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Only 13 “Country” Songs Have Been Certified Diamond…And It’s Not At All What You’d Expect
Proof that sales don’t equal quality.
Since 1958 the RIAA, the Recording Industry Association of America, has operated their awards program to recognize album and song sales. The program originally started out with just one certification level, Gold, recognizing singles and albums that had sold 500,000 units.
But with the growth of music sales, the RIAA eventually had to add a Platinum award in 1976 for albums that had sold 1 million units and singles that had sold 2 million. And in 1999, they added a third category, Diamond, to recognize albums and singles that were certified 10x Platinum, meaning they had sold 10 million units.
Obviously things got a little more complicated when streaming took over and replaced physical sales and digital downloads, so the RIAA had to come up with a system to account for streams as “units.”
For singles, the RIAA counts a “unit” as either a digital download (such as buying a song on iTunes), or 150 on-demand streams. And for albums, it’s even more complicated: A digital download of the album is obviously one unit, but the RIAA also counts 10 track downloads as a unit, as well as 1,500 on-demand streams of tracks from the album.
Got all that?
Well with the boom in streaming, that means that more and more music is achieving a higher certification. Garth Brooks is currently recognized as the highest-selling country artist of all time, but Luke Combs is already hot on his heels, despite being around for less than a decade so far. (Of course it doesn’t help Garth that his music isn’t available on streaming, other than Amazon Music).
Garth has seven albums that have been certified Diamond, more than any other artist in history, thanks largely to his success with selling multiple copies of his albums at one time thanks to the numerous box sets he’s released over the years.
But when it comes to singles, there are actually several artists who have more Diamond-certified singles than Garth, most who are much newer on the scene and taking advantage of the ability to earn sales units from streaming.
There are currently 13 country songs that have been certified Diamond, meaning they’ve sold 10 million “units.” And honestly, as I was going through the list, it wasn’t what I expected…at all.
Notably, all of the Diamond-certified songs were released after the year 2009, meaning that streaming plays a huge influence on a song’s certification. That also means that the legends of country music, names like George Strait, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, George Jones, Dolly Parton, and many, many more, are left off the list.
Now, artists and labels are required to submit their music for certification, so maybe these legends don’t care about the certifications. (Honestly, why would they?) The certifications are more beneficial to newer artists who need (or want) an award to add to their resume, something the legacy artists likely aren’t worried about.
But there are also some modern superstars who are missing from the list: No Eric Church, no Luke Bryan, no Jason Aldean, not even Alan Jackson or Garth Brooks made the short list of songs that have been certified Diamond.
So what are the 13 songs? Well you might want to sit down and have a drink or two before reading these, because chances are it might raise your blood pressure:
Brett Young – “In Case You Didn’t Know”
Chris Stapleton – “Tennessee Whiskey”
Darius Rucker – “Wagon Wheel”
Florida Georgia Line – “Cruise”
Kane Brown – “Heaven”
Kane Brown feat. Lauren Alaina – “What Ifs”
Lady A – “Need You Now”
Lil Nas X – “Old Town Road”
Luke Combs – “Beautiful Crazy”
Luke Combs – “Hurricane”
Luke Combs – “She Got The Best Of Me”
Luke Combs – “When It Rains It Pours”
Sam Hunt – “Body Like A Back Road”
I know what you’re thinking: Most of those aren’t country, especially “Old Town Road.” But the songs are classified based on how they were submitted for certification, and those are the 13 that have been submitted as “country” and also certified Diamond.
Florida Georgia Line actually has another Diamond single with “Meant To Be,” their collab with Bebe Rexha – but that one was submitted as a pop single, so it doesn’t count as a country song despite topping the country charts.
Overall, the list is an interesting look at the state of country music in the streaming age, but also raises the question of whether this is really the best way to measure the success of a song: Are you really trying to tell me that more people listened to “Heaven” by Kane Brown than “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys” or “Amarillo By Morning?”
The list really just serves as another outdated function of a music industry that’s struggled to adapt to the streaming age – and clearly hands out awards way too easily.The post Only 13 “Country” Songs Have Been Certified Diamond…And It’s Not At All What You’d Expect first appeared on Whiskey Riff.
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