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“Let’s take a trip down memory lane.”
Few expressions are more clichéd. Different usages of “memory lane” or “memory’s lane” began showing up in the late 1800s, and the phrase has become a common way to think of nostalgia.
Old Dominion’s new single, which Arista Nashville released to country radio via PlayMPE on Jan. 4, puts a fresh coat of paint on that time-worn “Memory Lane” idea. It exists because three band members — lead singer Matthew Ramsey and guitarists Brad Tursi and Trevor Rosen — were open to it when Jessie Jo Dillon (“Break Up in the End,” “10,000 Hours”) brought it up during a Jan. 24, 2022, appointment at Tursi’s house.
“Whenever you’re in a room full of very successful songwriters and someone throws out something that’s so clichéd, there’s a reason, and they may not even know it,” Ramsey says. “You definitely pay attention to it — because, of course, it’s clichéd. But why is that sticking out right now? So it makes us kind of all sit down and go, ‘All right, forget the clichéd. Why is this title here in this room with us?’”
Tursi actually started the creative chain before his co-writers arrived that day, building a short rhythmic track around an acoustic guitar and kick drum.
“After you write a million songs on the guitar, it starts to become hard to think of a different rhythm,” says Tursi. “I knew those guys — and girl — were coming to my house, and I tried to pull up a little drum program that has a different rhythm than you would play on a guitar. I just kind of found that little groove, that acoustic part in the intro. It was two chords and the loop, and that’s what I played them when they got there.”
It sounds vaguely similar in spirit to the rolling guitar in “Gentle on My Mind,” a song John Hartford wrote based on the traveling plot of the 1965 movie Dr. Zhivago. Dillon thought “Memory Lane,” logged in a page of titles on her phone, was an appropriate match.
“He had this beat that was real fast and kind of pulsing,” she says. “I wouldn’t really think to do that idea that way naturally, but it gave the song so much energy, and I think it feels driving — kind of like you’re driving down memory lane.”
Dillon originally generated the title during her own battle with nostalgia. She was getting over a relationship with another songwriter, and she still missed him significantly.
“When I hear that song, I picture exactly where it was — the house and the place, for me,” she recalls. “I think the guys had their own versions of that as well in their minds when we were writing it.”
One of the guys — likely Rosen — came up with the opening line, “If I could buy a house on Memory Lane,” and Ramsey chimed in with quick rhymes: “I’d put my money down, and I’d sign my name.” They envisioned a corner lot, but never identified the cross street. (It’s tempting to think it’s Lonely Street, which would put Memory Lane in the same neighborhood as Heartbreak Hotel.)
Since that “Memory Lane” title appears in the opening line, it made sense to repeat it in the first line of every successive verse. But that also posed a problem when they reached the chorus; it wouldn’t make sense to repeat the title at the end of the chorus and the beginning of the next verse. So they didn’t included the title in the song’s key stanza.
“It would have been corny to try to somehow wrap the chorus back up into that line,” explains Rosen. “It allows the chorus to just give the images, and it’s such a release when it falls back into that line [in the next verse]. There’s no need to say it in the chorus.”
In fact, they held out the tension at the end of the chorus, creating an extra line over an unresolved chord, while a fantasy from the past — “We’d never let go, and we’d never be over” — plays out in the story. Emphasizing that tension, staying locked in the memory, reminded Rosen of the movie Inception.“It’s a really trippy sci-fi movie where they figure out how to go into other people’s dreams,” he says. “But sometimes when they’re in a dream, they don’t know [it]. It felt like being in that movie, where if I could just live in this [dream], I wouldn’t care if I came back to reality.”
Since the chorus is designed to circle back to the verse, they couldn’t end “Memory Lane” with the chorus. So they concluded by repeating the first verse and changing the lyrics in the back half of that section to “We’d never fade, never fade, never fade…”
Old Dominion, including bassist Geoff Sprung and drummer Whit Sellers, recorded “Memory Lane” with producer Shane McAnally (Sam Hunt, Midland) at Shrimpboat Sound Studio in Key West, Fla., a facility with an appropriately nostalgic atmosphere.
“It’s this little, unassuming cinder block building that no one knows what’s going on on the inside or pays any attention to, but it’s Jimmy Buffett’s studio,” says Ramsey. “You walk in there, and it’s like a time capsule of his career. There’s Jimmy Buffett memorabilia and all these old Polaroids everywhere. It’s like stepping back in time, and it’s a very creative little vortex.”
