Country music found new listeners during pandemic, journalist says

Country music gained fresh momentum during the Covid-19 pandemic, music journalist Madis Aesma told ERR’s Vikerhommik radio programme. The success of Ella Langley in the US singles sales chart reflects the genre’s continuing popularity in the United States, ERR reported.

Aesma said many people who had previously listened to country on the radio began streaming it while staying at home. The music then began appearing in recommendations for younger listeners, who may have helped spread country influences to artists outside the genre.

Country’s popularity has fluctuated in Estonia, Aesma said. Country events drew large crowds in the late 1980s, and well-known Estonian bands also tried playing the style. In the United States, however, country has a much stronger position. “It is their folk music,” he said.

That difference can help explain why US country stars are not always as well known abroad, Aesma said, citing Garth Brooks, who was one of the country’s leading male artists in the 1980s and 1990s.

Country also encompasses many subgenres tied to particular subjects and ways of life. Truck-driving country, for example, is about driving trucks and work vehicles, while music in Appalachia and West Virginia often deals with coal mining.

The songs do not need to be musically complicated to reach listeners, Aesma said. Clear lyrics and stories that resonate with people are central to the genre, which he described as music that tells a story rather than delivers a message.