A younger country star just pushed Willie Nelson off the Billboard rankings, and the unexpected power shift is sparking a new kind of debate over legacy vs momentum. ML
Willie Nelson performs at the 40th Anniversary of Farm Aid. Nelson created the concert series in 1985 to aid family farmers.
If this week hasn’t been enough of a whirlwind – in case you missed it, Dictionary.com just announced Skrilla’s “6 7” as 2025 word of the year – we now have something else to scratch our heads over: Country star Morgan Wallen just surpassed Texas legend Willie Nelson in most career songs on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs Chart.
Wallen’s new single “Graveyard Whistling” marked the singer’s 117th entry on the chart, booting Nelson to the fourth most all time. The ranking of artists with most career songs on Billboard’s Hot Country Chart now ranks as follows: George Jones (155), George Strait (124), Johnny Cash (121), Morgan Wallen (117) and Willie Nelson (116).
For 32-year-old Wallen, reaching this record-breaking milestone at such a young age is an impressive feat. However, Wallen’s rapid rise likely stems in part from changes in the music industry. In the streaming era, songs can blow up at dizzying rates – a pace unimaginable to his country music predecessors.
Morgan Wallen performs onstage for the 16th Annual Darius and Friends St. Jude Benefit at Ryman Auditorium on June 2, 2025 in Nashville, Tennessee.
We can’t discount Wallen’s current prominence in the genre, but this latest feat is a clear example of how streaming consumption methods are reshaping how we view popularity in the modern era compared with the last century. Will Morgan Wallen eventually reach legend status like our homegrown hero Willie Nelson? Only time will tell if virality can compete with respected longevity in the country music sphere.
