The Official Charts Company has revealed that Country music has experienced a 67% surge year-on-year.
New research has revealed that combined sales and streaming-equivalent sales of country singles in the UK so far in 2024 have already reached 11.5 million and counting, versus the 6.9 million for 2023 in the same time period (21 weeks).
2024 so far has seen a slew of Country music songs enter the UK charts including Beyoncé's controversial “Texas Hold ‘Em“, which hit number 1, and Shaboozey's TikTok sensation ‘A Bar Song (Tipsy)', which has so far peaked at number 3. Two weeks ago Post Malone's collaboration with Morgan Wallen, ‘I Had Some Help', opened at number 2 on the Official Singles Chart.
“A lot of people I listen to are getting their flowers,” Shaboozey, the self-styled maker of “music for modern cowboys” told Official Charts who has earned his first Top 10 hit this year. “Vincent Neil Emerson from Texas, Leon Bridges; all homies that’ve been here for a while. Sierra Ferrell, as well.
“They’ve all been doing their stuff for years and the world’s finally come around to them. They’re some of the new pioneers of this new resurgence of Western music.”
So far in 2024, country songs have amassed 1.3 billion streams in the UK, a 63% increase on the 800.1 million streams they received throughout the same time period in 2023.
Country albums have also seen a 29% increase so far this year, going from a year-to-date total of 846,000 in 2023 to 1.1 million in 2024, a number that will only rise in the coming weeks and months. That has been driven in part by Beyoncé's ‘Cowboy Carter' album, which has provoked serious debate among Country music fans.
As it stands, ‘Cowboy Carter's lead single “Texas Hold ‘Em” right now ranks as the biggest country song of 2024 so far in the UK, as well as the fourth biggest overall, regardless of genre. According to Official Charts Company data, “Texas Hold ‘Em” has accumulated 655,000 UK chart units to date, including 71 million streams.
For more information on the surge of Country music in the UK, head over to https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/this-aint-texas-country-music-renaissance-in-uk-as-genre-surges-67-in-2024/.
