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100 Greatest Country Artists of All Time: The Full Staff List

Billboard counts down the best country acts of the past (almost) 100 years.

Billboard | November 19, 2024

Ever since Ralph Peer held his famous recording sessions in Bristol, Tennessee in the late 1920s with such acts as Ernest Stoneman, Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family, country music has uniquely told the story of American life.

Those early country stars and other artists recorded songs that reflected the down-home appeal of rural living, a nostalgia for what seemed to be a simpler past, a lure of a good old-fashioned murder ballad or a longing for an absent love.

The pioneers and trailblazers who brought these songs to the masses through the Grand Ole Opry weekly radio show (which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year) or by traveling the nation’s highways and byways helped establish country music, perhaps more than any other genre, as a storytelling medium.

Billboard looks at the those early, mid-century and 21st-century contemporary country artists who have delivered, and in some cases written, the songs that have made us cry in a tear in our beer –and who have widened the scope of what it means to be a country artist, without every sacrificing the genre’s heart.

In determining these rankings, members of the Billboard editorial staff selected their top artists from a list of nearly 200 names spanning the past century. Certain parameters were set, including focusing primarily on mainstream country artists, instead of embracing adjacent genres like Americana or bluegrass (therefore, no Jason Isbell or Sturgill Simpson).

While commercial success was a factor, artistry, longevity and enduring influence counted just as much. Because it’s too early to gauge the long-term impact of many of the newer acts yet, the list leans largely on artists whose place in country music history is already secure. But everyone on the list has in their own way moved the genre forward. 

Lists such as these are always lightning rods for debate — and while our No. 1 choice, which will be revealed Nov. 19, feels pretty unassailable, there are certainly others in the Top 10 who many will feel deserved the top spot. In fact, we had a healthy staff debate over who it would be. That just goes to show the depth and richness of the talent in country music. Our list has unfolded over the last two weeks, and today (Nov. 19) we reveal the final 10-1 portion of the countdown.

See the whole list below.

21. Shania Twain

It is impossible to talk about country music in the 1990s without discussing the Queen of Country Pop, Shania Twain. The Canadian-born singer-songwriter struck a chord with her sophomore album The Woman in Me in 1995, delivering eight singles, including Hot Country Songs No. 1s “Any Man of Mine” and “(If You’re Not In It For Love) I’m Outta Here!” For more than a decade, her cavalcade of hits (“Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?,” “You’re Still the One,” “From This Moment On,” “That Don’t Impress Me Much,” “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” and more) seemed endless, and made an entire generation of pop fans fall deeply in love with the country genre. Not to mention, Twain’s fearless approach to expertly blending country vocals with pop sounds inspired Taylor Swift, one of country’s biggest artists, to bridge the gap as well. — T.M.

https://www.billboard.com/lists/best-country-singers