"Cruise" Is The Most Successful "Country" Song Ever

Congratulations everybody! You are living through a moment of country music history right now. "Cruise" by Florida Georgia Line is officially the most successful country song to ever grace our presence. It spent a total of 22 weeks at #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 Country songs. It beat out "In the Jailhouse Now " by Webb Pierce in 1955, "I'm Movin' On," by Hank Snow in 1950-1951, and "I'll Hold You in My Heart (Till I Can Hold You in My Arms)," by Eddy Arnold in 1947-1948. All three spent a total of 21 weeks at #1. If it wasn't for country rap crossovers and the crappy new Billboard rules all three of those guys wouldn't be rolling around repeatedly in their graves right now.

"Cruise" spent only 5 weeks at number one last year. It was so close to falling off the charts too! When you thought this song literally couldn't possibly get any worse, the ever so lovely rap version of this comes out featuring Nelly and suddenly it hits number one all over again. Now is that fair? With the new Billboard rules, song plays from internet streaming websites like Spotify, Pandora, etc. all count in the Billboard ranking. The only thing that does is boost the success of songs that have crossover appeal. How would an actual country song that only appeals to country fans beat out a song that appeals to country, pop, and rap? Do the crossover artists really need ways to be more successful? The thing is that the only reason this song has been number one for so long is because of the mainstream rap/pop version. Yet by Billboard's standards that's the reason a 58 year record for the most successful country song was broken. The most successful country song is the most successful country song because people know it as a pop rap song. Makes sense don't it?

All in all it really doesn't matter I guess. Billboard is not a correct assumption on which songs are better than others. It's only based on technical facts and God knows if we decided the best songs today based on radio play and downloads we'd end up with something sucky. I'm not turning this into another there's so much good music out there it's not fair they don't get recognition rant. Well, that is true, but this is more of a I'm concerned about country music's legacy type of thing. What if it takes another 58 years to break Florida Georgia Line's record. Picture this, it's the year 2071 and your great grandchildren start to listen to country music. (This is assuming country music is still around and music hasn't morphed into one giant pop genre) They go on the internet (or ask their robots) what the top country songs ever are, then they stumble upon Billboard. Then there at number one still is "Cruise." That probably won't be the case, more crossover songs will be up in there too I'm sure. These kids of the future will be talking about how they listen to "classic country", which will be our generations music! Today you can say you like the Honky Tonk Era of the 50's, or the Outlaw Era of the 70's. Doesn't it disgust you that in 50 years someone can say they like the Hick-Hop Era of the 2010's! 

I guess you could say the same for other types of music too, Hip hop especially. There are so many underground rappers and fans trying to bring back some sanity back into the genre they love, it's the same thing as what's happening in country. It's either someone starts paying attention to the roots artists or music in general is heading for a downfall. The terms "Country" and "Rap" are unlikely to be saved anytime soon.  It really is a shame you can't proudly say what kind of music you like without having to explain you don't mean the stuff you hear on the radio. I don't know enough about other genres to talk about their histories or futures, but I do know country. I know within the past 2 decades or so the legacy of country music is falling apart. It wasn't as bad in the 90's and early 2000's as it is today. When I say country isn't country anymore that's not my opinion, it's a fact. There's certain elements you need in order to produce a country song. Mainstream just doesn't have it, or if they do it's minimal. People like Florida Georgia Line aren't evolving country music, they're devolving it.