The country music trend report: YEEDM, new fans, and unexpected collabs

Summer’s here, and I don’t know about you, but for me, that means country music. And with Russell Dickerson dropping “Happen to me” back in April, we may already have our soundtrack for the season.

But this isn’t just about the song of the summer. Country music is evolving fast. In the past year alone, U.S. streaming has jumped by 23%, driven by a new wave of fans, viral TikTok hits, genre-blurring collabs, and a little something called YEEDM (country + EDM).

So what’s actually trending in the Country genre right now? From dance-floor-ready remixes to Beyoncé’s country crossover, here’s your deep dive into the genre’s biggest shifts, breakout stars, and the audiences powering its explosive growth.

Let’s get into it. 

YEEDM

If you use Spotify then you might have already been served up a country remix or two, maybe you loved it, maybe you hated it, but regardless, you will start to see more and more of these types of songs pop up. 

The proper term for a remix like that is called YEEDM; It’s country songs mixed with electronic music. Think trap, house, base music, all mixed with your fav country song making it faster and easier to dance to. 

YEEDM is reshaping the country music industry because it’s changing how the music is consumed - country music has always been easy to sing along to in a car, on the boat, at a party - but now it’s bringing people to the dance floor.

Now, you have the biggest name DJs partnering with the biggest country stars; like this Diplo, VAVO and Priscilla Block remix: 

And people are LOVING it, so this trend continues to grow: 

• New country EDM playlists are popping up all over Spotify.
• Stagecoach put out a bunch of YEEDM playlists leading up to the festival and included a huge DJ lineup this year. 
• DJ’s are coming out with full YEEDM setlists at festivals (country-related ones or not, for example DJ Taylor Kade’s YEEDM set was at Las Vegas’s ECD festival.)

• The #yeedm hashtag on TikTok has seen a huge surge in content.
• Media outlets like Country Now are starting to recognize this shift and have featured DJs like VAVO

YEEDM's popularity is evident across streaming platforms, live festivals, social media, and industry recognition.

For music labels and artists, this presents an interesting opportunity to explore different collabs with DJs and reach net-new audiences by blending traditional country storytelling with EDM's catchy dance beats.

Who are the audiences behind the YEEDM movement?

Using SOPRISM, we analyzed the audience behind the YEEDM movement, and here’s what we learned: 

• They’re genre-fluid. This audience doesn't care about categories - they bounce between country, EDM, rap, and pop rock like it’s nothing.

• They’re mostly 25–34 and surprisingly not just glued to their phones. They are mobile-first, but 48% still use desktop - meaning they’re digging deeper than TikTok scrolls.

• They’re emotionally tuned-in. (They rank high on self-expression, creativity, love, and excitement). They come to country music for feels, not tradition.
• They’re career-minded with real spending power. High interest in JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley - these are not the broke festival kids but more like the VIP festival ticket buyers (even more reason to target and cater to them).
• They’re culture nerds. Into war movies, history docs, and Clint Eastwood. Big nostalgia and storytelling energy.
• They’ve got multigenerational taste. Their playlists go from Scorpions to Skrillex to blues and classical. This is also probably why they like the mix of old and new when it comes to YEEDM.

• They’re parents who still party. 16.5% have kids - but they’re still going to shows, and streaming remixes.
• They’re mostly coupled up. 65.4% are in relationships. Think: day festivals, country cruise lineups, or at-home dance parties.

• They care about vibes at home too. They over-index on interior design and premium home brands. This crowd curates their spaces like they do playlists.
• They’re drawn to offbeat experiences.  Huge into Electric Forest, MotoGP, Ultra, WW2 history, and more - they want adrenaline and meaning.
  
  
• They’re not just yeehawing on the drop. They crave storytelling, cinematic visuals, and songs that hit emotionally and physically. It’s not just a party - it’s a vibe.

For this audience YEEDM isn’t a gimmick. These fans are loyal, expressive, and looking for music that hits emotionally and physically. They’ve also got real spending power and shouldn’t be ignored. 

Here’s how to target them. 

We’re seeing smaller breakout artists - thanks to TikTok 

It’s not just YEEDM that’s introducing new artists to the country scene. We're seeing a huge trend of traditional country artists breaking out on TikTok too. 

