morgan wallen

I quite dig the album, and it's fun to dip around in like any double or triple thing, and what he said should surprise no one.

Guess corporate America's seen the PR possibilities in #woke

Wallen’s behavior is disgusting and horrifying. I think this is an opportunity for the country music industry to give that spot to somebody who deserves it, and there are lots of black artists who deserve it. https://t.co/14B77zLgMR

— Jason Isbell (@JasonIsbell) February 3, 2021

This doesn't belong here, but it's good news: TJ Osbourne of the Brothers Osbourne came out today.

*Osborne

Guess corporate America's seen the PR possibilities in #woke

this seems startlingly cynical to me. what do you think they should have done (if anything)?

guy shoulda been dumped from the industry after he was caught partying during a pandemic (and yes i'm aware that other artists i'm a fan of have probably been partying it up too)

this seems startlingly cynical to me. what do you think they should have done (if anything)?

― excuse me while I fold my pants (morrisp)

Exactly what they did today. As Murgatroid said, though, they should've done so last winter after the mask-free partying.

Isbell saying that is also notable because IIRC Wallen covered a song of his on the new album.

Gotcha. I see the partying as different from this.

For Nashville, maybe in 2021 the politics of masking is too hot to touch.

i don't think someone should have their career ruined for flouting covid guidelines.

not that i defend partying during covid. but i think it's a different category of offense than this.

Yeah, that partying was dumb, but not losing your career worthy imho. But that doesn't matter because he's since proved that was only the tip of his own dumbfuck iceberg.

idk potentially killing others (even indirectly but when the alternative, staying the fuck home, is the easiest thing to a successful musician) seems like a career-losing offence to me!

i just noticed he's "suspended indefinitely" from his label....which is not the same thing as "dropped"

speaking of cynical

idk potentially killing others (even indirectly but when the alternative, staying the fuck home, is the easiest thing to a successful musician) seems like a career-losing offence to me!

drunk driving obviously isn't, historically

yeah, i thought that was a suspect move by Big Loud. they wanna wait for this to blow over.

i have only read a couple links but i still don't understand what 'suspending' his contract really means

i'm not sure i agree w/ the suggestion that the audience that delivers him his superlative streaming numbers wouldn't also be put off by this incident. given that his project just came out recently, i guess we'll see! frankly, the streaming ecosystem is not really that democratized, and yeah while there was a contingent of folks who felt weirdly energized to stick up for tory lanez after that whole saga, it frankly... didn't really help him commercially? like, yes, the fact that he was getting on the hot 100 at all was good by his standards, but none of his entries since the incident has lasted more than two weeks -- i strongly doubt he'll ever have a real hit again. similarly, save for "gooba" (briefly) 6ix9ine has also been on a precipitous decline and will also probably never have a hit again.

morgan wallen is a major star in country right now, easily on the level of like luke bryan a decade ago, but he's also come along at just the right time to benefit from a major surge in streaming usage among the country audience as more listeners have adopted services like amazon and apple music in recent years. country singles are charting better pretty much across the board over the past ~2 years as a result, so he is hardly the only artist to be benefiting from this wave. luke combs, to name one obvious example, is basically at his heels commercially. there will be other huge stars sooner than one might expect. is he really that unique? i personally don't think so, tho i haven't gone deep on his catalog and probably never will.

if this nips his career in the bud, i don't think it will hurt the label system much. some fans will be spurred to defend him or clamor for some kind of reconciliation, but many are already repulsed. the country audience isn't quite as hard-right as people sometimes presume.

you're focusing too much on singles and the hot 100. tory lanez's album is in the top 100 on apple music a month after its release w/ not just no label backing but a complete promotional blackout on all streaming services. there might be like 2 or 3 indie albums in the country doing better than it right now. the hot 100 is harder to crack for a variety of reasons, but outside of like idk the 50 most successful songs in a given year, an album that streams well matters more (in a dollars sense) than a song that streams well. it's a quantity game and tory lanez is making a lot of money w/ no label skimming off the top of his streams. morgan wallen will have to fall very far for his album to not be highly profitable for him & the label. outside of rap and a few pop acts, he's in his own stratosphere of streaming. luke combs is only at his heels commercially in a superficial sense... from billboard:

Dangerous' 265,000 opening-week units, streaming equivalent albums (SEA) comprise 184,000, equaling 240.2 million on-demand streams of the album's songs; album sales contribute 74,000; and track equivalent albums (TEA) equal 7,000. The set scores the largest streaming week ever for a country album, more than doubling the 102.3 million streams achieved by Luke Combs' What You See Is What You Get (Nov. 7, 2020).

it's not slighting country fans to say that most of this guy's enormous audience is going to stick by him through this controversy and/or accept his reconciliation and subsequent comeback. that's pretty much the entire history of fandom

He'll probably try to go to rehab and hope people are dumb enough to believe that alcohol makes you racist.

Just because he's one of the more vocal:

And yes, alcohol doesn’t make you use that word. They don’t actually put Jack Daniel’s blood in it

— Jason Isbell (@JasonIsbell) February 4, 2021

Looking at Twitter....yeah...he's gonna be fine

If Ariel Pink can get a sympathetic ear from Fucker Carlson I’m sure this clown can too

Imagine what a absolutely shitty neighbor Morgan Wallen must be if someone on his street took the effort to examine their Ring footage, download it and then send it to TMZ

Now dropped by his agency (WME).

Yeah the whole busted-by-Ring aspect of this is very Black Mirror.

The surveillance state is woke

I dgaf about this stupid Morgan Waller guy but when Isbell inevitably has his own caught-on-tape moment I'm gonna laugh so hard

really

Wtf

fuck off

BMI apparently thinks BeBe Winans has nothing more important to do than go counsel this shit-kicking hick about his public image.

BMI, the music rights management organization, says it can’t kick Morgan Wallen from its ranks, but has asked the iconic gospel singer BeBe Winans to educate the disgraced country music singer-songwriter about being a more “empathetic person” https://t.co/vgRbq4mkO1

— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) February 4, 2021

i was worried things like that were gonna happen but i figured it'd be one of the small number of black stars in contemporary country who'd be enlisted

BMI also removed Wallen’s photo from its Twitter page this afternoon, going from this…

…to this:

The artists got whiter tho(?!)

I don't believe there's any precedent for revoking someone's membership in a performing rights organization for something like this. I mean Phil Spector and Jim Gordon were/are both still BMI members.

Is this the first time someone was cancelled while they had the number one album?

Billboard reports that his latest album sold 25,000 copies during the week ending Feb. 4, an increase of 102%, according to MRC Data. Billboard reported that that the album’s streaming numbers slightly increased by 3%, representing roughly 160 million on-demand streams. Song downloads from the album also went up by 67%.

From an AP news article. His sales and streams increased when this news came out

if this nips his career in the bud, i don't think it will hurt the label system much. some fans will be spurred to defend him or clamor for some kind of reconciliation, but many are already repulsed. the country audience isn't quite as hard-right as people sometimes presume.

― dyl, Thursday, February 4, 2021 12:16 AM (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

keep trying to square this with all the country music fans i grew up with and what they post on facebook, but the numbers seem to back up my instincts

I would wager that the great, great majority of people on both the left and the right don't even have the "can I still support this artist" argument with themselves and just like what they like

^^^ largely OTM

So... A portion of this money goes to me, since I wrote ‘Cover Me Up.’ I’ve decided to donate everything I’ve made so far from this album to the Nashville chapter of the @NAACP. Thanks for helping out a good cause, folks. https://t.co/Ch3FlDBmJf

— Jason Isbell (@JasonIsbell) February 10, 2021

Good on Isbell, seems like the right thing to do in this case. Just don’t tell Paul Ponzi.

Pledged to donate $500,000 but Rolling Stone can’t find evidence he donated that much:

Nearly eight weeks after making these comments, however, it remains unclear if Wallen actually donated the entire amount he said he would. In a statement to Rolling Stone, BMAC — the only organization Wallen mentioned by name in his GMA interview — criticized the singer, saying they were “disappointed that Morgan has not used his platform to support any anti-racism endeavors.” While the group received some money from Wallen, they said the $500,000 number “seems exceptionally misleading.”

