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New Report Finds Best Cities For Country Music In 2021

Country Music Cities

Whether you’re a fan looking for community or an artist looking for fans, a new report has found the best cities in America for country music.

When most people think about country music, they think about Nashville. The Tennessee city is synonymous with country music, and rightfully so. The genre’s history lives in the cities bones, and it is still producing a majority of the genre’s biggest names today, but Nashville isn’t the only place where country music thrives.

A new report from Lawnstarter has crunched an incredible amount of data to find the best American cities for country music in 2021. The information is based on the number of country radio stations, concerts, and performance venues in various regions across the country. Lawnstarted also gauged the local fandom based on Google search trends and the availability of museums dedicated to the genre.

The ten best and ten worst cities for country music in 2021 are as follows:

2021’s Best Cities for Country Music Fans

2021’s Worst Cities for Country Music Fans

1. Nashville, TN173. Bridgeport, CT
2. Las Vegas, NV174. Oxnard, CA
3. St. Louis, MO175. Riverside, CA
4. Salt Lake City, UT176. Port St, Lucie, FL
5. Grand Rapids, MI177. Rancho Cucamonga, CA
6. Knoxville, TN178. Corona, CA
7. Tulsa, OK179. Clarksville, TN
8. Birmingham, AL180. Salinas, CA
9. Atlanta, GA181. Brownsville, TX
10. Denver, CO182. Killeen, TX

Highlights and Lowlights:

  • Nashville: The Undisputed Capital of Country: Where else can you enjoy a pure, unvarnished country sound than where country music stars are born? Landing in first place is Nashville, Tennessee, the official capital of country music as far as we — and just about everyone else — are concerned.

    Music City sweeps nearly every category and metric in our ranking: No. 1 in Genre Interest and Everyday Listening and second place in Performance Access. 

    This chart-topping performance really is no surprise: After all, Nashville is home to the famous Grand Ole Opry and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. 

    Want to make country music, not just listen to it? There’s no shortage of recording studios here, which is likely why country stars like Dolly Parton, Kacey Musgraves, and Taylor Swift have made Nashville (or the area) home base. 
  • Other Country Hubs: Besides Nashville at No. 1, America’s iconic country cities seemed to naturally gravitate toward the top of our ranking. Knoxville, Tennessee, lands in comfortable sixth place, while Tulsa, Oklahoma, finishes seventh, and Austin, Texas, boot-scoots in at a respectable No. 12. Bakersfield, California, slips down to No. 61 — mostly due to lack of Google search interest and concert venues (No. 146 in both metrics). 

    And how did St. Louis land in the top five? Well, the Gateway City known more for jazz and blues is also home to Nelly, who has gone a Lil Bit country. Yesteryear Country Music Hall of Fame act The Kendalls (Heaven’s Just a Sin Away) has St. Louis roots, too. And Redneck Woman Gretchen Wilson hails from Pocahontas, Illinois, about 40 minutes east of the Arch.

    Las Vegas at No. 2, Grand Rapids, Michigan at No. 5, and Birmingham, Alabama in eighth place are other surprise acts. A full calendar of country performances and a healthy presence of country radio stations in each of these cities helped them stand out among the competition. 
  • Killeen Me Softly: If you need a good cry, this should make you tear up: Killeen, Texas, hit rock bottom in our ranking at No. 182.

    What went wrong? Well, almost everything: Killeen ties for last place in three out of four categories, including Genre Interest, Performance Access, and Everyday Listening. It ranks fifth from the bottom for Venue Access, but what good is an empty concert hall? 

    Killeen’s country music fans will have to tune in to YouTube and Spotify to get their fix. That or let Jesus take the wheel and drive them down a country road to Austin (No. 12 overall).

You can find some additional infographics below:

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Why Country Music Looks And Sounds Like Hip-Hop Now [VIDEO]

The blurring of country music and hip-hop currently playing out at radio has been in the making for a long, long time.

As the old saying goes, “everything changes.” Country music is no exception to the rule. While legends such as George Strait and Alan Jackson are still writing and releasing material rooted in tradition, a younger generation of talent is challenging fans to accept a wide range of new ideas. From 808s to syncopated vocal deliveries, the most popular country artists sound more and more like hip-hop artists with each passing year.

And guess what? There is a good reason for country music’s recent evolution. As the team at Insider reveals in a new documentary short, country music has a long history of following other genre’s paths to success. What is happening now has happened before, and it will no doubt happen again as consumer tastes continue to evolve.

To understand how this genre hybridization has shaped today’s country and hip-hop, the Insider team spoke with Kevin Holt, an ethnomusicologist at Columbia University who’s studied the relationship between country music and Southern rap, with a focus on Atlanta hip-hop culture. Holt broke down the many commonalities that country and hip-hop have had all along — including both genres’ particular emphasis on roots, authenticity, storytelling, and lived experience. He explained that in the digital-streaming era, the boundaries between genres like country and hip-hop are becoming more diffuse. That’s how we get artists like Sam Hunt, dubbed the “country Drake,” and it’s also how we got country-trap anthems from MCs like Young Thug and DaBaby. We also took a look at the rise of the year’s biggest genre disruptor, Lil Nas X, who shook up both country and hip-hop with his category-defying smash hit “Old Town Road.”

