Chris Stapleton's 'Tennessee Whiskey' is the best-selling country song of all time

Taylor Swift is one of the world's most successful artists

Swift is one of the best-selling musicians of all time. She has sold more than 200 million records and won multiple Grammy Awards. Known for her storytelling and ability to reinvent her music, she’s expanded her career from country roots to global pop stardom.

Country's popularity skyrocketed in the 21st century

Thanks to the crossover success of '90s artists like Garth Brooks and Shania Twain, country music found a larger audience. By the 2000s, the genre was more popular than ever, at times accounting for nearly a quarter of the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

'I Will Always Love You' is a widely covered standard

The song has had multiple lives: There’s Dolly Parton’s original recording, which reached the top of Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart in 1974 and then again in 1982, thanks to the soundtrack for Parton’s film, “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.” Then it reached the top of the pop charts thanks to Whitney Houston’s 1992 cover on “The Bodyguard” soundtrack. Popular versions have also been released by LeAnn Rimes, Linda Ronstadt, and Kristin Chenoweth.

Three rock stars who made great country music

Steven Tyler, Tina Turner, and Darius Rucker all crossed into country. The author claims the trio shared a common trait: they weren't chasing a new audience. Instead, they were delving deeper into a sound already present in their work.

Honky-tonk features a rollicking stomp

Widely considered the first honky-tonk song, Ernest Tubb’s "Walking the Floor Over You" is a perfect example of the subgenre's upbeat percussion, barroom piano, and chippy lyricism. The song is a country music classic, being inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and preserved in the Library of Congress.

'Islands in the Stream' was another massive crossover hit for Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton

The country stars each earned their second pop No. 1 hits with the duet, eventually selling over 3 million units. In 1998, the Fugees’ Pras scored a hit with an interpolation of the song on his track “Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are),” which was eventually certified platinum.

In 2025, an AI-generated song became a country hit

The song, “Walk My Walk” by Breaking Rust, racked up over 3 million streams on Spotify in less than a month and went to number one on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales in early November 2025. Because the genre prides itself on authenticity and has a long history of workaday songwriters, the song's success was controversial in the industry. Billboard does not currently have a policy prohibiting AI-generated songs.

A comprehensive list of the best Bob Dylan covers

Bob Dylan’s songwriting quickly became part of the great American songbook, thanks in large part to many major artists of the '60s popularizing their own versions of his songs. As this list proves, though, that tradition continued all the way to today. Learn about essential covers of Dylan songs by Adele, Guns N’ Roses, The White Stripes, and others.

Drake has more top-five Hot 100 hits than any other artist

In 2022, the rapper’s collaboration with DJ Khaled and Lil Baby, “Staying Alive,” reached the number five slot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. That was his 30th track to reach the top five, surpassing the Beatles’ record of 29, which they achieved in 1970 with “The Long and Winding Road.”

Tequila overtook whiskey as a top US spirits subcategory in 2023

Tequila sales in the US totaled $6.5B in 2023, surpassing whiskey's $5.3B. The shift was partially driven by premiumization, with the majority of supplier revenues coming from premium and super-premium tiers and brands.

After Beyoncé won the Grammy for best country album, the Grammys created a new category

The singer took home the award for best country album in 2025 for "Cowboy Carter." Months after the awards, and some criticism from the country community, the Grammys announced a new category for 2026: best contemporary country album. Ostensibly, that makes room for the genre's traditionalists and its innovators, though the distinction between the two categories is vague.

Before becoming a country superstar, Dolly Parton recorded girl-group-style singles

Parton signed with Monument Records in the mid-1960s and released a few singles that were distinctly not country music. Instead, they sounded like Phil Spector productions, in the vein of records by the Ronettes and the Crystals. Although they weren't hits in the United States, songs like "Don't Drop Out" took off in England's Northern Soul scene, which celebrated American records that had slipped through the cracks.

Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs' 'Stay' is the shortest song ever to hit No. 1

The single reached the top of Billboard's Hot 100 chart on November 21, 1960. At just 1:38, it's the shortest number one in Billboard's history. It also didn't last long at the top: It was replaced the following week by Elvis Presley's "Are You Lonesome Tonight?"

Sun Records was responsible for some of rock 'n' roll's biggest artists

Memphis' Sun Records was one of the most important labels in American musical history, releasing pivotal records by Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, and countless others.

Superfans of K-pop group BTS gamed the Billboard chart

In 2021, the boy band scored a number one hit with “Butter,” its second English-language track. As Stereogum writer Tom Breihan points out, though, it rose to the top of the charts without actually being the most popular song in the country. Other songs were considerably more popular on streaming platforms, but BTS’ hyperdevoted fanbase realized that purchasing digital downloads weighed more heavily in Billboard’s methodology. Recognizing an opportunity, BTS dropped the price of a download to 69 cents, securing their place on the top of the charts.

Washington's whiskey distillery at Mount Vernon was one of the largest in the country

By 1799, Mount Vernon's distillery produced nearly 11,000 gallons of whiskey annually, making it one of the largest commercial distilleries in the United States during Washington's lifetime and a significant source of income for the estate.