Instead of following the band’s typical recording process, in which it plays as much of the track as possible together, “Memory Lane” was built piece by piece over programmed percussion. Sellers replaced most of the synthetic rhythms with real drums after everyone else did their parts, a reversal of the typical order.
Ramsey was challenged by the lead vocal’s phrasing — “It’s really tough to find a place to take your breath and keep going,” he says — and Tursi developed a guitar solo that feels as much like a journey as the rest of the track. “What happens with me is one of those times when we’re running it down, I’ll just take a solo and then spend another 15 minutes trying to beat it,” Tursi says. “And then everyone goes, ‘The first one is the best one.’ I’m never satisfied with anything.”
When Old Dominion played it as a full band for the first time on Jan. 19 in Evansville, Ind., Tursi extended the performance with an adventurous 90-second closing solo after the “never fades” lyric ended. Meanwhile, “Memory Lane” travels to No. 33 on the Country Airplay chart dated Feb. 4.
“It just felt like it was strong and artistic and commercial, and it had the right balance of everything,” Tursi says.
And it brings a fresh attitude to a very familiar phrase from the past.
Luke Bryan will bring his signature party vibe to summer when his Country On Tour visits 36 cities this year, starting June 15 in Syracuse, NY.
The five-time entertainer of the year winner will also present his fans with music from several red-hot newcomers, highlighting the music of Chayce Beckham, Tyler Braden, Ashley Cooke, Jackson Dean, Jon Langston, Conner Smith, Alana Springsteen, Hailey Whitters and DJ Rock.
Since launching his inaugural major headlining trek in 2013 with his Dirt Road Diaries Tour, Bryan has played to more than 13 million fans, while simultaneously continuing to amass hit songs (he has earned 26 No. 1 Billboard Country Airplay hits to date). He’s used his massive platform to offer numerous newcomers a prime performance slot on his tour, providing a sought-after stage for rising artists who have now also become household names in country music, including Morgan Wallen, Lauren Alaina, Little Big Town and Cole Swindell.
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“Artists get into the business to make music and perform it for the fans,” Bryan said via a press release. “Leaving it all out on that stage is what it’s all about for me. I’m excited to support and have so many talented new artists along for the ride this year. It’s one of the most rewarding parts of our job.”
Additionally, Bryan has diversified his concert offerings to include his annual Spring Break and Farm Tours, and just celebrated his eighth Crash My Playa festival in Mexico. He’s also spearheading his ongoing headlining show at Resorts World Theatre in Las Vegas.
Tickets for the tour dates go on sale Feb. 3 at 10 a.m. local time at lukebryan.com. See the full schedule for his Country On Tour below:
06/15/2023: Syracuse, NY- St. Joseph’s Health Amphitheater at Lakeview
06/16/2023: Darien Center, NY-Darien Lake Amphitheater
06/17/2023: Toronto, ON-Budweiser Stage
06/23/2023: Philadelphia, PA-Freedom Mortgage Pavilion
06/24/2023: Holmdel, NJ -PNC Bank Arts Center
07/06/2023: Wantagh, NY-Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater
07/07/2023: Columbia, MD-Merriweather Post Pavilion
07/13/2023: Hershey, PA-Hersheypark Stadium
07/20/2023: Portland, OR-RV Inn Style Resorts Amphitheater
07/21/2023: Wheatland, CA-Toyota Amphitheatre
07/22/2023: Mountain View, CA-Shoreline Amphitheatre
07/27/2023: Lubbock, TX-United Supermarkets Arena
07/28/2023: Albuquerque, NM-Isleta Amphitheater
07/29/2023: Denver, CO-Ball Arena
08/04/2023: Salt Lake City, UT-USANA Amphitheatre
08/05/2023: Boise, ID-Ford Idaho Center Amphitheater
08/10/2023: Rogers, AR-Walmart AMP
08/12/2023: Nashville, TN-Bridgestone Arena
08/13/2023: Brandon, MS-Brandon Amphitheater
08/17/2023: Cincinnati, OH-Riverbend Music Center
08/18/2023: Indianapolis, IN-Ruoff Music Center
08/19/2023: Pittsburgh, PA-The Pavilion at Star Lake
08/25/2023: Evansville, IN-Ford Center
08/26/2023: St. Louis, MO-Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
09/28/2023: Dallas, TX-Dos Equis Pavilion
09/29/2023: Ft Worth, TX-Dickies Arena
09/30/2023: Tulsa, OK-BOK Center
10/05/2023: Orlando, FL-Amway Center
10/06/2023: Savannah, GA-Enmarket Arena
10/07/2023: Charlotte, NC-PNC Music Pavilion
10/12/2023: Sioux Falls, SD-Denny Sanford PREMIER Center
10/13/2023: Green Bay, WI-Resch Center
10/14/2023: St. Paul, MN-Xcel Energy Center
10/26/2023: Raleigh, NC-Coastal Credit Union Music Park
10/27/2023: Charlottesville, VA-John Paul Jones Arena
10/28/2023: Charleston, SC-Credit One Stadium
Shania Twain has overcome a number of serious health issues during her career, battles with Lyme disease and dysphonia that robbed the singer of her signature powerhouse country pop voice and led to an extended break in the early and mid 2000s, as well as throat surgery in 2018 to shore up her weakened nerves.
