What a year 2024 was for Country music – from Morgan Wallen's global domination to cowboy culture sweeping the world thanks to influences like the Yellowstone TV show. We wrote an article on the seven biggest stories in Country music in 2024 – did you read it? If not – you can catch up right here.
Here we turn our eyes to the 2025 and the coming year ahead. Here are 10 things we'd like to see happen in Country music in 2025.
Blake Shelton returns with the best album of his career.
With a new label in BBR / BMG and a, seemingly, renewed vigour for music, Blake Shelton came in hot towards the end of the year with the best song he's released in a mighty long time in ‘Texas.' Hopefully this is a sign of the good things to come in 2025 from him and we're eagerly anticipating the album and dare, we say it, a UK tour?
Chappell Roan will release her Country song
Chappell Roan took fans on an unexpected journey during her recent performance on Saturday Night Live. Known for the glitzy charm of her breakout hit ‘Pink Pony Club,' Roan traded neon lights for rhinestones and cowboy boots, debuting her brand-new track, ‘The Giver.' The song, performed during her second number of the night, marked a bold exploration of country sounds infused with Roan’s signature LGBTQ+ perspective.
Swapping her usual pop aesthetic for a distinctly country vibe, Roan delivered a performance that was both a sonic and visual transformation. ‘The Giver' blends classic country elements with modern, empowering themes, presenting a fresh take on the genre that’s both authentic and boundary-pushing.
Roan’s performance also featured a cheeky spoken-word interlude that struck a chord with viewers:
“All you country boys saying you know how to treat a woman right,” she declared with a sly grin. “Well, only a woman knows how to treat a woman right. She gets the job done.”
The line not only earned a knowing laugh from the SNL audience but also cemented ‘The Giver' as a new anthem for Roan’s growing LGBTQ+ fanbase. This would be a great look for the ever widening appeal of Country music following Beyoncé and Shaboozey's efforts in 2024.
Jelly Roll manages to get permission to perform in the UK
We were lucky enough to see Jason perform at the Nissan Stadium in Nashville during CMA Fest this year but that still puts us in a minority of UK based Country fans that have had that pleasure. We'd love to see Mr Roll come to some sort of accord with UK immigration and border force regarding his previous felonies and convictions so that he can come over here and give us loyal fans a long awaited live debut.
No-one else opens a celebrity bar in Nashville!
Overkill. 2024 saw Bon Jovi, Morgan Wallen, Lainey Wilson and Riley Green open bars in town with Old Dominion's on the way for '25. Do we need anymore? The demand must be there for these musicians to keep sinking their hard earned cash into these projects and we guess that anyone who sees Broadway on a Saturday night will know that the footfall is there but there is a danger in turning the town into a themed-bar theme park – or has that point been crossed already?
Songwriters continue to be valued & nurtured in the rush to sign the latest TikTok sensation
Nashville always has been and should continue to be a 10 year town. The art of songwriting is a precious craft that can only be developed and perfected at the chalk-face of live shows and rounds. TikTok is changing how labels approach A&R and 19 year olds are being plucked from the obscurity of their bedrooms based on one melody and clever idea that has resonated with a particular subset of a media-defined generation. That's not to say that some of the emerging artists from TikTok haven't got the talent and determination to go all the way but we musn't lose sight of what the bedrock and foundations of Country music are built on – and that's hard work, graft, determination, heartbreak and life experience – you have to have lived some life to be able to write about it.
Morgan Wallen's next album is a tight and nuanced 14 track affair
‘Lies, Lies, Lies' and ‘Love Somebody,' Morgan Wallen's most recent two releases have been quite nuanced and grown up songs, which is an interesting step forward for Country's most global star. We'd love to see him continue this trend into an album – and really create a body of work that flows from beginning to end and that has a binding sonic or lyrical narrative rather than just releasing a 36 track ‘content hub.' Given Wallen's standing in Country music right now he could single-handedly put the art of the album back on the map and in vogue again if he was to create a no-filler, 14 track whole body of work. We're not talking ‘Dark Side of the Moon' concept album, just something that you can listen to in 48 minutes that entertains from beginning to end.
Texas continues to exert a grip on mainstream Country music
2024 was a superb year for fans of the fiddle and that Lone Star sound. The Yellowstone TV show definitely helped to place more left-of-centre music into the mainstream consciousness and maybe Taylor Sheridan's newest vehicle, ‘Landman' can do the same for Texas? Everywhere you looked in 2024 there was a Texan band or artist doing good things in Country music. Big Loud saw this and partnered with Miranda Lambert on a Texan imprint offshoot of their very successful label. The influence of Texas on the mainstream Country sound is an important one because every time Music Row's eyes stray towards the sounds and styles coming out of places like L.A. and New York, Texas is there in the background to remind them of their roots and what's important. Long may that continue.
More disruptors keep disrupting
Having just said that it's vital for Country music not to lose it's Texan influence, it's also vital that the genre expands and experiments too. 2024 saw considerable expansion via the likes of Dasha, Beyoncé, Fancy Hagood, Dylan Gossett and Shaboozey who all attempted to pull and influence the genre in different ways. Jazz, as a genre, proved that if you don't move forward and keep experimenting, you become a genre rooted in, and defined by, nostalgia. No-one wants that for Country music – so, whilst it's important that Country music remembers it's Texan and Appalachian roots it's also important that there continues to be a space for diversity and experimentation too.
The umbrella under which artists make good Country music is so broad now and let's hope it only continues to broaden in the coming year ahead. The differing ways in which artists are twisting, bending, evolving and experimenting with Country music is a joy to see and it is this creativity that will keep the genre fresh and relevant and not something from a by-gone era.
More labels follow the Big Loud diversification model
As Americana / Folk / Country and Pop all continue to merge together, we think more record labels will need to follow the example that Big Loud, who seem to be the most progressive label around right now, have done. Founded and led by Craig Wiseman, Joey Moi, and Seth England, Big Loud continues to expand through independent ventures under its label. They are: Songs & Daughters, Big Loud Rock, Big Loud Texas, Severance Records, Back Blocks Music, HARDY’s HiXTAPE, and ERN’s Cadillac Music. That diversification and the collaborations with artists themselves feels like a good move to us in an effort to move all of their eggs out of the very narrow basket of pure Country music as the genre continues to change and evolve.
Artists in danger in 2025
Here is our list of artists who seem to be struggling to find, keep or cement a footing on radio, media or with a wider fan base right now for whatever reason. This is not a ‘diss-list' of artists we don't like – far from it – it's just an observation of who seems to be struggling with their own identities or to resonate or breakthrough commercially right now:
Brad Paisley, Tenille Townes, Gabby Barrett, Lee Brice, Larry Fleet, Hailey Whitters, Ingrid Andress, Brian Kelley, Maren Morris, Darius Rucker, Walker Hayes, Anne Wilson, Carrie Underwood, Elle King, Michael Ray, Brett Young.
There are some tremendously talented artists on that list who have fallen away a little, got stuck in a rut with their music or who are going through something of an identity crisis right now and are just failing to connect with the wider industry or their fans. That's not to say a pivot, a monster single or a strong album couldn't steady the ship again and put things right.
