Luke Bryan has been nothing less than polarizing throughout his career. He made his massive break back with Country Girl and then turned out bro country smash after smash. That pissed a lot of people off (me, not one of them) but his career exploded anyway. I will defend Luke though, in 2023 he is one of the most country people in the genre. At least his songs are about things we love, beer, trucks, huntin’, fishin’ etc. Most artist are only singing love songs at this point. Anyway, tangent over, Luke is going to go down as an all-time great regardless your opinion on him. His music not only was on the forefront of a era of country music, bro country. He navigated the boyfriend country era and stayed relevant unlike other bro country artists.
Not only has Luke been huge as an artist, but he has also been huge for the genre. His presences on American Idol have opened a new audience up to country music. He was the best host of any of the award shows I’ve ever seen, alongside Blake Shelton especially. If you’ve ever been to Nashville, his bar Luke’s 32 Bridge, might be the best one on Broadway. Luke just gets it, he gets how to appeal to the masses without totally alienating his country fans. It was tough to narrow down his top 10 songs, but the list I came up with is pretty fair. Let me know what you think!