Country’s crop of newcomers in 2024 were a wide-ranging, diverse batch of artists who have one thing in common: They’re all doing things their own way.

Several of this year’s new stars found their first fanbases on TikTok, and the most successful of those have parlayed social media success into a larger audience, strengthened by its grassroots foundation.

The similarities end there. On one end of the spectrum, traditionalists like Zach Top and songwriter-focused artists like Charles Wesley Godwin are fanning the flames of traditional country music, expanding on the genre’s classic sounds and spotlighting traditional instruments.

Acts like Dasha and Shaboozey prove twang can be buzzy, and that country music can hold its own even in an all-genre forum, with earworms like “Austin” and “A Bar Song (Tipsy).” And acts like Tanner Adell are holding down the genre’s experimental side, bringing country sounds to fans of pop, R&B, hip hop and more arenas.

This year was unique in that it brought an unprecedented number of out-of-genre stars into country music. Some of the biggest albums and singles of the year came from Beyoncé, Post Malone and Machine Gun Kelly — all new to country music, but not new to musical stardom in general.

Though all three of those stars had massive breakout success in the country field in 2024, we’re excluding them from this list in favor of new artists who had their overall breakout this year.