What Country Star Has the Most Passionate Fanbase? (A Data Deep Dive)

[@GradySmith]

Head to keeps.com/gradysmith to get 50% off your first order of hair loss treatment.

[@JellyRoll]

This is super dope - thank you for including me … blessed to be on this list in any form - ps the music is worth checking out Grady 🙏

[@cadeandrews247]

Definitely check out save me Grady

[@WEW0826]

I’d bet you’d be a hell of a lot higher this year Jelly. Grady should do this again. And if I missed it, someone please tell me.

[@savannahbrowne6272]

As a complete data nerd, these videos are my very favorite of Grady’s. Keep them up, thanks!!

[@Reed488]

I wouldn't go so far as to say I am an all-out "Data Nerd," but, as an Accountant and a disciple of "Advanced Stats" in Sports, this is one of the best videos you have ever released. You and Danny Katz are awesome for undertaking this project!

[@trevorkinder6892]

Every time Charles Wesley Godwin gets brought up it makes my day.

[@TruthfulSessions]

Go check out our latest sessions with him!

[@outdoordinsmore]

Me too. He has a really small catalog so far but I stream the absolute crap out of both albums.

[@blemons5]

Not surprised at all the CWG did so well with streams/listener. Dude deserves a lot more popularity, such a great talent

[@TruthfulSessions]

I agree! You'd probably enjoy our latest session with him!

[@bobbycampbell491]

BOBBYYYY!! MAN DOES HE! Can't wait to finally see him Feb 18th in Jacksonville! Thank God for grady or I probably never would've found him. Best enjoyed so far has been on my porch with the wife,a few cocktails and Seneca creek on vinyl!

[@snapsonherpearls]

Charles Westley Godwin came up on my Spotify a couple months ago and Seneca Creek still came out as my #3 song. It listens like a novel.

[@TruthfulSessions]

He's one of a kind. You'd probably enjoy "West Of Lonesome" that we just released on our channel with Charles.

[@whyy__it]

Stoked to see Bailey Zimmerman support Morgan on his tour this summer… dude is gonna be one of the next faces of country music

[@mallorydeaton297]

I think anyone would be hard pressed to find another artist that has fans with the same passion of Taylor Swift fans. Her fans are the reason she’s been able to have success with re-recording her past albums, which says a lot considering there had been very few, if any, to do so before her. If you strictly look at the success of All Too Well, for instance, it was just an album deep cut back in 2012. In fact, it was still incredibly painful for her to perform at the time. Her fans flipped the meaning. They loved it so much, and then they begged for the 10 minute version for an entire decade. When she released it, alongside her short film, it became the longest #1 song on BB100 ever, is nominated for a Grammy, and she’s had a ridiculous amount of success with the film, including campaigning for the Oscars right now. In regards to new releases, Midnights broke an absurd number of records. The album had 186 million streams on its first day, the most in Spotify history, BUT she had 228 million streams overall that day, meaning people also played her back catalog and didn’t just listen to her new release. My favorite record was holding all 10 spots of the BB100 top 10. The craziest way to put that into perspective is that every single one of those songs would have gone #1 if it wasn’t for another one of its own blocking it. Of course, you already covered the bottom line, I just wanted to throw in some extra data regarding Taylor’s fans:)) This was such a great video! It was so fun to see several artists’ data compiled/compared!

[@MACMAMI]

Couldn't agree more. She has already officially surpassed artists like The Rolling Stones and David Bowie, for example, when it comes to still directly influencing cultural water cooler conversations AND topping both singles and album charts some 17-18 years into their recording careers. That's just wicked impressive. I honestly think when all is said and done, historians will point to her mastery of easter eggs as both a means of promotion and marketing, as well as enhancing the mythology and lore surrounding her body of work, as one of the main reasons she has remained as intensely relevant as she is culturally alongside her continued growth and maturity as a songwriter. Obviously her relatability is a huge part of her ascension and staying power as well, but I really do think the easter eggs have effectively stimulated passion and loyalty among her fanbase and without them she still would undoubtedly have had a solid career foundation but the lore and conversational volume surrounding her discography would have been lessened.

