Country's pop moment could last...forever?

This week marks exactly three years since the mainstream country music scene began to entrench its resurgence. Beyond the chart-topping hits of Luke Combs, Morgan Wallen, Ella Langley, and Megan Moroney, this period has seen the genre both revive its most iconic traits and broaden the reach of pop music’s cultural ambitions.

How ambitious has the genre’s expansion made country music? Far beyond Megan Moroney being on “Cloud 9” while Ella Langley is “Choosin’ Texas,” country music appears to be choosing to take over the world.

The 2010s saw Afrobeats, Asian pop, and European-inspired EDM grow, boosting streaming’s global appeal. The rise of American-based country could overshadow that success.

Data shows country has shifted from a genre or marketing term to a reflection of what pop music in the streaming era has become: a major American cultural force.

In 2023, Wallen’s widely played “Last Night” and Combs’ cover of Tracy Chapman’s 1988 hit “Fast Car” stood out as key highlights. By mid-2023, it became clear what a country-influenced pop crossover leading the charts might look like.

The political undertones of Jason Aldean and Oliver Anthony Music, Combs’ collaboration with Chapman aimed at adult contemporary radio, and Zach Bryan’s Midwestern roots—along with Kacey Musgraves’ crossover appeal—expanded the genre’s broad, streaming-friendly popularity. Meanwhile, Wallen skillfully mixed an East Tennessee twang with influences from across American pop music’s commercial peaks over the past 25 years.

By 2026, the genre is aiming for an unprecedented level of ubiquity beyond what that core initial group of artists achieved.

The kind of influence country is gaining hasn’t been seen since the 1950s, when, at Memphis’ Sun Records, Sam Phillips decided that American teenagers—a rabidly-engaged demographic similar to the nearly 1 billion Spotify users worldwide, currently—loved Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Elvis Presley, creating country and Western music delivered with a bluesy rockabilly swagger.

Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control” spent four years on Billboard’s Hot 100. Wallen, also a 20-time country chart-topper, is now a pop superstar, too, reaching No. 1 four times faster when classified in that space. Meanwhile, Post Malone, with over 200 million singles sold, is now prioritizing country, underscoring its growing popularity.

Ella Langley and Megan Moroney’s success follows Lainey Wilson, who regularly hit No. 1 every 18 months, despite a 2010s suggestion by Keith Hill to avoid playing female artists consecutively, comparing women to tomatoes in a salad and males to lettuce.

A different time is clearly emerging in the genre-as-culture.Don’t be surprised if country-as culture’s next wave doesn’t also sustain its pop-shifting power moment. Artists like Bailey Zimmerman, Riley Green, Jessie Murph, Cody Johnson, Jelly Roll, Hudson Westbrook, ERNEST, HARDY, Koe Wetzel, Tucker Wetmore, Sierra Ferrell, and Charley Crockett are increasing their pop appeal through streaming and the wide influence of genre-blending in culture that is then fully absorbed by popular appeal.

Three chords and the world — an unlikely, unexpected, and potentially perpetual truth.

Written by Marcus K. Dowling