But in a new interview with England’s The Mirror, the “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” star said she was so sick during the pandemic that she had to be airlifted to a Swiss hospital. “It was progressively getting worse. My vital signs were getting worse… and in the end I had to be air evacuated,” Twain told the paper about the time she got COVID pneumonia in the midst of the global pandemic while in Lake Geneva, Switzerland and got so sick she could hardly breathe.
“It was like science fiction, I felt like I was going to another planet or something,” she said of the surreal helicopter ride to a local health clinic. “It all kind of happened in slow motion.” Luckily, Twain added, husband Frédéric Thiébaud — a Swiss exec for Nestlé — was there with her through the health ordeal, scrambling to find a scarce bed for his sick wife.
“My husband was freaking out, to be honest. He was really panicking because he was the one having to pull it all together,” she said of his rush to get her help. “He spent hours and hours every day on the phone, trying to get an air evacuation coordinated, trying to get a bed lined up, as there were none, checking my vital signs. It was just a real nightmare for him.”
Once they found a bed, Twain, 57, said she was placed in isolation and given plasma therapy drugs during a frightening episode. “It took several days to start building up any antibodies at all, so it was a very dangerous time and very scary,” she said. “I made it through and I’m just so grateful.”
Soon enough, Twain began to recover and begin working on her upcoming sixth studio album, Queen of Me, which is due out on Friday (Feb. 3).
Eight-time Grammy winner Chris Stapleton will become the latest country artist to usher in the Super Bowl, with a performance at Super Bowl LVII on Sunday, Feb. 12 on FOX, just prior to the game’s kickoff at 6:30 p.m. ET at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
Stapleton is known for his bluesy, supple vocal delivery as well as his songwriting chops (in addition to his own material, he’s written hits for Kenny Chesney, Josh Turner and Darius Rucker, among others). He’s also the reigning CMA male vocalist of the year, having won in the category six times. This year’s Super Bowl pregame performance lineup also includes R&B artist Babyface performing “America The Beautiful,” while Abbott Elementary star Sheryl Lee Ralph will perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Rihanna is this year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show performer.
Stapleton is the third consecutive country singer to handle national anthem duties prior to the big game since 2021–Eric Church joined Jazmine Sullivan for a rendition of the anthem in 2021, while Mickey Guyton performed the national anthem last year.
Here, Billboard looks back at other country music artists who have performed the national anthem throughout the years.
Nothing goes together better than summer heat, cold drinks, good friends and country music. Throughout much of the year, country music fans gather at events across the nation (and abroad) to see their favorite country music artists perform.
Below, Billboard looks at many of the top country music festivals slated for 2023, including some of each festival’s top performers, from established artists such as Tim McGraw and Miranda Lambert to hot-shot newcomers including Bailey Zimmerman, Megan Moroney and Zach Bryan. Names including Luke Bryan, Cody Johnson and Zac Brown Band proliferate several festival lineups this year, headlining festivals including Country Thunder festivals, C2C and Windy City Smokeout.
Taken altogether, these numerous country fests offer a glimpse into the breadth of the country music moment, from Texas natives like Lambert, Johnson and Parker McCollum, to pop-leaning vocalists Dan+Shay, to ’90s country stalwarts Brooks & Dunn and Dwight Yoakam.
In addition to stellar lineups, these festivals also offer a range of activities and food offerings, including camping, line-dancing, food trucks, and merch vendors selling an array of items. See below.
Nate Smith banks his first No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart (dated Feb. 4) with his freshman entry, “Whiskey on You.” The song increased by 10% to 31.2 million impressions in the week ending Jan. 26, according to Luminate.
Smith, from Paradise, Calif., co-authored “Whiskey” with Lindsay Rimes and Russell Sutton. Smith scored early success on social media prior to signing to Sony Music Nashville’s Arista roster in November 2021. He presently boasts 1.4 million TikTok followers.