[@MitchellDouglas4933]

My Spotify Wrapped top 5 artists were: 1. Tyler Childers 2. Zach Bryan 3. Colter Wall 4. Cole Chaney 5. Billy Strings My top 5 songs were: 1. Country Squire- Tyler Childers 2. Another Day in the Life- Cole Chaney 3. If She wants a Cowboy- Zach Bryan 4. Shoot Low Sheriff- The Tyler Childers cover 5. River Fool- Ian Noe Get this man to 200 000k subs already people!

[@spencers2420]

Another day in the life is a banger

[@MitchellDouglas4933]

@@spencers2420 It is. The fiddle is the greatest in it.

[@SB-tm6cm]

Love seeing Alan Jackson make some of these lists. Would be interesting to see how some of this data compares to radio airplay and tour numbers at the end of the year.

[@romofan8881]

Happy to see Bailey in the top 10. Don't think I've heard a song and gone "this guy is goin to be a superstar" as quickly as I did with him.

[@Crashme222]

Blows my mind that someone like Jon Pardi who's my favourite modern Country singer is technically not considered super "popular" when he mixes old and modern Country sounds like no one else! My other favourites include Aaron Watson and Orville Peck who are again no where near these lists. It's clear as day that these charts don't include the realest Country singers unfortunately. Which is a shame since back in the days, legends like Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Hank Williams, got the recognition they deserved. But I guess times have changed quite a bit...Just my 2 cents!

[@thejagsfan147]

Seeing CWG at 19 on the spreadsheet makes me so happy. I know touring with Zach Bryan definitely helped, but he deserves it so much Edit: I posted this before I got to the point in the video where you mentioned him. But it shows the people that liked and/or knew about him listened. And I know Jamie was a big point of that being attached to ZB, but damn I'm so happy about that.

[@miss80smoviesandmusic]

My top 2 most listened to country artists were The Judds, and Mike & The Moonpies.

[@LTProductions335]

As I was watching this and looking the data I found it extremely surprising that rodney atkins name up so many times. He had one gigantic album 15 years ago and some spotty hits that span the next 9 years but he has kind of died out. Super impressive.

[@GradySmith]

Caught Up in the Country became a sleeper hit a few years back!

[@LTProductions335]

@@GradySmith I forgot all about that song!! That's why you're the expert lol. The dude is hanging with guys like chesney and mcgraw with 40-50 hits on less than half of the hits. It goes to show when country fans love something they go all out supporting it. Love the channel grady and thank you for responding.

[@jaybomb7095]

@@LTProductions335 can't get enough of rodney Atkins. His Caught up in the country album I enjoyed along with all his old stuff.

[@dillonmeyer2625]

I’ve rocked with Jelly for a decade, no slowing down. Zach Bryan stays at the intro to all my country playlists.

[@nicholasi3535]

Ok so as a grad student and geneticist who spends his days analyzing big data and listening to country music I loved that you did this! It excites me on so many levels! I have so many thoughts and questions about this data. I can’t wait to go and explore your dataset and test different different correlations. Honestly you could use this data to develop a model to predict Spotify listening metrics and the major labels would absolutely eat it up if it’s accurate. I’d love to continue looking at this and letting you know what I find!

[@masonfiedler3183]

Grady I love when you do data videos. I find them so interesting

[@bencooper5178]

Grady I’ve been watchin you for a while and you got me to fall in love with country music I highly recommend giving Joel Adam Russell a listen especially take me somewhere, borrowed time, and rosemary may

[@theeellebee]

My top 5 and songs were all country! Eric Church, Dierks Bentley, and George Strait. Every year since I've had Spotify

[@evancdaley]

one of my favorite videos you've done man.

[@DG-hm1on]

This is what I come for with Grady. Love these deep dives.

[@nathansarley1712]

Love to see Kidd G up on here with the passionate listeners

[@flordeespinart]

I finally used Spotify this year only for the 4 months I had a free promo for no ads. that was when American Heartbreak came out and I listened to those 30+ songs with Something in the Orange and She Wants a Cowboy on repeat...so that really made my 4 mos wrap not as accurate lol. I certainly listened to Zac Bryan but not as often as Flatland Calvary, Kaitlin Butts and Turnpike Troubadours

[@WEW0826]

We need a 2023 version of this Grady.

[@sumnerevans]

Morgan getting “soft cancelled” by country radio is probably the best thing that has happened to his career.

[@AC-jp1lm]

He was too talented to be canceled.

