Country music has been a popular genre for many decades, dating back to the early twentieth century. It originated in the American south, in the Appalachian Mountains, and surrounding areas. Musicians in this region blended English ballads with fiddle tunes, creating a unique and distinctive sound. Over the years, country music has continued to evolve and remain popular with listeners all over the world.
Country music is distinguished by straightforward chord structures lifted by great vocal harmonies and strong choruses. The emotional content in Country music is very relatable, which makes it appealing and repeatable. Country songs are some of the most frequently played music on streaming platforms.
As Country music’s popularity increased, more musicians began to gravitate toward the genre. Let us look at ten of the best songs of Country music.
10. Cold – Chris Stapleton
Cold is one of the best American songs in the country genre by Chris Stapleton, released on the 25th of September, 2020, the third single song in his fourth studio album named Starting Over.
Stapleton performed this at the Grammy Awards in 2022, where it won the Best Country Song.
Listen to Cold – Chris Stapleton on repeat
He delivered a soulful performance of Cold and evoked a chilly mood. A part was played by Heartbreaks’ Belmont Tench, framed by an angular minor-key piano part. The Cold is more rooted in Stapleton’s past work, with mournful lyrics that address faraway, brutal ex-lover.
9. Rocky Top – Osborne Brothers
This is an American Country music song of the bluegrass subgenre. The Osborne Brothers recorded it in the year 1967. It rose to fame and became of the official state songs of Tennessee.
Listen To Rocky Top – Osborne Brothers On Repeat
The bluegrass genre developed in the 1940s in the Appalachian regions of the United States of America. It is formed from old-time string music, traditionally played exclusively on acoustic instruments, and originated from traditional English, Scottish, and Irish ballads and dance tunes.
8. Worried Life (Someday Baby Blues) – Big Maceo Merriweather
This stemmed from the most recorded song, initially performed in 1941; it was an early hit and Maceo’s most recognized song, subscribing to the subgenre of Country blues.
Listen To Worried Life (Someday Baby Blues) – Big Maceo Merriweather On Repeat
The subgenre, also known as folk blues, rural blues, backwoods blues, or downhome blues, is the earliest blues music characterized by mainly solo vocals with acoustic fingerstyle guitar developed in the rural Southern United States of America in the early 20th century.
7. Ol’ Country – Mark Chesnutt
This song was released in 1993 and performed by American singer Mark Chesnutt. It tells a story of a country boy from Birmingham, Alabama, and a girl from Ohio who met each other by chance and fell in love. The song is of the Classic country subgenre.
Listen To Ol’ Country – Mark Chesnutt On Repeat
The Classic country subgenre is a music radio format specializing in playing mainstream country and western music hits from past decades. It developed from changes in the sound of country music in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, as it began moving to FM radio stations. These new FM country stations excluded older “classic” country artists from their playlists.
6. Act Naturally – Buck Owens
The song was recorded by Buck Owens and the Buckaroos in 1963, reaching number one on the Billboard Country Singles chart. It is an abandoned person’s life story expressing sadness and loneliness without acting. The song subscribes to the subgenre Bakersfield sound.
Listen To Act Naturally – Buck Owens On Repeat
The subgenre was developed in the 1950s in and around Bakersfield, California. It was influenced by rock and roll, relying on electric instrumentation and a defined backbeat. It reacted against the slickly produced Nashville sound, which became popular in the late 1950s. It became the most popular and influential country genre of the 1960s, initiating a revival of honky-tonk music and influencing later country rock and outlaw country musicians.
5. Cruise – Florida Georgina Line
The song was recorded and released in 2012 by American country music duo Florida Georgia Line. It is the best-selling country digital piece of all time in the United States as of January 2014 and is considered the first example of a subgenre of Country music called bro-country.
Listen To Cruise – Florida Georgina Line On Repeat
Bro-country is a form of country pop initiated in the 2010s and is influenced by 21st-century hip hop, hard rock, and electronica music. Bro-country songs are often musically upbeat with lyrics about stunning young girls, the consumption of liquor, partying, and pickup trucks.
5. El Paso – Marty Robbins
This is a western ballad subgenre recorded by Marty Robbins in 1959. It reached the number one spot on pop music charts. It is widely considered a genre classic for its gripping narrative, which ends in the death of its protagonist. It shifts from past to present tense, with haunting harmonies by vocalists Bobby Sykes and Jim Glaser in addition to the eloquent and various Spanish guitar accompaniment by Grady Martin.
Listen To El Paso – Marty Robbins On Repeat
Western music is a form of country music composed by and about the people who settled and worked in the Western United States and Western Canada. It celebrates the lifestyle of the cowboy on the open ranges, Rocky Mountains, and prairies of Western North America. It is sometimes referred to as cowboys country music.
4. Murder on Music Row – Alan Jackson with George Strait
This song was recorded in 1999 as a duet between American country music artists George Strait and Alan Jackson. It laments the rise of country pop and the accompanying decline of the traditional country music sound. The song refers to Music Row, an area in Nashville, Tennessee, considered the epicenter of the country music industry. It is of the subgenre called Nashville sound. Listen To Murder on Music Row – Alan Jackson with George Strait On Repeat
The Nashville Sound arose during the mid-1950s as a subgenre of American country music. It replaced the chart dominance of the rough honky tonk music, which was most popular in the 1940s and 1950s, with smooth strings and choruses, sophisticated background vocals, and smooth tempos associated with traditional pop. It comes as an attempt to revive country sales, which had been devastated by the rise of rock ‘n’ roll as a distinct genre from the rockabilly spawned from it.
3. Peaceful Easy Feeling – Eagles
This song was recorded in 1972 by the Eagles. The song reached rank 22 on the charts and is one of the band’s most prevalent songs. It is a part of a subgenre called Country rock.
Listen To Peaceful Easy Feeling – Eagles On Repeat
Country rock is a subgenre of popular music, formed from the fusion of rock and country, developed by rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They recorded rock records using country themes, vocal styles, and additional instrumentation, most characteristically pedal steel guitars.
2. Believe – Brooks & Dunn
This song was recorded by American country music duo Brooks & Dunn in 2005 as the second single from their album Hillbilly Deluxe, and it won the Country Music Association’s 2006 awards for Single of the Year, Song, and Music Video of the Year. It is part of a subgenre called Christian Country music.
Listen To Believe – Brooks & Dunn On Repeat
Christian country music is music that is written to express either personal or communal beliefs regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music. It is a form of Christian music and a subgenre of Country music.
Create the best country music playlists
We have seen how country music is very diverse, and the choices to pick from are endless. We have only discussed ten songs out of all the songs in this genre. And this is only the tip of the iceberg.
