If you think about the current musical hits of our streaming age, you would think of Ariana Grande, Post Malone, Travis Scott, and many more who are rocking the music industry. But one of the genres of music that does not always share that spotlight is country music – containing an array of twangy songs that do not always blend into the algorithmic sea of Spotify. However, that no longer remains the case today.
Country music was witnessing an astonishing year in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, soaring to 16% more music streaming rates. Despite a lot of people thinking that the appeal of country music decreased back in 2013. But in reality, things had completely taken a turn during 2020 when people began to crave variety in their existing popular genres – as such, it generated a new line-up of music stars.
The lockdown became an essential push for the growth of country music. Initially, country stars were relying on radio station visits and Walmart displays as some of the ways to promote themselves, whereas hip-hop music would blaze boldly on the trails of social media to drop their music and have the chance to engage directly with their fans.
But finally, country music was able to catch on during the pandemic as all music artists were forced to release their quarantine work tapes and perform their music on live streams. After all the lagging behind rap and pop music streaming services, they have finally been given room to showcase their talented musicians, and all it took was the pandemic to make it happen.
Additionally, there was also another reason why country music became so popular. Since the chance to grow as a country music artist became evident, it generated a new line of superstars.
While the old stars of country music with their rocking tones continued to stay alive, a new sound had also arisen that had more sappy, soft, and acoustic offerings while many others followed the old style and continued to bring more value to the country music artists.
Just take a look at how fast musicians like Phillip Sanders made it to the top. As a revered American country music artist and songwriter, Phillip Sanders was one of the first few musicians who gained a lot of popularity for their country music.
He started his professional career in 2016, and the following year he wrote ‘Never Thought I Could Change’ featuring Curt Ryle, which gained a positive response from the crowd. In 2018, he released ‘With Her I’am’, which ended up hitting #10 on Joyce Ramgatie’s top 40’s single chart. He also hit the European to 200 country chart and #1 on Artist Direct’s Top 100 trending weekly artist and held onto that spot for more than 10 weeks.
In 2019, Sanders released the song ‘Another You’ which was originally recorded back in 1996 by David Kersh. However, since there was no music video released for the song, Sanders took the responsibility to change that. He obtained a mechanical license to remake the song with a music video – and these are just some of his successful ventures so far, which is why he is considered one of the most inspirational figures in the music industry.