People will say, “They don’t make good country music anymore,” despite the long list of artists taking the genre back to its roots. While hearing the sentiment countless times can make it irritating, it’s not hard to see where those people are coming from. After all, so many songs that don’t sound like they fit the genre become huge hits on the country charts.
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The songs listed below were hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs or Country Airplay charts. However, if we’re all being honest, they don’t sound like country songs. That’s not to say that they’re not good tunes. They just don’t fit the mold of the genre.
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1. “No One Else on Earth” by Wynonna Judd
Written by Jill Colucci and Stewart Harris, Wynonna Judd released “No One Else on Earth” as the third single from her self-titled debut album in 1992. It was a massive hit, topping the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart for four weeks.
Wynonna Judd is a legend as a solo artist or as part of The Judds. At the same time, “No One Else on Earth” is a great song. However, if you showed it to someone who had never heard of Judd and didn’t know it was a huge country hit, they’d probably think it was one of the many pop-rock songs from the late 1980s and 1990s.
2. “Dirt Road Anthem” by Jason Aldean
Brantley Gilbert and Colt Ford wrote “Dirt Road Anthem,” and both artists released a version of it. Then, Jason Aldean recorded it for his 2010 album My Kinda Party. He released it as the third single from the album in 2011. The song became Aldean’s sixth No. 1 country hit and was his first top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.
If you ignore lines like Yeah, I’m chillin’ on a dirt road / Laid back swervin’ like I’m George Jones, this song’s chorus almost sounds like a country song. Then, the verse comes in, and Aldean starts rapping.
3. “Cruise” by Florida Georgia Line
Florida Georgia Line first released “Cruise” on their EP, It’z Just What We Do. Then, they released it on their debut album Here’s to the Good Times. It was a huge hit, topping the Hot Country Songs chart for a total of 34 weeks. It also became the best-selling digital song from a country artist.
“Cruise,” like the countless bro-country songs it helped spawn, sounds more like a cross between radio-friendly rock and hip-hop. The well-worn topics of back roads, jacked-up trucks, girls, and booze, combined with the banjo, were the only things to make this song sound remotely country.
4. “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” by Mark Chesnutt
Mark Chesnutt is a neotraditional country singer who released several hit songs in the 1990s. His certified bangers include “Bubba Shot the Jukebox,” “Too Cold at Home,” “Goin’ Through the Big D,” and “Brother Jukebox.” However, his biggest hit was a cover of the Aerosmith power ballad, “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing.” It topped the country chart for two weeks and peaked at No. 17 on the Hot 100.
This piano ballad with its lush string arrangements doesn’t sound much like country music, even when compared to the Nashville Sound-style recordings of the 1950s and 1960s. This is especially true when you compare it to the rest of Chesnutt’s honky tonk-leaning output. It’s no surprise that he regretted recording it, even if it was a huge hit.
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