[@lmo6634]

@@AC-jp1lmYou guys say “cancelled” as though you’re judging the backlash he received more than his own actions. Being famous or talented doesn’t negate someone’s racist language and immature behavior.

[@AC-jp1lm]

@@lmo6634 What ever happened to giving grace to others? He apologized. Let it go

[@lmo6634]

@@AC-jp1lm That whole apology tour was worthless, but you don’t care if he apologized or not because you’re a fan and all you were looking for was an excuse to continue defending him against entirely valid criticism. “He’s too talented to be cancelled” puts the blame on cancel culture instead of the words he CHOSE to say and behavior he CHOSE to act on.

[@lmo6634]

@@AC-jp1lmIf he changed and learned, good for him. But stop using “cancel culture” as a way to shield your favorite singer from the backlash that he absolutely deserved and still deserves to receive.

[@rockpaperscissors82]

Maddie & Tae appeal to young couples like my wife and myself...and our baby daughter. I agree with your criticism in a previous video about their music being too low-key and lacking vigor, especially the two-volume latest albums. But, we can identify with them because they are in the same stage of life as us (married couples starting families), and I think that gets overlooked as an important factor in an artist's success. So, those streaming numbers are us and many others like us! Not surprisingly, Zach Bryan is someone I like and appreciate but don't stream very often, for pretty much the same reason that I stream Maddie & Tae more. If it were my 23 year old self, it would be the reverse.

[@nickmeekhof]

“Release Date Agnostic,” the next merch shirt from Grady Smith?? Some fun design ideas there

[@faystewart7016]

Oh how I want you/us to have all the data from all artists to compare these metrics!! Sooooo interesting

[@somebodysdog9235]

I think Grady is becoming the Marques Brownlee of country music/music. I’m here to support it.

[@klayjacksmedia]

Love the vid, Grady! But you’re definitely right! It would have been interesting to see Morgan vs Luke - both of which are at the top of their game.

[@Bradferd333]

My Spotify Wrapped Artists 1. Midland 2. Tyler Childers 3. Led Zeppelin 4. Johnny Cash 5. Cody Jinks Songs 1. Adios Cowboy- Midland 2. Feathered Indians- Tyler Childers 3. Set ‘Em Up Joe- Jamey Johnson 4. Everything She Ain’t - Hailey Whitters 5. Hippies and Cowboys - Cody Jinks I kept adding songs throughout the year to a single playlist, so ones that were put in earlier in the year naturally have more plays. Also, Cash and Zeppelin received lots of plays, but no single song of theirs had enough to crack the top 5 since so many were added. Talk about deep catalogs

[@VinceBo]

I have listened to every song Zach Bryan song released this year, and have listened to American Heartbreak all the way through over 20 times, so seeing Zach so high was great.

[@hamstergod402]

Cody Johnson actually took over my music the last year. Top 4 of my most listened songs were by him, Guilty as Can Be was #1 with my only none Cojo song being Fire Line by Billy Strings.

[@parkercoleman6014]

I think it’s great that muscadine bloodline is having the large success they have while being independent. It makes me feel good to know that they’re just doing their thing and they’re still able to succeed the way they are.

[@matthewm4336]

Grady's video quality has been through the roof recently

[@brendenfriers9668]

My top artists are 1. Koe Wetzel 2. Whiskey Myers 3. Riley Green 4. Cody Johnson 5. Jon Pardi My most played song was The Ballad Of Curtis Loew By: Lynyrd Skynyrd

[@paulrademacher]

Great Video Grady! My top artists were 🫵 1. Tyler Childers 2. Zach Bryan 3. Kanye West 4. Charley Crocket 5. Marty Robbins Possibly interesting

[@beplanking]

I love these deep dive videos, they always bring such interesting insight!

[@isaacstocks8207]

Great video! Definitely expected Morgan and Zach at 1-2 but wow, some surprises for sure!

[@oliviasieders7007]

I love Ian Munsick and I guess I'm not alone. I listen to his album at least every other month.

[@ajliebmann]

I expected to be so much higher for him and was shocked with how popular he got in the last year

[@ironsteven]

Cool video ! Zac Brown Band didn't post their Spotify Wrapped, I think they'd be on this list as well

[@qbsirena]

Hell yeah! Us Morgan Wallen fans definitely go hard for him. A good chunk of his streams sure came from me.