“When I released ‘Whiskey,’ I wasn’t sure what would happen … I just knew I loved it,” Smith tells Billboard. “First, my fans were super encouraging on social media, and then country radio welcomed the song with open arms, and for that I couldn’t be more grateful. Meanwhile, my dad is just glad I have a job! A huge thank you to country radio, my fans, my team and everyone who has lifted this song up.”
“Whiskey” marks the second initial Country Airplay entry to reign already in 2023, after Jelly Roll’s “Son of a Sinner” (Jan. 14). In 2022, only Bailey Zimmerman reached the penthouse with a first charted title, when “Fall in Love” led in December.
On the streaming-, airplay- and sales-based Hot Country Songs list (dated Jan. 28), “Whiskey” ranks at No. 12, bolstered by 5.7 million U.S. streams.
Wilson Keeps on ‘Truck’-in’
Lainey Wilson notches her third straight career-opening Country Airplay top 10 as “Heart Like a Truck” rides 11-10 (19.6 million, up 11%). She co-penned the track with Trannie Anderson and Dallas Wilson.
Wilson’s debut hit, “Things a Man Oughta Know,” led Country Airplay for a week in September 2021, followed by “Never Say Never,” with Cole Swindell, a two-week No. 1 last April-May.
Concurrently, HARDY’s “Wait in the Truck,” featuring Wilson, rises 12-11 (19.6 million, up 10%).
First Country is a compilation of the best new country songs, videos & albums that dropped this week.
Zach Bryan and Maggie Rogers, “Dawns”
This slow-burn, angst-filled song finds Bryan and pop stalwart Rogers fighting through anger, sadness and loss, desperate to turn back time and reclaim happier moments. The ache simmering below the lyrical tension is palpable, particularly on lines recalling the passing of a parent, as their illustrious harmonies intertwine on “I lost her last July in a heart attack/ I need one small victory/ Give me my dawns back.”
Cole Swindell, “Drinkaby”
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Swindell follows up his four-week No. 1 Country Airplay hit “She Had Me at Heads Carolina” with his latest, an uptempo, rock-tinged and radio-ready track about drinking away a broken heart. Swindell will release his new project Stereotype Broken on April 28.
Luke Combs, “Growin’ Up and Gettin’ Old”
Reigning CMA entertainer of the Year Combs is gearing up to release the followup to his 2022 album, Growin’ Up, on March 24 when he drops his new album, Gettin’ Old. Bridging the two projects is his new song, “Growing Up and Gettin’ Old,” which acknowledges getting older but still knowing how to let loose.
“I spend most of my happy hours here at home … but I can still raise hell all night with the boys when I want to,” he sings, his electrifying-yet-earthy voice soundtracking this time in his life as a husband, father and entertainer at the top of his game.
Struggle Jennings feat. Jelly Roll, “Hard to Hate”
Country-rap artist Jennings is the grandson of Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter, while Jelly Roll just notched his first No. 1 Country Airplay hit with “Son of a Sinner.” These two have a long history of collaborations, previously releasing four Waylon & Willie projects. Their latest, a slow-burn, bluesy-rock hybrid, revels in leaving things that no longer serve you in the past and making the most of the days that are ahead.
Jordyn Shellhart, “Who Are You Mad At”
Shellhart is already known for her role writing songs like Little Big Town’s “Sugar Coat” and Cody Johnson’s “I Always Wanted To.” Now, in this song she co-penned with Marc Beeson and Allen Shamblin, she continues her evolution as an artist, with this stellar track showcasing Shellhart as an introspective, mature writer and a skilled vocalist.
Her clear-eyed lyricism chronicles stormy arguments with a hot-headed lover, but she fearlessly delves below the surface — refusing to accept the arrows he’s throwing and drawing out pain she knows is actually aimed at his ex-lover.
Jake Owen, “My Boots Miss Yours”
He’s got a toe-tappin’ way of attempting to convince a lover that one night of spinning around a dancefloor under neon lights together was far from enough. “What ya say we get ’em back together?Make a little trail of clothes and leather,” he sings, his warm, mellow vocal delivery a good foil for the understated flirtatiousness the song demands.
On the Outside, “Go Broke”
With a sunny sound and pop-country hooks aplenty to further elevate R&B-shaded, stacked harmonies, this five-part group seems poised to pick up Rascal Flatts’ mantle. “Go Broke” has the driving rhythm and glistening instrumentation of Keith Urban’s early work, while the explosive chorus feels like a solid throwback to early 2000s country-pop. Currently working with Jimmy Robbins and Mike Shimshack, the group inked a publishing deal last year with Warner Chappell Music and Mailbox Money Music.
