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The Heat Is On The Summer Concert Season

With tours spanning rock, pop, EDM, and country, the music industry is preparing for an active, healthy summer concert season

GRAMMYs/Dec 3, 2014 - 05:06 am

Forget Punxsutawney Phil and the swallows returning to Southern California. For the music industry, the most important harbinger of the summer touring season is April's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Elsewhere, this coming weekend's Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival and Electric Daisy Carnival and upcoming festivals such as Lollapalooza and Outside Lands bring plenty of concert heat. With some promoters attributing as much as 75 percent of their annual business to summer shows, the outdoor concert season — a period lasting roughly from April to well into October — constitutes a massive chunk of the revenue pie.

As for that pie in 2011, tours in North America grossed $1.19 billion, down 4 percent from the previous year, according to data compiled by Pollstar. Industry insiders don't believe the slight drop signals a full-fledged landslide.

"I think part of the decline was a reaction to 2010, when people took too many risks," says Garry Bongiovanni, Pollstar editor-in-chief. "Some artists were late to realize that the current economy wasn't going to allow them [to be] as aggressive as they were. Some promoters were overly aggressive … but now we're seeing fewer risks."

Nederlander Concerts CEO Alex Hodges calls it "the 2009 effect" — a reference to the economic shock wave that hobbled the U.S. concert industry, including Nederlander venues in California such as the Greek Theatre, Santa Barbara Bowl and San Jose Civic.

"The 2009 effect got us all to seriously consider tickets prices," says Hodges. "We've not been as overachieving on some of the larger shows at the Greek, trying to max out the top price both in price and quantity. We've even been able to do $35 shows to some degree with new, younger bands. Those adjustments, ever so subtle, have really paid off. Our number of shows went up and our gross sales were up about 24 percent last year."

With Hodges and his peers having learned their lessons, many promoters expect a healthy 2012 concert season, with festivals continuing to offer maximum bang for the buck. "The festivals really are a great value in terms of the number of acts you can see, and the amount of time that you're out there being entertained," says Bongiovanni.

Perhaps to get a jump on the festivals, both Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band and Van Halen hit the road in spring for jaunts that extend through summer. Though Madonna's world tour won't hit the United States until August, some markets such as New York, Boston and Philadelphia have already sold out. Following their performance at the 54th GRAMMY Awards in February — their first public appearance in more than two decades — the Beach Boys are on the road this spring and summer for their much-anticipated 50th anniversary tour.

Former Pink Floyd singer/songwriter Roger Waters brings his conceptual The Wall Live show across the United States through July. In a tour that unites master and apprentice, Kiss and Mötley Crüe will bring old-fashioned rock spectacle to venues nationwide, while prog-rock stalwarts Rush and legendary singer/songwriter Neil Diamond are expected to play to sold-out crowds.

On the country front, the Brothers of the Sun tour teams Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw. Superstars Jason Aldean, Sugarland, Rascal Flatts, and Brad Paisley have been doing boffo box office, boding well for the future of the country genre.

"The country world continues to bring up new headliners — Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Eric Church," says Bongiovanni. "Those acts are steadily developing and growing fans."

The concert industry is welcoming an infusion of new blood in the form of relatively green acts such as the Black Keys, LMFAO, Florence & The Machine, and Alabama Shakes. But the king in the new artist category appears to be UK boy band One Direction. Formed in 2010, the teenage quintet is already headlining arenas in major markets such as Los Angeles and New York. "It's amazing how popular that band has become," says Bongiovanni.

Having gestated in the shadows, electronic dance music is poised for a 2012 breakthrough. Demand for Miami's annual Ultra Music Festival in March was so intense that pre-sale tickets sold out within 20 minutes. This weekend's Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas is expected to surpass last year's attendance of 189,000. Fans are also looking forward to festivals such as New York's Camp Bisco Eleven in July, as well as summer shows by Afrojack, Skrillex and Avicii, among others.

All eyes will be on EDM artist Kaskade, whose Freaks of Nature show at L.A.'s Staples Center in August will mark the first time that a solo electronic dance musician will headline the world-famous arena. For his part, Kaskade (real name Ryan Raddon) believes 2012 may be a watershed year for EDM acts.

"With the success of Electric Daisy, more people are noticing it and copying it," the DJ/producer says. "I've probably turned down more festivals this year than I've ever been asked to play. They're just kind of popping up all over the place."

With their hallucinogenic mix of throbbing digital music, carnival rides and costume ball antics, EDM festivals have pretty much become surefire concert best-sellers. Less certain is the appeal of solo EDM shows such as Kaskade's tour. Pasquale Rotella, creator of Electric Daisy and founder and CEO of Insomniac Events, believes EDM solo performances are far from a sure bet.

"Kaskade is a great artist and he makes great music, but finding a seat and watching a DJ twisting knobs — I don't know how that's going to work," says Rotella. "I think it will go well for a while, but I don't think there's longevity in that."

It remains to be seen whether Kaskade's tour will begin a trend of EDM artists becoming household names in their own right, but for now rival promoters are taking notice of this still emerging music genre. With a career stretching nearly 50 years, Hodges witnessed firsthand the emergence of the soul, southern rock and post-punk movements. Increasingly, he is booking EDM acts such as Tiësto, Deadmau5 and Bassnectar.

"In the past, during every one of these changes, you asked yourself, 'Is this lasting? Is this real?'" says Hodges. "Let me tell you … this [EDM] thing is real."

(Bruce Britt is an award-winning journalist and essayist whose work has appeared in The Washington Post, USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, Billboard and other publications. He lives in Los Angeles.)

