Hunter Hayes, Florida Georgia Line Enjoy Heavy Metal Summer

Country artists amassed some impressive heavy metal this summer as the RIAA announced its certifications for gold and platinum albums for July and August. Newcomer Hunter Hayes earned his platinum and double-platinum stripes this summer for his self-titled debut CD and hot tune “I Want Crazy,” respectively, while Darius Rucker also took home double-platinum honors for his sing-along cover anthem of “Wagon Wheel.”
Florida Georgia Line achieved their first-ever platinum award for their debut project Here’s To The Good Times, and also broke ground with the highest digital song award (including sales and streams) at five times multi-platinum for their crossover smash, “Cruise.”
Jason Aldean received a multi-platinum cert for four million digital sales of “Dirt Road Anthem” during this period, and Carrie Underwood added to her gold collection with two gold awards for “See You Again,” and “Don’t Forget To Remember Me,” bringing her career Gold digital single tally to 18.
For the months of July and August, 17 album certifications and 87 digital singles were awarded.

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Lorie Hollabaugh

Hollabaugh, a staff writer at MusicRow magazine, has over 20 years of music business experience and has written for publications including American Profile, CMA Close Up, Nashville Arts And Entertainment, The Boot and Country Weekly. She has a Broadcast Journalism and Speech Communication degree from Texas Christian University, (go Horned Frogs), and welcomes your feedback or story ideas at lhollabaugh@musicrow.com.

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