsi...
06/07/2026
Bundle gains 100 new synths & more
Synth Anthology 5 the largest and most feature-packed edition of UVI's hardware synth emulation bundle, bringing toge...
06/07/2026
Available now via free firmware update
MOTU have just announced that three of their popular audio interfaces now boast official Milan Certification. The 16A...
06/07/2026
Rohde & Schwarz completes Hunter Preliminary Design Review for the Integrated Co...
06/07/2026
The R&S IMAGER from Rohde & Schwarz uses millimeter wave imaging to inspect the ...
06/07/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
06/07/2026
Digital Domain Appoints Industry Veteran Patrick Davenport as Executive Vice Pre...
06/07/2026
Gravity Media USA appoints Brittney Boston as Head of Business Development
Brie Clayton July 6, 2026
0 Comments
The strategic new appointment supports...
06/07/2026
Remote Editing Without Cloud Storage in Resolve
Michael Cioni July 6, 2026
0 Comments
This is a step-by-step guide that demonstrates how to setup your...
06/07/2026
Automatic Caption Translation in Adobe Premiere Pro
Colin Smith July 6, 2026
0 Comments
Here I showcase the innovative automatic caption translation f...
06/07/2026
Flavor's First Ever Managing Director Neal Cohen Retires; Longstanding Execu...
06/07/2026
How Adam Rosenwach Pivoted from Music to Medtech Without Missing a Beat What do the rehearsal room and the boardroom have in common? More than you might think...
06/07/2026
Zhongyi Optics unveils the Dreamy Zone T1 FF Cine Lens Series on Indiegogo with ...
06/07/2026
Techtel debuts insyght: making ST 2110 media discovery easy
intellisphereinsyght2026
6 July Written By Suzanne Costello
Sydney, Australia - 06 July 2026 T...
06/07/2026
Monday 6 July 2026
Sky agrees to acquire ITV Media & Entertainment, creating a ...
06/07/2026
Fresh from his World Cup heroics with Cabo Verde, Roberto Pico' Lopes will join the RT panel for Argentina v Egypt tomorrow and for the England v Norway q...
06/07/2026
Nations have long invested in domestic infrastructure to advance their economies, protect and use their data, and take advantage of technology opportunities in ...
06/07/2026
Every year, the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) reveals where thousands of AI researchers have decided to put their work.
This year's ...
06/07/2026
A death can be unsuspicious, but it has to be explained
What happened to Ke...
05/07/2026
We've gone to another level of integrating the graphics into the set architecture' - Zac Fields, SVP, Graphic Technology and Integration, FOX Sports...
05/07/2026
Browser-based and desktop apps available
Digital Sunset Studios have been busy working on an interesting project: a free software tool that provides compute...
04/07/2026
When Canada qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2026, OneSoccer knew this wasn'...
04/07/2026
Celebrates company's 80th anniversary
Rhodes have recently revealed that they will be producing a limited run of electric pianos in celebration of their...
04/07/2026
Blackmagic Design Cameras Empower Youth Broadcasting Program
Brie Clayton July 3, 2026
0 Comments
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro and Blackmagi...
04/07/2026
iZotope Joins Boris FX
Boris Yamnitsky July 3, 2026
0 Comments
iZotope, the team behind RX and Ozone, is joining Boris FX. A letter from founder Boris...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
03/07/2026
New bundle & three Single Packs
Continuing to expand their already sizeable orchestral collection, VSL's latest release introduces three new Single Pack...
03/07/2026
Venue installs new ATC-equipped control room
LSO St Luke's, a unique music venue that also serves as the home of the London Symphony Orchestra, have rec...
03/07/2026
Caden Pearson appointed new Commissioning Editor for NITV
3 July, 2026
Media releases
National Indigenous Television (NITV) has strengthened its commitment...
03/07/2026
1 February 2023
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany, 1st February 2023: Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software technology for digit...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Death Star
Andy Marken July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Look, I can't get involved. I've got work to do. It's not that I like the Empire; I hate i...
03/07/2026
Berklee's New Visual Identity: Honoring Our History, Building for What's...
03/07/2026
Scripps Research scientists awarded $2M to advance global disease surveillance Two Gates Foundation grants will expand wastewater surveillance and AI-driven dis...
03/07/2026
Joan Pulupa joins Scripps Research faculty to study the organization of DNA in brain cells and its links to neurodegeneration Using smell-sensing neurons and ad...
02/07/2026
Entering her senior year, this hometown girl is paving a career in live sports production gaining experience in replay and audio and as a TD
In the live-sports...
02/07/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
Why Country Music is Topping Charts and Filling Arenas Country has exploded in popularity as new artists-and fans-flood in.
