The music industry will always be ever-changing – it follows trends and it creates trends, but the trend that has taken the spotlight this year is country music. Multiple artists from several different genres have begun transitioning into country music by releasing teasers, song covers, and even country albums.
A few popular artists who have dabbled in country music recently include Ed Sheeran, Olivia Rodrigo, Lana Del Rey, Post Malone, and Beyoncé. The amount of released country music varies for each artist; some have only released singles, while others have released country albums or are planning to release full country albums.
Ed Sheeran was mainly known for folk and blues music, but has produced country music since 2012. Although he has never fully converted to country music, the topic has produced increasing discussion on the internet. The first sign was “Everything Has Changed,” where Sheeran collaborated with Taylor Swift on her country song. Along with this, Sheeran also helped co-write multiple country songs with both Keith Urban and Tim McGraw.
After her hit “SOUR” tour in 2022, artist Olivia Rodrigo released “GUTS,” another pop album, and has been touring since February 23, 2024, performing her newest album. On April 5, 2024, Rodrigo collaborated with a popular country singer Noah Kahan, and together they sang one of Kahan’s hit songs “Stick Season.” Despite this hint, Rodrigo has not yet expressed direct confirmation that she will be veering to country music in the near future.
Much like Sheeran, Lana Del Rey has also released a few country songs in her career, such as “Blue Banister,” “Chemtrails over the Country Club,” and “For Free.” After being in the music industry for close to twenty-five years, Del Rey has announced that she is releasing a full country album titled “Lasso” in September of 2024.
Post Malone, in a shocking turn of events, has hopped from solely rap music to country music within the past 3 years. Recently released was his country single “I Had Some Help” featuring country artist Morgan Wallen. This single quickly gained attention and made it to Billboard’s Hot 100. Along with this single, Post Malone performed country music at Coachella 2024. Post Malone has shown that he will continue releasing country music.
Beyoncé was mainly known for R&B and Pop music but decided to do a hard genre switch and release a country album. However, country music and cowboy culture were not new to Beyoncé, as she is from Texas. Originally released by Beyonce on February 11th, 2024 was the single “Texas Hold ‘Em” which gained popularity due to the fact that it was a completely different genre than anything Beyoncé has released in the past. “Texas Hold ‘Em” acted as a teaser for the long-awaited album “COWBOY CARTER,” which was released on March 29th, 2024. Overall, Beyoncé has received mixed reviews from her fans and the media in general regarding the album.
Up until 2023, country music was one of the most hated genres due to misconceptions across the globe. Often, Texas, cowboys, and conservative beliefs are the only things associated with country music.. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, activism generated more attention, which eventually led to the downfall of country music due to the conservative stigma surrounding it. However, in the past year and a half, country music has made its return because of popular country artists like Morgan Wallen, Zach Bryan, and Luke Combs, and all of their efforts to reframe the hate for country music on their music tours.
