2022 Country Rankdown (Revealing!)

[LBTrocks]

"HEARTFIRST" is that bop!!!!! I ADORE THIS SONG! I literally cannot get enough of it! On repeat! SO GOOD!!

[zaclord 🌈]

HEARTFIRST was *this* close to being my #1, and honestly it should’ve been. So fun and catchy and just a bop. Country radio really dropped the ball with this. Kelsea should already be a megastar.

[bboat11]

7. "If I Was A Cowboy" - Miranda Lambert

Billboard Peak: #12

 

Total: 874

Average: 24.97

Std Dev: 18.20 (9th smallest)

Troublemaker - 3
.indulgecountry - 5
khan - 6
wrip - 7
someguy - 8
LBTrocks - 9
tim - 9
Darkest Hour - 10

wavey. - 11
zdm1998 - 11
lady𝓐fan - 12
Fire - 12
SHOOTER - 13
fearlessarrow - 16
zaclord 🌈 - 17
fireflies - 17
Kanenrá:ke - 18
kw9461 - 18
superdave3556 - 19

312999 - 22
raylatch98 - 24
bboat11 - 25
austin - 28
taylor is terrified - 29

HeyHeyHey - 35
Fanstar1 - 36
George Strait Junkie - 39
gardyfan - 39

🌺CountryLineDancer - 43
nuggie99 - 43
bigd79 - 48
CoJoFan - 48
castleoblivion26 - 49

bigfan101 - 71
nathanalbright - 74

Cody Wants Out...

Gonza'90

SPOILER: Click to show

{Songs Remaining}Damn Strait
Everything She Ain’t
Heart Like A Truck
Never Wanted To Be That Girl
She Had Me At Heads Carolina
Til You Can’t

[bboat11]

You may have noticed that all of these recent trajectory graphs are nearly identical. Lol I don't know if I have ever seen such a stable top 10 as we got this year! We barely saw any top 10 contenders until we got to the top 10 itself, and now ever since we have gotten here, despite all the consistent top 10 contenders we really have yet to see a single top 5 contender!

That all changes with our next reveal, as our most consistent #5 placer that held onto the spot right up until the very last list leaves us next

[bboat11]

Also low-key shocked to see Miranda miss the top 5 considering that she has been one of the main artists to beat for pretty much this whole decade so far! "Cowboy" is another nice song, that I have definitely enjoyed listening to this year! It doesn't hook me quite as much as "Strange", but still a well-deserved top 10 imo!

[Fire]

tkolwm is ok enough but it being top 15 is a head-scratcher to me ngl lol
lnl is ok too but i don't get why it made the top 10 tbh lol
heartfirst is adorable lol
very glad til you can't is still in!!

[wrip]

i am now down to 1 top 10 left 😭 hopefully scotty leaves soon

[bboat11]

6. "Damn Strait" - Scotty McCreery

Billboard Peak: #1

 

Total: 686

Average: 19.6

Std Dev: 18.39

kw9461 - 1
George Strait Junkie - 1
tim - 2
superdave3556 - 2
nuggie99 - 2
CoJoFan - 3
zaclord 🌈 - 4
HeyHeyHey - 4
SHOOTER - 5
taylor is terrified - 5
castleoblivion26 - 5
Darkest Hour - 8
Kanenrá:ke - 8
🌺CountryLineDancer - 8
bigd79 - 9

Troublemaker - 11
.indulgecountry - 12
gardyfan - 12
austin - 14
nathanalbright - 19
wavey. - 20
fireflies - 20

fearlessarrow - 21
bboat11 - 22
lady𝓐fan - 24
Fanstar1 - 24
raylatch98 - 28

zdm1998 - 34

wrip - 42
someguy - 43
bigfan101 - 43

LBTrocks - 52
Fire - 55
312999 - 60

khan - 63

Cody Wants Out...

Gonza'90

SPOILER: Click to show

{Songs Remaining}
Everything She Ain’t
Heart Like A Truck
Never Wanted To Be That Girl
She Had Me At Heads Carolina
Til You Can’t

[zdm1998]

Strange > If I was a cowboy

But y’all aren’t ready for that take

[bboat11]

"Damn Strait" was a solid top 5 contender for most of this rankdown, only getting tanked out at the last second thanks to LBTrocks ' rank that was still not even that bad!

This song has been one of Scotty's best hits that he's ever had up til now, so I'm happy to see him rewarded accordingly!

