Country music is having a moment. It has, inexplicably and seemingly overnight, become the most popular music genre in the Western world. Who saw that coming? For many years, country music was something of a punchline.
It was roundly mocked as generic, simple and repetitive, dipping into the same cliches ad nauseam – trucks, booze, dirt roads, heartbreak. A vaguely soulful drawl over some bouncy guitar and twanging banjo. Rinse and repeat.
Luke Combs performing at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney last year. Credit: Wolter Peeters Country music wasn’t played on mainstream radio and rarely crossed into the pop charts. Sure, there are exceptions to every rule.
A Shania Twain here, a Carrie Underwood there. Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson are global icons whose personalities eclipsed their musical impact. And now and again a song managed to become a proper crossover hit, such as Cruise by Florida Georgia Line or Need You Now by Lady A.
However, in the past 18 months, country music has experienced an enormous and unfathomable transformation in public perception. Its reputation has not simply been resuscitated, but vaulted to the very top of the music pyramid. It has swung dramatically from a genre typically maligned and sidelined to becoming globally beloved.
Pop music has taken on a distinctly country flavour. But make no mistake – country music hasn’t got better. It just got popular.
Of course, it’s true that the single biggest pop star on the planet, Taylor Swift, began her .
