Is it true that cultural conflicts, not political correctness, delineate country music? This music genre is lately gaining a lot of attention, particularly for the wrong reasons. In spite of that, three country songs are currently donning the top three rankings on the Billboard Hot 100. They are, Oliver Anthony's "Rich Man North of Richmond," Luke Combs' cover of Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car," and Morgan Wallen's, "Last Night."
It is the first time in history that country songs have been donning the top positions for multiple weeks in the same month in the 65-year existence of the chart.
According to Newsweek, "Country is enjoying a huge resurgence in 2023, with the genre showing year-on-year sales and streaming growth of more than 20 per cent. Last year two country artists sold more than 100,000 albums by this point, while this year that already stands at four, with Wallen having sold 308,000 so far."
In one of their articles Forbes stated that "while pop, hip-hop, and Latin all came in below their baseline averages, country music reached a record number of streams, Time magazine reported. Spotify also reported global streaming of country music increased by more than 60% between 2019 and 2022."
The record-breaking journey of country music has left other popular genres trailing in the top rankings of famous music charts around the world. This year's top and most famous singles are finding it hard to surpass the ranking of country songs.
According to Luminate, the agency that tracks sales and streams of songs, the genre's popularity places it third in the growth of music genres this year, coming after Kpop and Latin Music. Why this sudden resurgence and popularity of Country Music? Here are the top popular country songs that charted on the top 10 of music charts this year and what made them famous.
Oliver Anthony's Rich Man North of Richmond
Oliver Anthony's live shows are drawing crowds. What is not so funny is that "Rich Man North of Richmond" has been lauded by conservative commentators including Matt Walsh, Laura Ingraham, and Dan Bongino. Anthony, who is a high-school dropout struggling with his mental health, shot to fame with the populist anthem which, according to the Rolling Stone magazine, "has been viewed more than 26 million times in its original upload to YouTube, made it to Number One on the iTunes Country chart, and is projected to debut atop the Billboard Hot 100 when the chart is updated on Monday (August 21, 2023).
Rich Men North of Richmond criticizes the US Federal Government and Washington Elites was promoted by right-wing leaders like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who called the song "the anthem of the unforgotten Americans". Even popular media like NBC called the song a "conservative anthem". Check the lyrics for instance, "I wish politicians would look out for miners/And not just minors on an island somewhere/Lord, we got folks in the street, ain't got nothin' to eat/And the obese milkin' welfare."
According to Billboard, "he is the first artist ever to launch atop the list with no prior chart history of any form". And he managed to do that by surpassing the hit songs of the season, which had already topped the charts, like 'Cruel Summer' by Taylor Swift, 'Seven' by Jungkook ft. Latto and 'Vampire' by Olivia Rodrigo. It even surpassed Travis Scott's much-awaited album 'Utopia'.
In an article, BBC mentioned, "Rich Men North of Richmond is the latest in a series of controversial cultural flashpoints that highlight the ties between pop culture and the strongly divided US political landscape. Other recent examples include Jason Aldean's country hit 'Try That In A Small Town', with a video that had images of violence and Black Lives Matter protests, and lyrics that suggest "good old boy" Americans can maintain law themselves."
Similar to 'Try That in a Small Town', Anthony's song has also gained a huge streaming week following the political controversy.
Fast Car
According to the Billboard, on July 6, the reclusive Chapman told Billboard, “I never expected to find myself on the country charts, but I’m honored to be there. I’m happy for Luke and his success and grateful that new fans have found and embraced ‘Fast Car.’”
Luke Combs responded by saying, “Oh man, ‘Fast Car’ has surprised me more than you can imagine. Tracy Chapman wrote this perfect song that that I first heard with my dad and it has stayed with me since,” Combs tells Billboard exclusively. “I have played it in my live show now for six-plus years and everyone — I mean everyone — across all these stadiums relates to this song and sings along. That’s the gift of a supernatural songwriter. The success of my cover is unreal and I think it’s so cool that Tracy is getting recognized and has reached new milestones. I love that she is out there feeling all the love and that she gave me a shout-out! Thank you, Tracy!”
Combs’ version has generated at least $500,000 in global publishing royalties, Billboard estimates, with the bulk going to Chapman, who owns both the writer’s and publisher’s share of the song. Additionally, the success of Combs’ version has boosted Chapman’s original, with weekly consumption of Chapman’s version increasing 44% since Combs’ version was released, according to Luminate.
The lyrics of the song goes thus, "See, my old man's got a problem/He live in the bottle, that's the way it is/He said his body's too old for working/His body's too young to look like his/So Mama went off and left him/She wanted more from life than he could give/I said, somebody's got to take care of him/So I quit school and that's what I did."
The success of Luke Combs' 'Fast Car' was unexpected since it was a cover and a new rendition of Tracy Chapmans' song of the same name. The song was recently certified 2x platinum five months after its release. According to data, the song has garnered 435 million streams to date.
The song which has spent 16th consecutive weeks at No.1 on country radio is also the first song by a male solo artist to ever top both the Hot AC and Country Airplay charts.
