{"id":564333,"date":"2021-06-15T11:22:01","date_gmt":"2021-06-15T15:22:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=564333"},"modified":"2021-06-15T11:22:03","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T15:22:03","slug":"the-medias-treatment-of-morgan-wallen-is-a-warning-the-left-wants-control-of-country-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-medias-treatment-of-morgan-wallen-is-a-warning-the-left-wants-control-of-country-music\/","title":{"rendered":"The Media\u2019s Treatment Of Morgan Wallen Is A Warning: The Left Wants Control Of Country Music"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-medias-treatment-of-morgan-wallen-is-a-warning-the-left-wants-control-of-country-music%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=564333&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1285189886.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p><span>Over the last few weeks, several major radio chains that had previously taken disgraced country star Morgan Wallen out of rotation quietly began playing his music again. He still wasn\u2019t welcome at Wednesday\u2019s CMT awards, the latest of the industry ceremonies to ban him, but his record label lifted his four-month contract suspension. And fellow performers like Miranda Lambert and Jason Aldean recently showed him support by praising his newest song on social media.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>All of this isn\u2019t sitting well with Washington Post entertainment reporter Emily Yahr, who seems to feel the 28-year-old should suffer further consequences for a February video leak that showed him referring to a white friend as the n-word while intoxicated.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cHis return to the spotlight,\u201d she writes in a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/arts-entertainment\/2021\/06\/09\/morgan-wallen-country-music-change\/\"><span>June 9 story<\/span><\/a><span>, \u201cis a jarring reminder that for all the introspection this last year about the lack of diversity in country music, some in the industry would be fine to go back to business as usual. This was an outcome many feared, even though it initially seemed like the incident could serve as a wake-up call\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span>Many feared<\/span><\/i><span> that a young man who said a word, albeit a terrible word, would eventually be restored to the fold after an extended period of punishment?\u00a0 What would have been a more appropriate response to a momentary transgression, seemingly committed without malice aforethought \u2014 leaving Wallen in the outer darkness permanently? Perhaps Yahr isn\u2019t aware that forgiveness and restoration are foundational principles of Christianity, the religion the vast majority of country performers and fans grew up in and still practice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Yahr never explicitly explains what call the industry is supposed to be waking up to, but she spends the remainder of the article implying that African Americans aren\u2019t welcome in country music. \u201c[Wallen\u2019s] casual use of a slur,\u201d she opines, \u201cwas a painful example of what happens in an environment that has sidelined people of color since it was commercialized\u2026He was a microcosm of the much larger problem in the overwhelmingly white world of country music.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Sidelined people of color?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>I wonder if Yahr has any idea that fans made Charley Pride country\u2019s biggest act of the 1970s, long before diversity measures or privilege panels. Or that the Country Music Hall of Fame was happy to induct DeFord Bailey, who performed at the Grand Ole Opry from the 1920s to 1940s, in 2005 at the height of the Bush administration \u2014 about a decade before the Black Lives Matter movement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>I wonder if she knows that Linda Martell released a number of chart-topping singles in the late sixties and early seventies \u2014 hits that wouldn\u2019t have ranked as high as they did without white consumers purchasing them. And that\u2019s to say nothing of today\u2019s black stars like Darius Rucker, Cowboy Troy, Kane Brown, and Jimmie Allen, among numerous others, who have managed to achieve massive commercial success without the aid of the newly-formed \u201canti-racist\u201d group, Nashville Music Equality.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Yahr is correct that, on a percentage basis, country music does have a higher proportion of white stars than black. But then again, R&#038;B, rap, hip-hop, funk, and blues all have a much higher proportion of black performers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>That said, Yahr does deserve credit for eventually admitting that her complaint isn\u2019t really about Wallen \u2014 who, despite her assertion that he hasn\u2019t demonstrated any \u201creal public reflection,\u201d made several <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/morgan-wallen-breaks-long-silence-i-needed-this-time-off\"><span>extensive<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/watch-morgan-wallen-posts-apology-video-talks-sobriety-following-n-word-video-deplatforming\"><span>apologies<\/span><\/a><span> and showed concrete remorse by canceling a summer concert tour that would have brought him a massive <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/morgan-wallens-record-sales-skyrocket-amid-racial-slur-controversy\"><span>payday<\/span><\/a><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>By calling the Wallen incident a \u201cmicrocosm\u201d of a \u201cmuch larger problem\u201d and going on to spend the rest of her word count discussing \u201cwhite privilege\u201d and \u201cracial reckoning\u201d within the genre, Yahr tips her hand. She hopes diversity demands and inclusion oversight will force the remaining popular cultural institution outside the Left\u2019s control to finally bend to its will.