Many regard the music that came out of Nashville in the ’90s as the genre’s finest hour. Tracy Lawrence was certainly at the forefront of that. The Texas-born artist, now 57, racked up multiple chart-topping hits at the turn of the millennium, including “Alibis” and “If the Good Die Young.” Now, with social media platforms like TikTok renewing interest in this particular country music era, Lawrence believes the ’90s will come to define the genre for years.
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“It’s amazing to me how it’s transcended this new generation, too,” he said during a recent appearance on the Whiskey Riff Raff podcast. “There’s a lot of young people that are really getting into traditional country.”
Then Lawrence made a bold claim. “I’ve always looked at the ’90s like, our era is going to be what classic rock is to the rock and roll format,” he said. “It’s kind of going to be the go-to era.”
How The ’90s Changed Country Music Forever
1989 saw the debut of four country stars who would lay the foundation for the next decade— Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Clint Black, and Travis Tritt. These artists helped spearhead a movement back to the genre’s roots, serving as an antidote to the “authenticity crisis” wrought by the crossover hits of the late ’70s and early ’80s.
“The ’90s, man, there was just such great diversity and great personality with the artists,” Tracy Lawrence said. “I thought the music was phenomenal. The production levels were changing as we moved from analog into the digital world and into ProTools.
[RELATED: ’90s Country Mainstay Tracy Lawrence Joins the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame]
The Modern-Day Artist Giving Tracy Lawrence Hope
The recent emergence of Zach Top has heartened many a country music traditionalist. Arriving in January 2024, his debut single “Sounds Like the Radio” is a love letter to ’90s country music.
Last month, Tracy Lawrence took to social media to praise Top for his first-ever No. 1 hit, “I Never Lie.” The “Find Out Who Your Friends Are” crooner shared a photo of himself performing in the ’90s alongside a current picture of Top. Admittedly, the similarities were striking.
“Keep bringing that 90’s sound back!!” Lawrence wrote.
Shouting out Top during his podcast appearance, Lawrence said he was happy to see him and other emerging country artists moving away from pop-country to the tried-and-true ’90s format. “I like the old honky-tonk stuff, myself,” he said.
Featured image by Daniel DeSlover/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
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