REZZ Is Ready To Be Seen On New Album: "It Just Feels More Evolved"
REZZ performs at Escape Halloween 2023

Photo: Tessa Paisan

interview

REZZ Is Ready To Be Seen On New Album: "It Just Feels More Evolved"

Electronic producer and DJ REZZ has arrived in a new headspace, but a familiar place. Recorded in her hometown of Toronto, her new album, 'CAN YOU SEE ME?,' is the experimental, sonically far-out result of a much more chill outlook.

GRAMMYs/Mar 13, 2024 - 01:43 pm

REZZ thought she was going to die on her last tour.

The prominent electronic producer and DJ born Isabelle Rezazadeh was traveling through North America in support of her 2022 album, Spiral, when all of a sudden, insomnia reared its ugly head. 

She was sleeping two hours a night at most, which caused severe anxiety that prevented her from eating. But she was forced to repeat the cycle of getting on a plane the next day and playing headlining gigs. It was traumatizing. 

"It makes me laugh all the time because the title of the last album was Spiral, and ironically, I spiraled out of my mind that year," REZZ tells GRAMMY.com. "After I experienced such a terrible time, I really have changed." 

Now REZZ is settled into her hometown of Toronto, truly appreciating the little things in life. Getting a good night’s sleep. Taking a hot shower. Eating a solid breakfast. Most of all, she appreciates having time for her craft. "I am much happier being at home and making music," she says. "I feel normal. Every day is just chill."

In this happy and chill headspace, REZZ made her new album, CAN YOU SEE ME?, out March 14 on her label, HypnoVizion Records. Ironically, the record does not sound chill at all.

Where Spiral was more radio-friendly and featured vocals from pop star Dove Cameron, CAN YOU SEE ME? is decidedly experimental. REZZ buries the melodies underneath gruesome sound design and explores a wide variety of BPMs, combining "a lot of my main inspirations. Fusing bass music with industrial sounds. Mixing crazy noises and crazy rhythms," she says. 

"DYSPHORIA" is a stuttering, slow-moving production that flaunts massive low-end frequencies. REZZ takes the tempo even slower and makes the bass even deeper on "CUT ME OUT"; in an experimental move, she goes double-time into a house music break at the end of the track. 

"The inspiration was super high. [CAN YOU SEE ME?] just feels more evolved," she continues. 

GRAMMY.com spoke to REZZ about how her artistry has evolved on CAN YOU SEE ME?, trusting her fans through this evolution, and how she plans to approach touring to maintain her chill state of mind.

The title of this album is CAN YOU SEE ME? Do you feel like you’re finally being seen as an artist?

That title came from the track on my album, "CAN YOU SEE ME?" I do like that interpretation of it, though. It could be perceived as a flex of "Check this production out. Can you see me now?" I’m super down for it to be perceived that way. 

I really like the music on this album. I think it’s really representative of where I’m at currently with my music production. It really capitalizes on the instrumentation. 

I realized that my favorite music I’ve ever made is definitely instrumental music. Sometimes that type of music isn't the most streamed or the most popular. But for me, to my core, my favorite stuff is instrumental, and I think this album is really reflective of that. 

One key difference between this album and your previous releases is that there are no tracks within the 90–100 BPM range. Why is that tempo absent from this album?

There are no mid-tempo songs on this album in terms of what I'm notorious for: the 85, 90, and 100 BPM range. But what I did try to do was execute some of the feelings of my previous instrumental music. The same feeling, but in a different BPM range; that was really refreshing. With that came some new styles for me. 

But I do think that while there's no particular mid-tempo on the project, I truly believe that my fans are going to connect with it super hard. I don't even think they will notice the difference in terms of the BPM. I think people will be like, This definitely still sounds like her, just a little bit different. A little bit heavier. A little bit darker

I plan to create more stuff that's around the 140–150 BPM range. It's a new pace for me. It allows for new ideas and new arrangements.

My favorite artists are the ones who are so fearless. They'll make whatever they want to make, even if it's the weirdest thing you've ever heard in your entire life. That, to me, is a true artist. I want to continue down that path and make whatever I want.

What song on this album do you think will challenge your fans the most?

Out of all of them, I think "Exorcism" will. I'm stoked, though. I made "Exorcism" with this amazing artist named Kavari. She is insane with her sound design.  

The sound design on "Exorcism" is so out there. It's so ear-catching. It's one of those songs that you almost don't know if you hate it or love it. I don't even know if I can call it a song. I don't know what it is. It's like a terror, horror track. 

Kavari already has the support of Aphex Twin. She's amazing; she's the epitome of artistic integrity. She's up and coming, but I really believe in her project. I feel really lucky to have worked with her in her, I suppose, early-blooming career.

What is it like for you to take younger artists under your wing?

It's awesome. It benefits everyone involved, but I don't care how big or small an artist is. It doesn't matter what their monthly listeners are or how popular or famous, or not famous [they are]. It just matters to me if I like their stuff. 

I love working with newer artists because their drive is so sharp. As an artist, when you start your journey, usually you're so fast. You're so quick. You're responsive. My personality is very much like that. I'm very impatient with making music. I love working with other people who are like that as well. 

I find sometimes, when people have been at it for a really long time, there’s a little bit of laziness going on. They've done it all, so they don't have that same hunger and desire to get the song done.

Deadmau5 took you under his wing; he signed some of your first releases and you produced "Hypnocurrency" together in 2021. Now your collaboration has reached new heights with your shared project, REZZMAU5, which has a song on CAN YOU SEE ME? What has it been like to take your working relationship to the next level?

There are no words. It genuinely is so insane to fathom. I know I've said this a million times in so many interviews about him being the reason that I started. But I really think that should never go unnoticed. 

It's the craziest thing when the reason you started doing something is because of someone that you perceive as a legend. You admire their art so much. Then to have a whole project [with them], it’s unbelievable. 

