Country music it hot this year, with more and more predominantly pop artists crossing genres and incorporating more country into their musical endeavors. Here are four of the biggest artists who have made the jump from pop to country in 2024.
[RELATED: Exclusive: Cirque du Soleil Goes Country, Songblazers Bridge the Genre’s Generations]
Pop Artists Experimenting with Country Music
Post Malone
Post Malone is currently working on his country music album, F-1 Trillion, which is due out on August 16. He’s already collaborated with Morgan Wallen and Blake Shelton, and recently shared that he’s since made a track with Chris Stapleton. Post has previously admitted that he admires the alternative side of country, artists like Stapleton, Tyler Childers, Sturgill Simpson, and Colter Wall, and it will be interesting to see if he incorporates any y’allternative into his new album.
Currently, he’s released “I Had Some Help” with Morgan Wallen and “Pour Me A Drink” with Blake Shelton. He’s also announced a one-night-only show in Nashville on July 16, where he will perform songs from F-1 Trillion a month before the release date.
Machine Gun Kelly
Machine Gun Kelly (now mgk) isn’t someone you would normally think would choose to go into country music. However, he’s been performing covers of country songs recently that are actually not too bad. At Spotify House during CMA Fest, he performed a cover of The Chicks’ “There’s Your Trouble,” thoroughly surprising fans. He’s continued to surprise them, as he has since released a cover of Zach Bryan’s “Sun To Me,” recorded from his living room.
While he hasn’t officially announced a country album, he seems to be slowly dipping his toe into the waters of the genre. He made the shift from rap to pop-punk, after all, why not country?
Lana Del Rey
After releasing a cover of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” Lana Del Rey seemingly announced her country era in the form of her next album, Lasso. She teased a bit of a new song, “Henry, Come On” in a social media post, which had fans considering she might be toying with country music. However, she has since shared that she’s not sure where Lasso is going yet.
“When I gave Jack Antonoff his award for Best Producer Of The Year [at the 2024 Grammys], I said, ‘Welcome Nashville to Hollywood and Hollywood, welcome to Nashville because the music business has gone country,” she told NME in May. “And it went silent; 5000 people, dead silent. Then the next week, we had three major artists announce big country albums.
“So where’s ‘Lasso’ going?” she said, before admitting, “I really have no idea now!”
Beyoncé
Is it so farfetched to say that Queen Bey really jumpstarted this migration to country music? Her second album in the Renaissance trilogy, Cowboy Carter, was released in March, and since then, there’s been a wave of pop artists chomping at the bit to go country. Beyoncé is not the first artist to cross genres, but the public’s reception of a Black woman going country was less than admirable. There were endless debates about whether or not she “belongs” in country music, when, really, anyone can do it. There are no rules.
Beyoncé’s album is a pillar of pop-goes-country, with powerful collaborations and legacy references that should make it required listening for any pop artist looking to break into the genre. Still, there’s no one who could have done it better than Beyoncé. In short, she understood the assignment.
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