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/morgan-wallen-charity-1209084/

Yikes:

Lil Durk releases the video to his single “Broadway Girls” featuring Morgan Wallen.
pic.twitter.com/w6P0d7uZKc

— Rap Alert (@rapalert4) December 20, 2021

"Eminem featuring Elton John" - 2021

It's got the same ominous trap/twang as "Old Town Road" and unfortunately is stuck in my head after a few listens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kpz4Ro5iD1Q

Billboard Hot 100: #14(new) Broadway Girls, @lildurk Feat. @MorganWallen.

— chart data (@chartdata) December 28, 2021

Last night @opry you had a choice- either upset one guy and his “team,” or break the hearts of a legion of aspiring Black country artists. You chose wrong and I’m real sad for a lot of my friends today. Not surprised though. Just sad.

— Jason Isbell (@JasonIsbell) January 9, 2022

Wait so looking through the replies on that, someone is saying that "all about the Benjamins" is an anti-Semitic slur?

I love how ilxors always remain baffled by the idea that anyone enjoys country music

I understand how people can enjoy a lot of the country music that gets praised around here. Miranda Lambert, for example. I don't like her music, but I understand what's appealing about it. I bought two Eric Church albums and liked one significantly more than the other, but there too I understand the appeal.

This guy, though... there's just absolutely nothing there. I see a bunch of writers bending over backwards to find something to say about a guy who, even if you discount his repellent public persona and drunken racism, might as well have been grown in a vat. Like, even if you really, really like country music as a whole, there's gotta be people doing it better than this meat puppet. And sorry, writing about him just because he's popular should only be your job if you write for Billboard. Even if your angle is "this guy sucks, so why is he popular?" you're wasting your, and your hypothetical reader's, time.

Yeah, the problem is not country, it's him and his music.

pretty much.

there's a line in the title track that's along the lines of, "if i'm so abusive, how come you haven't left me? if i have a such a bad drinking problem, then how come you're drinking too?" combine that with his complete douche vocal affectation and yeah, i just can't do it

i'm sure there are ppl who just eat that shit up, though!

evidently there are millions of them

Whoever my favorite singer is, country or otherwise, I know I don't want to see them occupy 17 positions in the Top 40. That's just obnoxious. They're gaming the system.

in this case, I'd point to the tired expression "don't hate the player, hate the game", the game being Billboard etc

oh there’s plenty to go around for both

I live outside NYC: the 20-ish people I encounter here like hip-hop and country. But in 30 years of living in NYC, mainstream country was utterly absent in an "in the wild" context. So I more or less don't know what its like to live in an environment where mainstream country is everywhere in the wild (although I lived in louisville from ages 0-18), and is as such designed to make the country audience feel seen, or rather to have its values reinforced. I listened to country radio for several hours Friday, and it is staggering how often the songs are defensive of the country lifestyle, like "I love being from a small town" and "drinking at the level alcoholics do (for I am an alcoholic) is awesome" and "smoking cigarettes is awesome because big city/high class scolds don't like it" and also something that for sure wasn't present in country music in recent decades: "smoking reefer is great." also there's "white southern girls are hot." I didn't hear anybody do songs about their trucks, but most of these sentiments, however redolent of smallmindedness, were expressed with wit and eloquence, i.e. the songs were written very very well. I don't think hip-hop or pop has parallels to this tendency to pat their audience on the head and tell them "we are so great" in this manner.

I think many of you guys live in red states now, or grew up in red states or red environments, and despise Morgan Wallen and the people and values he very plainly represents. And I don't blame you. I do however think that ILM people should strive to be able to recognize excellent songwriting, even if it's coming from shitheads like this guy. Shitheads from small southern towns can remain unreconstructed shitheads from small southern towns their whole lives, and be great recording artists the whole way. Again, i can see that this would be hard to accept if you have to deal with bigoted, smug assholes who think the world looks down on them for the same reasons they think are self-evidently awesome.

