The Top 20 Artists From 10 Years of Taste of Country
Happy Birthday to us! Taste of Country turns 10 years old this month, and we invited all of our favorite artists to the party. These are the 20 most searched, most clicked and most read-about artists from a decade as a leader in country music news and entertainment.
Officially, ToC turns 10 on Dec. 13, 2020 — our Taylor Swift fandom is showing! Sure, there were a few breadcrumbs prior, but early news of Aaron Lewis' solo career, Chase Rice's departure from Survivor and Dierks Bentley's wife's second pregnancy led the way 10 years ago.
Shania Twain and LeAnn Rimes both got engaged to new men during that first month, and we covered new songs by Sugarland ("Stuck Like Glue")," Trace Adkins ("Brown Chicken Brown Cow") and the Band Perry ("You Lie"). Beyond that, there were plenty of lists and flashbacks, two tentpoles of our coverage to this day.
Interviews were a bit harder to come by those first few months, as we were new, sort of scrappy and lacking industry connections. That started to change by spring and really shifted in May, when artist No. 18 on this list of our Top 20 artists of all time started to make his mark.
Can you guess who's at No. 1? You'll find obvious stars like Blake Shelton and Garth Brooks near the top, but you'll find some less obvious singers like Brantley Gilbert too. Contemporary stars like Luke Combs (No. 21) and Sam Hunt (No. 30) just miss, because by and large this is a list made up of stars who have been there from the beginning ... except for No. 11. Take a look and know we appreciate your time and attention over the past 10 years. It's not just a Happy Birthday for Taste of Country, the website. It's a Happy Birthday for this community you've helped us build.