In 1994, country music legend Alan Jackson released the hit “Gone Country,” an observation of artists and writers who were leaving music and entertainment hotspots such Las Vegas and Los Angeles and making their foray into the country music scene.
Thirty years later – and on the heels of 2023, which saw country music artists including Morgan Wallen, Jason Aldean and Luke Combs dominating the upper-echelons of the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 for nearly half of the year – the music industry seems primed for a new wave of pop-to-country crossovers, with a new cluster of pop-world artists signaling their intentions to release country or country-adjacent projects in the next year or so.
Of course, numerous rock and pop artists, among them Don Henley, Cyndi Lauper, Jessica Simpson, Steven Tyler, Bret Michaels and Nelly, have previously released country (and/or country-inspired) music to varying degrees of success.
In 1962, Ray Charles released his signature album Modern Sounds in Country & Western Music, unique in that it took country standards and arranged them in R&B and jazz styles. The album reached the top 25 on the Billboard 200, and became a key influence on generations of artists. Charles would also reach the Hot Country Songs top 20 in 1983 with “Born to Love Me” and earned a No. 1 hit with the Willie Nelson duet “Seven Spanish Angels” in 1985. Charles was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2021.
In 1969, Bob Dylan wrote and recorded the love letter to country music with Nashville Skyline, which was recorded at Columbia Studios in Nashville, and featured musicians including Charlie Daniels, Pete Drake, and Charlie McCoy, Country icon Johnny Cash also duetted with Dylan on a new version of his folk standard “Girl From the North Country.”
In 1984, Lionel Richie’s hit “Stuck on You” topped the Adult Contemporary chart, but also reached No. 24 on the Hot Country Songs chart. 2012, Richie (who was also the sole writer on the Kenny Rogers hit “Lady”) released the album Tuskegee, reworking several of his own hits as collaborations with a slew of country artists. The album topped the Billboard Hot Country Albums chart. Linda Ronstadt’s multi-faceted, genre-spanning career has included her charting pop hits such as “Long, Long Time” before adding country hits such as “Silver Threads and Golden Needles” to her resume.
Apart from occasional dabbling in country music, other artists such as Darius Rucker and Country Music Hall of Fame members Kenny Rogers and Conway Twitty had towering successes in the pop world and later committed to the country genre.
In 1958, Twitty earned a pop smash with “It’s Only Make Believe,” which spent two weeks atop the Hot 100; he followed that with the top 10 hits “Danny Boy” and “Lonely Blue Boy” before later earning his first top 20 country hit in 1966; he would go on to earn 40 No. 1 Hot Country Songs hits. As part of Hootie & the Blowfish, Rucker earned massive pop hits including “Hold My Hand” and “Only Wanna Be With You.” He released his debut country album in 2008 and has gone on to earn nine Country Airplay hits. Prior to his decades-long country career, Rogers was part of the folk group New Christy Minstrels, and earned a pop hit as part of the group First Edition with “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In).” More recently, prior to dominating the Country Airplay chart with songs including “Son of a Sinner” and “Need a Favor,” Jelly Roll had already released more than a dozen rap and hip-hop projects.
Here, we look at a new crop of pop stars who have signaled their intentions to “go country” — or have outright released new country-flavored music.
