Country Music in 2021: "I think that your fans are a reflection of you and what you’re about."

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On the topic of Morgan Wallen's self-immolation and the country industry's insular and gatekeeping nature:

https://variety.com/2021/music/news/maren-morris-luke-combs-country-music-panel-seminar-1234910013

“This isn’t about going after people or a fan base for sport,” said Morris. “That doesn’t give me pleasure. But I think (saying) ‘We’re different; we’re country; we protect our own; we don’t go after people in public’ … Well, I mean, going after someone saying the N-word is bad? That’s the least we can do is not say that. [b]I think that your fans are a reflection of you and what you’re about.[b] And you can’t control a human being, but you absolutely can let them know where you stand. And I appreciate Morgan saying ‘Quit defending me’ to his fans, because it’s indefensible. And he knows that; we know that… All we can do is, so there isn’t an elephant in the room, is say that out loud and hold our peers accountable.

“I don’t care if it’s awkward sitting down the row from you at the next awards show — call them out! If this is a family and you love it, call it out when it’s bad, so you can rid the diseased part so we can move forward. All of us — (including) people of color, LGBTQ-plus, and all — feel like we are a part of this family. This whole ‘We’re a family; we’re protecting our own’ is protecting white people. It’s not protecting Black people, and that’s the long and the short of it.” She said that those who put out statements on social media saying “‘This is not representative, actually, of our town’ — I think that by saying it isn’t (representative) with this whole controversy is absolutely diminishing the plight of Black people in country music that are trying to make it in this genre… That is what they see representing it every day.”

Poll Results

OptionVotes
It's complicated 7
A country artist's fans are a reflection of who the artist is and a moral burden should fall on the artist to directly 4
A country artist's fans' actions and decisions exist independently of the artist 2
I find your supposition unworthy of engaging with because introducing genre to this conversation is inherently wronghea 1
Other (please show your work) 1
I find your supposition unworthy of engaging with because this is not so much a case of artists wanting to do the work 0


That's not really my scene (I'm 41) (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 18 February 2021 16:45 (three years ago) link

voted other: Don't know who these people are.

Mosholu Porkway (Boring, Maryland), Thursday, 18 February 2021 16:58 (three years ago) link

Fuck that cliche guy, yall come see us sometime: Rolling Country 2021

dow, Thursday, 18 February 2021 19:36 (three years ago) link

why fuck that guy?

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 18 February 2021 19:43 (three years ago) link

Wallen? Musically and otherwise, he seems simultaneously slack and overactive: throwing all those cliches at us, running around partying nonstop, brain trying to catch up, sometimes. I do give him credit for *not* doubling down, tripling down vs. the "woke mob"--for at least *seeming* painfully embarrassed by his current status as a best-selling martyr-pariah, saying he's scheduled meetings w Nashville NAACP etc. to explain to him why he did the wrong thing---I kinda remotely feel for his excrutiation---except, at several have pointed out, he's already had several second chances. But, but okay, I withdraw "fuck that guy," for now.

(btw, Maren Morris was already targeted by many of the most vocal "anti-woke" Wallen defender-types, for criticizing the CMA Awards ceremony's mask-haplessness. Fuck allll of that kind of freedumb-fried kneejerkery-at-best. So "anti" the kind of country stereotyping so righteously enacted and then some, as the Trump Train rolls on, though it certainly didn't start w him)

dow, Thursday, 18 February 2021 22:58 (three years ago) link

I should say that I have not yet made myself listen to all of Wallen's double album---if it turns out to have some keepers, I'll admit it; I try not to blame the song for the singer.

dow, Thursday, 18 February 2021 23:01 (three years ago) link

It's good but I understand refusing a listen.

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 18 February 2021 23:03 (three years ago) link

oh sorry dow I thought you meant luke combs

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 18 February 2021 23:07 (three years ago) link

is there a translation of the poll options available

Left, Friday, 19 February 2021 00:00 (three years ago) link

It's good but I understand refusing a listen. Your saying that it's good encourages me to listen more, thx.

dow, Friday, 19 February 2021 01:18 (three years ago) link

a combination of the "good" and "gleefully moronic," let me insist

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 19 February 2021 02:16 (three years ago) link

I appreciate Maren Morris for the stand she is taking but not enough to listen to her music, which I have never liked

Hello Nice FBI Lady (DJP), Friday, 19 February 2021 15:56 (three years ago) link

I kind of like Rhiannon Giddens

Hello Nice FBI Lady (DJP), Friday, 19 February 2021 15:57 (three years ago) link

anyway most modern country music is aural white supremacy

Hello Nice FBI Lady (DJP), Friday, 19 February 2021 15:59 (three years ago) link

four months pass...

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Saturday, 3 July 2021 00:01 (three years ago) link

Lol whoops character limit got me

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

System, Sunday, 4 July 2021 00:01 (three years ago) link

it sure is

none of the other options are very satisfying as far as i can make sense of them. in different contexts and genres one or another might apply more often. but i don't understand nashville at all it's such a weird mix of proudly toxic conservatism and semi-apologetic liberal triangulation, sometimes coming from the exact same artist. often hard to tell which part of the audience is being pandered to with which gestures. in any case as it's still so white artists and fans will need to be less timid than this if really want to stop the toxicity

Left, Sunday, 4 July 2021 07:26 (three years ago) link

great article http://www.vulture.com/article/essay-country-music-race-reckoning-one-year-later.html

Today, there are lots of people who, when asked about the current state of country music, will say that the industry is making “progress.” They forget that the story has already been written, that the script has a predetermined victor in its white male hero, that the illusion of anything contrary is only meant to keep things interesting — and only temporarily.

In the case of the genre’s biggest artist — a man who became more successful after a drunken, hateful rage — they can also put on a good face and express their disgust. Then, just a few months later, they can act as if it never happened.

dyl, Sunday, 4 July 2021 16:38 (three years ago) link


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