Genuine musical superstars – exceptional voices, charismatic presences, excellent lyricists – have been dulled and flattened, their voices muted and their lyrics uninspired.
Country music is having a moment. It has, inexplicably and seemingly overnight, become the most popular music genre in the Western world. Who saw that coming?
For many years, country music was something of a punchline. It was roundly mocked as generic, simple and repetitive, dipping into the same cliches ad nauseam – trucks, booze, dirt roads, heartbreak. A vaguely soulful drawl over some bouncy guitar and twanging banjo. Rinse and repeat.Country music wasn’t played on mainstream radio and rarely crossed into the pop charts. Sure, there are exceptions to every rule. A Shania Twain here, a Carrie Underwood there.
Of course, it’s true that the single biggest pop star on the planet, Taylor Swift, began her career as a Nashville-based country starlet. Perhaps that’s where it began, a gateway drug of sorts. And now we’re addicted. Or, as has been suggested by industry insiders, perhaps country music simply took longer to adapt to the world of streaming than pop or hip-hop, and so has managed only over the past five years or so to find younger audiences online.
Last year there was a veritable invasion of the Billboard Hot 100 chart as Luke Combs and Morgan Wallen became the first home-spun country artists to genuinely dominate the all-genre mainstream chart and established themselves as legitimate superstars. When Luke Combs toured Australia, he sold out stadiums around the country. Remarkably, country tunes filled the No.
This isn’t going anywhere, either – Lana Del Rey has already confirmed she will be releasing her country album in September, and Ed Sheeran seems intent on doing something similar shortly. Please, let’s hang up the spurs and cowboy hats.
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