[@AC-jp1lm]

Same haha. My wrap up said I listened to 7,645 minutes of him this year. Only slightly obsessed 🤣

[@bluesdjben]

Great video! I love getting nerdy about music and data.

[@TaylorMasonMusic336]

Grady ! You do it everytime !!!! Love it.

[@RyanBitler]

I listened to Letting Someone Go 153 times this year on Spotify. Zach is the king of my Playlists!

[@Miruble82]

I really love Bailey Zimmerman I was wondering could you do a review on his album please

[@kcg285]

So glad to see other Ian Munsick fans are like me! Congrats to him!! 🥳 @GradySmith, you should check out the singer Angie K! She is super talented and has a unique story having been born and raised in El Salvador and then moving to the US. Her music incorporates Spanish in an awesome way. Check out "Laredo"!

[@GundamExia00]

awesome work, grady! excited to see your year end stuff!

[@huntergrimes2676]

Would’ve liked to see Parker McCollum data I’ve probably listened to all his albums and EPs 10+ times each this year

[@jaromjenkins1834]

Upchurch put his up and his math works out to 55.05 streams per listener which I thought was interesting

[@GradySmith]

Damn, didn't even see that and no one sent it in! That's wild tho!

[@jaromjenkins1834]

@@GradySmith yeah it’s up on his KZbin in the community section I believe

[@ryanjames5072]

My top 5 artists were Jon Pardi (by a landslide at #1), Morgan Wallen, George Strait, Alan Jackson, and Randy Travis

[@jamiecollins32]

You must atone!!! "Whoa, funky immediately"

[@RS-fo6vx]

About resurfacing songs- so true! When OneRepublic dropped their single Run, Ryan Tedder said that streaming services kill new music - he noticed this because Counting Stars was being picked up by new listeners and was topping his new single in streams.

[@jennajennajenna10]

So this probably has something to do with playlists. For example, I listen to country a looooot. But I work out several days a week, which my playlist contains zero country songs. Therefore, my ratio for favorite artists/songs is skewed because I’m jamming out to hip hop for the majority of my gym time (which is a far cry from my favorite genre). Just a thought. Also really glad to see Alan Jackson still kicking ass.

[@noahbieniek4795]

This was an amazing video Grady. I love the idea. I know you can’t always Spotify stats, but if you did more Ethos based Country music videos… 🔥

[@spoonsandsongs3952]

I’m not a huge Bailey Zimmerman fan, but I do think it’s pretty interesting that you highlighted him as a solid bet for a breakout this your and he’s become like the biggest breakout artist of this year just in the past week or two

[@calebc.7818]

Stats videos are awesome! Is there a cutoff for artists to post their Spotify stats? This list is neat for analyzing listener data. Makes me wonder how duets and such contribute to data.

[@lukecampbell8465]

The videos you put are awesome. I always look forward to them

[@kiwitealc5353]

Love videos like this

[@brandonbaril4516]

Jelly Roll has one of the best LIVE shows of any country/crossover artist I've ever seen. I saw shows from him, Jason Aldean, and Thomas Rhett this year, and Jelly Roll had the most energetic, rockin' show. Highly recommend seeing him LIVE.

[@DerrikRockne]

awesome video, Grady! Love the breakdown backed up by data. I wonder how the passion metric would compare if you looked at it on a genre by genre basis. My gut tells me that country fans are more loyal and have more steams per listener, whereas pop and others have more one-off-ers. Could be interesting to look at. Keep up the awesome work!

[@luke_levesseur]

Another great video bro. You've been killing it lately! Excited to see what your top albums are for the year! Won't be surprised to see Raised in that list 👀

[@jeffreylafary5217]

I’m glad to see Kameron Marlowe way high up !! He wasn’t talked about in the video but he is one of my favorite artists. Been listening to him for so long!!

[@outdoordinsmore]

I can testify for Ian Munsick. I discovered his music in 2020 and he has 3 of my top 10 lifetime streams. Can't stop listening even though he catalog is small. I streamed the singles more before the album released than after even.

[@flo_growngnome3431]

with the amount of music that me and my friends listen to I think its crazy that apple music numbers aren't talked about!

[@jehle1777]

Artist with high monthly listeners are usually those who get the best playlisting which naturally goes up with new releases and if they have a single that’s currently being pushed.

[@hehehelene]

Great video! Love every video you make and can't wait for the year-end videos :D

[@fanstar141]

Happy to see COJO and Zach Bryan so high here, love them both!