Ironically, George Strait has like 100 hits and this one is better than maaaaaybe 15 of them... But still, judging it by 2022 standards, I definitely love it It's a nice tribute!

[bboat11]

Anyone feeling bold enough to make a top 5 prediction?

The Top 5:

Everything She Ain’t - Hailey Whitters
Heart Like A Truck - Lainey Wilson
Never Wanted To Be That Girl - Carly Pearce & Ashley McBryde
She Had Me At Heads Carolina - Cole Swindell
Til You Can’t - Cody Johnson

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

Damn Strait is such a beautiful song, lyrically, melodically, and instrumentally. The steel guitar at the bridge is just takng my ears to the heaven.

[Fire]

Mar 14, 2023 22:08:35 GMT -5 bboat11 said:

Mar 14, 2023 22:05:21 GMT -5 Fire said:

does til you can't have a good chance of top 30 or 20 in this rd? i'd absolutely love to see it happen

Unfortunately most of us absolutely despise it... But I guess we'll have to see!

why did u do this to me man when u posted this i genuinely got so scared lol 😭

[bboat11]

Mar 17, 2023 21:48:18 GMT -5 Fire said:

Mar 14, 2023 22:08:35 GMT -5 bboat11 said:

Unfortunately most of us absolutely despise it... But I guess we'll have to see!

why did u do this to me man when u posted this i genuinely got so scared lol 😭

I felt like giving you something to be excited about later!!!

[bboat11]

5. "Heart Like A Truck" - Lainey Wilson

Billboard Peak: #4 (#1-bound!!!!)

 

Total: 658

Average: 18.8

Std Dev: 16.59 (4th smallest)

SHOOTER - 3
Kanenrá:ke - 3
.indulgecountry - 3
George Strait Junkie - 4
wavey. - 4
lady𝓐fan - 4
tim - 6
taylor is terrified - 6
raylatch98 - 6
LBTrocks - 6
kw9461 - 9
fireflies - 9
fearlessarrow - 10

superdave3556 - 12
Troublemaker - 12
bboat11 - 12
CoJoFan - 13
Fire - 13
khan - 13
castleoblivion26 - 14
gardyfan - 15
HeyHeyHey - 18
Fanstar1 - 18
someguy - 18

nuggie99 - 22
bigfan101 - 22
wrip - 28
Darkest Hour - 30

bigd79 - 33
zaclord 🌈 - 34
312999 - 35

zdm1998 - 45
🌺CountryLineDancer - 50

austin - 58

nathanalbright - 70

Cody Wants Out...

Gonza'90

SPOILER: Click to show

{Songs Remaining}Everything She Ain’t
Never Wanted To Be That Girl
She Had Me At Heads Carolina
Til You Can’t

[Darkest Hour]

My predictions:

5. Everything She Ain’t - Hailey Whitters
4. Heart Like A Truck - Lainey Wilson
3. She Had Me At Heads Carolina - Cole Swindell
2. Til You Can’t - Cody Johnson
1. Never Wanted To Be That Girl - Carly Pearce & Ashley McBryde

(Oops, already wrong lol)

[Fire]

lainey wilson having 2 songs with the word "truck" climbing the hot 100 simultaneously kinda amuses me ngl lol, i like both songs tho

[.indulgecountry]

Mar 17, 2023 21:41:59 GMT -5 zdm1998 said:

Strange > If I was a cowboy

But y’all aren’t ready for that take

It is, but both are A+ so...

I feel like Miranda leaving Sony has to do with "Strange" flopping. I say good for her, she knows she can do better elsewhere.

[.indulgecountry]

Lainey Wilson making the top 5 at the very end is nice to see, but she should've been there all along. How are Cole and Cody above her?!

[bboat11]

I probably should have kept "Heart Like A Truck" for the 2023 rankdown at this point I thought it was about to peak when I made this list! Yet here we are, almost to April and it's still going strong


But damn am I happy to see this success for both Lainey and for this song! This has such a sing-along melody that you can just tell is going to be great in live shows for the rest of her career. I love the way this song builds too, allowing Lainey to serve some killer power vocals that we aren't necessarily used to hearing from her! All around SMASH, that I was surprised to see missing the top 5 in favor of Scotty towards the end! LBTrocks said no to that though ;)

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

Heart Like A Truck is a huge grower! I absolutely love the last part of the song so much, especially from the bridge to the final chorus. She sounds so good there.

[LBTrocks]

"Never Wanted To Be That Girl" for the win!!!!!!

