Breaking Down The Problems With Billboard’s List Of Top Country Artists Of The 21st Century

Where to even start with this one…

Over the past few days, Billboard has been releasing their recaps of the charts from the first quarter of the 21st century. (Hard to believe that we’re already 25 years into the 2000s…I still remember freaking out over the world ending on Y2K).

One of the first country charts Billboard released was their chart of top country artists of the 21st century. And man, is it a doozy…

Now I know the list is based on chart rankings, taking into account performance on the weekly Top Country Albums and Hot Country Songs charts from the start of 2000 through the end of 2024. But looking at the chart, it’s clear that numbers don’t tell the full story.

Let’s look at the top 25:

1. Kenny Chesney
2. Tim McGraw
3. Taylor Swift
4. Toby Keith
5. Keith Urban
6. Rascal Flatts
7. Luke Combs
8. Jason Aldean
9. Blake Shelton
10. Carrie Underwood
11. Morgan Wallen
12. Luke Bryan
13. George Strait
14. Brad Paisley
15. Alan Jackson
16. Chris Stapleton
17. Zac Brown Band
18. Florida Georgia Line
19. Lady A
20. Dierks Bentley
21. Miranda Lambert
22. Eric Church
23. Thomas Rhett
24. Brooks & Dunn
25. Sugarland

First of all, no disrespect to Kenny Chesney. He’s obviously one of the biggest country artists of the past two decades and deserving of a spot on the list. But bigger than George Strait? Alan Jackson? I understand that we’re looking at chart performance, and those two legends aren’t releasing as much music or on the radio as much as they were earlier in their careers. But to me, that shows a massive problem with the methodology, because George Strait is still selling out stadiums and setting attendance records, while Alan recently wrapped up a sold-out final tour.

It’s also kinda surprising to see Tim McGraw at #2. Maybe it just seems like most of his biggest songs came in the ’90s, but I honestly can’t remember the last big hit he had on the radio. Maybe “Humble and Kind” a decade or so ago?

Then you have Rascal Flatts inexplicably at #6, over names like Luke Bryan (who, love him or hate him, has been one of the biggest stars in country music for the entirety of the last 25 years), Chris Stapleton and even Miranda Lambert, who is somehow at #21 on the list.

The most glaring problem, though, is that Taylor Swift is included on the list at #3. Of course Taylor got her start in country music, but she didn’t stick around long and most of her major success has come as a pop artist. Are they only counting her country albums, or is she getting credit for her success on the pop charts too? Either way, to say that Taylor Swift is a bigger country artist than George Strait, Alan Jackson, Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert…it’s undeniable that she’s a bigger star, but is she a bigger country artist? That’s a tough pill to swallow.

As you get further down the list, there are some artists who are clearly bolstered by their success early in the 2000s. Lady A hasn’t been relevant for a decade, and Brad Paisley has fallen off hard after dominating early in the 2000s. Sugarland, meanwhile, rounds out the top 25 despite going on hiatus in 2012 and not really having much success with their first album after reuniting, which was released in 2018 and only charted one single inside the top 20.

But then there are guys like Eric Church and Dierks Bentley, who have been around for two decades and are still at the top of their game, and they’re somehow behind artists who are either much newer, or who haven’t had nearly the sustained success.

And Brooks & Dunn at 24? Give me a break.

Overall it’s an interesting list, but the methodology seems horribly flawed by only taking into account positions on the Billboard albums and Hot Country Songs charts. We all know what happened in the mid-2000s when streaming became popular and album sales fell off. Since then, touring has become the main source of revenue for an artist, and seems to be a much better indicator of an artist’s actual popularity – something that’s completely ignored in this ranking.

The chart also seems to reward artists for the volume of music they release versus the quality or passion from fans that surrounds it. Eric Church has only released 8 albums in his career (and one of those was his Heart & Soul triple album), while Kenny Chesney has released 11 in that same time period.

Also we have to address the elephant in the room: We all know that the charts are easily manipulated. Labels push a song to number one just so their artist can say their song was a #1 hit, and then it’s on to pushing another one. An artist who is more willing to do promotion for radio stations is more likely to get their song played, resulting in higher chart positions than one who doesn’t play the game. That’s just how it works.

Like I said, it’s an interesting list, but it seems like we could come up with a better list of the actual top artists of the 21st century so far…and maybe sometime soon we’ll do just that.The post Breaking Down The Problems With Billboard’s List Of Top Country Artists Of The 21st Century first appeared on Whiskey Riff.