A great example of this is country musician Gareth Hamilton, from Ireland, who was playing music for 10 years, and posting on TikTok for about 3 years, until finally one of his videos (him doing a cover of a Noah Kahan song) went viral, gaining millions of views. 

This put his name on the map, and he just released his own country single, “what you don’t know”, and is set to go on tour this summer. That’s the power of TikTok. And he’s not alone. 

Here’s why so many smaller country artists are breaking out on the platform right now: 

• Country music is all about storytelling, and TikTok is built for that. A line about heartbreak or small-town life gets clipped into 15 seconds, and suddenly everyone can relate to what the artist is feeling.
• TikTok favors authenticity over production. A singer with an acoustic guitar and a bedroom setup can go more viral than a full studio track. People want real music, and smaller artists deliver that.
• TikTok doesn’t need permission from the radio. If the song slaps and people connect with it, it moves and it goes viral. That’s why totally unknown artists are getting millions of views overnight.
• A lot of these breakout artists are leaning into old-school sounds; Dolly vibes, twangy guitars, slow sad songs. It feels fresh again, especially for younger audiences who didn’t grow up with it.
• TikTok is built on moments. A single standout lyric or line can carry the whole video and if it’s relatable, people use it for their own stories, and suddenly it’s everywhere (and then we can’t get it out of our heads for days). 

Examples of artists breaking out this way:

• Belle Frantz: Belle has been creating raw, acoustic heartbreak songs that feel like a diary entry.

• Noeline Hofmann: She is all about slow builds, and that old-school Nashville energy, but brings a Gen Z edge.
• Colter Wall: Colter is already cult-famous, but he’s now seeing a TikTok resurgence thanks to that gritty, outlaw sound he has that people are craving again.

These artists still have a small following, but for record labels wanting to understand their audiences and growth potential, it’s easy to run a proxy audience report within the Audiense platform. 

For example, here’s what Belle Frantz’s proxy audience looks like (it’s a combination of Sierra Ferrell and Meghan Moroney’s audiences * two artists she’s regularly been compared to). 

Record labels looking to sign Belle Frantz could use Audiense to learn that her mini tour should include Nashville, Chicago, LA, and Atlanta. 

Or that audience synergy wise, it would make sense for her to open for an artist like Kacey Musgraves. 

And to increase engagement with her fans, she should also focus on growing her presence on Snapchat (so going beyond TikTok). 

These are just some examples of what a label could learn by running proxy audiences in Audiense. 

Access the full Belle Frantz report here, or run your own artist proxy report by signing up for a free trial. 

Unlikely collabs are popping up & blowing up

“I had some help”, the collab with Morgan Wallen and Post Malone was so popular it sat at number one on Billboard’s summer music chart for 14 weeks. I was singing it every day last summer, so I can attest to this.  

The song currently has 1,076,557,875 streams on Spotify - making it his second most popular song. 

Because it did so well, the pair decided to release another one called “I ain’t comin' back”. 

And they aren’t the only ones doing it: Zach Bryan partnered with Bon Iver (an indie folk artist), Kelsea Ballerinni made a hit with LANY (a pop rock artist), and both songs did incredibly well. 

We’re going to see more and more of this in the country scene, because all these collabs pull in audiences from different genres, and it reflects what modern country fans want to see.  

Great collabs don’t have to be guesswork either - with a platform like Audiense you can see right away who an artist should partner with (based on who else their audience loves): 

Above is Morgan Wallen’s audience, and their other artist interests - based on the data Lady Gaga or Adele would be perfect to collaborate with. 

Non traditional country music artists are pivoting into country 

If we’ve learned anything from all the recent collabs, country music’s gate is wide open right now, and some of the biggest names in pop and rap are walking right through it. 

Beyoncé dropped her Cowboy Carter album and took home the Grammy for the Best Country Album award. Lana Del Rey’s got a country album on the way, and Post Malone’s gone full cowboy mode with country tracks of his own. And fans continue to eat it up.

Sure, some people still side-eye artists who pivot into country, but honestly, they are a small group. As Kelsea Ballerini said in her latest interview with People magazine, artists should evolve, and people shouldn’t judge artists who want to move into the country music space - there’s room for everybody. 