I remember the first show that we played. We headlined Veld Music Festival in Toronto. When I was 16, I attended that festival. I saw [deadmau5] perform there. It was unbelievable. Very inspiring. To then headline that stage in front of 60,000 people. It's just completely shocking. I cried a little bit in my room before I went on stage because I was just so overwhelmed by emotion.

How has your relationship with deadmau5 changed in terms of making music, if it has changed at all? 

He definitely respects me a lot. He doesn't love a lot of electronic music and a lot of electronic music artists. So it feels really special to me to feel his respect. He definitely cares a lot about my opinions when we're working together.

He's very honest with me, too, which is amazing. If I have an idea that he doesn't like for a track to be included in our set, he'll very quickly tell me, "I don't like this. This is trash." But I really respect the honesty. 

How are you going to approach touring for CAN YOU SEE ME? so that issues like insomnia and anxiety don’t arise?

Well, first of all, there isn't actually going to be a whole album tour. That experience was so traumatizing that I changed the trajectory of my touring. I'm not spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on production. I'm not doing any of that. 

I picked select CAN YOU SEE ME? themed shows, and it's going to be sprinkled throughout the year. There's going to be Red Rocks. There's going to be one in Phoenix, Miami, and New York. But these are all spaced out. It's not within one month. 

For someone else, [a larger tour] would have been easy. But for me, it is what it is. You can change a lot about yourself, but some things are not so natural to be changed.

As the Serenity Prayer goes, "Give us the serenity to accept what cannot be changed, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."

So true. If I had a choice, do I want to love touring all the time? I'd say yes because that would just mean more shows and more success. But I don't have that choice. I prefer to be home. The nature of my being is different. 

It's like forcing an introvert to constantly go to parties every weekend. They don't want to do it. You can't force that. It's going to cause them a lot of damage because they're trying to mold and shape themselves into something that they're not.

It’s impressive that you were able to become more self-aware from that experience.

It’s not always easy to do. Certain circumstances will traumatize you and keep you traumatized for a long time. That's totally understandable. But in my specific case with that experience, I'm so grateful it happened, even though it was single-handedly the worst thing I have ever experienced in my life. 

I felt totally out of control. It felt like something had taken over me that I couldn't fix. Once you experience a situation where your life feels like it’s out of your hands, that's when you get slapped and you realize what's really important. 

So was the new album made after you realized what’s really important?

Absolutely. This album came together very quickly for me. Very effortlessly. There was no strain. There was no stress. There was no overthinking. It was very smooth because my brain had space for it. My brain had the clarity and the vision.

I think that's why I love this album so much, too. It's very representative of where I'm at. It's really high-quality stuff. Being in this headspace has a lot to do with the project and the way it's turned out.

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6 Reasons Why Fred Again.. Was Dance Music's Rookie Of The Year
Fred again...

Photo: Photo by Kieran Frost / Redferns / GettyImages 

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6 Reasons Why Fred Again.. Was Dance Music's Rookie Of The Year

Arguably dance music's buzziest star in 2023, Fred again.. topped off a breakout year with four nominations at the 2024 GRAMMYs, including Best New Artist. Take a look at some of the producer/songwriter's biggest feats that helped him get there.

GRAMMYs/Jan 30, 2024 - 05:06 pm

By any measure, 2023 was a remarkable year for electronic wunderkind Fred again.. Over 12 whirlwind months, the South Londoner born Fred Gibson accelerated himself from hyped producer to top-line artist, packing festival stages and selling out an eight-night Los Angeles residency.

While this explosive success seemed like it happened overnight, the Fred again.. phenomenon began building in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. As dance music continued its evolution away from the more-is-more EDM era, Fred again..'s earnest, deeply personal, yet still danceable productions struck a chord with fans craving connection in lockdown.

In contrast to big-name DJs up high on faraway festival stages, the producer felt endearingly grounded, from the intimacy of his music to the enthusiasm of his social media posts. His polished, wide-ranging sound — which blends influences from pop, UK garage, house, trance, and the post-dubstep of his key influence, Burial — is also deeply rooted in online culture, incorporating snippets and samples taken from FaceTime, YouTube and voice notes.

Fred again..'s reputation as a dance music star for the internet era set the stage for his Boiler Room performance in the summer of 2022, which has racked up 29 million views and climbing. The Boiler Room takeoff was buoyed by his Swedish House Mafia and Future collab, "Turn on the Lights again..," and a host of unreleased heat that materialized on his third album, Actual Life 3.

Building on this powerful momentum, Fred again.. evolved from internet sensation to full-on superstardom in 2023. His year of highs peaked with four nominations at the 2024 GRAMMYs, including the coveted Best New Artist Category — where he's the only dance act.

As Music's Biggest Night draws closer, here are six feats that made Fred again.. dance music's indisputable rookie of the year.

He Found GRAMMYs Glory On His Own Terms

Before breaking out as a solo artist, Fred again.. earned his stripes as a sought-after producer, working alongside everyone from grime luminaries Stormzy and Headie One to pop superstar Ed Sheeran. Fittingly, his first GRAMMY nominations were for work behind-the-scenes on Jayda G's luminescent house anthem "Both Of Us" (Best Dance/Electronic Recording in 2021) and Sheeran's global hit "Bad Habits" (Song Of The Year in 2022).

The 66th Annual GRAMMY Awards mark the first time he's been recognized for his own music. In addition to Best New Artist, the producer is nominated in Best Dance/Electronic Music Album, Actual Life 3 (January 1 – September 9 2022), and twice in Best Dance/Electronic Recordings for the '90s trance-channeling Romy collab, "Strong" and the bass-heavy "Rumble" with longtime collaborator Skrillex and Flowdan

The four nods are a crowning achievement for Fred again.. as a solo artist that recognizes his individual achievements while also celebrating his evergreen talents as a collaborator. 

