2024's Top 40 Country Songs Prove Country Music Is in Good Hands

The top country songs of 2024 prove that country music — especially traditional country music — is in very good hands.

A full 25 percent of the Top 40 songs from this year are by artists who've never appeared on charts and year-end lists previously. Several — like Zach Top and Ella Langley — give hope for generations that wish people could just get back to singing about three chords and the truth.

Find the list below, but first, some stats about country music in 2024:

As of Dec. 5, only five songs have hit No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart, which includes sales, streaming and radio airplay data.
Shaboozey's "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" has spent the most weeks (24) at the top of that chart.
There have been 25 different No. 1 songs on the country airplay chart, led by Nate Smith's "World on Fire," which started 2024 by spending eight straight weeks at No. 1.

Having a viral dance trend helps a girl (or guy) out, but the No. 1 song is a weeper from a man who's unlikely to ever dance, proving that all rules get tossed in favor of a great country song.

As you'd expect, there are many collaborations (13) on this list, and more interpolations (3) than ever before. Good ol', straight-forward country music still sells, however — in fact, three of our Top 5 feature little more than a man with his guitar!

Sales and streaming data helped shape this annual list of the top country songs. In 2024, staff and reader opinion matter as much as ever, but notable live performances can also aide a singer in a charge to No. 1. It certainly helped Brooks & Dunn and Jelly Roll out.

The Top 40 Country Songs of 2024, Ranked

New country artists and traditionalists rule this Top Country Songs of 2024 list.

Zach Top and Ella Langley are newcomers that purists may enjoy, while fans of more progressive country music will appreciate Jelly Roll, Post Malone and Shaboozey.

Airplay charts, sales data and streaming numbers helped make this list of country music's Top 40 songs of 2024, but staff and Taste of Country reader opinion were also influential.

Songs included on our previous Top Country Songs lists were not eligible.

Gallery Credit: Billy Dukes

See the Most Played Country Song from the Year You Were Born

Who had the most played country song during the year you were born? This list is a fascinating time capsule of prevalent trends from every decade in American history. Scroll through to find your birth year and then click to listen. Some of these songs have been lost through the years, many of them for good reason!

Men named Hank dominated early before stars like Freddie Hart, Ronnie Milsap, Willie Nelson Clint Black took over to close the 1980s. More recently it's been Tim Mcgraw, Rodney Atkins, Kane Brown and Morgan Wallen. Did the most-played country song from the year you were born become a favorite of yours later? All info comes from Billboard's country airplay charts.

Gallery Credit: Billy Dukes

Source: The Top 40 Country Songs of 2024 Prove Real Country Music Is in Good Hands

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