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Maren Morris Quits Country

tbolt909 said:
You mentioned the Dixie Chicks. Remember how they were treated for speaking out? The Country crowd doesn't seem very tolerant to me. Critical thinking isn't important to them...
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Or, simply, they disagree with your perspective or opinions of other people. That does not, per se, mean they were treated improperly. What happened is that lots of their fans disagreed with the Chicks' opinions: that does not mean that the fans were right or that the Chicks were wrong. It just means that different groups had different opinions.

One person's "critical thinking" is "biased" or "prejudiced" to others.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Or, simply, they disagree with your perspective or opinions of other people. That does not, per se, mean they were treated improperly. What happened is that lots of their fans disagreed with the Chicks' opinions: that does not mean that the fans were right or that the Chicks were wrong. It just means that different groups had different opinions.

One person's "critical thinking" is "biased" or "prejudiced" to others.
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Radio stations stopped playing their music because they opposed the Iraq War. That qualifies as being treated improperly. Morgan Wallen uses the N word and he becomes a hero in Country circles with lots of Radio airplay. Different opinions indeed...
 
kevtronics said:
Also the Deep South states which believe in "traditional family values" and abstinence until marriage have the highest rates of teen pregnancies, fatherless children, STDs, and online porn usage.
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Sorry in advance, anytime you deal with the South you can offend someone.

Where did you get these stats? Did you take in account the racial makeup of the South? Unfortunately, when doing stats in a lot of areas you have to do two sets of stats. One for the black areas and for the white areas. Some areas in the south have not integrated but economic differences are part of this. I looked a several opportunities for Station ownership in the South. The signal coverage's average income per person or household can be affected by race especially in cites. Then there are really poor countries that "turnaround" doesn't make economic since, but that's another thread. One can assume the majority of the blacks have little interest in Country Music, so you might want to factor them out when making broad statements on a thread about County Music.
 
tbolt909 said:
Radio stations stopped playing their music because they opposed the Iraq War.
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No, that is not true. Radio stations stopped playing the records because listeners vehemently voiced their opinions and demanded "their" station to stop playing their songs. Stations did not issue opinions on the Iraq War, but listeners did. Just as stations don't play other songs their listeners don't like, stations stopped playing the Dixie Chicks due to negative feedback.
tbolt909 said:
That qualifies as being treated improperly.
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No, it does not. The Dixie Chicks were not treated unfairly by stations. Stations went with the wishes of their listeners. No different than dropping any other song that tests poorly.
tbolt909 said:
Morgan Wallen uses the N word and he becomes a hero in Country circles with lots of Radio airplay. Different opinions indeed...
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The one item has nothing to do with the other.

Wallen did not become a "hero" over the offensive language. He embarrassed the genre and the country music industry and was marginalized for some time and, then, his apology was accepted in the hope that he had learned something from the experience.
 
DavidEduardo said:
No, that is not true. Radio stations stopped playing the records because listeners vehemently voiced their opinions and demanded "their" station to stop playing their songs. Stations did not issue opinions on the Iraq War, but listeners did. Just as stations don't play other songs their listeners don't like, stations stopped playing the Dixie Chicks due to negative feedback.

No, it does not. The Dixie Chicks were not treated unfairly by stations. Stations went with the wishes of their listeners. No different than dropping any other song that tests poorly.
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It was shameful then and it's shameful now. They took the cowards way out. Defend it all you want, but it's still wrong. History has shown that the Iraq War was a huge mistake. Broadcasters without any backbone do not deserve respect...
 
tbolt909 said:
It was shameful then and it's shameful now. They took the cowards way out. Defend it all you want, but it's still wrong. History has shown that the Iraq War was a huge mistake. Broadcasters without any backbone do not deserve respect...
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Music radio stations don't take political positions; they do research (or some researched station a smaller one emulates) that tells them what listeners want from them.

It's absurd and disingenuous to think that stations would not try to do everything possible to please their listeners. This is no different than finding out that consumers don't like garlic in their orange juice and deciding not to do a garlic-flavored type of OJ. It's about finding what consumers want and trying to give it to them.

Oh, and many today think that stopping Iraq was correct but badly executed. Just based on Iraq's invasion of Kuwait we knew it was on a short fuse to disruption in the Middle East and this weekend's events demonstrate how flammable the region is.
 
tbolt909 said:
It was shameful then and it's shameful now. They took the cowards way out. Defend it all you want, but it's still wrong. History has shown that the Iraq War was a huge mistake. Broadcasters without any backbone do not deserve respect...
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The Dixie Chicks' bluegrass-influenced sound was trending downward at country radio anyway in 2003. The genre was turning in a poppier, more testosterone-fueled direction anyway and they likely would have been off playlists in a couple of years even if they'd kept their mouths shut.

Also, give me an example of radio companies insisting on playing artists or songs their listeners were telling them they didn't want to hear. I know some stopped playing Beatles records after John Lennon's quip about Jesus, but most reinstated the group in fairly short order, most likely because people still wanted to hear them, including some who'd initially been angered by Lennon. The Chicks never clicked on contemporary country radio again, but songs like "Wide Open Spaces" and "Goodbye Earl" are now staples of the classic country format, even on iHeart stations.
 