He Built On Prior Success  

On his first solo album, 2021's Actual Life (April 14 – December 17 2020), Fred again.. reflected the isolation and strangeness of a COVID-19 lockdown by lacing audio clips of his "actual life" into a collage of electronic production. He followed it later that year with Actual Life 2, which used the same format to explore themes of grief and new beginnings with samples collected from his social feeds. 

"Social media is obviously capable of being a really negative thing," he later told NPR. "But it was also very clear to me that it is capable of being a very beautiful thing." 

That year, Fred again.. also released "Marea (We've Lost Dancing)," featuring musings via FaceTime from DJ-producer the Blessed Madonna on the loss of the dance floor community during the pandemic. Distilling the signature Fred again.. joy-meets-melancholy equation into a cathartic house package, the track became an unlikely lockdown anthem. In 2022, Fred again.. made his Coachella debut with a full live show, soundtracking sunset in the Mojave tent for a tightly packed crowd. 

Coming a few months after Coachella, Fred again..'s Boiler Room set — from his hometown of London, no less — was perfectly timed to send him stratospheric. Over a tight hour, his hybrid DJ-live set showcased his next-level skills on the Maschine+ drum machine/sampler and previews of new music that fans cut into clips and dissected online. Throughout it all, the producer projected a beaming, can't-quite-believe-it elation that was hard to resist. 

When Actual Life 3 arrived that October, complete with those Boiler Room highlights, its crowd-pleasing mix of emotion and jump-up energy already had a captive audience who were now desperate to catch Fred again.. live in 2023. 

He Formed An Instantly Iconic DJ Trio

Fred again..'s banner year was turbo-charged by his DJ bromance with brothers-in-bass Skrillex and Four Tet. Cheekily self-coined "the Pangbourne Mafia," a reference to the sleepy English village where they convened to make music, the trio kicked off 2023 with a surprise back-to-back-to-back set in London, and the fun snowballed from there. (As Fred again.. put it in 2022, "Other human beings are infinitely more inspiring than anything else in the world.") 

Following a sold-out show at Madison Square Garden in February 2023, the DJs were called in last-minute to close weekend two of Coachella. For fans who fell in love with Fred again..'s Boiler Room, it was a surreal thrill to hear "Danielle (smile on my face)" and "Delilah (pull me out of this)" ring out across an expansive sea of festival goers. 

He Ticked Major Goals Off His Bucket List

Instead of coasting on the goodwill of his breakout 2022, Fred again.. spent 2023 searching out new challenges and shades to his sound. In March, he teamed up with Irish singer/songwriter Dermot Kennedy (whose soulful croon appeared on the first Actual Life) and legendary lyricist The Streets on the track "Mike (desert island duvet)". 

Fred again.. appeared on NPR's Tiny Desk Concert series in April, which he approached with his customary wide-eyed zeal. The performance of Actual Life cuts featured Fred again.. as a one-man band, jumping between keyboard, vibraphone, marimba, and microphone, while looping his vocals and beats to dazzling effect. 

In May, hot on the heels of that adrenalized Coachella closer, he switched up the pace and released an ambient album, Secret Life, with his musical mentor Brian Eno, who he first met at just 16 years old in Eno's a capella choir group.

He Played His Biggest Live Shows To Date 

Closing Coachella with your best DJ buddies is hard to top, but Fred again.. kept leveling up. In June, he and his onstage partner Tony Friend played to an expanse of revelers on shoulders and waving colorful flags at Glastonbury, which he later called "my favorite show we've ever played". 

From there, he took his well-honed live show across the U.S. and Europe, complete with precisely-cued visuals across a multi-screen setup with LED panels. Instead of jumping from city to city, the producer set up record-breaking residencies in Los Angeles and New York that allowed him to deliver the same highs over multiple nights. 

This summer, he's set to headline Sunday night at Bonnaroo — reportedly his only U.S. festival appearance scheduled for 2024 — followed by select festival dates across Europe and the UK, including the famed Reading and Leeds double-header. 

He Kicked Off A New Musical Era 

In August, Fred again.. released "adore u" with Nigerian artist Obongjayar, describing it on his Soundcloud as "the first song of a whole new world to me". Inspired by the pair's respective siblings, "adore u" arrived as the perfect synthesis of Fred again..'s earnest, open-hearted world view and club-ready instincts. The producer followed "adore u" with the aching house shuffle ''ten," featuring US rapper Jozzy, and the rowdier drum & bass-filled "leavemealone" alongside previous Best New Artist nominee Baby Keem

This trio of 2023 songs reflects a broadening of Fred again..'s sound and influences ahead of his next album project. Whatever highs are yet to come, 2023 will stand as the year that Fred again.. made his own. 

David Guetta Reveals The "Accidents Of Life" That Birthed Hits With Bebe Rexha, Nicki Minaj & More

2023 In Review: 5 Trends That Defined Country Music
(From left) Luke Combs, Morgan Wallen, Dolly Parton, Lainey Wilson, Oliver Anthony

Photos (L-R): Jason Kempin/Getty Images, Astrida Valigorsky/WireImage, Jeffrey Vest/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images, Jason Kempin/Getty Images for BMI, Jason Kempin/Getty Images

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2023 In Review: 5 Trends That Defined Country Music

Between crossover smashes and promising new superstars, country music arguably had its biggest year in over a decade in 2023.

GRAMMYs/Dec 19, 2023 - 09:06 pm

If 2023 wasn't the biggest year ever for mainstream success in country music, it came mighty close.

