A bit hard to call some of these songs “country,” though.
There’s no denying that country music has gotten bigger than ever before in the past decade. Spearheaded commercially by the likes of Morgan Wallen, Zach Bryan, Luke Combs and more, we’ve seen a plethora of records broken by country artists recently. Whether it’s Wallen setting numerous records from most songs charted on the Billboard Hot 100 in a single week to becoming the third-highest-selling artist in U.S. history, Bryan scoring the most-attended concert in U.S. history with his show at the University of Michigan last September or artists such as Megan Moroney, Ella Langley, Shaboozey and more breaking into the pop scene, it’s quite easy to argue that the genre is the most popular it’s ever been.
After experiencing years of irrelevance, generally speaking, from an all-genre chart perspective, the 2020s have already proven to be one of the best decades in history for country music. In fact, there have already been more songs to go #1 on both the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Country Songs chart over the last five years than the 80s-2010s combined.
This year, in particular, has been a massive year for the genre. Of course, you can credit a lot of this to Langley’s megahit, “Choosin’ Texas,” being, for all intents and purposes, the biggest country hit of all time. With that being said, however, the genre has reached a new height this week, thanks to some additional singles from various artists.
For the first time in history, only country songs occupy the Top 5 on Billboard’s all-genre Hot 100 chart.
Unsurprisingly, Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” remains at #1 for its 16th week, which is now the fourth-longest hit in the chart’s history. Rounding out the Top 5 are the likes of Wallen’s brand-new single, “Been By Now,” Taylor Swift’s return to country music, “I Knew It, I Knew You,” from Toy Story 5, Langley and Wallen’s collaboration, “I Can’t Love You Anymore” and Stella Lefty’s controversial viral hit, “Boston.”
At this point, there’s no denying the importance and quality of Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas.” Being a stone-cold country song, it deserves its status as one of the biggest hits the genre has ever seen, being the longest-running #1 hit by a female artist this CENTURY. However, there’s a lot to be said about the rest of the so-called “country” songs occupying the Top 5.
Starting with Wallen’s new track, it’s arguably the most pop-leaning song we’ve heard so far from the superstar. While it seems to be a moot point to highlight the fact that the “Last Night” singer has had a long-history of producing extremely pop/rap-inspired tracks, “Been By Now” marks one of his least country lead singles to date. I’d go as far as to say you can barely consider it to be a country song at all.
Then there’s Swift’s return to the genre with “I Knew It, I Knew You.” While I think it would be remiss to say that the song is terrible by any stretch of the imagination, actually having a nice inclusion of harmonica throughout, it’s still a fairly milquetoast, country-inspired pop song for a huge movie franchise.
As for Wallen and Langley’s collaboration, “I Can’t Love You Anymore,” I can let this one slide. Though it’s one of the least country tracks on Dandelion, it’s still a song that has its roots in the genre, playing with some ’70s-inspired production throughout and ultimately delivering a solid heartbreaker.
Finally, there’s the elephant in the room (and genre) as of late: Stella Lefty’s “Boston.” There’s plenty of debate to be had over just how “country” the song is and whether it’s better described as pop-folk in the vein of artists like Noah Kahan.
While it’s great to see that country music is continuing to expand from chart-perspective seemingly every week at this point, I would have loved to see some more traditional songs add to this historic week on Billboard. Of course, you can make the argument that these songs experiencing so much success opens the door for new fans discovering other artists, it’s a bit frustrating to see one (arguably two) of these “country” songs actually having deep roots in the genre itself.
“Choosin’ Texas”
“Been By Now”
“I Knew It, I Knew You”
“I Can’t Love You Anymore”
“Boston”