[@kevinross6235]

These videos are my favorite tbh

[@Evan-ph7jh]

Zach Bryan. Especially us that have been listening to him on KZbin since 2018. I have 13k minutes of ZB Edit. That’s about 166 hours

[@fishproductions22]

Top 0.005% of Brad Paisley listeners😎😎😎

[@JD200_]

Not bad

[@NEK711]

Love the spreadsheet!

[@emilyrea7721]

Grady actually has the most passionate fan base

[@cathe1517]

Super interesting and informative, thank you!

[@markbenn1907]

Ok stats, probability and data collection is so cool.

[@beaglegt500]

It'd be interesting to see what Hardys was. I regularly fall asleep to his stuff or have it playing while working in the yard

[@dailylifewithsteve4460]

I saw Upchurch’s thing and he had 277 million streams with only 5million listeners he would have came in second place with 55.7 streams per listener

[@joe56794]

Mine would be with Alan Jackson and Alabama. I'm not sure exactly how many I have for each, but it has to be high.

[@Justin-gu6kr]

Not surprised by Jelly Roll since he was an independent artist up until not that long ago. Successful independent artists typically have smaller but very dedicated fanbases. I bet Upchurch would have been high on this list as well

[@klaastevelde6718]

My KZbin Music recap showed me that Alan Jackson was my second most listen artist. I don't know how they came to this result. I only downloaded one of his song and I did not listen to is very often. I listen much more to other artist.

[@jerrycrawford6721]

I like your portraits of Eminem and John C Reilly on the wall behind you lol

[@MusicOrLoseItTV]

Jelly Roll should have been nominated at Grammys for song/record OTY and BNA

[@NEK711]

Just 0:10 in I'm like yessssss I've been patiently waiting for this video!

[@jas.1066]

I wonder if the longer albums helped Wallen and Bryan? I don't know how many people listen to albums specifically on streaming platforms, but when one album gets you 30 streams, that's going to pad your statistics compared to dropping a load of EPs.

[@brrrrharrr]

oooo this one is going viral

[@missylemmon8313]

Upchurch has a 55 streams per Listener🔥

[@joecool6586]

I am in the top 1% of Flatland Cavalry listeners! Cody and Munsick we're in my top 5 as well. Munsick is just so easy to listen to.

[@ThePunkRockMBA]

At least 120 million of those Maddie & Tae streams are from me

[@GradySmith]

LOL I believe it

[@sofianabbasi2735]

Charles Wesley Godwin is amazing. I found him because of your channel. He was my top artist this year.

[@Cdyoung15]

Grady wants to be a data scientist at heart

[@timlamaster6984]

I love nerdy stats stuff so this was cool to see.

[@evanogden]

I had about 600 of those Charles Wesley Godwin streams probably...

[@bronwillretr643]

As a Kidd G fan I was not expecting to see him in this video.

[@michaelprewittjr2013]

Jelly Roll!!!!! Love seeing the success the fat man is having! Been following him since 2013!

[@MACMAMI]

After watching this, I'm curious to see where Luke Combs will hypothetically be positioned when/if he chooses to publicize his Spotify year-end data. And honestly, I'm pretty surprised Combs hasn't done so already considering he's among the more social media-savvy country superstars. I will acknowledge I've started getting burnt out over Combs' music beginning with the last two singles issued from "What You See Is What You Get" and its deluxe edition, and I've heard some others echoing that. I'm just tired of the maudlin wedding ballads and otherwise overly safe mid-tempo fare. However, I think some of his best is yet to come with a forthcoming bluegrass album for example, and I still imagine he's going to rate highly on the passion quotient (even if not as much as early on during his second album era) because he sits perfectly at this intersection between neo-traditional resonance and commercial-crossover appeal.

[@chrisholt360]

I wonder where hardy would’ve landed on the list as he is my top artist, but some of his streams came in under hixtape

[@simply2341]

Hivemind shoutout at the beginning is needed

[@daniellepeterson6147]

Ian Munsick is my favorite

[@Pagonis-bs2lq]

Listen to Alan Jackson everyday 😅 my bad for running those numbers up. Keep in mind I’m only 26. But when I listen to Alan I think back to when I was growing up and listening to him sing well my grandpa would make me breakfast as a kid.