Across the three major fronts in the music industry — live concerts, music streams and sales, and chart performance — country music reminded audiences why it's a vital American music form and a conversation starter in our culture.

According to Billboard, 48 years have passed since more country artists racked up more No. 1 hits on its all-genre Hot 100 chart. This year saw chart-toppers from record-breaker Morgan Wallen ("Last Night"), established hitmaker Jason Aldean ("Try That in a Small Town"), viral newcomer Oliver Anthony ("Rich Men North of Richmond"), and 2022's big success story, Zach Bryan ("I Remember Everything" featuring Kacey Musgraves). Back in 1975, four country artists and five songs reached the Hot 100's summit: Glen Campbell, B.J. Thomas, Freddy Fender, and two cuts by John Denver.

Meanwhile, more than a dozen country artists landed on the Billboard Year-End Top Artists chart, with Wallen and Luke Combs landing in the top five. In addition, Apple Music named Wallen its top global music artist of 2023.

But enough prelude — let's get down to why the genre has been booming, by tracking the five biggest trends in country music in 2023.

There Was Massive Crossover

Morgan Wallen pulled country music's biggest crossover on the charts, ending the year with five of the top 50 most streamed songs of 2023 on Spotify, as well as 11 of the top 100 songs on Apple Music (all U.S. charts). He landed eight songs on the year-end Billboard Hot 100, including "Last Night," a tale of whisky-fueled love and regret driven by acoustic guitar and  clap-along percussion, which held the top spot for 16 weeks, the most for a non-collaboration song in the chart's 65-year history. It was also the most streamed song on Apple Music globally, contributing to the streaming service naming Wallen its top global music artist of 2023. 

Zach Bryan became the second artist to place at least 18 songs on the Hot 100 chart in the same week when he dropped his self-titled sophomore album in August — second only to Wallen's record of 36 songs, coinciding with the March release of his double-album One Thing at a Time. Zach Bryan is nominated for Best Country Album at the 2024 GRAMMYs, alongside Kelsea Ballerini's Rolling Up The Welcome Mat, Brothers Osborne's Brothers Osborne, Tyler Childers' Rustin' In The Rain, and Lainey Wilson's Bell Bottom Country. (More on Bryan later.)

The Hot 100 further indicated the genre's crossover success in early August, when the top three positions were occupied by country songs:  Jason Aldean's "Try That in a Small Town," Morgan Wallen's "Last Night," and Luke Combs' cover of Tracy Chapman's 1988 classic. Not only was it the first time in history that country songs dominated the first three spots on the all-genre chart, but it also happened two more times on Aug. 26 and Sept. 2. "Last Night" and "Fast Car" also received nominations for the 2024 GRAMMYs; "Last Night" is nominated for Best Country Song at the 2024 GRAMMYs alongside with Brandy Clark's "Buried," Zach Bryan and Kacey Musgraves' "I Remember Everything," Tyler Childers' "In Your Love," and Chris Stapleton's "White Horse," while "Fast Car" is Best Country Solo Performance alongside "White Horse," "Buried," "In Your Love." and Dolly Parton's "The Last Thing on My Mind." 

What's more, two of the eight Best New Artist nominees at the 2024 GRAMMYs are country acts, "Son of a Sinner" star Jelly Roll and soulful husband-and-wife duo The War and Treaty. They're nominated alongside Gracie Abrams, Fred again.., Ice Spice, Coco Jones, Noah Kahan and Victoria Monét.

Lainey Wilson celebrated a banner crossover year both in music and television. Along with parlaying the hit Paramount series "Yellowstone" into more exposure for her music, she became the first female artist in history to have four No. 1 hits on country radio in a calendar year thanks to "Heart Like A Truck," "Wait in the Truck" with HARDY, "Watermelon Moonshine" and "Save Me" with Jelly Roll — all of which cracked the top 30 of the all-genre Hot 100.

Several Musicians Court Controversy

Historically, popular country music tends to revolve around themes often imbued with imagery and anecdotes from small-town American life, from love won and lost to simply having a good time. But in 2023, politics infiltrated country music in a more mainstream way than perhaps ever before — even prompting Maren Morris to declare she was leaving country music. "I thought I'd like to burn it to the ground and start over," Morris told the Los Angeles Times in September. "But it's burning itself down without my help."

Jason Aldean's single "Try That in a Small Town" didn't cause much of a ruckus when it dropped in May, but the promotional video for the song, released in July, certainly kicked a hornet's nest of dissatisfaction. The lyrics begin with a carjacking and a robbery, then confront advocates of gun control and flex how "good ol' boys, raised up right" will step up to defend their own. The song "refers to the feeling of a community that I had growing up," Aldean wrote on Twitter, "where we took care of our neighbors, regardless of differences of background or belief."

But if he was only looking to reboot the s—-kickin' country-boy theme of Hank Williams Jr's 1981 song "A Country Boy Can Survive," he lost the plot with the video. The clip intersperses shots of Aldean and his band performing with footage of riots and destruction reminiscent of the 2020 racial protests sparked by the deaths of Elijah McClain, Breona Taylor, George Floyd and others by police force. And the filming location, the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee — site of the 1927 lynching of an 18-year-old Black man by a white mob — only stoked tensions. The controversy eventually dimmed, but not before the song hit No. 1 on the Hot 100.

Just three days after Aldean's song reached the top, a folk song by an unknown artist with no previous history in the music business hit YouTube and spread like wildfire. "Rich Men North of Richmond," written and performed by Oliver Anthony, sparked a controversy of its own for a handful of lyrics shaming "obese welfare" recipients amid righteous blue-collar anger directed at politicians who are out of touch with the working class. 

