On The Maren Morris Exit From Country Music

In the immortal words of Curly Bill Brocius, “Well, bye.”
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All the peoples of the Earth, no matter your creed, nationality, race, gender, or sexual orientation: Gather round, pull your young ones, elderly, sick and infirmed close, and on the collective count of three, let us all train our cumulative will into steadfastly giving Maren Morris all the attention she’s so craves, and according to her surrogates and sycophants in the craven media, that she deserves.
This clinical narcissist has finally decided that she’s had enough of country music, and has officially abdicated to the greener pastures of pop where she belonged the entire time, affirmed by her two new songs that sound exactly the same as most all of her previously released material—meaning safe, pallid, unimaginative and creative-bereft corporate pop for the passive listening masses who love to signal their conformity to society’s norms through their music choices.
Just how hubristic and self-centered is Maren Morris being in this moment? Check this lead quote from her interview about the genre switch in the Los Angeles Times. Maren Morris states about country music, “I thought I’d like to burn it to the ground and start over. But it’s burning itself down without any help.”
Wait, what? Country music is “burning itself down?” First, country music is more popular now than at any other time in its 100-year history, certified by all chart metrics, and concluded upon with universal consensus by all the minds in entertainment media. Country music’s dominance has been the talk of the summer. The idea that it’s doing anything but succeeding resoundingly on an unprecedented scale is a farce, and a demonstrative example of what the kids these days call “cope.”
Country music is also arguably more healthy than it has been at any other point in the last 10 to 20 years, including more country-sounding songs finding success, more songs of substance doing the same, as well as greater representation from Black and Brown artists, women, LGBT artists, and independent performers.
But even more diseased and ludicrous is the idea that Maren Morris believes she could burn country music down herself if she wanted to, and has simply chosen otherwise. It shows just how self-centered and self-righteous she truly is.
Though Morris was doing pretty well in 2020 and 2021, according to Billboard, she was the 28th most popular the artist in country in 2022, behind independent artists like Zach Bryan and Tyler Childers, and mainstream newcomers like Parker McCollum, Gabby Barrett, and Warren Zeiders. Maren Morris is a middling star with a massive and disproportionate media footprint due to her allies in the press who promote her due to her political beliefs being parallel to their own.
The latest Maren Morris temper tantrum comes in the form of two new songs and videos released via an EP called The Bridge. It was serviced via Columbia Records out of New York as opposed to Maren’s previous home of Sony Records Nashville. The song “The Tree” is produced by Greg Kurstin, and “Get the Hell Out of Here” is co-produced by Jack Antonoff.
The two videos depict a small town being abandoned and eventually relegated to the dustbin of history as Maren Morris vacates it, symbolizing the community of country music. She also burns down a tree that symbolizes the roots and branches of country music.
Make absolutely no mistake about what this alludes to, and what she’s trying to say here. Maren Morris is not only abandoning the genre, she wants to burn it all down on her way out the door. But what she and her surrogates seem to fail to understand is that when you’re burning down the legacy of Jason Aldean, you’re also burning down the legacies of Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, and Johnny Cash—three of the greatest humanitarians, and people of peace and tolerance the world has ever seen.
When you burn down country music, you’re not only getting rid of the legacy of Morgan Wallen, you’re also getting rid of the legacy of Charley Pride. You’re erasing the legacy of Loretta Lynn and the voice she gave to so many women. You’re getting rid of Lainey Wilson and Ashley McBryde, and songwriters like Lori McKenna that are representing the women of country music today.
And even more egomaniacal, Maren Morris in the second song “Get The Hell Out of Here” believes she’s going to inspire a wholesale exodus of artists and fans from the genre, again underscoring the hubristic nature of all of this. As was said by Saving Country Music recently, “When these activists finally conclude they will be unable to use country music to do their political bidding, they will actively work to destroy it.” This is what we’re seeing from Maren Morris and these two songs.
Compare all of this to the way Taylor Swift left country music, which time continues to reveal as a classy and respectful move. Though at the time Swift was receiving similar criticisms for not being country and other issues, instead of attempting to go scorched earth on her way out the door, she dropped 4 million bucks on the desk of the Country Music Hall of Fame and said, “Thanks for the stepping stone, but I’m tired of lying to myself and the public about the style of my music, and I’m heading to pop where I’ve always belonged.”
Taylor Swift’s career has been better off for it. Many country fans respect Swift and her songs more now knowing they’re pop, and that they’re being properly represented.
