News•Mar 1, 2026
People Are Drinking Less Than Ever. What’s Country Music to Do?
Alcohol consumption in the United States has slipped to just 54 percent of adults, a four‑point drop from 2024, prompting distilleries like Jim Beam and George Dickel to halt or scale back production. The decline is hitting Nashville’s long‑standing synergy between country music and spirit branding, as marketers struggle to find artists who still drink and consumers to buy celebrity‑linked bottles. At the same time, cannabis‑infused drinks are exploding, with THC tonics outselling traditional alcohol among Gen Z. Yet many songwriters argue that whiskey‑centric lyrics remain a staple of country storytelling.
