Bringing in some heavy hitters in the genre.
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, Ella Langley 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 fourth-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 Langley becoming nothing short of a cultural phenomenon and smashing records with “Choosin’ Texas,” it’s quite easy to argue that the genre is the most popular it’s ever been.
Because of this, we’ve seen country music become as commercialized as it’s ever been, with artists such as Wallen, Langley, Combs, Megan Moroney, Shaboozey and more scoring major brand deals seemingly every other week. Recently, none other than Madden has been particularly friendly to the genre over the past few years.
I doubt I even have to explain it, but in case you’re somehow not familiar with what Madden is, it’s the only NFL video game on the market right now. Back in the day, you had the choice to choose between fellow popular game developer, 2K Sports, version of an official NFL game/simulator. Since 2005, after 2K lost the rights to the NFL’s license, EA Sports and Madden have stood alone as the only NFL game to come out each and every year on popular gaming consoles such as PlayStation and Xbox. Simply put, Madden is a staple among both football fans and gamers alike, despite being criticized for essentially being the same game each and every year aside from some minor changes and roster updates.
If you recall, their Super Bowl celebration earlier in the year, Madden Bowl, featured the likes of Zach Bryan (who stepped in for Luke Combs), Stephen Wilson Jr. and Gavin Adcock at their festivities. Additionally, Madden 26’s soundtrack featured quite a bit of country music (to varying degrees of quality), featuring the likes of Luke Combs’ “Back in the Saddle,” HARDY’s “ROCKSTAR,” Gavin Adcock’s “Outside Dog” and “Tall Tales,” Shaboozey and Myles Smith’s “Blink Twice” and Bailey Zimmerman’s “New to Country.”
With this year’s game releasing next Thursday, August 13th, they rolled out Madden 27’s soundtrack today, and some familiar faces in country music are included.
Unlike last year, which had some pretty questionable choices as far as country music is concerned, EA Sports killed it with their admittedly small selection of country songs. This year, they’re rolling with Luke Combs’ “My Kinda Saturday Night,” The Red Clay Strays’ “People Hatin’,” Ella Langley’s “Dandelion” (which is kind of an odd pick for a football game, in my opinion) and Marcus King’s “Red Door” to represent the genre.
While I would have loved to see a little bit more representation, especially since they leaned pretty heavily in last year, I can’t really complain about their picks. In particular, it’s great to see the likes of Red Clay and Marcus King receive some love and get a placement on a game as big as Madden.
Check out the full soundtrack here:
“People Hatin'”
“Dandelion”