\u00a0 The \u201cbusiness as usual\u201d she doesn\u2019t want to return to is a business that disregards the opinions of legacy media figures like herself.<\/span><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Country may well be the last cultural outpost that has not completely prioritized the interests of elites over those of everyday Americans. Hollywood has. Professional sports have. College sports have. Big publishing has. And nearly every other style of music has. Country, because it must serve a fan base grounded in blue collars and red dirt roads, has remained somewhat impervious to the Left\u2019s influence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Somewhat.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>There are signs, though, that the dam is breaking. Ahead of its awards ceremony this week, CMT <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/good-riddance-country-music-fans-trash-cmt-for-touting-gun-control-campaign-promise-boycott\"><span>released<\/span><\/a><span> a \u201cwear orange\u201d campaign promoting gun control. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), which has successfully transformed every aspect of filmed entertainment from preschool shows to family sitcoms, is now taking a special interest in the genre, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2020\/music\/news\/country-music-concert-love-acceptance-glaad-lauren-alaina-1234632739\/\"><span>organizing<\/span><\/a><span> \u201cLove and Acceptance\u201d country concerts from its headquarters in Los Angeles.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Gun control. Artificially-enforced racial quotas. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.metroweekly.com\/2021\/06\/porch-pride-spotlights-lgbtq-folk-and-roots-musicians-during-pride-month\/\"><span>San Francisco-based political groups<\/span><\/a><span> promoting \u201cCountry Porch Pride.\u201d These causes could not be further from the priorities country music has traditionally championed. But that will change if people like Yahr have anything to say about it.<\/span><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>By its totalitarian nature, leftism cannot tolerate a corner of the culture that does not serve its aims. Country not only doesn\u2019t serve them, artists like Toby Keith and John Rich often take a defiant stance against them without suffering any of the professional fallout they would if they worked in some other sector of the entertainment industry.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Yahr makes it clear that progressives had hoped to flex their growing muscle within the genre by permanently sidelining one of its most popular young stars. If it weren\u2019t for those stubborn country fans and their Hank Williams Jr.-style rebellious streak that instead made Wallen the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/theindustryobserver.thebrag.com\/morgan-wallen-drake\/\"><span>best-selling artist of 2021<\/span><\/a><span>, they would have succeeded. They will most certainly continue trying.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>There\u2019s a warning in the Washington Post\u2019s story for genre executives who take the time to read between the lines: If they don\u2019t resist the siren call of the \u201ccool kids\u2019 table\u201d and ignore the Emily Yahr\u2019s of the world, country music will cease to be country and will instead become just another cog of the California pop machine.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>And if that should ever come to pass, it will mean the end of country music as a profitable business model. Former fans will sing to Nashville along with Williams, the patron saint of whiskey, women, and honky tonks, \u201cI gave you some of the best of my days, but ain\u2019t no reason for me to stay.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the last few weeks, several major radio chains that had previously taken disgraced country star Morgan Wallen out of rotation quietly began playing his music again. He still wasn\u2019t &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2280318,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1285189886.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"The Media\u2019s Treatment Of Morgan Wallen Is A Warning: The Left Wants Control Of Country Music","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-564333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1285189886.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"The Media\u2019s Treatment Of Morgan Wallen Is A Warning: The Left Wants Control Of Country Music","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2280318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}