The music world’s changed, and country’s evolving with it, not in spite of it. The result? A genre that’s more dynamic, more inclusive, and more culturally relevant - and it's making way for a new group of fans. 

New country fans are being brought over in three ways 

We ran a report on new country music fans using Audiense, and what we found is that the majority are coming from the US, UK, Canada and Australia - and they are being brought over by three key factors:

• By country stars that blend pop and country (like Carly Pearce and Brett Young): These fans are being pulled in through “country-adjacent” sounds-pop-country, YEEDM, and heartfelt ballads that don’t sound overly traditional.
  
• Social Media: They are highly engaged on social - 88.26% use mobile, and they’re most active from 6 pm to midnight, suggesting strong TikTok/Instagram scrolling habits. They are discovering country through algorithmic exposure, not through radio or legacy channels.
  
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• They value closeness and self-expression, not just tradition and constancy. These fans are drawn to country music as an emotional outlet or identity space, not through heritage or upbringing.
  

These “new country fans” didn’t grow up with country music. Instead, they found it through social media, emotional connection, and modern crossover artists.

They’re younger, more global, and more open-minded than traditional fans, signaling a huge growth opportunity for the genre if labels lean into genre-fluid, emotionally resonant, and visually viral content.

View the full audience report here. 

Country music is blowing up - but not in the same ways across social media

What does this mean? That artists are finding explosive popularity on specific channels (especially TikTok), without that translating into cross-platform fame. 

Some artists are huge on TikTok, others are big on Instagram, and a few are getting tons of search traffic but aren’t active on social media at all. There's no one place fans are discovering country music anymore -  it depends on who you’re talking about and where you’re looking.

Using our Demand solution above, we looked at the demand for the top country singers across different social media platforms, and here’s what stood out to us:

Shaboozey 

• Despite lower overall followers, Shaboozey shows massive growth in Google search volume and solid TikTok traction (TikTok: 1.7M | Google Search variance: +2.1M).
• He’s not yet mainstream in fanbase size, but his upward momentum is explosive. He’s a great example of a viral, cross-genre breakout artist. 

Jelly Roll 

• Jelly Roll is the surprise TikTok giant, with 14M followers, it’s higher than Morgan Wallen (9.5M), Luke Combs (9.3M), and Lainey Wilson (5.4M).
• Despite a lower Instagram presence and negative Google search growth, TikTok is his powerhouse.
• He’s a platform-specific star, and artists who want the same audience loyalty on the TikTok app need to leverage Jelly Rolls authenticity, influencer style and natural partnerships.  

Zach Bryan

• Zach Bryan doesn’t have a TikTok presence, despite having a strong Google Search (2.7M) and Instagram (9.5M).
• TikTok is a huge untapped opportunity for growth via organic or campaign content.

Lainey Wilson

• Lainey has a mismatch between her TikTok followers and search volume (TikTok: 5.4M followers, but Google search variance is -746.1K). 
• So all her TikTok engagement isn’t translating to active search interest or conversion off-platform.
• Her content is working on TikTok, but there’s a missed bridge to deeper fandom or brand action (e.g. merch, tours, YouTube). She should consider conversion strategies.

In 2025, country stardom is no longer one-size-fits-all. Some artists (like Jelly Roll or Shaboozey) are dominating TikTok, while others (like Carrie Underwood) retain massive legacy followings on Instagram. Meanwhile, names like Zach Bryan are huge in search and streaming but barely present on TikTok. 

This means there’s no single formula for country success anymore. You need platform-specific strategies to spot breakouts early and help artists build full-spectrum visibility.

Final takeaway: country music's new playbook

Country music isn’t just growing, it's transforming. 

Artists are evolving, and so are the fans. Social platforms are driving discovery; from the rise of YEEDM and new breakout country artists, to unexpected collabs and genre crossovers.  

These aren’t just trends to watch but ones that artists and record labels must heavily lean into. 

Audiense can provide the data needed to understand the next wave of country stars and their audiences, help unlock new revenue streams through crossover collabs, and build long-term fanbases by understanding exactly who these new listeners are and where they’re spending time. 

Whether it’s running proxy audience reports to identify rising talent, or understanding how to build a creator-first campaign strategies on each platform,  the playbook has changed so use Audiense to change with it.