I'm going to write a response but I think it's only right that I do some research about that Iraq war question specifically brought up in response to me, and see what those Country fans have to say about that.
You know my brother his wife and their friends who love Country music, I'm sorry that they are not Southern, but just force that part into your narrative, I know that's important to you, fairly innocent in the context of TDS current mouth foaming + symptoms, I will find out which side of that war they were on, how passionate they were about it, and you specifically mentioned the Dixie Chicks, yes, I will make sure to get an answer on if the Dixie Chicks were boycotted at their 8th grade middle school dance, and if maybe classmates were using them as frisbees during lunch hour.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Music radio stations don't take political positions; they do research (or some researched station a smaller one emulates) that tells them what listeners want from them.

It's absurd and disingenuous to think that stations would not try to do everything possible to please their listeners. This is no different than finding out that consumers don't like garlic in their orange juice and deciding not to do a garlic-flavored type of OJ. It's about finding what consumers want and trying to give it to them.
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In the Chicks case, Radio managers caved in to mob mentality. Americans are supposed to have the right to dissent. They expressed an opinion and were vilified. It had nothing to do with listeners not liking their music. That's a huge difference. Some people get upset when they find out that artists they like don't share their beliefs.

What if Morgan Wallen was convicted of raping a 9 year old girl? I doubt that his fan base would tell Radio stations to stop playing his music. Not much moral superiority there...
 
tbolt909 said:
Americans are supposed to have the right to dissent.
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Both sides have a that same right.

You're leaving out a lot of context. Two years before Natalie made her statement, the Dixie Chicks had formally announced in a press conference that they were no longer country artists. They sued their record label, got transferred to the pop side of Sony in NY. By not playing their music, country radio stations were simply doing what the Chicks themselves wanted.

Maren has made a similar statement. As of now, we don't know if she's legally moved to the pop side of the label (its the same label as the Chicks). But AFAIK, Sony is not promoting her music to radio. That was the case with the Chicks in 2003.
 
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johnbasalla said:
That is a big stretch, imo. I think the fan base would be supremely disappointed, even angered, in Morgan and would leave him behind, just like R. Kelly got dropped by listeners after his mess-ups.
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By mess-up, do you mean sex with underage girls, including involvement in a huge child pornography ring?
Somehow I don't put what R. Kelly did alongside Morgan.
 
Kelly A said:
By mess-up, do you mean sex with underage girls, including involvement in a huge child pornography ring?
Somehow I don't put what R. Kelly did alongside Morgan.
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I was responding to, and disagreeing with, the "What-if" idea presented by tbolt909 that if Wallen was convicted of raping a 9 year old girl, his fan base would not rise up against him and want stations to stop playing his music. If Morgan actually did rape a child, that would put him down into the same sewer with R. Kelly.
 
radiofan2023 said:
What boggles my mind is the double standard of Dolly Parton still being embraced by country music, despite standing for a lot of the same things Maren Morris does:
countryqueer.com

Dolly Parton's All-Embracing Country Vision

Dolly gives us a starting point to radically rethink what family, church and country music could mean as part of a queer world-building project.
countryqueer.com countryqueer.com
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I suspect that being an icon gives Dolly Parton a certain amount of leeway that most artists don't get. That said, a quick search shows that she isn't exactly all over the country charts anymore and she hasn't been in a long time. It looks like her primary success was in the seventies and eighties on the U.S. country chart, so I would guess that she doesn't get a lot of play outside of classic country stations.
 
TexasTom said:
I suspect that being an icon gives Dolly Parton a certain amount of leeway that most artists don't get.
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The fact that Dolly is iconic definitely plays a big part, but also while she has spoken out in support of groups like the LGBTQ+ and black communities and delivered messages of inclusivity, I've never particularly seen Dolly Parton as being polarizing or even "going against the grain" in that genre. While the article that radiofan2023 posted does point out some subtleties in her more mainstream music, they were just that and to Tom's point, those songs were released decades before the US became so polarized politically and before the days of 24 hour news cycles and social media which also likely helped her fly under the RADAR. Also note the article radiofan is referencing is from a website called "Country Queer" and is obviously looking at Dolly, her body of work, comments and actions from a specific perspective and through a particular lens.

When most musicians and artists find themselves and their comments being called out in the media, it's not often because of their music or lyrics, but because of comments they've made publicly, during interviews, on podcasts and the like. If you want to use the Dixie Chicks as an example since they're cited above, their real controversy started when, during a concert, Natalie Maines got on the mic and said "Just so you know, we're on the good side with y'all. We do not want this war, this violence, and we're ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas." Lennon's "We're more popular than Jesus now" statement was made to a journalist. Dolly Parton has really never said anything particularly polarizing so far as I'm aware (unless being openly accepting of those who aren't always embraced by white Christian folk in the south can be considered "polarizing").

Lastly, Dolly has repeatedly used her wealth to fund causes she believes in, and many are either not well-known, or are cases where she hasn't drawn attention to her good works, but others have. During the worldwide pandemic, she donated $1M to Vanderbilt University for research, which ultimately resulted in the Moderna vaccine. I've seen the program mentioned on Facebook and social media where Dolly will send a free book per month to any kid 5 and under, to help support literacy; she's given money to reduce dropout rates and support higher education; given money or set up foundations and/or held benefit concerts following natural disasters, and yes, openly supports the black and LGBTQ+ communities. In other words, she's definitely done a lot of good in many ways, without being particularly controversial or polarizing.
 
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TexasTom said:
It looks like her primary success was in the seventies and eighties on the U.S. country chart, so I would guess that she doesn't get a lot of play outside of classic country stations.
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That's generally true but a couple of exceptions include "Islands in the Stream," Dolly's duet with Kenny Rogers, and "9 to 5," from the movie of the same name. I've heard those on both Soft AC and Oldies stations.
 
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