’90s Country Surging In Popularity with Gen Z Listeners

The music streaming service Spotify, recently collected data on Gen Z listener habits and found that they are big fans of ’90s country. Who doesn’t love ’90s country?

Generation Z is the newest generation of people born, between the years 1997 to 2012, and are currently between the ages of 9 and 24 years old. There are an estimated 68 million in the United States. So, some of the youngest listeners weren’t even born when Tracy Byrd’s “Watermelon Crawl” or Shania Twain’s “Any Man of Mine” dominated the radio airwaves. But, they’re fans!

According to the Spotify data, they’ve seen a 70% increase in Gen Z users since 2018, and in the same time an 150% increase in ’90s country streams. Also, 89 million playlists were made by Gen Z users that contained ’90s country tracks. The most glaring statistic is that there are as many fans listening to ’90s country playlists between the ages of 19-24 as listeners over the age of 45.

So if anyone tells you otherwise, ’90s country is ALIVE and well!!

Cover photo: Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP