The country genre continues to make inroads on streaming platforms in the U.S., with its latest accomplishment reflected on Billboard’s Streaming Songs chart dated Oct. 1.
Three country songs by three different artists populate the tally’s top 10, marking the first time at least three non-holiday country songs have appeared in the ranking’s top 10 by different musicians since the survey began in 2013.
Morgan Wallen’s “You Proof” leads the group at No. 5 with 16.4 million official U.S. streams, according to Luminate. It’s followed by Zach Bryan’s “Something in the Orange” (No. 6, 13.9 million streams) and Luke Combs’ “The Kind of Love We Make” (No. 7, 13.9 million streams).
The genre featured three non-seasonal songs in Streaming Songs’ top 10 just two other times previously. The Nov. 27, 2021, ranking included a trio of Taylor Swift country songs from her Red (Taylor’s Version) re-recording, led by “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)” at No. 1. The Jan. 23, 2021, list, meanwhile, featured three Wallen songs from his Dangerous: The Double Album, paced by “Wasted on You” at No. 3.
In recent weeks, two country songs by different artists reached the top 10, most recently when “Proof” and “Orange” ranked at Nos. 5 and 8, respectively, on the Sept. 24 ranking.
When adding holiday songs into the equation, the feat’s been accomplished a few times by the country genre since 2019. The three songs in question – Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock” and Burl Ives’ “A Holly Jolly Christmas” – are perennial favorites each winter that often spend multiple weeks within the top 10 leading up to Christmas.
For one week last year (Dec. 11, 2021), those songs were joined by a fourth, Swift’s aforementioned “Well,” which put four country songs in the top 10, all by different artists – but all but Swift’s were seasonal.
The ascension of “Proof,” “Orange” and “Kind” occurs alongside a week in which 13 of the chart’s 50 positions are occupied by country songs.
It’s a far cry from 2018, when just two non-holiday country songs made the list at all the entire year. In October 2019, Dan + Shay and Justin Bieber’s “10,000 Hours” became the highest charting non-seasonal country song in the ranking’s history to rise higher than No. 9 when it debuted and peaked at No. 3. On the year-end 2020 Top Streaming Songs chart, four non-holiday country song appeared after years of one or even none the previous half decade.
Notably, the trio of country songs currently in the top 10 is also marked by its lack of a bona fide crossover moment (so far). While all three can be found on Billboard’s Country Airplay ranking dated Oct. 1 (“Kind” leads at No. 2, followed by “Proof” at No. 3 and “Orange” at No. 50), none of them have yet received meaningful pop radio airplay.
