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Ten-gallon hits! Why country is the biggest pop music craze of 2024
Beyoncé and Dua Lipa have swapped mirrorballs for rhinestones, while new stars such as Shaboozey and Dasha are making hay with uptempo hoedowns. Even the UK is enjoying its first rodeo – but can it last?
I feel like that brings a level of authenticity Dasha Last week, Dua Lipa – not a vocalist noted for her passion for rhinestones or pedal-steel guitar – appeared unexpectedly at the Academy of Country Music awards with the hirsute, Stetson-sporting Nashville star Chris Stapleton. Despite its preponderance of fingerpicked guitar, the line-dancing-inspired choreography in the video (which helped propel the track to TikTok ubiquity) and indeed the cowboy boot on its sleeve, you can tell she is not part of the Nashville establishment by her merch, which features the word “cuntry” in flowing script. It’s as if pop has started reverting to its pre-Covid love of the kind of sound that propelled Lewis Capaldi and Rag’n’Bone Man to platinum success, albeit with a noticeably more American flavour and a more straightforwardly photogenic set of stars.
Or read this on The Guardian