Top left: Country singer Morgan Wallen performs at Crypto.com Arena on Sept. 24, 2022, in Los Angeles. Credit: Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times via TNS Top right: Kacey Musgraves performs during her Deeper Well tour stop at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, in Las Vegas. Credit: Madeline Carter/Las Vegas Review-Journal via TNS Bottom left: Zach Bryan performs at Crypto.com Arena on June 3, 2024, in Los Angeles. Credit: Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times via TNS Bottom right: Beyoncé performs at halftime during Netflix’s presentation of the Christmas Day NFL game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Houston Texans at NRG Stadium on Dec. 25, 2024, in Houston. Credit: Alex Slitz/Getty Images via TNS
This story is the third installment of a three-part series discussing major changes in popular music throughout the course of 2024. Today’s story focuses on the current state of country music.
This year will go down as one of the most important years for popular music in the past decade.
Since Jan. 1, 2024, listeners have seen — or rather, heard — popular music rapidly change and set the tone for years to come. When it comes to country, the genre saw significant change in 2024 and is still evolving at the outset of 2025; moreover, a great divide has emerged between mainstream country and indie-folk country, incentivizing pop artists to embrace the widely celebrated style.
In order to understand this divide in country music, one must analyze both categories of country and their distinct appeals.
Phoebe Hughes, a lecturer in musicology at Binghamton University, said the pop and country genres have intersected many times throughout history. Major songs like Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers’ “Islands in the Stream” in 1983 — along with pop-country icons like Shania Twain and Faith Hill — are prime examples of this crossover.
Still, Hughes said singer-songwriter Carrie Underwood popularized a fresh pop-country blend during the early 2000s.
“[Underwood] talks about, like, ‘I’m a gun-toting Oklahoman, and I am kind of attaching myself to country music,’ but wins American Idol,” Hughes said. “And so, the industry was kind of skeptical of her, but stylistically, [she] is making country music, but is also having a lot of success on mainstream pop charts.”
In the 2010s, Hughes said this sound transitioned into the modern “bro-country” subgenre.
“We’re talking about music that has a lot of pop, and hip-hop and trap influences, especially on it from artists who maybe are still singing with a vocal twang, or there’s a banjo riff in a song,” Hughes said. “And that makes it country, even though, rhythmically, it sounds more like a hip-hop track.”
Hughes said while the original bro-country sound was clearly influenced by pop music, modern-day artists like Morgan Wallen have shifted away from that to create a more balanced, modern sound.
“On his albums, you go between stuff that sounds a lot like that 2010s bro country, but he has kind of a heavy vocal twang, and then you go to songs that have a little bit more of that, like four-on-the-floor, kind of Honky Tonk sound,” Hughes said. “It sounds a little more ‘acoustic,’ right? Because it’s often not, but it sounds like we’re listening to acoustic instruments.”
Hughes said artists like Wallen demonstrate how contemporary country musicians have started intertwining genres by collaborating with rappers like Lil Durk and Moneybagg Yo.
“It’s important to remember that these are both sounds that are coming, oftentimes, out of the South,” Hughes said. “There’s a huge rap scene in Atlanta; it has been for a really long time. So, stylistically and musically, a lot of this is all happening kind of in the same place, and there is a lot of kind of genre history overlap, but kind of industry overlap.”
In addition, Hughes said themes like love and heartbreak tend to resonate with audiences across several genres, particularly country and pop.
“Folks like that — who are making that type of music stylistically — they have struck kind of a balance between stuff that sounds like it’s really country music, while feeling fresh and feeling kind of close to that pop sound,” Hughes said. “Pop music is this kind of cutting edge on the mainstream, like the new feeling, so finding a way to make country music tap into that thing about pop music that is appealing.”
Though bro-country and its pop appeal make up one side of the country schism, the other side is headlined by a very different sound.
Hughes said artists like Tyler Childers and Zach Bryan have led a modern, country-folk revival movement that has captivated many different listeners with an entirely different sound.
“I think for people who kind of come to country music, Americana is sort of this gateway,” Hughes said. “My impression is that people are coming from indie-folk spaces, and then you find Tyler Childers, and then you are kind of stepping stones from there.”
The production seen on Childers’ and Bryan’s records, Hughes said, is much more grounded and minimalistic than that of pop-country.
“There is a lot more guitar focus in their music, and there is less elaborate production going on in songs,” Hughes said. “I think also, with a lot of their music, there’s a sense that what you hear on the album is also what you would hear live.”
Hughes said due to the stereotypes associated with country music as a whole, this type of stripped-back production can be more appealing to the masses..
“There is this kind of low-class, white trash association with a lot of this music,” Hughes said. “I think particularly with someone like Tyler Childers, we see in much of his music that that’s not the case — in terms of the way that he writes about relationships and the kind of scope of representation that he has.”
In a similar vein to the pop-country scene, the folk-country scene has also found widespread success with cross-genre collaborations. Hughes said singer-songwriter Kacey Musgraves’ feature on folk-pop artist Noah Kahan’s 2022 song “She Calls Me Back” notably blurs the line between pure country and indie-folk country.
“I think, with someone like Kacey Musgraves, that kind of indie side of things is really close to the country music that she makes, and she would identify herself as a country artist.”
But these types of collaborations have also come from artists who aren’t originally from the country space, such as major pop stars Post Malone and Beyonce.
In particular, Hughes said Beyonce faced a lot of backlash when she released “Cowboy Carter” in March 2024, but it still managed to be an absolute triumph.
“I think the way that it was initially received — and kind of subsequently from the industry perspective — would maybe point to some of the embedded racism within the country music industry and within the fandom in a lot of ways,” Hughes said. “But on the other hand, I think [for] a lot of people, and kind of like anecdotally, what you see online is a lot of folks who are Beyonce fans, [and] are like, ‘Oh, wait, I also really like country music,’ and then they go looking for other groups.”
Even if some people prefer one brand of country to another, Hughes said listeners frequently experiment and don’t have to stick within a single subgenre.
“For a lot of people, it’s not like an either or kind of thing,” Hughes said. “It’s that they find a few artists they like, or they find a few songs, and then you find a few more, or you find a couple more albums, or then you go backwards and you find older stuff that you really like.”
Bringing these different styles of country music together for a live event, however, is a whole different beast.
David Redelberger, director of communications for Columbus Arenas Sports and Entertainment, said at the annual Columbus’ Buckeye Country Superfest, there is a serious emphasis on creating a lineup that combines the genre’s wide range of sounds.
“The variety is important because we want to appeal to every country music fan,” Redelberger said. “So, we try to give a little bit of everything.”
Often, a commitment to variety means a commitment to securing big-time artists for the festival, Redelberger said.
“We’re always looking for the biggest and the best in country music,” Redelberger said. “So, who’s somebody that people would like to see and would make for a great Buckeye Country Superfest? And also, what about it is, we’re also looking for a lineup that you may not be able to see anywhere else.”
For Buckeye Country Superfest 2025, which takes place in June, Redelberger said this mentality played a crucial role.
Headlining acts include rapper-singer Jelly Roll and singer-songwriter Kane Brown, while supporting acts were sourced from across the entire country genre. Some smaller acts included Megan Maroney, Treaty Oak Revival, Dasha and Conner Smith.
“When you get all that together, it just becomes our goal to make it a can’t-miss event for country music fans,” Redelberger said.
Considering country music’s ever-expanding popularity and versatility, the question of where the genre will go still remains relatively undefined. Hughes, however, has a prediction.
“I think that the more folky side of the genre is going to kind of continue to appeal,” Hughes said. “Maybe some of the more stripped-back production is possibly where the genre is going to go.”
