2024 is a big year for country music. A few months after the unmissable Cowboy Carter Beyoncé, here is another big champion of the charts, Post Malone, who has also released an album drawing on this musical heritage, F1 Trillionreleased Friday. What’s happening in cowboy country?
We’ve been reading and hearing everywhere since spring that Post Malone would be taking a country turn on his new album. We’ve seen him more than once since then wearing a Stetson, a legendary hat model that many Nashville stars have nevertheless put away in favor of a good old baseball cap. He’s also shown his ties to the cream of guitar-playing cowboys by releasing duets with Morgan Wallen, Blake Shelton and Luke Combs.
It would be easy to conclude that this is all a bit of a set-up with the views guy and that Post Malone, who made his name with a trap style that slid into pop, is only flirting with country cosmetically because the genre is on the rise. It’s true that Tennessee’s iconic style is more popular than ever. It may also be true that, in strictly musical terms, Post Malone hasn’t become all that country.
Now, one thing is for sure: the musician born Austin Richard Post and raised in Texas has had this music in his veins for a while. A recording from 2021 of him singing two country songs, including I’m Gonna Miss Her by Brad Paisley. Which won’t surprise those who have been following him for a long time, by the way.
“Post Malone is known for always having loved country music, he often covers country songs in his shows,” says Audray Johnson, programming coordinator at evenko, producer of the Lasso festival, currently taking place at Parc Jean-Drapeau. She was at the Stagecoach festival in April, where the heavily tattooed singer performed a country song tour, covering songs by Vince Gill, Tim McGraw, Toby Keith and Alan Jackson. It was at the same festival that he joined Morgan Wallen on stage to unveil the duo I Need Some Help.
Borders are falling
Post Malone’s interest in country music is indicative of the music’s place in American culture, according to Audray Johnson. “I think the reality is that a lot of people have always loved country music, but they didn’t embrace it because it’s a genre that was snubbed,” she says, speaking as much about the genre’s fans as the artists.
The country scene has also been snobbish in its own way in recent years. The song Old Town Road Lil Nas X’s “The Last of Us” climbed Billboard’s country chart in 2019 before being kicked off the chart for not fitting the genre well enough.
Beyoncé says she felt unwelcome when she performed her song Daddy Lesson at the Country Music Awards with The Chicks in 2016. The underlying racism of the scene was also brought up in both cases.
A few years later, the boundaries seem more porous. “We are witnessing the end of musical genres,” thinks Louis Bellavance, programming director of the Festival d’été de Québec, where Post Malone sang earlier this summer.
A double movement would be at work: country artists turning to pop and pop artists turning to country.
Post Malone’s new album is, in his view, a pop album first. Nor does he expect this “country shift” to be permanent. “I think he’s just going to merge that and move on,” says Louis Bellavance. “I don’t expect him to make another country record in three years.”
New country and unifying rhythm
The style of country music that has been all the rage in recent years is not a pure form. What is called “new country” is often folk or rock with pop and country accents. A style of music adjacent to country, in short. power ballads Luke Combs’ Ageless is a good example.
And here we are: the essentials heard on Friday, the day the album was released. F1 Trillion by Post Malone, is part of this lineage.
Wrong Ones (with Tim McGraw), the first song on the album, asserts its country identity with banjo, mandolin and stretched notes characteristic of the genre. What is the most country on Finer Thingsthe one that follows is the nasal singing of Hank Williams Jr. The rest is in keeping: pieces with strong pop accents, unstoppable melodies and, above all, choruses as big as that, calibrated to make arenas sing.
This is no coincidence. “It’s music based on the idea of getting together and having a good time with friends or family,” says Audray Johnson. “It contributes to this breaking down of barriers.” The new wave of country artists is playing nothing more or less than the role that rock has long played, adds Louis Bellavance.
“There’s a whole generation that needs unifying anthems, the energy of bands like Def Leppard or Bon Jovi,” he says. “We’ve been saying for 15 years that rock is dying. It’s not dead, it’s just gone somewhere else. It’s put on a country hat.”
Country pop
F1 Trillion
Post Malone
Republic Records/Universal
Hot prints of F1 Trillion
A real singer
Known for his sometimes very marked use ofautotunePost Malone shows throughout his album that he is a damn good singer. His voice is full of soul, powerful, and often touching, like here on Wrong Ones.
No magic with Dolly
One of the great blows of F1 Trillion is to feature duets with just about everything that matters in Nashville. The initial impetus for Have the Heartperformed with the wig-wearing legend Dolly Parton, unfortunately runs out of steam very quickly…
A hit in the making
Built around metaphors of car and road, Nosedive is one of the pieces de resistance of F1 Trillion and a hit in the making. Which is good for both Post Malone and Lainey Wilson, the rising star of country since her song Heart Like a Truck.
Excerpt from Nosedivewith Lainey Wilson
A little humor…
In country music, people drink a lot to forget their troubles. MEXICOPost Malone has fun telling the adventures of a guy who has to go on the run after having notably hit on the daughter of a diplomat with a long arm and almost married the blonde of a gangster in Vegas. With guitarist Billy Strings.
…and a lot of tenderness
Post Malone recently said that the birth of his daughter saved his life, when he was on a downward slope. She is still small, but he already imagines the day when she will marry in Yoursa predictable song, but well-turned, in which he puts all his fatherly tenderness.