Nickel Creek, “Strangers”
Lauded group Nickel Creek will return with their first album in nine years, when Celebrants drops on March 24. More than two decades after Nickel Creek first broke through with their 2000 self-titled album–and garnered two Grammy nominations in the process, followed by a Grammy win later for their album This Side–the group’s latest song highlights their unfettered harmonies and years-forged, tight-knit playing. The trio’s Chris Thile and siblings Sean and Sara Watkins recorded the album at Nashville’s RCA Studio A.
The video for the track is straightforward, putting the emphasis on the trio’s urgent performance — which conveys the simmering anxieties, wonder and hopes for sustained mutual esteem that come with reuniting with an old friend after a prolonged absence.
Zach Bryan spends a 32nd week at No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Songwriters chart (dated Jan. 28), surpassing Ashley Gorley for the most weeks spent on top since the chart launched in June 2019.
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Bryan, who has ruled for 24 consecutive weeks, breaks the record on the strength of four writing credits on the Hot Country Songs chart, led by his breakthrough single “Something in the Orange.” The track logs a fourth week at No. 1 on Hot Country Songs, after reaching the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated Jan. 21 (it stands at No. 13 on the latest chart).
The other tracks contributing to Bryan’s Country Songwriters reign are “Burn, Burn, Burn” (No. 29), “Sun to Me” (No. 32) and “The Good I’ll Do” (No. 42). Bryan has sole songwriting credit on all four of his charting hits, helping boost his chart points on Country Songwriters.
Here’s an updated look at the artists with the most weeks spent at No. 1 on Country Songwriters.
Most Weeks at No. 1 on Country Songwriters:
32, Zach Bryan
31, Ashley Gorley
18, Blanco Brown
15, Luke Combs
14, Morgan Wallen
13, Taylor Swift
10, Josh Thompson
9, HARDY
8, Josh Jenkins
7, Josh Osborne
5, Laura Veltz
Bryan concurrently spends a 21st week at No. 1 on Rock & Alternative Songwriters, tying Twenty One Pilots’ Tyler Joseph for the second-most weeks spent on top (after Glass Animals frontman Dave Bayley’s 50), and a 19th week at No. 1 on Rock Songwriters, extending his record for the most weeks at the summit.
On Billboard’s Country Producers chart, Joey Moi continues his record run, as he logs a 92nd week at No. 1. He leads on the strength of seven production credits on Hot Country Songs, via Morgan Wallen’s “You Proof” (No. 3), “Thought You Should Know” (No. 6), “Wasted on You” (No. 8), “One Thing at a Time” (No. 19), “Tennessee Fan” (No. 23) and “Days That End in Why” (No. 40); and HARDY’s “Wait in the Truck,” featuring Lainey Wilson (No. 9).
The weekly Country Songwriters and Country Producers charts are based on total points accrued by a songwriter and producer, respectively, for each attributed song that appears on the Hot Country Songs chart. As with Billboard’s yearly recaps, multiple writers or producers split points for each song equally (and the dividing of points will lead to occasional ties on rankings).
The full Country Songwriters and Country Producers charts, in addition to the full genre rankings, can be found on Billboard.com.
In retrospect, 2022 will be remembered as the year of Bad Bunny. And while his album Un Verano Sin Ti dominated much of the year after its May 6 release, the boost that it gave to Latin music’s share of the overall market — with the highest growth in percentage year over year of any genre, going from 5.39% in 2021 to 6.33% in 2022, an increase of 28.8% — is not simply a one album, or even one year, phenomenon.
Between 2020 and 2022, Latin music grew 55.29% in album consumption in the U.S., according to Luminate, far outstripping the overall industry’s 21.61%, as well as the growth of the four biggest genres in the U.S. over that time: R&B/hip-hop (12.17%), rock (22.28%), pop (20.64%) and country (19.22%). And Latin isn’t alone: World Music has also made tremendous strides over that time period, growing 47.67% from 2020 through 2022 on the Stateside growth of K-Pop and Afrobeats, among other ex-U.S. genres, and up 25.8% in 2022 over 2021. Both genres have seen over 20% growth in on-demand audio streams dating back to 2019, while the overall industry has grown in that sector in the mid-teens each year during that time.
Those are two of just four genres (of the 15 tracked by Luminate) that grew at a faster rate than the overall music industry in 2022, which increased consumption 9.2% year over year. (The other two were children’s music, at 30.0%, and dance/electronic, at 11.7%; new age grew essentially in line with the business). And it speaks to how significant that growth has been, and could continue to be moving forward as the business becomes increasingly more global.
