This year, as with most years in the Country music industry, has seen some big news stories and interesting events. We decided to take a look back at 2024 and rank the things that happened in order of importance and impact.
7. Post Malone & Other Artists Make Country Music
Two of the biggest Country albums in 2024 were made by artists ‘coming in' from different genres. Both Post Malone and Beyoncé embraced country music this year. Post Malone’s ‘F-1 Trillion' was widely accepted by Nashville and the Country community whilst Beyoncé's was held at arms length for various reasons.
Former One Direction member Zayn also explored a rootsier sound with ‘Room Under the Stairs,' produced by Dave Cobb and inspired by Chris Stapleton. The trend is set to continue in 2025, with Lana Del Rey’s anticipated country-leaning album ‘Lasso' on the horizon.
6. And Speaking of Beyoncé…
Her ‘Cowboy Carter' album was awarded the coveted accolade of runner up in the ‘Album of the Year' list from Billboard. Not just ‘Country Album of the Year' but Album Album of the Year! Coming second to Charlie XcX's zeitgeist spawning ‘Brat' album. Interestingly Beyoncé was ignored by Nashville and the voting members of the CMA in their recent awards ceremony and there seemed to be a gulf or discrepancy between Music Row and the artist in terms of acceptance and recognition. It's not for us to go into the reasons behind it – you can judge for yourself some of the dynamics at play: be they social, historical, behavioural or even musical – suffice to say Beyoncé impressed a lot of people this year but not the ones in Country music industry or its wider environs.
5. Oliver Anthony Just Can't Keep Quiet
The ‘Rich Men North of Richmond' artist continued to try and disrupt Country music this year but is cutting an increasingly desperate and isolated path. Having said he was going to retire earlier in the year and concentrate on his religious endeavours he announced a slew of tour dates for 2025. He also issued a scathing rebuke of Beyoncé's ‘Cowboy Carter' album and most recently seemingly dissed Parker McCollum for using backing tracks at a festival, something McCollum, himself, strenuously denies.
Anthony also launches regular rants about Nashville, Music Row and the record industry. Everything from the suits behind the desks to the writers and the artists is fair game for Anthony. Here's one recent quote from him , ““Find some guy that you can build a character around, prop him up through your label, give him a bunch of songs that some kids over at the Hick in Nashville wrote while they were wearing their Crocs and drinking White Claws and hitting golf balls. Nobody that’s either written the song or really sung it understands the words to the songs that they’re singing. But it sounds good, and it’s catchy, and it fits the model. And it sounds like every other big song that been out in the last five years. It’s just like a rinse and repeat model.”
He's not entirely wide of the mark with some of his observations but every musical genre faces these type of accusations and every musical genre contains douchebags and chancers exploiting musicians for money. It's not just Country music – it's the whole record industry. Anthony's rants are becoming increasingly churlish and desperate and maybe he should just concentrate on trying to make good music himself and tend to his own garden before casting aspersions on everyone else?
4. Morgan Wallen Got Well Deserved Recognition and Then Messed It Up
After a few years of perhaps not receiving the recognition he deserved from the voting members of the Country Music Association (CMA) in their annual awards ceremony 2024 was the year that Morgan Wallen finally cracked it and won the coveted ‘Entertainer of the Year' award. The EotY is the highest accolade the association can award and it goes to the most successful Country artist who best represents the genre that year.
And he didn't show up to collect it!
I'm not sure there's ever been an ‘Entertainer of the Year' who didn't show up on awards night to bask in the glory before! It was a big middle finger to the voting members of the CMA from Wallen after a couple of years that saw him not nominated for awards in categories he was clearly very well deserving of being nominated for.
So, here was a chance for Wallen to bury the hatchet, to act with grace and dignity and take his place amongst the most lauded artists the genre has celebrated in the past 60 years. He chose not to take part and so the beef continues.
3. There's a New Metric of Success in Country Music
Wallen's no-show to collect the ‘Entertainer of the Year' award from the CMA in 2024 was indicative of a wider paradigm shift in Country music, away from traditional models of recognition and success. The old-guard is gradually losing control of what success means as direct sales, industry accolades and media celebration begin to look over their shoulders towards the oncoming tsunami of ticket sales, streams and TikTok followers.
2024 saw a bigger number of artists emerging from the algorithm nightmare of TikTok than ever before. Who needs a record label when you can speak directly to 1 million followers on your social media? Who needs to spend time on radio tours, do interviews with the media or walk red carpets when you can put a clip of a new song up on Instagram and instantly get feedback from 2 million fans? Artists like Willow Avalon, Bayker Blankenship, Gabriela Rose and Zach Top have all had success online that has boosted their careers. Tucker Wetmore, Bailey Zimmerman, Warren Zeiders and even Zach Bryan can credit their starts to TikTok success before the labels swooped in but how long will it be before that stops happening and the artists just represent themselves? Even the year's biggest hit, Ella Langley and Riley Green's ‘You Look Like You Love Me' can credit a huge part of its success to it's life and various incarnations and collaborations on social media.
2. Zach Bryan's Personal Life Continues to Be An Issue
Despite being one of the most successful new Americana / Folk / Country artists out there Bryan continues to flirt with cancellation as salacious and potentially damaging stories about his personal life continue to emerge. After riding out various claims around the marriage to his first wife, 2024 saw his relationship with Brianna ‘Chickenfry' LaPaglia disintegrate amid claims of abuse. She even refused to sign an NDA worth $12 million in order to be able to go online and share her personal story about his behaviour! Apparently it’s not the first time Bryan has asked one of his former partners to sign an NDA, with Chickenfry alluding to the fact that both his ex-girlfriend Deb Peifer and his ex-wife Rose Madden both were unable to tell their stories because they signed agreements of their own to keep quiet.
In a move reminiscent of Oliver Anthony, Bryan has also claimed he will quit touring in order to pursue a master degree in Paris whilst also adding further tour dates into his schedule!
LaPaglia has made a series of claims: from Bryan not liking a dress she wore to an awards show to screaming abuse at her because she was singing a Morgan Wallen song. There are also other women out there, most notably Only Fans adult content creator Claira Lizzy, who claim to have possession of sex tapes made with Bryan – although these claims remain unsubstantiated.
2024 has not been a great year for Bryan at all with social media full of questions about cancellation and that age old thorny question of whether you can separate the individual from the art.
1. Drew Baldridge Beat the Music Industry
But we're going to end the year with a heartwarming story. We think the biggest story of the year was Drew Baldridge taking his personal song, ‘She's Somebody's Daughter' all the way to number one, becoming the first ever independent artist to ever achieve such a feat. This story is also kind of related to the ‘metrics of success' entry earlier in the article because it is proof that with a bit of luck, a tremendous amount of hard work and a damn good song (although follow up song, ‘Tough People' is a far superior song in our opinion) an independent artist can navigate and steer their way through the choppy and often shark-infested waters of Country radio.
We spoke to Drew twice this year, once as ‘She's Somebody's Daughter' cracked the Top 10 and once again recently, as he looked back on the whole 18 month journey and it was both heartwarming and humbling to listen to his thoughts and feelings. Read the interviews here.
History was made, good triumphed over evil and the little guy won out – isn't that close to what the American dream, and therefore the Country music dream, was supposed to be about? In a year of division, turmoil and stories about immigrants eating dogs on the streets of Springfield we think Drew Baldridge's old-fashioned tale of perseverance and grit is a story worth highlighting and clinging to as 2024 comes to a close. Let's see what the year ahead brings us!
