Country music’s history of racism prevails, despite efforts to turn it around.
By Julia Diorio
In 2021, TMZ shared a video of Morgan Wallen hurling racial slurs at his friends after a drunken night in Nashville. He’s been dropped by record labels and banned from award shows but now holds a number-one album for seven weeks straight whilst going on his first stadium tour.
This isn’t a new thing for the country music industry. There’s been discourse for years about the lack of airtime that artists of color and women get for their music. The genre itself is seen as an anthem for Southern pride and culture, and Morgan Wallen’s swift resurgence to fame speaks to its roots in racism, despite claims of change.
“Wallen’s actions are the product of a racist industry that has already fallen, fat and bursting, from the tree,” according to New York magazine. “Now it lies on the ground, rotting. And while most in the industry have stepped up to clear the waste beneath their feet, not enough are tending to the vines that remain overhead, choking out the sun, always ready to release their overgrowth into the masses below.”
Country music was originally based on folk tales and gained popularity through Western films in the early 20th century. Broadcast radio stations appealed to mainly white audiences with programs of live music. The songs sung by white people were “hillbilly music” while those sung by Black people were “race records,” despite the sound of each being very similar.
Appropriation during this time period was high as well, leaving thousands of black performers under-credited while white performers profited. Newcomers to the industry like Kane Brown are tokenized, who are pushed to the spotlight for “diversity.” Sam Hunt raps on nearly every single one of his songs, but Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road was criticized and ousted from the genre.
“Beyond the self-imposed humiliation of America’s minstrel show history is the fact that the erasure of black contributions to country music is baked into the foundation of the genre,” according to NBC News.
After George Floyd’s murder in 2020, many country artists moved to change country music’s reputation. The Dixie Chicks have become The Chicks, and Lady Antebellum has become Lady A. Danny Shirley of the band Confederate Railroad, however, told Rolling Stone that there is “no way” he’d ever change the name or the Confederate flag shown in their logo. Despite efforts to move away from racist connotations, there are equal efforts to keep the genre there.
Morgan Wallen publicly denounced the incident and has attempted to repair his reputation. There’s an alleged donation to Black Lives Matter, he checked himself into rehab, and he connected with Black community leaders. After the video was released, his music was dropped by all major radio stations, and he was pulled from most award nominations.
In spite of these potential setbacks, Wallen’s album sales increased, and he returned to the industry after a period of silence. He released a successful new album. Most recently, he canceled his second night of performance at University of Mississippi after citing a lost voice. (There’s a picture circulating on Twitter of Wallen laying on a couch in his own puke post-threesome. These two incidents are apparently unrelated.)
“In our minds, it’s playful,” Wallen told Michael Strahan on ABC’s Good Morning America when asked if he thought country music had a race problem. “I haven’t really sat and talked about it.”
Comments