With 2023 fully underway, here are four more trends to watch this year:
How Big Is a Hit?
Children’s music (1.38%) overtook holiday music (1.26%) as the ninth-biggest genre in the U.S. this year due to the runaway success of Encanto, which helped boost the genre by 30% in consumption year over year (35.5% in on-demand streams). How significant was the effect of that hit? Growth for the genre year over year was 6.7% in 2020, and actually declined -3.7% in 2021, with on-demand streaming dropping 2.8% in each of those years. The growth is almost certainly unsustainable, but it shows the value of a surprise mainstream hit. For a related analog, comedy was the only genre to actually decline year over year, due to the sector coming back down to earth after the huge gains from Bo Burnham’s Inside (The Songs) album in 2021. From 2020 to 2021, overall comedy consumption ballooned 27.3%, with total on-demand streams growing 28.4%; those numbers fell to -11.3% and -5.0% in 2022, as the effect of the album receded.
Major Genres Shrinking in Share
As a statement of fact, year over year the four biggest, most dominant genres in the U.S. all declined in terms of their share of the overall market: R&B/hip-hop (from 27.72% in 2021 to 26.82% in 2022), rock (20.01% in 2021 to 19.95% in 2022), pop (13.05% in 2021 to 12.68% in 2022) and country (8.09% in 2021 to 7.76% in 2022). But there are a few ways of looking at that.
The first is that, when a genre is as dominant as R&B/hip-hop, for example, maintaining the same percentage growth gets harder every year. And the growth is still huge: the top four genres accounted for 67.21% of the market in 2022, even if down slightly from the 68.87% they held in 2021, and just shy of 50% of the gains year over year. And rock and R&B/hip-hop saw the two biggest increases in raw consumption numbers over 2021, with the former claiming 19.37% of the growth in 2022 over the year prior and the latter 17.13% of it.
The other way to look at it is that the market is, slowly but steadily, diversifying. Latin, the fifth-biggest genre in the country, was third in percentage of growth in the market, up 16.38% year over year; less than 1 million units separated its increase from R&B/hip-hop’s in 2022. Pop was fourth (8.67% of industry growth), but world music — the seventh-biggest genre overall — claimed the fifth-highest share of the market’s growth, at 5.53% year over year. And country, which claimed 4.17% of the growth, was run a close race by Dance/Electronic, at 4.14%. Just three years ago, in 2020, Latin made up 4.95% of the overall market and World Music 1.88%. That doesn’t seem like regular fluctuation, but a true growth trend.
R&B/Hip-Hop Report
Over the last few years, there has been an accepted fact of the marketplace: In a streaming world that reflects not just what people are buying, but what people are continuing to stream and listen to, R&B/hip-hop dominates. That is still, unquestionably, the case. But lately there has been some hand-wringing about the slowing growth of the genre and what that could mean for the broader marketplace, a fair question for others to answer.
Here are some facts: R&B/hip-hop is now 26.82% of consumption. It’s been growing consistently — up around 6% per year the last few years — though not as much as the marketplace overall for several years now percentage-wise. And its share of total on-demand streams dropped from 30.11% in 2021 to 28.61% in 2022. In raw numbers it’s still growing massively, though, second only to rock in share of the industry’s total unit growth in 2022. And compared to 2017 — the year that Luminate predecessor Nielsen first declared that R&B/hip-hop had become the biggest genre in the industry — it still claims a higher share of the market. So while it displays a higher variance year to year than some other genres, the sky isn’t falling just yet.
R&B/Hip-Hop Share of Consumption By Year:2017: 24.52%2018: 25.94%2019: 28.62%2020: 29.07%2021: 27.72%2022: 26.82%
Country Streaming Sputters, Rock’s Resilience
Country’s streaming growth is slowing down. After big gains in audio on-demand streaming the past two years (22.1% in 2020 and 16.5% in 2021) as more of its audience began to embrace the format, that figure slipped below the audio streaming growth of the overall industry in 2022, 11.1% vs. 12.2%, respectively. And total on-demand Country streaming (audio plus video) grew at 9.8%, compared to 12.2% for the overall industry. (Yes, overall and audio on-demand streaming grew at the same rate.) That isn’t the end of the world — R&B/hip-hop on-demand audio streaming has grown less than the overall market percentage-wise in the past few years, though its raw numbers are still massive — but it’s worth noting that the growth is slowing year over year after outpacing the market recently, and its percentage of the growth in on-demand streaming in 2022 was just 6.01%, by far the lowest of the five biggest genres. In total consumption, country grew just 4.8%, slightly over half the rate of growth of the overall industry (9.2%), with its share of the market slipping from 8.09% in 2021 to 7.76% in 2022.
