Taylor Swift and Beyoncé lead country music sales boom in UK
A 'golden age' of country music is upon Britain, figures suggest, as the genre has recorded its most popular level this century.
Country's share of the music market increased again last year. Artists such as Shaboozey and Dasha have helped to lure younger generations to the genre.
Its increasing popularity can also be seen outside the charts. The all-female country-pop trio Remember Monday is set to represent Britain at this year's Eurovision Song Contest.
Until 2019, country music's share of the UK singles market never rose above 1 per cent, according to the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), which represents record labels.
It took 2.1 per cent of the market in 2023 and the latest figures show it accounted for 3.3 per cent of singles sales and streams last year.
Some of the albums credited for the boost include Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter, Kacey Musgraves's Deeper Well and Zach Bryan's The Great American Bar Scene. Country music's 2.9 per cent album share — up from 2.5 per cent in 2023 — is the highest since 1999, when Shania Twain's Come on Over was at No 1 for 11 weeks.
The resurgence of country in Britain has been boosted by the annual Country to Country (C2C) festival. This year's acts, including Lainey Wilson and the Castellows, were spread across London, Glasgow and Belfast.
This month the Royal Albert Hall is hosting the two-day Highways Festival, while last year Morgan Wallen became the first country artist to headline the BST concerts in Hyde Park, London, which drew 50,000 people.
• How London went crazy for country music
Baylen Leonard, creative director of the Long Road Festival, which is due to be held in August in Leicestershire, said that there were increasingly more opportunities 'for UK fans to dive into the world of country music'.
'It's a golden age for country music in the UK, with a steady and sustained rise in popularity for a few years now, thanks not only to massive crossover appeal of the music itself, but a willingness from major country acts to come and play in the UK,' Leonard, who is also a DJ on Absolute Radio, said.
Jo Twist, chief executive of the BPI, said the 'Taylor Swift effect' had also helped grow the genre's appeal among younger audiences.
Twist added: 'Country's rising popularity was one of music's best-kept secrets, but packed-out crowds at events like C2C and the Long Road festival and the genre's growing streaming numbers suggested it was only a matter of time before the mainstream caught up.'
Jeff Smith, head of BBC Radio 2 and 6 Music, said the rise might be due to a 'growing reaction to the domination of rhythmic music' over the past two decades, adding that he thought it had 'led to some people looking for more emotionally powerful lyrics and interesting, often rawer melodies … that is the criteria of country music'.
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