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Lil Nas X responds to Billboard chart controversy with “Old Town Road” remix

The up and coming artist has
lassoed country legend Billy Ray Cyrus for the remix to his viral hit.

Lil Nas X knows better than to fight words with words. The Atlanta artist, whose viral hit “Old Town Road” was removed from the Hot 100 Country chart by Billboard because it did not “embrace enough elements of today’s country music,” has responded to the recent controversy around his music with a new remix featuring genre legend Billy Ray Cyrus. Take a listen:

The remix of “Old Town Road” features the same structure and production of the original song, only now there is also a verse and chorus is featuring Cyrus’ iconic vocals. The man behind “Achy Breaky Heart” sings about living like a rockstar, buying expensive guitars, and being a modern-day Marlboro Man who yearns to return to simpler times (on the “Old Town Road”). It’s a fitting addition to the already great track, and the internet seems to agree. Since its release on Friday, April 5, both Cyrus and the remix of “Old Town Road” have been the top trending topics on Twitter, and the official stream of the song has been trending on YouTube.

Cyrus also shared some insight and support with Lil Nas X on social media, writing “Been watching everything going on with OTR. When I got thrown off the charts, Waylon Jennings said to me “Take this as a compliment” means you’re doing something great! Only Outlaws are outlawed. Welcome to the club!”

Paired with the song’s removal from the Hot 100 Country chart was a statement from Billboard claiming that their decision “had absolutely nothing to do with the race of the artist.” When asked what he thought of the potential racial motivation of the removal, Lil Nas X said: “I believe whenever you’re trying something new, it’s always going to get some kind of bad reception. For example, when rap started, or when rock and roll began. But with country trap, I in no way want to take credit for that. I believe Young Thug would be one of the biggest pioneers in that.”

Since news of the song’s chart removal went public, Lil Nas X has continued to garner attention and success. “Old Town Road” was the most streamed song on Spotify last week. If he were still part of the country charts, he would have the number one song in the genre.

With the remix of “Old Town Road,” Billboard must now decide whether or not the song is country enough to meet its vague standards. If the company says yes it’s admitting the song needed someone already accepted by the genre to give it a green light. If the company still refuses to admit it, the question of why will hang over the chart system for the foreseeable future.

Whatever the case, the internet will continue supporting Lil Nas X. The release of the remix spawned hundreds of new memes, some of which you can view below:

https://twitter.com/mtldn3/status/1114169717877608449
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Lil Nas X and the question of who defines what a genre sounds like

Viral sensation Lil Nas X has been removed from Billboard’s country charts for not embracing enough elements of country music, which raises questions about we define the genre.

No one saw Lil Nas X coming. The Atlanta artist released his breakout smash, “Old Town Road,” to Soundcloud on December 2, 2018. The song quickly found a following, and not long after became a go-to track for videos posted to the popular mashup app TikTok, which in turn grew its popularity. The song took off so fast, in fact, that radio programmers across the country had to rip the song from YouTube in order to get in rotation at their station.

Recently, the saga of the song’s bizarre rise through the world of music reached new heights when it simultaneously debuted on three Billboard charts — the cross-genre Hot 100 chart, the Hot Country Songs chart, and the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.

Lil Nas X’s career on the country chart, however, did not last long. Rolling Stone reports that Billboard quietly removed “Old Town Road” from Hot Country Songs and informed Lil Nas X’s label, Columbia Records, that his inclusion on the ranking was a mistake, according to an insider with knowledge of the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Billboard did not publicly announce the change, but speaking to RS, a representative for the company said:

“upon further review, it was determined that ‘Old Town Road’ by Lil Nas X does not currently merit inclusion on Billboard‘s country charts. When determining genres, a few factors are examined, but first and foremost is musical composition. While ‘Old Town Road’ incorporates references to country and cowboy imagery, it does not embrace enough elements of today’s country music to chart in its current version.”

After the publication of that story, a representative for Billboard provided a subsequent statement indicating that race did not play a part in the decision to remove “Old Town Road” from the country chart.

Not everyone believes Billboard’s comments about race not playing a role in their decision. The music business relies heavily on old-fashioned definitions of genre, which have always mapped on race — Billboard’s R&B chart, for example, was originally titled “race music,” while the Latin songs chart lumps together a myriad of genres and languages under one ethnic umbrella.

In recent years many caucasian country stars have leveraged elements of hip-hop to push their genre forward without being excluded from the charts. Sam Hunt, for example, was hailed by Billboard as the ‘white Drake’ back in 2017. Florida Georgia Line, another popular country act, went platinum with a single featuring Nelly. Tim McGaw did the same way back in 2004 with “Over and Over Again.” It seems that as long as a white musician is involved, Billboard has no problem with hip-hop influenced country music.

There’s also a question of how we define country music in the streaming era. Many songs gain popularity through services such as Spotify and Apple Music before radio or other mainstream outlets give them attention. If the country audience is vocal about their support of an artist, does that not make them — at least in some way — a country artist? If the country music audience supports Lil Nas X, who is undeniably using banjos and guitars and other traditional genre elements in his music, shouldn’t that be enough to classify him as a country artist?

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