Morgan Wallen, one of the biggest new stars of country music, was quickly reprimanded on Wednesday by major radio stations, streaming services, record companies, fellow artists and the CMT network after a video of him surfaced with a racial slur.
Wallen is the latest headliner of the genre so far this year. Wallen currently has the number 1 album in the country for three consecutive weeks, even though he has found streaming on streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music, where the country has traditionally struggled. But all of that threatened to start crumbling from Tuesday night, when TMZ posted a video, apparently filmed by a neighbor. Wallen appears to be returning from an evening in Nashville and yelling at someone to take care of another person in his group. to that person with a racial disability.
By this morning, Spotify, Apple and two of the largest radio conglomerates in the country had removed Wallen from the playlists and airwaves, while the singer’s record company and management company, Big Loud, announced that it would “suspend” his contract indefinitely. Republic Records, a division of Universal Music Group that distributes Wallen’s releases in partnership with Big Loud, said it supported the decision, adding “such behavior will not be tolerated.”
Representatives of Wallen did not immediately respond to a request for comment. TMZ reported that the singer apologized in a statement, saying: ‘I am embarrassed and sorry. I used an unacceptable and inappropriate race loss that I wish I could take back. There are never excuses to use this type of language. ”
But the rapid action by the industry, and especially by powerful players in close country music circles, seems to be a shift in a world that has traditionally struggled with race, representation and political issues.
A major owner of country radio stations, iHeartMedia, decided to remove Wallen’s music from the playlists immediately in response to the video, a spokesman said, and Entercom, another major player in radio, did the same; representatives of the companies said the decisions will affect more than 150 stations. Variety reported that Cumulus Media, another major owner of country music stations, had sent orders to hundreds of stations to remove Wallen from their airwaves.
The TV network CMT also said he pulls all of Wallen’s performances off his platforms. “We do not tolerate or distort words and actions that are in direct opposition to our core values that celebrate diversity, equity and inclusion,” CMT said in a statement.
The uproar comes as Wallen, 27, is at the height of his young career. He first gained national visibility as a participant in ‘The Voice’ in 2014 and was a major breakthrough for country music in the world of streaming, which now dominates how music is typically consumed, but more slowly in Nashville.
His latest album, “Dangerous: The Double Album”, reached the best Billboard 200 series, breaking the country’s record by a wide margin, yielding 240 million streams in its first week. On Wednesday, Wallen topped 17 of the 100 best spots on Apple Music’s overall song chart, including two in the Top 10, but he was not present on the service’s flagship Today’s Country playlist. Spotify also removed Wallen’s music from its Hot Country playlist.
Spotify declined to comment on how it would promote Wallen; Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Despite the formative roles of black musicians in early country and hilly music, racial inequality has persisted in the genre for decades, and conversations about insensitive language and popular confederate images are often set aside.
Last year, during the Black Lives Matter protests that followed the assassination of George Floyd in Minneapolis, many Nashville artists broke with tradition and addressed race directly, making statements of solidarity on social media and apologizing for ignorance in the past. . The Dixie Chicks and Lady Antebellum, two top sellers with names that represented the south of the Civil War, announced they would change their names.
As of Tuesday night, several country music artists have spoken out about Wallen’s use of the mist.
Mickey Guyton, a country singer-songwriter, posted on Twitter about the fact that he was a black artist in the industry and the “bad comments” she receives daily, suggesting that Wallen’s behavior is hardly a surprise was and questioned his ‘promises to do better’.
“When I read comments and said ‘this is not who we are’, ‘ she wrote, “I laugh, because that’s exactly who country music is.” Guyton recently became the first solo black woman to be nominated in the country category during the Grammy Awards with her single “Black Like Me”.
She added: “I question daily why I continue to fight to be in an industry that hates me so much.”
Country singer-songwriter Kelsea Ballerini tweeted that Wallen’s behavior “does not represent country music”, while another artist, Maren Morris, said the opposite.
Wallen, has been in the spotlight for the wrong reasons. Last year, he was arrested and charged with public drunkenness and disorderly conduct in downtown Nashville.
Months later, he was scrutinized after being seen in videos on social media removing the guidelines for social distance, which are meant to slow the spread of the coronavirus, take shots, kiss fans and mingle in groups while he does not wear a mask during a celebration. Alabama football victory.
This led to “Saturday Night Live” dropping Wallen off an upcoming show. Wallen apologized and said he was going to take a step back from the spotlight for a while and go work on myself. ‘Two months later, Wallen was again invited to perform on’ SNL ‘, and he appeared in a sketch that made the incident enjoyable.
“To no avail!” Wallen says in the clip and lifts a beer bottle to make a toast.