‘Not just these white guys in cowboy hats’: Increasing demand for country music in Australia driven by ‘concrete cowboys and cowgirls’

This time last year Aussies were overcome by an infatuation with cowboy boots and hats, fuelled by Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.

While it thrust country-themed attire onto the map, the popularity of country music in Australia has been steadily growing for years, with tickets to global country superstar Luke Combs selling out within minutes last year.

As festivals across the nation continue to be canned, country music festival CMC Rocks has also sold out, headlined by Cody Johnson, Jon Pardi and Thomas Rhett.

Line dancing classes have also experienced a surge in popularity, while more international artists, including Beyonce and Post Malone, are dabbling in the genre.

New Spotify data reveals streams of the genre grew by 73 per cent in the last two years, with Spotify senior music editor Steph Liong revealing metropolitan areas accounted for 92 per cent of Spotify country music streams in Australia.

“We’ve called them concrete cowboys and cowgirls – it’s clear that country music is not isolated to regional Australians, it’s kind of permeated the metro areas and city dwellers,” Liong said.

Mount-Isa born country artist Lane Pittman, who is on tour with Combs for the second time in just two years, recorded a 58 per cent growth in streams over the last couple years, according to Spotify data.

“Country has just been infused in me from a very young age,” Pittman told NewsWire.

He said big acts like Combs, Morgan Wallan, Post Malone and Beyonce were showing people the genre was about “more than trucks and heartbreak”, which in turn was helping the local country music scene in Australia.

“A lot of these bigger American acts are bringing people into the genre and making people give it a chance,” he said.

“The international artists are a gateway into the local scene, and people are really starting to take a chance on that.”

Not just ‘white guys in cowboy hats writing songs about their trucks’

Sydney Conservatorium of Music senior lecturer in contemporary music practice Toby Martin said about 20 per cent of the Australian music market was comprised of country, and it was great to see artists like Beyonce help fuel a change in the perception of country music that could then flow into the local scene in Australia.

“There’s a joy in people thinking country’s not just these white guys in cowboy hats writing songs about their trucks, it’s many other things,” Mr Martin said.

The popularity of country fashion, aesthetic and culture has also continued to shoot up, with line dancing classes again having their moment.

Mr Martin compared it to the line dancing craze brought on by Billy Ray Cyrus’ Achy Breaky Heart in the ’90s, the impact of which flowed well into the early 2000s.

“Line dancing gives you an opportunity to dress up, play a bit of a character and lose yourself in the scene,” Mr Martin said.

Line dancing class pulls big numbers

Queer line dancing class Saddle Club in Sydney’s inner west is pulling massive numbers, with each class featuring more than 100 people per week.

Packed into Marrickville Town Hall, attendees clad in cowboy boots are taught to dance to everything from country music to modern pop, including Chappell Roan.

Organiser Marzy said there’d been a huge turnout from day one, with demand only continuing to surge.

“I grew up line dancing with my nan and my mum, so it’s quite close to my heart – seeing it have this resurgence, particularly in a queer space, is really amazing to watch,” Marzy told NewsWire.

“We thought our mates would come, that we’d have like 20 people … we’ve been so chuffed that from the get-go there’s been a lot of interest and such a beautiful community has been built.”

She said queerness and country music had gone hand-in-hand for years, and most Australians had experience with line dancing – whether it be family influences or simply doing the Nut Bush.

“Every town in Australia has a line dancing community, so it’s something that’s very familiar and quite nostalgic,” she said.

While the hype around country music and fashion could partially be attributed to “icons” like Taylor Swift and Beyonce pulling in new audiences, Marzy said Australia “always had big ties to country music”.

“More broadly, it’s really fun and feels quite sexy to put on a cowboy hat and some boots to do some dancing – it feels great, and that’s a big part of it as well,” she said.