I think Zach Bryan is for people who live in red states/red environments, have pride in many aspects of southern culture, cannot help but feel country music deeply, but hate people like Wallen and hate trumpism, racism, homophobia and smallmindedness. And yet I think Wallen is worth ten million Zach Bryans. Being an asshole doesn't mean you suck as a musician/recording artist. Often quite the contrary.

the "unlistenable," "one dimensionally pigish" qualities are precisely what prevent me from having any desire to explore the catalogue beyond a few stray streams, no matter how many MW display stands i bumped into at target yesterday

― budo jeru, Sunday, June 1, 2025 11:50 AM (eight hours ago)

well, a lot of my issues w/ this album feel like something that happens to a lot of artists, where fame starts to consume them and they become insular and resentful of the outside world. a few stray lines aside wallen stays too in character to complain about fame in a literal way in his music, but the trajectory of his celebrity has gotten him to a place where he doesn't seem to be enjoying his life a ton. that's certainly the impression you get from this album. i think there has to be a lot of projecting happening to position his music as resentful or reactionary in some sort of political way -- the album is almost entirely about bad relationships. i do think he toes this line purposefully -- even the album title can be viewed as gesturing to any number of aspects of his celebrity, but on the title track it's very simply rendered w/in the context of a failed relationship.

i don't find him to be a very political musician, personally -- or at least his brand of southern politics doesn't strike me as noteworthy w/ in the context of country music. he has not been outlandish or outspoken since becoming a lightning rod figure, the "controversies" cited by ann powers still boil down to "breaking covid protocols" (who among us...) and throwing a chair off a balcony, which is male diva behavior i'm not going to pretend to clutch my pearls over. "get me back to god's country" is about as close as he has gotten to some sort of overt political statement and even that was so innocuous that it was easily reclaimed as a meme by the people it was meant to spite. as powers notes in her piece, wallen didn't post the photo of him hunting w/ tennessee gov on his own IG, and as far as i can tell he's never endorsed any politician despite being probably the most famous southern man in america. i'm not applauding him for what is likely just self-preservation but i do think people bring their feelings about what he represents as an avatar for a certain part of america to bear against his music when the songs themselves largely decline to engage in much beyond the personal. even "come back as a redneck" on this album is trading in toothless caricature -- it describes a "mr. city man" with a "nasdaq in [his] hand" who rolls his eyes at the protagonist's "beat-up truck" (i find the song tuneful). i was happy to read powers note, after a good deal of anthropological excavation, that you can explain a lot of wallen's appeal in the way you can many pop stars. nobody bends over backwards to try and "understand" why people like the weeknd, even though the two share some important qualities (unique and malleable singing voice, believable seller of hedonistic pop songs) that explains their success

i liked wallen's breakthrough album because it's a largely knockout collection of mainstream country songs delivered by an upstart figure who is perfectly cast as the wounded wildheart at its center. i liked his last album because the nihilism people now associate w/ him was turned inward -- the album is a portrait of addiction that i find sad and pathetic but also compelling and relatable. the quality started to dip w/ that one, and w/ each of the last three records you do have to spend time listening and re-listening to a lot of music to pluck out the songs you connect w/, so on a purely logistical level his music presents a hurdle that i can't fault many people for declining to clear. this album, for my money, rewards that time investment the least even though i count like 15 good songs. but i think that there is a lot of engagement w/ the cultural baggage his celebrity carries that leads people to misunderstand the music, and because mainstream country is still considered déclassé (or, at best, a trifle) in circles of good taste i think it's easier for people to just engage w/ the baggage and then throw the baby out w/ the bathwater

i think there has to be a lot of projecting happening to position his music as resentful or reactionary in some sort of political way -- the album is almost entirely about bad relationships.

