Morgan Wallen, one of the biggest new stars in country music, was quickly rebuked on Wednesday by major radio stations, streaming services, record labels, other artists and the CMT network after a video of him appeared using racial slander.
The brightest new headline of the genre so far this year, Wallen currently has the No. 1 album in the country for three consecutive weeks, having found strength even in streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, where country has traditionally struggled. But all of this threatened to fall apart from Tuesday night, when TMZ posted a video, apparently filmed by a neighbor, who appeared to show Wallen coming back from a night in Nashville and shouting for someone to look after someone else in his group, referring to up to that person with a racial slander.
In the morning, Spotify, Apple and two of the country’s largest radio conglomerates removed Wallen from playlists and airwaves, while the label and the singer’s management company, Big Loud, announced who 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 supports the decision, adding that “such behavior will not be tolerated”.
Wallen’s representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment. TMZ reported that the singer apologized in a statement, saying: “I’m ashamed and I’m sorry. I used an unacceptable and inappropriate racial slander that I wish I could remove. There is no excuse for using this type of language, ever. “
But the immediate action of the industry, and especially of powerful players within close-knit country music circles, seemed to signal a change in a world that traditionally struggles with racial, representation and political issues.
A major owner of country radio stations, iHeartMedia, decided to remove Wallen’s music from their playlists immediately in response to the video, a spokeswoman said, and Entercom, another major radio player, did the same; company representatives said the decisions would affect more than 150 broadcasters. Variety reported that Cumulus Media, another major owner of country music stations, sent a directive to hundreds of its stations asking them to remove Wallen from their radio waves.
The TV network CMT he also said he was removing all Wallen’s appearances from his platforms. “We do not tolerate or tolerate words and actions that directly oppose our fundamental values that celebrate diversity, equity and inclusion,” said the CMT in a statement.
The uproar comes when Wallen, 27, is at the height of his young career. He gained national visibility for the first time as a competitor on “The Voice” in 2014 and represented a major breakthrough for country music in the streaming world, which now dominates the way music is normally consumed, but took longer to catch in Nashville .
Her latest album, “Dangerous: The Double Album”, topped the Billboard 200 all-genre chart and broke the country streaming record by a wide margin, with her songs reaching 240 million streams in the first week. On Wednesday, Wallen occupied 17 of the top 100 spots on the overall Apple Music song chart, including two in the Top 10, but he was not on today’s playlist of Country, the service’s flagship. Spotify also removed Wallen’s song from its Hot Country playlist.
Spotify declined to comment on how it would promote Wallen in the future; Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Despite the forming roles of black musicians at the beginning of country and country music, racial inequality persisted for decades in the genre and conversations about the insensitive language and popular images of the Confederates were often brushed 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 the racial issue directly, making statements of solidarity on social media and apologizing for the ignorance of the past . The Dixie Chicks and Lady Antebellum, two bestsellers with names that suggested the era of the Southern Civil War, announced that they would change their names.
Beginning Tuesday night, several country music artists talked about Wallen’s use of slander.
Mickey Guyton, a country singer and songwriter, posted on Twitter about being a black performer in the industry and the “vile comments” she receives daily, suggesting that Wallen’s behavior was hardly a surprise and questioning his “promises to do better”.
“When I read comments saying ‘we are not who we are’” she wrote, “I laugh because that’s exactly what country music is.” Guyton recently became the first black woman to be nominated in a country category at the Grammy Awards with her single “Black Like Me”.
She added: “I question daily why I keep struggling to be in an industry that seems to hate me so much.”
Country singer and 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 before. Last year, he was arrested and charged with public intoxication and disorderly conduct in downtown Nashville.
Months later, he was investigated after being seen in videos on social networks disregarding the social detachment guidelines designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus, drinking doses, kissing fans and mixing in groups without wearing a mask during a celebration after a University of Vitória in Alabama football.
This prompted “Saturday Night Live” to remove Wallen from an upcoming program. Wallen apologized, saying that he planned to “step back from the spotlight for a while and work on myself”. Two months later, Wallen was invited to perform on “SNL” and appeared in a skit that scoffed at the incident.
“No consequences!” Wallen says in the clip, lifting a bottle of beer to make a toast.