NASHVILLLE, Tennessee. (AP) – Morgan Wallen fans are buying the country star’s latest album after a video showed him shouting racial slur last week.
Wallen’s second album, “Dangerous: The Double Album”, holds its first place for the fourth week on the Billboard album chart of all genres, less than a week after Wallen apologized for using racist language.
The country music industry acted quickly to publicly scold he and radio stations and streaming services removed their music from their playlists. But the fans responded by playing with him even more.
Billboard reports that his latest album sold 25,000 copies during the week ending February 4, an increase of 102%, according to MRC Data. Billboard reported that the album’s streaming number increased slightly by 3%, representing about 160 million streams on demand. Music downloads from the album also increased by 67%.
Wallen’s popularity skyrocketed last year and songs like “Seven Summers” and “Wasted on You” earned him a crossover success on pop radio. His album was already breaking streaming records and is the first country album to spend four weeks at the top of the Billboard 200 chart since 2003, when the album “Up!” Shania Twain spent five weeks at the top.
Hannah Karp, Billboard’s editorial director, said some increase in interest in her music comes from people who are curious about Wallen after the scandal and media attention. But she said it also shows how her fans are responding to decisions to remove him from the radio as well.
“Your fans are probably broadcasting more content because they can no longer hear it on the radio,” said Karp. “Some fans may be transmitting more to him in addition to showing their support for him, which is something that super fans and armies of fans often do.”
Karp noted that, in general, album sales and downloads are much lower than the streaming numbers for all artists, so it doesn’t take much to cause a huge increase in sales.
Karp said it may be too early to predict the long-term consequences for Wallen.
“We didn’t see the full effect of the radio taking its music out of playlists. The radio is a really powerful driver of consumption, so it is possible that it will end up reducing streaming and sales ”, she said.