Some of the Best Country Artists Today in 2024

The Best Country Artists Today, Are Crossing Genres

Just like the famous Alan Jackson song says, everybody’s gone country! It’s become a very popular trend for artists of various genres to crossover to country music. Some of the best country artists today, didn’t start out in that genre. A lot of artists are going from hip hop to country music and finding a lot of success. A lot of diehards, will say that is horrible, and not real country music. But we say… music has constantly evolved over time. Maybe the country genre today isn’t exactly the way it was back in it’s hay day, no genre is. That’s not a bad thing, there are still plenty of artists today keeping those original styles alive. New independent artists like Zack Top come to mind in fact, and one of the biggest stars today in Lainey Wilson.

Some of the Best Country Artists Today are Crossovers

Beyonce country album ‘Cowboy Carter’

Jelly Roll country album ‘Whitsitt Chapel’

Post Malone country album ‘F-1 Trillion’

Shaboozey country album ‘Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going’

I guarantee you can think of a number of pop or hip hop artists that have gone country recently. Most famously, Beyonce recently released a country album, Cowboy Carter, who saw that coming?! One of the biggest names in country music today, Jelly Roll, has been winning country awards left and right. He started out in hip hop and successfully made the move to country. Next, Post Malone has a highly anticipated country album coming out August 16, 2024 called ‘F-1 Trillion’. This album will be featuring some of the best country artists today as well to back him up on his crossover.

Right now, one of the biggest country cross over names out there is Shaboozey. He was included on Beyonce’s country album ‘Cowboy Carter’, and released his own album ‘Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going’. Shaboozey combines hip hop with country to create a really unique sound. He absolutely blew up with his song ‘A Bar Song (Tipsy)’.

This feels like a rising trend today, however, it’s not exactly new. Kid Rock is known as a huge country rocker today, but he started out in hip hop. Nelly was obviously a big name in rap, then released some country music. Darius Rucker is a famous rock artist that then turned country and found huge success with his rendition of ‘Wagon Wheel’.

Also, Lil Nas X was a hip hop artist that had a meteoric rise with his country song ‘Old Town Road’ back in 2019. Perhaps that success helped to spark the current trend to go country.

Why Have So Many Artists Gone Country?

There are quite a few reasons that so many artists have gone country. Some, are just spreading their wings creatively into a new genre to try something new, ya can call them pioneers of sorts. Other artists, might be doing it because of the massive success country music is having right now, so their doing it for the money. Last year (2023) country music was the fastest growing and most profitable genre of music. We don’t want to be cynical, so I’m hoping a small minority of artists are simply doing it for the money. But… these crossovers to country have been extremely successful. Bringing both fame and money, rejuvenating their music careers.

The above mentioned Beyonce album, Cowboy Carter, broke streaming records on Spotify when it was released. Jelly Roll, was a relatively underground hip hop artist before he found his niche as a country artist and now he’s a household name. All of the country singles Post Malone has released recently, are huge hits. There’s a lot of intrigue when an artist breaks out of their typical boundaries to do something different. This creates headlines and builds anticipation for the new release.

A good reason an artist would release an album in a new genre is to widen their audience. When you’ve been strictly a pop or hip hop artist and you then release a country album, you’re connecting to a brand new audience. Nearly doubling your audience immediately. Ed Sheeran said that he might “Transition into country”, because of the strong story telling emphasis in the country genre. We recently wrote about how successful artist collaboration is.

Another financial reason to release country music, is that it’s one of the genres where fans are still actually buying albums. Guarantee labels are seeing that trend and pushing their artists to try it out, and probably doesn’t take a lot to convince the artists to be willing to try. Now, independent artists that go country, that’s more likely just their own decision. Which is what we love about independent music here, the creative integrity and freedom artists have.

Diversity in Country Music is at an All Time High

With the country genre expanding at such a rapid rate, bringing in a variety of music styles under the umbrella, diversity in country music is at an all time high! This is obviously always a good thing, and another reason so many various artists are becoming more and more drawn to the genre. Music as a whole has always been a universal language. The country music genre, one of story telling, lends itself to people from all sorts of backgrounds. It makes sense that it would be open to people from all walks of life.

The Best Independent Country Artists that Break Boundaries

All of these artists below have broken boundaries and crossed multiple genres when creating their music. These are the best independent country artists that have crossed genres from hip hop and pop to country. However, after finding huge success through Tiktok with her track ‘Austin’, Dasha is signed to a major label now. But found her success as an independent artist.

Norman North
Angel White
Dasha Review of Album »
O.N.E. The DUO Interview Here »
SirLockeHolmes Review of ‘Outlaw’ »

Often, in our minds, it’s the independent artists that are the real innovators in music. Being under a major label, makes it hard to do what you truly want as an artist. But when you’re an independent artist or at least under an indie label, you have freedom to create what you want. This tends to lead to something new and unique.

We just reviewed the single ‘Outlaw’ by SirLockeHolmes, it’s a song that is hard to get out of your head for sure! We’ve interviewed O.N.E. The DUO, the first black mother daughter duo in country music. Dasha was a pop artist that found breakout success with her song ‘Austin’, largely due to TikTok and the dance she created for it (props to her!). Norman North was a hip hop music producer for years, that had strong country roots. After his mother’s passing, he turned to country music and is finding a lot of success with it. Angel White combines soul, folk, rock and his Texas roots to create a unique brand of country music.

All of these artists have something in common, they’ve broken boundaries with their music to create something unique and different. We can’t applaud that enough, and know it will continue to inspire other artists out there looking to cross genres and help to continue the evolution of music.

Final thoughts…

We love it! I already know a lot of country music fan purists will read this article and be shocked that we wrote about the best country artists and names like Luke Combs, Christ Stapleton and Morgan Wallen aren’t labeled here. But the overall theme of this article is about crossovers obviously. Those artists are holding it down for the heart of country music. The artists here, are breaking the mold and creating something new. A hybrid of country music, holding true to the roots that come with the genre. Those country music roots are story telling, melodies, music you can relate to. When ya think of those roots, every cross over artist we’ve listed here, checks those boxes.

Music will continue to evolve throughout the years, just enjoy the ride, listen with open ears and an open mind. Please listen and support the independent country artists we mentioned. The only way these pioneers succeed is through your support.

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