Yeah for sure, by "resentment" I meant the relationship songs, at least some of which are off-putting and whiny and make him seem small. I do think there's something fairly identity-politics about a white guy naming an album I'm the Problem and then having a title track about how no actually you're the problem. But he's not explicitly political. It's just his vibe. Our congressman is like that too. They're these guys who've spent their whole life suspecting other people are looking down on them and fantasizing about rubbing it in their faces. Which is understandable but only goes so far as a character trait.

Anyway, if you haven't seen it, this is what his entrance to his first Neyland Stadium concert looked like. You can see how it's hard for me to separate him from the state power structure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15aAvPiSKfY

And if I liked his music more I'm sure I'd forgive a lot more of all of that. I think he's talented, I get why he's successful, but I'm not that into it. He's kind of a Drake figure for me maybe.

Apt comparison, otm.

agreed. for me it's not really a culture war or red state thing, or even a perception that mainstream country is in poor taste. it's just that if you put your resentful, small-minded jock persona at the center of all your songs, and i don't find anything redeeming about them musically, then i might end up disliking your music with more feeling than if it was just something anodyne

Good discussion.

Funny he covered a Whitley song. There are some similarities there - young star with big hits right out the gate, drinking problems- but Whitley was actually able to display vulnerability. He should try “Don’t Close Your Eyes” next.

I can't believe they got Peyton into a full uniform for that walkout. That's hilarious.

Also: How do you not walk out to "Rocky Top" ??

I believe he saved "Rocky Top" for the lead-in to the encore.

Wallen has displayed vulnerability but ymmv

but Whitley was actually able to display vulnerability

well, wallen at his best is able to do this, too. certainly when he was blowing up there was vulnerability and tenderness to his songs and i think that's a big part of what made him a compelling artist. big early hits of his like "whiskey glasses," "chasin you," "7 summers," "somebody's problem," "sand in my boots" are more wistful than any other emotion, to me. there isn't much if any defiance, "seething resentment" etc in those songs -- but they're also written from the perspective of someone who is, like, looking ahead at life? who has suffered some heartbreak but still allows some optimism to shine through? as i've said a few times, i think that over time, as he has become more famous, the songs have shed those qualities and have instead become more hardened, resentful, and depressed. again, i still find him to be often quite effective in that mode, but i do think his music has suffered through this shift in persona

I've only heard some of his songs, but I definitely get that vibe. The title track song that's popular kind of has this sneering resentment, like the person he's dating is trying to say "I have a lot of fun going out, drinking whiskey, you getting into some shit at the bar, but maybe we need to grow up?" and his rejoinder is "well you keep going out with me and seem to be having fun"

"I got where I am now being like this, why should I change?" is almost a national ethos at this point

xp I would argue based on the little I know about Wallen's backstory that Whitley's life was on the whole far more tragic, to the point where you can almost hear a particular kind of desperation in even his corniest hits. Then again, maybe I'm romanticizing Whitley and hearing more darkness that there actually was based on how things turned out. It also makes me think about someone like Luke Bell, whose demons seem far more apparent in his music in retrospect, at least to me.

I listened to this whole content dump album today in an attempt to get past my kneejerk reaction to not liking Wallen as a person. And this isn't a "must listen to understand popular people" thing, more motivated by son recently getting into country and trying to find common ground with his tastes (he's not a huge Wallen fan really, but did have a couple of his songs on a playlist he made me).

Anyway, much of the first half of this is astonishingly bad and bland (with a few exceptions) and I almost gave up. I won't say the second half completely redeemed the project, but it was significantly better. I agree with much of Alfred and Jordan's favorite songs.

It definitely didn't convert me to a fan or even someone mildly interested in him, especially with how often he sounds like an asshole with a chip on his shoulder (as others have noted), but I can recognize that when he has some good material to work with he's not an untalented guy.

I'd add "Genesis," whose conceit is exactly why I listen to country (also: its ickiness).

MORGAN WALLEN’S ‘I’M THE PROBLEM’ MAKES IT A DOZEN WEEKS AT NO. 1 ON BILLBOARD 200

https://theonion.com/morgan-wallen-boycotts-grammys-in-protest-of-desegregation/

This dude was playing in a Thrift store in harajuku and it sounded pretty good