Morgan Wallen
Dangerous: The Double Album
Dangerous: The Double Album is a thirty track double album from Morgan Wallen, a disgusting racist who will never be mentioned again on Country Universe.
Country music may not be any better than this, but Country Universe sure the hell is.
Anybody who has a problem with this decision, or is tempted to apologize or explain away or moan about cancel culture, can follow him right out the door. Racists aren’t welcome here.
Good man for taking a stand. Couldn’t agree more.
Impressed is an understatement
Thank you for saying this. Morgan Wallen has continued to show his ass constant times and it is a damn shame country music still supports him I can only hope this incident will make them stop supporting him.
Thank you for the positive feedback, but honestly, this is the lowest and easiest bar to clear. It’s the bare minimum.
We will focus on amplifying artists who push back on this toxicity in their words and their work.
I get balled into emotional and intellectual knots both at the offense and the consequence of the situation. So much to sort out and consider in my own mind. It’s admittedly a tangled mess.
Which makes me respect Kevin for decisively staking the boundaries of his platform at “Country Universe,” and clearly communicating its mission to amplify artists who push back on the toxicity contained in the artist’s words and behaviour.
It is a brave and healthy challenge of the status quo within the wider country music industry while simultaneously inviting uncomfortable explorations into the assumptions we bring to country music as fans of its past, present, and future.
Writing from Canada, Kevin’s position reminds me of the CBC’s decision to fire Don Cherry in 2019. He is an iconic hockey celebrity and personality who was terminated for his recurring racist innuendo on “Hockey Night in Canada,” the country’s highest rated television series for years.
The CBC made it clear Cherry was no longer welcome to use their platform, as he increasingly choose hateful words to share his divisive personal beliefs, to reach their hockey audience.
Kevin’s similar stand on behalf of “Country Universe” is staking boundaries in the best of ways to promote country music.
He hasn’t said people can’t discuss the artist, the album, or cancel culture; they just aren’t welcome to do it here.
That kind of confidence and clarity counts.
My two cents here:
The man has a right to shoot himself in the foot with his speech, however vile people may think it is. But we the music buying public aren’t obligated to pay for his hospital bill (LOL).
CountryUniverse: “Dangerous: The Double Album is a thirty track double album from Morgan Wallen, a disgusting racist who will never be mentioned again on Country Universe. Country music may not be any better than this, but Country Universe sure the hell is. Anybody who has a problem with this decision, or is tempted to apologize or explain away or moan about cancel culture, can follow him right out the door. Racists aren’t welcome here.”
Mickey Guyton: “I do not believe in cancel culture. Watching anyone fall from grace is a terrible thing to see. People must all be given a chance to change. Morgan must feel the weight of his words but completely throwing someone away is detrimental to anyone’s mental health.”
The full quote:
“When I read comments saying ‘this is not who we are’ I laugh because this is exactly who country music is,” added Guyton in her own tweet. “I’ve witnessed it for 10 gd years. You guys should just read some of the vile comments hurled at me on a daily basis. It’s a cold hard truth to face but it is the truth.”
She continued, “I love country music so much. There are amazing people in this genre behind the scenes and in front of the cameras that have kept me sane all these years. Those are the people we must keep reminding ourselves are out there and worth supporting and listening to. And lastly, I do not believe in cancel culture. Watching anyone fall from grace is a terrible thing to see. People must all be given a chance to change. Morgan must feel the weight of his words but completely throwing someone away is detrimental to anyone’s mental health.”
The relevance to Country Universe not covering this racist: none.
Nobody is entitled to our time and space.
Certainly not a racist.
And definitely not a racist’s apologist who hides behind the words of a black woman, who has to walk an entirely different public tightrope than her white male counterparts, who have all been collectively silent.
I just want to publicly say that I fully support and appreciate this Country Universe policy!
I wish instead of only removing Morgan Wallen from their playlists (Apple, Itunes, I Heart Radio, Cumulus, and others) would replace his spots with Mickey Guyton’s “Black Like Me.” Not only would this promote a well-deserving artist, but it would take this opportunity to open a conversation about some of the challenges black artists have faced in country music. Open a conversation and turn it into a lesson :)
Side note: I first discovered Mickey Guyton on this site through a review or year end list of “Nice Things”
Yes! Definitely, Matt! In fact, check out Jonathan‘s Twitter thread about just that:
https://twitter.com/countryuniverse/status/1356973488335163394?s=21
Yes, Matt! I wish it would happen!
This is my actual review. I was working on one for two weeks, as Twitter readers know. This was published very early, before the backlash actually kicked in.
