Country Stars Adapting to EDM With Collaborations

Lady Antebellum, Zac Brown latest stars to be guest vocalists on Electronic Dance Music projects.

While some are calling the current sounds and trends at country music as nothing but a hijacking of a beloved genre by suits and pop music tastemakers, the stars who fit within the format are actually more excited and concerned with creating of their music to worried about perceptions of what they are or aren’t doing to the genre. While Sam Hunt, Thomas Rhett and Brett Eldridge lead a soul/country revival with EDM influences, Zac Brown Band has expanded their range of sounds with their new single “Beautiful Drug” while frontman Zac Brown is set to be a featured vocalist on producer Avicii’s Stories album, the follow-up to the album Levels which featured country/EDM trailblazing songs “Hey Brother” and “Wake Me Up.” Even as Lady Antebellum takes off some time to focus on new families (or solo projects in the case of Charles Kelley), their voices are beginning to be heard on producer Audien’s new single “Something Better.”

That’s where of where country music’s current stars are heading, to expanding genre blending definitions to where music is either ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and that, as always, the listener is the ultimate decider of such things. Yes, radio will play a powerful role but so does digital streaming, sales and increasingly, social media platforms where artists can connect with listeners like each and every artist does, be it through their own recordings or through collaborations, in this case with Electronic Dance Music (EDM) DJs and producers.

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