It’s notable compared to the fortunes of rock music. For all the “Rock Is Dead” talk, the format is essentially keeping pace with industry trends overall (up 9.0% in consumption, 14.3% in on-demand streams) and actually grew its share of overall on-demand streaming year over year, from 16.30% in 2021 to 16.62% in 2022, while continuing to flat-out dominate in sales (43% of the market). Again, rock was the genre that showed the most growth in 2022 over 2021: at 19.37%, it outpaced R&B/hip-hop (17.13%) and Latin (16.38%) for the biggest share of growth year over year.
Tyler Hubbard is sporting new ink. On the back of his hand are five butterflies of assorted sizes. The “Georgia” half of Florida Georgia Line got the tattoos in November after “5 Foot 9,” the first single from his self-titled debut solo album, reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart.
“The butterflies represent my family,” he says, one each for Hubbard, his wife and their three children. “But also this new season and rebirth and new life and new energy. After the song went to No. 1, that’s one of the ways we celebrated. Just channeling that next chapter.”
After being half of one of the most successful duos in country music, Hubbard and FGL’s Brian Kelley hit pause following a decade-long run that included 13 No. 1s on Country Airplay, including “Cruise,” “Dirt,” “H.O.L.Y.” and “Long Live,” Hubbard is eager to show a different, more personal side of himself. Tyler Hubbard, out today (Jan. 27) through EMI Music, follows an August EP that introduced six songs from the 18-track album and gave Hubbard material to perform while he opened for Keith Urban last fall. Second single “Dancin’ in the Country” is already climbing Country Airplay, standing at 31 on the chart dated Jan. 28.
Hubbard talked to Billboard about making the new album, how educating himself during the pandemic affected him as a husband, human and artist, whether Kelley has heard his new music and the future of FGL.
When FGL went on pause, you thought about becoming a full-time songwriter — given that you’ve had songs recorded by Kane Brown, Jason Aldean and Zac Brown, among others. How long before you realized you also wanted to continue as an artist?
I did that for six or eight months. I love songwriting more than any part of the process. I realized pretty quickly, “This is fun, I do love being able to be home with the family and work 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. as a songwriter,” but I definitely felt like there was a missing piece: Part of who I am as an artist and part of who I am as someone who wants to connect with people and make records and go on tour and do all that stuff. I’m excited that now I get to do both again.
How hard was it for you to wrap your head around going from a “we” to a “me?”
There are a lot of pluses, there are a few negatives. I have to take full responsibility for every decision, full responsibility for my own destiny, which is really a plus. I don’t have anybody else to blame anything on. There’s a lot of freedom in stepping into this new season, especially after 12 years of being a “we,” and now having more of an individuality and ultimately connect with people on a more personal level. You can go even deeper when it’s just you personally, and so it’s been really fun to step into and experience that.
That shows on songs like “Miss My Daddy,” which is probably not a song you would have done on an FGL album.
Yes. You take that song, you take “Me for Me,” “Small Town Me,” you can even take “Way Home” — they’re very autobiographical, very on-the-head personal, telling my story almost directly. Those types of songs I’ve never had the opportunity to explore writing, just due to the dynamic of being in a band, and so it’s a cool opportunity that I really didn’t expect or see coming.
That’s because Brian was the first to say he wanted to release solo material, right?
I actually understand more fully why BK had the calling and the urge to initiate this, because he felt the same way that I felt a year later. It took me a minute to wrap my head around it. But once I did, I fully got it, and felt like, “Now I want to do that. I have a voice. I have a story. I’m an individual and I’m more than just Georgia.”
Is FGL on just a pause or a stop?
Well, it’s hard to say. If we have learned anything over the last three years, it’s that we can’t predict the future, right? But for me, it’s a stop. I’d never say never, and I’ll continue to say that because I feel like you never know. But I’ll follow that up by saying I’m extremely happy and fulfilled in the role that I’m in. This is not a one-off for me. This is a long play. This is a career shift.
Have you sent BK the new album?
I haven’t.
You wrote or co-wrote all 18 tracks, some of which are very personal. Was it hard to make yourself that vulnerable?