Prince's 'Sign O' the Times' was considered a major artistic milestone

The double album was an ambitious collection of songs that traversed musical styles—drawing on the emerging hip-hop records of the genre's golden age and technological experimentation—and explored social issues, including the AIDS epidemic, addiction, and violence. It would go on to be one of the most critically acclaimed albums of the year and eventually be considered one of the most important in pop music history.

'Live a life so when I die, there's standing room only.'

- Tim McGraw (1967-present)

The best jazz albums of all time

Diving into the history of jazz can be intimidating, but this list is a helpful guide, highlighting the best of the best, with titanic recordings from Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, Alice Coltrane, Oscar Peterson, and more.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most popular national park

The Tennessee park attracted more than 12 million visitors in 2024, nearly three times the amount Zion National Park, the number two most popular park, brought in. The least visited park was the famously remote Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve in Alaska, which posted only 11,907 visitors.

Why Billie Holiday's label refused to release 'Strange Fruit'

Columbia Records declined to record the protest song, fearing negative reactions from southern retailers. She instead recorded it in 1939 for the Commodore label. The recording would eventually sell a million copies, be added to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry, and be called the "Song of the Century" by Time magazine.

1982's ‘Nebraska’ was recorded alone at home, a rarity at the time for a major artist

“Born to Run” became a hit in part due to its massive sound, something that was only possible thanks to the magic of the studio. That continued with 1980’s “The River,” which gave Springsteen his first top 10 single. With “Nebraska,” though, Springsteen abandoned the studio, opting to release the spare recordings he made at home, by himself. At the time, such a decision was a rarity for a platinum artist.

A guide to the 13 Triple Crown winners

Only 13 horses have swept the Triple Crown since 1919—Sir Barton as the first, and Justify the last in 2018. This Blood Horse rundown lists them all, spotlighting Secretariat's 31-length 1973 Belmont and Baffert's dual crowns with American Pharoh in 2015 and Justify in 2018. Unpack the stats and sires behind racing's grueling five-week gauntlet.

The simple melody in 'Auld Lang Syne' has led to the song’s repurposing

In addition to becoming a standard tune to ring in the new year, the song has been reworked as a Dutch soccer anthem, a Japanese standard, and the South Korean national anthem. A significant part of its widespread use is that it has no copyright limitations. It helps, too, that it's simple melody is easy for even the most amateur singers to tackle.

A small portion of The Winstons' 'Amen, Brother,' an obscure '60s gospel record, is the basis for thousands of hip-hop tracks, making it one of the most sampled records ever that's informally known as 'the Amen break.'

Rockwell's 'Saying Grace' sold for $46M in 2013

The 1951 painting is classic Rockwell: an image designed for the cover of the Saturday Evening Post featuring a humble American family engaging in a traditional value. To date, it's the highest-grossing work in Rockwell's catalog. Its buyer? "Star Wars" director George Lucas.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles, 'Please Please Me' and 'From Me to You,' with one executive calling the band 'dead in the water.'

One disco producer saw 'Star Wars' four times on its opening weekend and was so inspired that he recorded the album 'Star Wars and Other Intergalactic Funk,' which produced a chart-topping single.

Jimmy Carter signed a 1978 bill that legalized home brewing, a move credited with kick-starting the craft beer industry.

Dozens of S&P 500 stocks, including Coca-Cola and Walmart—known as the dividend aristocrats—have increased dividends every year for 25 years

Quincy Jones' 'Big Band Bossa Nova' helped introduce bossa nova—a jazz-influenced Brazilian genre—to the US

In preparation for this weekend's Eurovision finale, which is something like the World Cup of pop music, here's a young Céline Dion performing (for Switzerland?) at the 1988 competition.

Explore a list of the 100 best novels of all time, compiled by some of the world's best living writers, including Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, and Jennifer Egan.

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

The US dollar is the most widely circulated currency in the world, and is involved in nearly 90% of global transactions

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

Prince's sexually explicit 1984 track 'Darling Nikki' attracted the ire of the Parents Music Resource Center, an advocacy group that inspired the Parental Advisory sticker, even though the song ends with a Christian message.

View the ten deadliest tornadoes in US history.

Mark Twain spent decades feuding with the US Postal Service, convinced its costs and regulations were bureaucratic overreach.

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume and cost roughly $33M to produce in 2004—about $57M in today's dollars.

In 2026, Finland was named the world's happiest country for the ninth consecutive year based on its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among other factors.

Meet the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence—most of whom didn't put pen to paper until August 2, 1776—and see their original signatures.

See this overview of the firework rules across all 50 states, ranging from a complete ban on non-professional fireworks in Massachusetts to states with more lax rules like Indiana.

Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' is infamous for having some of the highest industrial pollution, toxic air emissions, and cancer risks in the US.

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

Frank Lloyd Wright's houses are historically hard to sell because they're old, subject to local landmark commissions, and often unfashionable

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

Stars appear to twinkle because turbulence in the motion of molecules in Earth's atmosphere causes light to bend and wiggle rapidly on its way to the surface—a phenomenon called scintillation.

In 1984, Operation Smash Hit intentionally crashed a 239-ton train into a nuclear waste canister at 100 miles per hour to prove the canister's safety, which remained completely intact and lost just 0.29 of its 100 pounds of pressure.