Despite being a hit and well-received song by both critics and fans alike, Luke Combs' rendition of the song was also caught in a web of controversies. One of the main concerns among the listeners, especially the country fans, was the way the new version achieved major achievements than the original version by Chapman. Combs' version has also outsold the original version in terms of both sales and streaming.
It put the spotlight back on one of the major issues faced by the country music genre--zero chance of achievement by women country artists of colour and LGBTQI artists.
As per a study by journalist Jan Diehm and musicologist Jada Watson, less than 0.5 per cent of songs played on country radio in 2022 were by women of colour and LGBTQ+ artists.
The controversy surrounding the song started as The Washington Post published a story titled “Tracy Chapman, Luke Combs and the Complicated Response to ‘Fast Car.’” In the article, they mention the study of Watson and Diehm and this created a divisive response among the audience.
In one of their articles, The Atlanta wrote that "The Washington Post article became one of those polarizing mainstream-media stories that stoke eye-rolling and mockery on social media and podcasts, as well as passionate defences from people who regard the negative responses as reactionary."
They also mentioned Twitter reactions to the original story by The Washington Post, where netizens criticised the media for bringing the issue of race into it. Some even pointed out how the original version by Chapman did well on the pop and mainstream charts even though it didn't make it to the country charts.
The discussion of race definitely gained more recognition for the already-hit song. Even Tracy Chapman gave a shout-out to Combs following this. In one of her interviews with Billboard, she said, “I never expected to find myself on the country charts, but I’m honoured to be there. I’m happy for Luke and his success and grateful that new fans have found and embraced ‘Fast Car.’”
The song has already spent 21 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 charts with a peak ranking of number 2.
Last Night
Morgan Wallen's songs, according to Vox, are replete with the catchy themes country lyrics are well-known for: wordplay, whiskey, and pickup trucks, with wry flourishes of bitterness and self-defeat. His "Last Night," from his latest album, One Thing at a Time — his is first since a leaked 2021 video of the star casually dropping the n-word nearly cost him his career.
"Last Night" is undoubtedly one of the biggest hits this year. The song has remained on the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 charts for 29 weeks, and 16 of this was as Number 1. On the debut week of his album, Wallen has notched five of his songs on the top 10 making him the first country artist to break into the mainstream forte.
According to Luminate, Wallen's Last Night gained more than 59.6 million radio airplay audience impressions (down 11%) and 26.3 million streams (down 2%) and sold 5,000 downloads (down 22%) in the last tracking week as the song is about to make history as one of the longest charting song in the 65 years' history of Billboard.
Wallen is a controversial figure in country music after using racial slurs in one of his songs from 2021, and breaking the covid-19 protocol, which led him to be pulled out from performing at the Saturday Night Live. But when he came back after taking a hiatus after the controversies, his fanbase seemed to have only grown.
The main reason for the wide popularity of Walen's song is its mass appeal. Unlike other country songs, Morgan Wallen's Last Night is a crossover between Country and pop music. The song debuted at top 5 on the pop radio. Critics are of the opinion that even though Last Night is not one of the best songs on his album, it is a very catchy song with high influence of pop and hip-hop. And that makes it more appealing to the general public who are not interested in country music.
Jason Aldean & Try That In A Small Town
On June 29 when Jason Aldean's 'Try That in a Small Town' reached atop the most famous singles chart in the world, it sparked a controversy on how the song is racist and pro-lynching. The critics claimed that the lyrics of the song were racially charged and the music video was also shot in front of a courthouse that was the site of an infamous lynching in America in the 1920s.
When the Music Video for the song came out on July 14, it was criticized for slamming gun control, promoting violence and its digs at the Black Lives Matter movement. In the song, he says, "Got a gun that my granddad gave me / They say one day they’re gonna round up / Well, that shit might fly in the city, good luck.”
Besides, in the official music video, Aldean performs in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Tennessee- the site of the 1946 Columbia race riot, and the 1927 mob lynching of Henry Choate, a black teenager.
American Singer Sheryl Crow was one of the first to come out and criticize the song. On x, formerly Twitter, she wrote,"@Jason_Aldean I’m from a small town. Even people in small towns are sick of violence. There’s nothing small-town or American about promoting violence. You should know that better than anyone having survived a mass shooting. This is not American or small-town-like. It’s just lame"
Following the heavy backlash, radios removed Aldean's song from their rotation, CMT (Country Music Television) pulled the video and even the original MV was edited to remove the controversial scenes. Meanwhile, the country star received support from a certain political party in the US. Republican Party leaders like Donald Trump and Robert Desantis, both of whom are running for the US Presidential elections in 2024, came out supporting the artist.
Defending the country star, Former US President Trump wrote on Social Media, "Jason Aldean is a fantastic guy who just came out with a great song. Support Jason all the way. MAGA!!!"
Following the controversy, the song's on-demand audio and video streams have increased 999 per cent, reports Luminate.
Even though the song failed to debut at number 1 losing to another summer hit that week, the song later peaked at number 1 in the succeeding week. Besides, the song has managed to remain in the top 30 of Billboard Global Hot 100 for five weeks.
