Rolling Stone is at it again… this time putting out a listical of the 250 greatest songs of the 21st century. Obviously, the list reflects their opinion, and ranges from pop to hip-hop and everything in between. I was interested to see if the outlet gave country music any love, and after scrolling through the long list, I discovered that the genre ended up getting 19 spots out of the available 250. And that’s if you include some folk, Americana, early Taylor Swift and Lil Nas X under the country umbrella. For those bad with math, that means that country makes up around 7.6% of the list. As to how Rolling Stone came up with the 250 greatest songs from the year 2001 and on (so far), they mentioned that “some of these songs are universally beloved hits; others are influential cult classics” and that “it’s a list of songs, not artists, so we mostly avoided repeating multiple tunes by the same performer.” They made some exceptions to that repeat rule, but for the most part, bands and artists only showed up once. And here are the songs that fall into the country music category and where they ranked on Rolling Stone’s list: 236: Shaboozey – “A Bar Song” (2024) 233: John Prine – “Summer’s End” (2018) 231: Florida Georgia Line –  “Cruise” (2012) 227: Tyler Childers – “Feathered Indians” (2017) 216: Old Crow Medicine Show – “Wagon Wheel” 2004 213: Taylor Swift – “Love Story” (2008) 182: Brandi Carlile – “The Story” (2007) 168: The Chicks – “Long Time Gone” (2002) 157: Johnny Cash – “Hurt” (2002) 148: Jason Isbell – “Cover Me Up” (2013) 144: Zach Bryan ft. Kacey Musgraves – “I Remember Everything” (2023) 137: Maren Morris – “My Church” (2016) 115: Little Big Town – “Girl Crush” (2014) 98: Carrie Underwood – “Before He Cheats” (2005) 93: Eric Church – “Springsteen” (2011) 87: Chris Stapleton – “Tennessee Whiskey” (2015) 76: Lil Nas X – “Old Town Road” (2018) 68: Miranda Lambert – “The House That Built Me” (2009) 45: Kacey Musgraves – “Follow Your Arrow” (2013) So what do you think? For the most part, the list is pretty questionable if you ask me. Thank goodness they included artists like Miranda Lambert, Jason Isbell, Eric Church, Chris Stapleton and Carrie Underwood there in the Top 100… because otherwise, the country music genre was going to be widely represented by it’s “Bro Country” era. Here are a couple of other thoughts I had about the list that I’ll just include in rapid-fire-fashion: -If Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song” or Florida Georgia Line’s “Cruise” would have been ranked higher than Tyler Childers’ “Feathered Indians,” I would have rioted. Not sure why “A Bar Song” is on the list at all to be honest. Same with “Old Town Road.” -There were two cover songs that were included: Chris Stapleton’s “Tennessee Whiskey” and Johnny Cash’s “Hurt,” and to be frank, Cash’s rendition of “Hurt” should have been the highest ranked country song on the list (sorry Kacey Musgraves) -Speaking of Musgraves, she was the only country music artist featured twice on the list: Once for “Follow Your Arrow” and the other in her feature in Zach Bryan’s “I Remember Everything.” -Maren Morris’ “My Church” being included kind of seemed like it was out of left field, eh? -As a whole, the country music genre was very much underrepresented, and it’s wild to me that artists like Luke Combs and Kenny Chesney are completely absent from the list, but even Sturgill Simpson, Toby Keith, Turnpike Troubadours were nowhere to be found. How Jamey Johnson’s “In Color” didn’t make the list is egregious, and so is Alan Jackson’s “Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning)”. And just in case you were wondering (and wanted to save some time scrolling) here are the Top 5 songs of the 21st century according to Rolling Stone: 5) “All Too Well” by Taylor Swift 4) “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes 3) “Crazy In Love” by Beyoncé ft. Jay Z 2) “Maps” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs 1) “Get Ur Freak On” by Missy ElliotThe post Rolling Stone Released Their 250 Greatest Songs Of The 21st Century… & Country Music Was Shockingly Underrepresented first appeared on Whiskey Riff.