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.
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:
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.
Using SOPRISM, we analyzed the audience behind the YEEDM movement, and here’s what we learned:
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.
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:
Examples of artists breaking out this way:
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.
“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.
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.
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:
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.
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
Jelly Roll
Zach Bryan
Lainey Wilson
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.
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.