Younger Demos Continue To Drive Country Format

Country’s cross-over appeal isn’t exactly new—country twang has found its way to the pop charts many times over the past 50 years. These days, however, Nielsen reports hybrid country-pop music reflects a new generation of fans influenced by other genres topping today’s charts, including rap and hip-hop, among others.

Similar to today's pop music fan base—which tends to include women and young adults under 44 years old—many current country listeners are young.  The modern country music audience, which includes fans of artists such as Carrie Underwood, Rascal Flatts and Taylor Swift, skews toward women under 49 years old.

Meanwhile, Millennial males listen more to traditional country music, from artists like Brad Paisley, Kenny Chesney and Zac Brown Band, than the general population. On the radio, Country's loyal listeners also skew young. It's the top national format among Millennials (aged 18-34) and Generation X’ers (aged 35-49). And audience share has grown 17% with teens (12-17 year-olds) over the last two years.

Still, country music has mass appeal. Among Boomers (aged 50-64), it’s the second most popular national format after News/Talk radio. As a result, the cross-over appeal of country and pop music extends the music beyond the typical audience.

With an increasingly young audience, country music's popularity is growing. Country is the No. 1 format radio genre in the U.S., and its audience has increased by 17% since 2006. With a 15.2% share of all listening as of Spring 2014, that means 69.7 million listeners tune to country radio in the U.S. each week.

Read More Now