If you all let that unoriginal piece of garbage by Cole win I SWEAR!

[bboat11]

Mar 17, 2023 21:57:38 GMT -5 .indulgecountry said:

Lainey Wilson making the top 5 at the very end is nice to see, but she should've been there all along. How are Cole and Cody above her?!

Ma'am the only headscratcher in this top 5 is Hailey Whitters!

[.indulgecountry]

Mar 17, 2023 22:00:44 GMT -5 bboat11 said:

Mar 17, 2023 21:57:38 GMT -5 .indulgecountry said:

Lainey Wilson making the top 5 at the very end is nice to see, but she should've been there all along. How are Cole and Cody above her?!

Ma'am the only headscratcher in this top 5 is Hailey Whitters!

Not really, she is a critical darling. Nu Kacey Musgraves!

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

Mar 17, 2023 22:00:44 GMT -5 bboat11 said:

Mar 17, 2023 21:57:38 GMT -5 .indulgecountry said:

Lainey Wilson making the top 5 at the very end is nice to see, but she should've been there all along. How are Cole and Cody above her?!

Ma'am the only headscratcher in this top 5 is Hailey Whitters!

Wrong, this is a fantastic top 5, I don’t see any problem with it, and Hailey deserves the spot 100%

[bboat11]

4. "Everything She Ain't" - Hailey Whitters

Billboard Peak: #28

 

Total: 640

Average: 18.29

Std Dev: 14.04 (2nd smallest)

🌺CountryLineDancer - 2
nuggie99 - 3
lady𝓐fan - 5
raylatch98 - 5
castleoblivion26 - 6
312999 - 7
austin - 7
fearlessarrow - 9
George Strait Junkie - 10
bigfan101 - 10
zaclord 🌈 - 10

LBTrocks - 11
superdave3556 - 11
someguy - 12
.indulgecountry - 13
kw9461 - 13
HeyHeyHey - 13
wrip - 13
Troublemaker - 14
SHOOTER - 15
Fire - 17
gardyfan - 17
wavey. - 18
khan - 18
Fanstar1 - 19

Kanenrá:ke - 23
tim - 23
Darkest Hour - 26
zdm1998 - 30

bboat11 - 31
nathanalbright - 32
fireflies - 34

CoJoFan - 46

taylor is terrified - 55

bigd79 - 62

Cody Wants Out...

Gonza'90

SPOILER: Click to show

{Songs Remaining}
Never Wanted To Be That Girl
She Had Me At Heads Carolina
Til You Can’t

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

Everything She Ain’t is a fantastic bop, and I’m so glad that it lasted this long! I’m so happy that Hailey’s getting some success with this song, as she deserves it 100%. Love her album, too!

[bboat11]

Shook by this performance for Hailey Whitters! "Everything She Ain't" is a catchy jam, but I definitely would have expected it to be a lot more polarizing 'cause of her vocals. This song plays to her strengths though, and ended up being our 2nd least polarizing song in the end!

Honestly, a song that was ranked in the top 35 by literally everybody except for three people would have been a strong contender for #1 in a lot of years. THAT just goes to show you a good indicator of how insanely well-loved everything in the top 3 is!

[Darkest Hour]

All the remaining songs are within my top 10!

[bboat11]

3. "She Had Me At Heads Carolina" - Cole Swindell

Billboard Peak: #1

 

Total: 616

Average: 17.6

Std Dev: 18.73

🌺CountryLineDancer - 1
raylatch98 - 1
bigd79 - 1
fireflies - 2
Fire - 3
312999 - 5
superdave3556 - 5
someguy - 5
HeyHeyHey - 5
fearlessarrow - 6
George Strait Junkie - 6
castleoblivion26 - 7
Fanstar1 - 7
tim - 7
nuggie99 - 8
zaclord 🌈 - 9
Darkest Hour - 9
bboat11 - 10
nathanalbright - 10

bigfan101 - 13
wrip - 15
SHOOTER - 16
taylor is terrified - 17
gardyfan - 20

austin - 22
zdm1998 - 22
Troublemaker - 26
lady𝓐fan - 30

CoJoFan - 31
.indulgecountry - 32
khan - 32
wavey. - 34

kw9461 - 47

Kanenrá:ke - 66

LBTrocks - 86

Cody Wants Out...

Gonza'90

SPOILER: Click to show

{Songs Remaining}Never Wanted To Be That Girl
Til You Can’t