Country music is as mythologized as the region with which it’s most closely associated, and it remains one of the South’s biggest cultural signifiers.
It is an especially apt moment to reflect on country music’s significance. In tangible ways, the genre has never been more popular. Last summer, country songs claimed the top three spots on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the first time. Pop stars, from Beyoncé and Lana Del Rey to Post Malone, have gone country. Nashville, the home of the country music business and a vacation destination where fans live out the genre’s myths as weekend cowboys, welcomed a record-breaking 16.8 million visitors in 2023. The current country music craze comes as the country music business celebrates a century of steady growth and the adoration of fans worldwide.

Guest edited by Amanda Marie Martînez.