I think so, but also necessary and really important. I’ve found over the years that it’s easier to connect on our struggles and our weaknesses than it is on our strengths. I wanted to channel some of that. In “Tough,” I wanted to talk about [how] it’s been rough lately. It was 2021 [when] I wrote that song, and we were all going through a hard time and didn’t know the future. Instead of always talking about having a good time and things I enjoy, it’s nice to be really authentic and showcase more than just a few sides of who I am.
When “5 Foot 9” went to No. 1 in November, did you breathe a sigh of relief that fans were accepting you as a solo artist?
Yeah, that was in the back of my head. And it felt really, really good. It really took me back to 2012. I felt like a brand new artist again — and I do still at times. It’s re-energizing. I didn’t expect it to feel so much like it did at the beginning. I’ve found out that I really enjoy the build in the journey almost more than then reaching the goal.
Are there other things you’re realizing this time around that you may not have appreciated when FGL was climbing?
I realized multiple things, [including] that the stars have to align so much for this type of stuff to happen — and so I have a new gratitude for every little piece of success. I’ve reminded myself the second go-round to slow down and really celebrate the little victories, and not just think about the ultimate goal, or see how quickly I can get to stadiums. It’s like, “Let’s enjoy this ride, because it’s the fun part.” I feel like I’m a little more mature than I was at 25 years old, so to get to have that life experience — and to get to come home to three beautiful kids and a wife — it’s just a really sweet spot I’m in in life right now.
What has it been like figuring out how to command a stage by yourself?
I feel like it’s been surprisingly easy, easier than maybe I expected, to adjust to just being me on stage. I don’t have BK with me on stage, but I do have an incredible band, guys that I love that have been with me forever, so there’s still that comfortable commonality. It feels slightly different without BK, but I’ve gotten used to it and I’m really enjoying it.
What FGL songs are you doing in your set?
I don’t know if I’ll ever not be able to sing “Cruise,” because it’s such a big part of why I’m even here today and I love taking fans back 10 years and listening to them sing. So, I’ll probably always incorporate that, “Meant to Be”, and songs that I’ve written that have really been impactful in my career.
After George Floyd’s murder, you posted on your Instagram about systemic racism and about “becoming more educated around racism and the social injustices in our communities.” Talk about that work and where it’s led you.
For me, the last few years have been big growth years, personally, emotionally, mentally. I really dove into doing a lot of personal work, mental work, emotional work, work on my marriage, work on being a dad and just trying to be more culturally aware. I feel like the last few years have been so divisive and so polarizing and so hard to understand. So, for me, I did want to understand as much as I could and try to wrap my head around it and then try [to] make an effort from my heart to potentially bring people back together.
But I had to become educated on what it is that divides people. Why are we having these silly conversations? Why are these conversations being taken so seriously and literally dividing families, even my own family? And so I wanted to become more educated, aware.
Did that education inform this album in some way? There’s nothing on here that obviously addresses the division like your 2020 song with Tim McGraw, “Undivided.”
Yeah, I think so. Deep down, I think it’s made me a more aware person — and probably a better songwriter, if for no other reason of just being aware how certain words may be interpreted by certain people, or may be offensive or not offensive. My wife has really helped me become more aware of things where I’ll say something and she’s like, “Tyler, you can’t say that,” and I’m like, “You’re right. That wasn’t very thoughtful or conscious of the situation.”
So, between the culture we’re in these days, having an incredible wife and the desire and open-mindedness to want to educate myself, I’ve learned a lot and I’ve grown a lot. And I do think it comes through the music as well.
Though your Instagram account is still very active, you turned it over to your team to handle in September. Why did you make the decision to leave social media?
There are multiple layers. I’m extremely addicted to it when it is on my phone. It consumes a lot of my time, and so I’m like, “This is not healthy.” I want to connect with my fans, but now I finally have an incredible team that can help me run my socials without me having to do it all myself or have it on my phone. It’s been several months and I feel a lot more freedom and a lot more creativity … I’m not scrolling, looking at a bunch of people and comparing myself and judging other social posts and all that anymore like I used to. Now the only time I interact with people is in person.
There are no collaborations on this album. Why?
it was intentional. If it were up to me, I’d probably always make music with friends, but I felt like it was important if I wanted to introduce myself to the world as an artist and an individual to be an individual. I have always made music with a partner, so it was a unique thing for me. For this first project, I want to introduce Tyler Hubbard by myself, to give the fans a clearer perspective and a clear introduction. And then after that, I can get back into what I love so much in doing collaborations and features. It was hard for me. I had to say no to a lot of friends and to a lot of great songs. I was just like, “Give me a year and a half. I’ve really got to stick to the strategy here.”