Clickbait doesn’t apply to CU. We don’t operate on ad revenue.
To be honest, I wasn’t terribly aware of Morgan Wallen – a niece gave me a copy of the first album for Christmas in 2019. I finally got around to listening to it about six weeks ago – it is pretty mediocre stuff, meaning it is better than about 95% of the garbage I hear on country radio these days. Although I think this incident has generated considerable overreaction, he clearly deserves his current pariah status.
Permanent pariah status ???
If “Hanoi Jane” Fonda didn’t become a permanent pariah, then no one (short of a murderer or child molester) deserves to become one. Most of your readership is too young to remember her actions, but what she did was far far worse.
We’ll see what the future brings. Meanwhile, keep up the good work and maintain the integrity this site has always displayed
Everybody knows what Jane Fonda did. Those who have a problem with it are still talking about it almost fifty years later. Just take a look at any comment thread when she’s in the news. Same for the Chicks.
Whether she deserves pariah status for it is irrelevant to Country Universe. She’s way out of our editorial range. The focus of this thread is Morgan Wallen and Morgan Wallen alone.
I think the way that Kevin did this was just right. If he had written a different headline that signaled that he was pontificating on what Wallen did, many people’s eyes would have just glazed over and skipped the post. I can’t speak for Kevin, but I’m guessing he didn’t write this for those who agree that Morgan Wallen is a racist who should have known better in freakin’ 2021, but rather, for those who
feel compelled to apologize for him or minimize the severity of what he has done.
As was said previously, this is yet another “mistake” in a string of them that he has had to apologize for lately and say that he will do better. I know we’re all flawed, but this guy should have already known better. My 9-yearold kid knows better!
Charley Crockett would also make a fine replacement.
No skin off my nose! Never cared for the guy’s music anyway from what little I’ve heard of it, and I never saw what made him more special than any of the other bros, besides having a mullet. He’s been given too many “second chances” already after his many other screw ups. This guy clearly needs to get help and time to work on himself, and as long as he continued to get free passes, it was never going to happen.
…morgan wallen the flag bearer of racism in country music? morgan wallen…?!?
because of a stupid yet today – thanks to hip hop songs and hip hop artists – among teenagers around the globe rather common (however inappropriate and unfortunate) expression(s) with actually more than one than just the race or sex refering contex – made in private on top of everything. even though it took place out in the street in front of his home, it still happened in a private circle of pals/bros/friends in a state of utter drunkenness, which, of course, does not make it any more tolerable or even excusable – but explicable.
get real guys, cancelling a hillbilly fool with a front yard – at least according to the video footage of the morning after – that would inspire jeff foxworthy to a dozen or so new “you might be a redneck…” lines. making morgan wallen an example of racism in country music misses the point as much as kelsea ballerini is off in her naive tweet. feel free to react as you wish cu, but why not showing some better judgement and sense of proportion – given the circumstances, which arguably are bad enough anyway, especially since the notorious morgan wallen is involved again in behaving badly. then again, to be a qualified racist requires a certain amount of purpose, not just another slightly hard to forget slip by a somewhat dim witted and currently rather overrated hillbilly singer under influence. george jones’ behaviour toward charley pride back in the days seems to have been a lot more questionable than morgan wallen’s in this overblown “scandal”. at least, according to an article recently published in “rolling stone” magazine on the late charley pride. cancelling that immature fool morgan wallen??? gimme a break.
It’s 2021, Tom. 2021!
I’m not entirely sure Tom is a real person.
Kevin- you can defend all you want but the way this review is written and the headline (which would show up in a Google search of some kind) is clickbaity in nature.
The better thing to do would’ve just written an essay about Morgan Wallen- titled it “Why You Won’t Be Reading a Review of Wallen’s New Album” (or something shorter) and then write what you did. You passed it off as a legitimate interview through the title and then slammed him behind a click.
Again- he deserves it as there is no defending him. But the quality of writing and discourse here deserves better than the way it was handled.
Discouraging (though unfortunately not surprising, I suppose) to see that, although his radio airplay has plummeted, the album itself still seems to be selling well and streaming strongly. It enters its sixth week at #1 on the all-genre Billboard 200, the first male country studio album release to rule for that long since Garth Brooks’ The Chase. I haven’t seen anything written on this yet, but I wonder if it is new fans who feel they have found a voice for their own racist beliefs. I’ve been able to separate artists’ objectionable beliefs and behavior from their art in the past (not always, however, depending on how severe the offense or how much of a fan I am of the work), though I’m downright baffled as to why someone would love Morgan Wallen’s music that much in the first place.