Country music has been a staple in the U.S. ever since it was popularized in the south in the early 1920s, and over the years, its audience has become more widespread—being played on radio stations throughout the world.
The genre has changed a lot since Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, and Willie Nelson stepped onto the country music scene and today we’re seeing a lot of country-pop crossover artists who’ve made the music a lot more mainstream.
Narrowing the top country artists to 40 was super challenging and choosing the number one country artist of all time was even harder, but we managed to Git ér done.
Go ahead and straddle up in your finest cowboy boots and crack open a beer. Yeehaw, these are the top 40 country music artists of all time. Can you guess who we gave the No. 1 spot to?