Conservative audiences latched onto the song, and it even made an appearance at the Republican presidential debate on August 23, three days before it claimed the No. 1 spot on the Hot 100 that Aldean held just a few weeks earlier. In response, Anthony chastised the right-wingers who thought he was one of them, as well as critics on the left whom he felt mischaracterized his words. "That song is written about the people on that stage — and a lot more, too," he said in a 10-minute video posted to YouTube.

Country Icons Were Saluted

Country music has seen its share of memorable covers in more recent years, from Johnny Cash's iconic version of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" to Sturgill Simpson's take on the Nirvana classic "In Bloom." But the practice reached a new peak in 2023 thanks to performances and recordings from present-day and legacy stars alike.

Nashville hitmaker Luke Combs channeled his love for Tracy Chapman's 1988 hit "Fast Car" into a faithful cover on his 2023 album Gettin' Old. Combs's version reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 (Chapman's original peaked at No. 6) and has been certified double Platinum by the RIAA, in addition to winning both Single of the Year and Song of the Year at the Country Music Association awards—making Chapman the first Black woman to ever win a CMA trophy.

After Dolly Parton was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022, she took her honor quite literally. Parton collaborated with artists ranging from Judas Priest shrieker Rob Halford to Pink and Elton John on 30 recordings, including massive hits like "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and "Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me." The album's first single, the original composition "World On Fire," reached No. 1 on Billboard's Rock Digital Song Sales chart.

Parton also turned up on A Tribute to The Judds, another star-studded covers album, performing "Mama He's Crazy" with Lainey Wilson. Spearheaded by Wynonna Judd in tribute to her mother Naomi, her partner in the duo from 1983 until her death in April 2022, the album brings together some of country music's biggest names on 14 classics from the legendary group. Evergreen it-couple Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton take on "Love Is Alive," while Jelly Roll, K. Michelle and the Fisk Jubilee Singers perform "Love Can Build a Bridge." The album also features Reba McEntire, Carly Pearce, Jennifer Nettles and Gabby Barrett on a rendition of "Girls Night Out."

Even the Rolling Stones dabbled in the country world this year — well, sort of. The 14-song tribute album Stoned Cold Country features Eric Church on a properly sixties-sounding "Gimme Shelter," Elle King on a faithful version of "Tumbling Dice" embellished with pedal steel guitar flourishes, and guitar hero Marcus King performing the Sticky Fingers deep cut "Can't You Hear Me Knocking." Elsewhere, Brothers Osborne join The War and Treaty on a particularly soulful recording of "It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)," and artists like Ashley McBryde, Brooks & Dunn and Maren Morris put their spin on their favorite Stones tunes.

Alt-Country Blew Up

Call it Americana, alt-country, singer/songwriter country — but the subgenre rooted in artists like Gram Parsons, John Prine and Lucinda Williams has evolved from its days as an influential side attraction to a force impacting charts, sales and box office receipts. In 2023, artists from what was once the fringes of mainstream country music showed how much they're really part of the fabric of the genre.

No artist exemplifies this surge more than Zach Bryan, who parlayed his successes in 2022 into an even bigger 2023, topping the Hot 100 and Billboard 200 albums chart for the first time, and headlining a sold-out arena tour. Folk-pop singer/songwriter Noah Kahan, who joined Bryan for the song "Sarah's Place" on Bryan's Boys of Faith EP, also found major success with songs originally performed for his 2022 album Stick Season, including a duet with Kacey Musgraves on "She Calls Me Back," released in October. 

The War and Treaty fuse gospel and soul influences with alt-country on "Blank Page" from the 2023 album Lover's Game, which picked up a nomination for the Best American Roots Song GRAMMY (competing against "California Sober" by Billy Strings Featuring Willie Nelson, "Cast Iron Skillet" by Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit, "Dear Insecurity" by Brandy Clark Featuring Brandi Carlile, and "The Returner" by Allison Russell). The husband-and-wife duo Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Trotter scored soulful hits with "That's How Love Is Made," as well as their own team-up with Zach Bryan on "Hey Driver," which peaked at No. 14 on the Hot 100 and No. 5 on the Hot Country Songs chart.

The return of Oklahoma sextet Turnpike Troubadours generated excitement from Texas to Tennessee and beyond, as the band headlined arenas and amphitheaters like Red Rocks in Colorado and L.A.'s Greek Theatre, plus a three-night stand in Boston. Frontman Evan Felker split the fold in 2019 but returned two years later, culminating in the release of A Cat in the Rain, their sixth album for their independent imprint Bossier City Records, in August 2023.

Collaborations Were Abundant

Covers weren't the only way that collaborations flourished in country music this year. In fact, only one nominee in the Best Country Duo/Group Performance category at the 66th GRAMMY Awards is an actual full-time group — that's Brothers Osborne, who is nominated alongside pairings of Dierks Bentley and Billy Strings ("High Note"), Zach Bryan and Kacey Musgraves ("I Remember Everything"), Vince Gill and Paul Franklin ("Kissing Your Picture (Is So Cold)"), Jelly Roll and Lainey Wilson ("Save Me"), and Carly Pearce and Chris Stapleton ("We Don't Fight Anymore"). That's just how popular artist features have become in country music.

But those are far from the only artist collaborations that made an impression. Jelly Roll also joined Dustin Lynch on "Chevrolet," while Miranda Lambert and Leon Bridges sang "If You Were Mine," a slow-rolling soul-country single. "Thank God," a duet recorded by Kane Brown and his wife, Katelyn, reached No. 13 on the Hot 100 and No. 1 on Country Airplay, only the second time a duet by a married couple reached the top (after Tim McGraw and Faith Hill's "It's Your Love" in 1997). 

