For decades, people have boot-scooted across dance floors in taverns and clubs, propelled by music and a communal desire for fun. The line dance — a choreographed dance featuring groups of people dancing in one line and executing a sequence of dance steps simultaneously — has ebbed and flowed in popularity over the years, most recently popping up again thanks to social media and TikTok videos.
In the United States, popular linedances through the years have included “The Madison,” “The Cowboy Boogie” and “The Electric Slide,” accompanying a range of musical styles, including pop, disco, rock n’ roll, swing, R&B and Latin. But along the way, linedancing became closely associated with country music.
The 1980s saw country music and line dancing surge in popularity, following the 1980 release of the John Travolta-starring movie Urban Cowboy. The movie’s success helped spur a renewed interest in not only line dancing and country music, but country culture and fashion. The 1990s saw a bigger waves of popularity, thanks to songs including Brooks & Dunn’s “Boot Scootin’ Boogie,” which was released with an accompanying music video that prominently featured line dancing. Programming on Country Music Television (CMT) and The Nashville Network (TNN) further accelerated line dancing into its commercial peak in the 1990s.
Nashville’s Wildhorse Saloon opened in 1994, and quickly capitalized on line dancing’s surge in popularity, including hosting The Nashville Network’s Wildhorse Saloon Dance Show, hosted by Katie Haas, beaming line dancing into the homes of viewers each week. The Wildhorse recently closed its doors after three decades, as its location in downtown Nashville will make way for Luke Combs’s upcoming rooftop bar and music venue.
But still, line dancing has remained a popular past-time for many, with clubs and dancehalls across the country offering line dance lessons and space to dance. Here, we look at 10 of the top country music line dancing songs.
This 1992 hit for LeDoux details an audacious plan to transform a declining farm on the brink of being sold into a dance-filled evening hotspot. Chuck Jones and Chris Waters wrote the song, with LeDoux recording it as part of his Whatcha Gonna Do With a Cowboy album. “Cadillac Ranch” reached No. 18 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
Written by Gill and Reed Nielsen, this 1994 hit praises the positives of cowgirls across the country, from Oklahoma, Texas and beyond. The music video, directed by John Lloyd Miller, features artists including Little Jimmy Dickens, Rodney Crowell and actor/comedian Calvert DeForest. “What The Cowgirls Do” reached No. 2 on Hot Country Songs.
This boot-scootin’ song is flush with a retro ’90s country feel, as the trio’s Cameron Duddy, Mark Wystrach and Jess Carson warn about a roguish gentleman that frequents the dusty dancefloor, ready to take up company with any lady whose partner isn’t treating them right. The song was issued as the first single to the trio’s second studio album Let It Roll, while the music video features actor Dennis Quaid.
This 2008 solo-write from Alan Jackson celebrates the conclusion of the workweek, a time when “all the conditions are right” for a weekend of partying. The upbeat song is not only a prime track for line dancing, but the Trey Fanjoy-directed music video also brought together hundreds of people to form a lengthy gathering of toe-tapping line dancers boogieing through neighborhoods, on rural roads, and over bridges.
In 2019, Blanco Brown earned an irresistible smash hit and brought line dancing back into vogue, thanks to his hit song “The Git Up” and its routine-featuring video.
Brown previously told Billboard of writing the song, “When I got done with the three-minute song and danced through the whole thing, I was like, ‘Man, I gotta get in shape!’ This is a great workout song. I think I done dropped five pounds already.”
Brown, who previously produced songs for artists like Fergie and Pitbull, created a line dance to the song and posted a tutorial of the dance. “The Git Up” saw success in conjunction with the rise of TikTok, with the song being featured in numerous memes and video clips. Brown also teamed up with labelmate Lainey Wilson for another video clip promoting the dance.
The song peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100, and spent 12 weeks at No. 1 on Hot Country Songs.
Twain broke through with this girl power anthem in 1995, with “Any Man of Mine” earning the singer-songwriter her first Billboard Country Airplay No. 1 hit.
As she lays down her non-negotiables in a relationship, the sauntering song takes on an even more line dance-friendly vibe as it draws to a close — with Twain encouraging listeners to join in the groove, singing, “Come on everybody, on the floor/ One, two, a-three, four.”
Tracy Byrd notched his own favorite for country line dancers with this uptempo song depicting the fictional “Watermelon Festival” in Rhine County, Georgia — a place where the county’s watermelons are made into a sweet wine and where the mayor urges attendees who have partaken in said wine to nix the idea of driving and instead try the “watermelon crawl.” The Michael Merriman-directed video clip for the song features plenty of rural county fair festivities — yes, including line dancing.
Released in 1994, the song reached No. 4 on Hot Country Songs.
This 1988 song, led by pile-driving percussion and Earle’s grainy vocal, was the title track to Earle’s third studio album. The song reached No. 10 on Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock chart. The song sketches the story of a Vietnam veteran who returns to the states and launches a secretive business growing marijuana, spending his time trying to hide from the DEA. Last year, “Copperhead Road” became the state of Tennessee’s 11th official state song.
In the early 1990s, this rocking song sparked a line dancing craze and turned Billy Ray Cyrus into one of country music’s hottest newcomers. Long before his Lil Nas X collab “Old Town Road” spent 19 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100, “Achy Breaky Heart” spent five weeks at No. 1 on the Country Airplay chart in 1992, while the song’s music video featured a line dance with steps as simple as they were fun to engage with.
Though Brooks & Dunn’s “Boot Scootin’ Boogie,” is inextricably tied to the notion of country music line-dancing, the duo wasn’t the first act to record the song.
Brooks & Dunn’s Ronnie Dunn wrote “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” before he’d even teamed up with Kix Brooks. But Texas group Asleep at the Wheel first recorded the song as part of their 1990 album Keepin’ Me Up Nights. Two years later, the song became Brooks & Dunn’s fourth No. 1 Hot Country Songs hit, with a music video featuring a line dance — which helped spark the 1990s country music line dance craze. “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” spent four weeks atop the Hot Country Songs chart in 1992, and also crossed over to the all-genre Hot 100, reaching No. 50.
In 2019, B&D teamed up with Midland to perform “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” as part of the duo’s Reboot collaborative album.
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