Over the course of the last decade or so, country music has largely regressed from the forefront of popular culture — less charting and radio impact, fewer breakout hits and breakthrough artists and the least critical acclaim perhaps in all of its history. The lack of critical success in country music over the last few years is not for lack of people listening; rather, it is due to a lack of evolution in the genre.
As a lover of both classic country hits like “Smoky Mountain Rain,” “Big Iron” and “High Sierra” and the few and far between contemporary country hits like “7 Summers” and “Choosin’ Texas,” I find that the country music industry has largely transitioned its focus from perfecting studio music to perfecting live performance, and as a result, the genre has become stagnant.
Take, for example, two of the most recently successful male number one country albums on the Billboard 200: Morgan Wallen’s “I’m the Problem” and “One Thing at a Time.” Both albums reached No. 1 on the chart, and “I’m the Problem” has captured and recaptured the No. 1 slot many times since May.
Both albums, however, failed to produce any long-lasting hits, with only Wallen’s “What I Want” hitting the No. 1 chart slot on the Hot 100 for a mere week, in large part because of his featuring pop artist Tate McRae. “What I Want” was the fifth single from a set of eight and the only one in the album cycle to breach the top ten upon its release as a single.
Though the albums have been relatively successful commercially, the singles have not been commercially or critically successful. The music, after all, is not particularly innovative sonically or lyrically — it is more or less the same regurgitated, tired country theme of drinking and despair that has been in almost every male country record since 2000.
While drinking and despair are certainly essential to the culture and history of country music, they are not all the genre has to offer, and the male country artists of the 21st century have largely failed to capture the human experience like the music of country past has — think “Whiskey Lullabye,” and other classic male country hits.
Modern country hits like Wallen’s “Last Night” pale in comparison to spectacular tunes like these.
And while male country artists have failed to continue the country legacy in a meaningful, culture-capturing way, save for Zach Bryan, who is performing in Tiger Stadium this coming weekend, female artists are providing the blueprint to resurrect country music from its tired existence.
For example, Kacey Musgraves, the first woman and country music artist since 2010 to win a Grammy for Album of the Year with 2019’s “Golden Hour.” Musgraves is an artist who, since the beginning of her career, has experimented with her lyricism and sonic landscape in revolutionary ways.
In 2010, her breakout hit “Follow Your Arrow” received much critical acclaim while also simultaneously getting her blacklisted from some country radio stations for her references to weed and gay marriage.
In 2018, with the release of “Golden Hour,” Musgraves began expanding her classic country music palate by infusing typical string and piano country with psychedelic pop; moreover, she latched on to those lyrical themes that otherwise would not appear in modern country music — mushroom trips and appreciating nature on “Oh, What a World,” combatting the divisive rhetoric of society expecting women to be both weak and strong via a superhero metaphor on “Wonder Woman,” and self-acceptance on “Rainbow.”
Musgraves continued to challenge country music with her experimental pop and electronica-infused country record, star-crossed, and her barebones singer-songwriter album “Deeper Well.” Now, she’s returned with a western-style pop country song entitled “Dry Spell,” a song about a wry lament about a lack of dating opportunity.
Yet another phenomenal example of women carrying on and expanding upon country music’s legacy of shining a light on the human experience is Kelsea Ballerini. She’s a country singer who has been around since 2015 but has only recently come to reach critical acclaim with her landmark E.P. “Rolling Up the Welcome Mat,” a country record encapsulating the struggle with divorce in the limelight.
On this E.P., Ballerini, combats the “make me a sandwich” narrative often forced upon women in marriage in “Just Married” and uses an R&B flow, as close as a white country artist can get to one, about internet hate amidst her public separation. Ballerini received a Grammy nod for Country Album of the Year in 2024 for this record as well.
On the E.P. entitled “Mount Pleasant” following her Grammy-nominated record “Patterns,” Ballerini yet again embraced uncomfortable subject matter for country music by grappling with her exchange of motherhood for a career in music on “I Sit in Parks” and her struggles with depression on “Check on Your Friends.”
Finally, a newcomer to innovation in country, Ella Langley is a breakout artist that has achieved massive success with her song “Choosin’ Texas,” a song that reached No. 1 on the Hot 100 and made history by tying Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Getting Back Together” as the female country hits with the longest claim to the number one spot while also holding the top spot on the Hot Country chart. “Choosin’ Texas” is a wonderful blend of Fleetwood Mac-esque strings and pop guitar with a classic country storyline about losing a partner to someone else.
Of the aforementioned artists, who have you heard discussed in critical circles in the last five to 10 years? Women are the clear frontrunners in the conversation around expanding the genre’s legacy, as men continue holding down the traditional country front.
Traditional country music is wonderful, but it is failing to grasp the attention of popular culture in the way pre-2010 hits like “Need You Now” did due to a lack of innovation, so much so that the Grammy’s no longer plan to include a male-dominated field of old-style country records in the main country category, which has recently been populated by the above female artists and even Beyoncé.
Country music has a long way to go if it wants to continue to thrive, and to quote the popular saying, the future — of country music — is very clearly female.
Riley Sanders is a 19-year-old biology major from Denham Springs, La.