Super-producer Diplo leaned into his Mississippi and Florida roots on Diplo Presents Thomas Wesley, Chapter 2 — Swamp Savant, his second collaborations album with country and hip-hop artists; "Heartbroken," an acoustic guitar-driven country-pop song featuring Jessie Murph and Polo G, reached the top 20 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart. Murph's own duet with Jelly Roll, "Wild Ones," made its mark on the same chart while notching No. 1 on the iTunes Top 200 Songs chart." 

Country music awards shows celebrated the art of the collaboration with viral crossover moments this year as well. Buzzing female country stars Ingrid Andress, Morgan Wade, Lainey Wilson and Madeline Edwards joined Alanis Morissette to perform her '90s alt-rock hit "You Oughta Know" at the CMT Awards; Ed Sheeran and Luke Combs dueted on "Life Goes On" at the ACMs; and Morgan Wallen, HARDY and Post Malone paid tribute to Joe Diffie at the CMAs by taking on his 1993 hit "John Deere Green."

Will country music continue to surge in 2024? If the chart stats, stadium tours and star-studded collaborations are any indication, it's certainly not slowing down.

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How Singer/Songwriter Camden Cox Brings Lyrical Integrity To Dance Music
Camden Cox

Photo: Jeff Spicer / Stringer / Getty Images

interview

How Singer/Songwriter Camden Cox Brings Lyrical Integrity To Dance Music

The multi-hyphenate has worked with some of dance music’s biggest acts — including John Summit, deadmau5 and Kaskade — and is on a mission to "write from the soul" in a genre where lyrical depth is often underappreciated.

GRAMMYs/Dec 15, 2023 - 04:24 pm

Underneath much of dance music’s beat- and melody-driven landscape is shallow lyrical content — unless Camden Cox is holding the pen. 

The 30-year-old singer/songwriter’s philosophy — write not just from the heart, but also from the soul — is a defining aspect of her fan-first artistic identity.  This deeply personal creative process has also enabled her to transcend the genre’s vacuous, garden-variety lyricism. 

Cox’s voice quivers as she recalls the start of the songwriting session that would spawn John Summit’s "Where You Are," a song that embodies this ethos. "I was going through a breakup and I was wondering if they were thinking about me as much as I was thinking about them. I take myself back to that moment and I get emotional talking about it," she says. "I just love putting emotions into my lyrics — it’s such an incredible feeling."

"Where You Are" is not the only dance/electronic consensus hit to which Cox lent her lyrical muscle this year. The British songstress also co-wrote "Escape," the single with which  Kaskade and deadmau5 debuted their joint project, Kx5, in 2022. Penned by Cox, Hayla (who vocalizes its ruminative lyrics), Eddie Jenkins, and Will Clarke, the song was released on Kx5’s eponymous LP, which has been nominated for Best Dance/Electronic Music Album at the 2024 GRAMMYs. Fellow nominees in the category are Playing Robots Into Heaven from James Blake, the Chemical Brothers' For That Beautiful Feeling, Skrillex's Quest For Fire, and Fred again..'s Actual Life 3 (January 1 - September 9 2022)

Beyond her indomitable collection of writing credits for esteemed producers like Eli & Fur and Dombresky is a repertoire of work that’s entirely her own. Cox's recent work includes a solo single, October’s "Touching Me," and a just-dropped collab with Summit and Mathame called "Hungover" in which Cox is the featured singer.

In an interview with GRAMMY.com, Cox details her refusal to write anything "half-ass," subverting dance’s often tepid interest in lyrics, and how her time behind the decks has informed her approach to singing, songwriting, and DJing.

"Escape" and "Where You Are" were two of the biggest dance records this year. What about these songs caused them to skyrocket?

We followed the same formula. We wrote "Escape," and we had no idea that deadmau5 or Kaskade were going to get their hands on it. It was just a normal, ordinary session. 

We wrote this song, knew it was amazing, and then nothing happened with it for a year or two. Then, all of a sudden, I heard this random demo from deadmau5; he'd done a version of it. Once Kaskade got involved, they revamped the whole song. 

John Summit heard it and absolutely loved it; he was playing it out everywhere and he also did the official remix for it. His team reached out to us and said, "Can you write something similar?"

Deadmau5 has been an incredible influence on you, how did the song find its way to him?

Eddie Jenkins also wrote both of these songs with Hayla, and his management knew deadmau5’s management. He sent the song to deadmau5 and was like, "Hey, this your comeback, I think." It wasn't very deadmau5 [at that point]; it was a lot darker and a lot more progressive. 

I've based my entire sound and influence around that [deadmau5 type of] sound...It was so validating because I spent my entire career, my childhood, and my teens listening to Random Album Title by deadmau5. As a writer, you write what you are inspired by because it's just in your blood, in your mind, in your soul. 

So, it goes to show how much I did listen to Kaskade and deadmau5 to be able to get a song to them, however many years later. 

There will always be a place for beat-driven tunes in dance, but do you also get the sense that people are looking for a little more emotional resonance from dance music now?

Yeah. What I love about these two records is they can be stripped to piano and they're literally like ballads. They're so meaningful and they’re so from the heart. We wrote them with absolute integrity — they’re not just something you throw away. 

When  you do these sessions where the writing just takes more time and effort, it's so worth it when you get the final outcome. I think people love that because you not only can rave to it, but you can cry to it as well.

How do you balance your lyric-forward approach in a genre where lyrics aren’t always as appreciated as they are in other genres?

It's such a tricky one because I've been in sessions where the songwriters have been like, "It doesn't matter what the lyrics are as long as the melody is good," but lyrics are my thing. I love writing lyrics. I always dig deep and take my time. I’ll have rhyming dictionaries open; it's an operation for me. 

