Is the feminome still happening?

Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Images: Getty Images

Scroll through 2025 Grammy nominations this morning I encountered the expected candidates: Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, Charli XCX. At least I recognized the names of almost every artist listed; I laughed to see Khruangbin, the psychedelic funk trio that’s been around since 2010, nominated for Best New Artist, and smiled at the sight of Jacob Collierone of those jazz wunderkinds that only boomer Grammy voters seem to listen to. However, there was one big name I didn’t recognize: Teddy Swims.

A Best New Artist nominee, Teddy Swims is a singer-songwriter from Georgia who makes blue-eyed soul. He looks like Travis Kelce Lil Wayne-ified, at least in the first photo that appears on Google Images – a gruff and bearded Southerner with face tats, chains and a grill. He also looks like Post Malone, who in his quest to go full-on in Nashville this year, swapped out Young Thug and 21 Savage for Morgan Wallen in his collaborative lineup. You know who else looks like Post Malone? Last year’s Best New Artist nominee, Jelly Roll, the Tennessee country rap sensation with a cross tattooed on his cheek. They’re all tough, white dudes embraced by the country establishment — both Teddy Swims and Posty will perform at the 2024 Country Music Awards — even as they cross genres and claim rap aesthetics. And they are very, very popular.

The narrative that came out of the 2024 Grammys back in February is that women now rule pop music. They still dominate the nominations in 2025, with 11 nods for Beyoncé and seven for both Billie Eilish and Charli XCX. Mainstream music discourse has centered on female performers such as Charli, Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan, who make raunchy songs about the joys of being sexually liberated women. But the charts have told a different story. While critics this year proclaimed “summer with girl pop,” men commanded Billboard “Top 100” – in June, only Sabrina Carpenter and Billie Eilish made it into the “Top 10”, while Post Malone and Morgan Wallen’s “I Had Some Help” took the top spot.

This year has been massive for rural, working-class men, or at least artists who claim the aesthetic of pretending to be lonely drunks whose only friend is their pickup truck. Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” just became the longest-running No. 1 single of the decade, tied only with Morgan Wallen’s 2023 smash “Last Night”. (Wallen, whose numerous controversies include saying the N-word on the camera and violate SNLs COVID protocols, was snubbed by the Recording Academy last year and just received its first Grammy nomination.) Take a closer look Billboard charts and you will find guys you probably have never heard of – like Koe Wetzel, a Texas country rock singer who just uploaded a hunting video to YouTube. Even Beyoncé, the most Grammy-nominated musician of all time, has tried to channel this anti-establishment spirit Cowboy Carter. Country is everywhere and everyone is trying to seem blue collar. Consider camo hats that were first Chappell Roan merch, then Harris/Walz political campaign endorsements, or Lana Del Rey and Quavo’s country-trap collaboration, “Tough,” in which Lana—now married to a Louisiana alligator tour guide – talking about guns, leather boots and “red-dirt attitude.” We’ll check in again next year, but for now it looks like the culture is heading south.