Even though lyrics can take a backseat, I don't let that affect the way I write. Even if people don't listen, I'm still going to write it from the soul, because you will get those musical people that want to break it down and hear the story, and they're the people who are really going to appreciate it. If one person can listen and appreciate it, that's good enough for me.

Do you often find yourself pushing back in these situations?

As I've grown in confidence and experience, I push back more and more. Whereas a lot of producers will say "Oh no, this is fine," I'll say, "No, I've heard it before." I've heard it a million times and I want it to mean something to me and to whoever gets to listen. Eventually, they just give in because they know that I'm not going to settle. So, I'll hone in on the lyrics, and then I'll send them a new version with better lyrical content.

You grew up in a very musical home; your dad loved rock and your mom, drum ‘n’ bass. How you made your way to dance music is clear, but what’s kept you here?

It's the one genre I just don't ever get bored of it. It's in my blood; I grew up on drum ‘n’ bass music, so I just love heavy, heavy beats and big basslines. As a little girl, I used to prance around singing along to the Prodigy and stuff like that, so it's in my soul.

I find that dance music is the most timeless genre. Pop is pop, and you’re always going to get songs that stick around for years, but those dance tunes that came out 20, 30 years ago that are absolute classics. In the dance world, when a song hits, it will stay with ravers forever, and I just think there's something really special in that. I listen to dance in my spare time when I'm not even working or writing. All I really listen to is dance. 

You used to start your songs as poems. Tell me how that started; did you read a lot of poetry when you were younger?

I didn't read it, but when I first started writing, I struggled with lyrics. I remember the first song I wrote. I said to my mom, "Can you write me a poem and I'll make it into a song?" And she did. Then I asked my dad, and he did the same thing. I made them into a song, and that unlocked a part of my brain. After that, I just started writing the poetry. 

Now, the melodies usually come before the lyrics, but if I have a sentence or something in my head that I think is really inspiring, I'll write it down. I never go full poems anymore. I go for a quote, for example. I recently found one, something "like remember when this all seemed impossible?" and I had a session with John Summit and I was like, "I wanna write that concept." So, I went in and sang something to those words. There’s no rules, and that’s what I love about it.

You’ve said you’ll often go into the studio and freestyle since the first take is often the best. 

It's my favorite way to write. When I freestyle, I always do it with a handheld mic, because I just feel like I can be a bit freer; I can walk around, I can sit down. The trick is to put autotune on pretty full blast, with loads of nice reverb and delays and compression, so it almost sounds ready when you hear it back. 

It'll all be a bit messy, but then you'll hear it back with the tuning on and you're like, Yeah, that's what I was trying to do. I just love working like that. I find it the most creative and the most productive because you come out with so much stuff and then you just narrow it down until you get the best three sections.

Learning how to DJ has to be transformative when it comes to conceptualizing new songs.

It’s helped me even further. Now being the one in control of the decks and understanding what keeps a crowd has unlocked a whole new world. It's crazy because I thought I knew everything that you could know about dance music — I grew up on it, I write it, I live and breathe it — but there's a whole other perception with DJing, and it's really helped me with my writing.

It's also hard to get a booking as a singer on a dance song. One of the reasons why I wanted to start DJing was because I knew I could probably get some bookings out of it. Two was because I'm writing all these dance songs, and all these DJs are playing them out and no one knows I've written them. I just wanted to get behind the decks and play my portfolio. It's opened up a whole new fan base for me.

Speaking of, you recently wrapped your first residency in Ibiza. How was that?

I go to Ibiza every year anyway, being a dance head, and I've been to all the clubs. I've gone and watched my songs being played out, but I just never envisioned myself doing it. And then this year, all these bookings flooded in because I started DJing. 

I've only been DJing for a year and a half, but because I had already made a bit of a name for myself in the dance world as a singer when people started to realize I was DJing, I was getting bookings a bit easier. I started suddenly seeing my name on some posters and it all became very real. 

I had the time in my life, but I also did find it very exhausting because there's so much traveling. Tour life is actually quite hectic, and it really hit me, but it was also very incredible and such a learning curve. Each gig, you learn something. 

Now that you’re doing the singing, the songwriting, and the DJing, how do you find balance? 

I'm a machine. I think I'm a bit of a workaholic because I just love it so much. I genuinely know how lucky I am that I get to do what I love for a living. But I found the more gigs I did, the more traveling I did, I knew that as much as I wanted to be in the studio — and I was getting offered good sessions — I'd have to turn them down because I knew I'd need a couple of days to recover. 

I did my last show, and it felt so fulfilling. Now, I'm back in the studio, and I built up so much inspiration over the summer because I couldn't write as much as I wanted to, so I was bursting at the seams. I'm going like 100 miles an hour right now, writing five days a week. I'll be doing this until I burn out.

Given that you’ve been writing so frequently, what has the process of shaping your musical identity been like these days?

I feel like I'm starting to find a few identities in my writing. There's a darkness to what I'm writing, but there's a good balance between brightness and darkness, as in this raw emotion that will come out in a really pretty melody. I'm good at finding that balance where you could cry and dance to it. 

Thinking about how this relates to your music, where do you hope to take your artist project next?

Getting nominated for a GRAMMY for something of my own is the dream. Getting nominated as a writer is such a big tick for me. So now, I want to aim for the next level, which is maybe getting nominated for something that I'm singing on, and eventually getting nominated for a GRAMMY for something that is just mine.

I've also got some really exciting collabs coming up. Me and John [Summit] have a song coming out together in two weeks. Right now, I'm establishing myself in London, in the UK a little bit, but it just takes a lot of time. 

Some people have one song and then that's it — they're blowing up in the charts. It's not happened like that for me; I've been working away behind the scenes. I'm just hoping that through some collaborations, I will be introduced to new audiences who will then discover my music, which will allow me to keep releasing.

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