Though Maren Morris is characterizing herself as a victim of country music’s maniacal machinations, the record simply just doesn’t reflect this. Maren Morris won the New Artist of the Year from the CMA in 2016, and the New Female Vocalist of the Year from the ACMs in 2017. This is what constitutes a country music coronation where the entire industry is betting its future on you.
In total, Maren Morris has been nominated for 26 CMA Awards and won five, including in the vaunted categories of Album of the Year and Female Vocalist of the Year. For the ACMs, she’s been nominated 18 times and won five, including Female Artist of the Year twice in 2020 and 2021. She also received 17 Grammy nominations, and won for her debut single “My Church.” Morris also had three #1 songs on country radio. The industry clearly supported her as a progressive woman, and any other characterization is patently false.
This all underscores how important it is that country music invest in women who will ultimately invest in country music for the long haul. Is anyone surprised that Maren Morris ran off to pop? Of course they’re not. We knew she would make a move to pop even before she knew it herself. It’s all so achingly predictable.
Country music invested incredible amounts of awards show hardware, radio play, tour and festival slots, and other opportunities in Maren Morris to develop her career, just like it did with Taylor Swift and Kacey Musgraves who also ultimately left the genre, just like Shania Twain and The [Dixie] Chicks before them. And when these women leave, country music has nothing to show for it, and the people complaining how there’s not enough women in country music never include this extremely critical caveat in their calculations.
Specifically, producer Jack Antonoff has been a critical part of this equation now on multiple occasions. He was part of Taylor Swift’s move to pop with her album 1989, he produced the very pop-leaning new album from The Chicks, and here he is assuaging Maren Morris that pop is where she belongs. Jack Antonoff has done more to move women away from country than any man in the country music industry.
Country music does have a problem with giving women equal representation and developing their careers compared to male counterparts. But it’s not always from a lack of trying. The industry must start investing in women who we know will stay in the genre as opposed to just using it as a stepping stone. To support women in country music, they need to be women, but they also need to be country, with country music in their hearts so you know they’re in it for the long haul.
Nobody wants to hear about how Taylor Swift, Kacey Musgraves, and Maren Morris weren’t supported enough and forced out of the genre. All three started at the very ground floor of country music, and all three left as millionaires. Somehow, Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood have gotten along just fine in country, and new artists like Lainey Wilson and Megan Moroney are surging in popularity, and with songs that are actually country.
The Maren Morris characterization that country music is completely unaccommodating to women and artists with heterodox political views is very dangerous because not only is it incorrect, it can become a self-fulfilling prophesy. If you believe that country music can’t be a place for left-leaning artists, I’ve got two words for you, “Willie Nelson.” Somehow he’s managed to get by for 70 years in the country genre.
Tim McGraw and Faith Hill have been open about their politics as well with little or no problems. So has former Florida Georgia Line member Tyler Hubbard. The independent ranks of country music are filled with progressive individuals. The “In Your Love” video recently from Tyler Childers found huge success among the expected pushback. Childers just announced a full-blown solo arena tour, so don’t tell us you can’t find success in country music while espousing left-leaning causes.
What exactly is so politically toxic about country music that Maren Morris can no longer stand to be part of it? Jason Aldean’s wife’s Instagram account? That’s the deleterious offender that is so cataclysmic and irredeemable you absolutely cannot consider yourself a part of country music anymore? Or is it John Rich, who hasn’t been relevant in country music in 20 years, if he ever really was? Or is it Oliver Anthony, who excoriated the right-leaning opportunistic pundits who tried to glam onto his viral moment, and told the entire Republican Presidential field to kiss off?
Jason Aldean’s “Try That In A Small Town” would have been a middling radio hit summarily forgotten if folks hadn’t tried to cancel it, and then the right hadn’t fallen for the ploy too by raising up to support it. Over and over we’ve seen this counter-productive effort by individuals like Maren Morris at work, including with Morgan Wallen as well.
The Maren Morris feature in the LA Times starts off the first question to Maren saying, “Four country songs have topped Billboard’s Hot 100 in 2023. But each has raised complicated questions about who’s welcome in Nashville…”
Sure, maybe that’s the case for “Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town,” and maybe you can lump Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” in there too. But Oliver Anthony has proven to be way more thoughtful and heterodox than some want to give him credit for, and “Nashville” had nothing to do with his success. The fact that some are still trying to paint the Luke Combs cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” as problematic as opposed to an achievement to have a Black woman write a #1 country song shows how certain people have perverse incentives to continue to try and paint country music as regressive, even as real progress continues to be made.
And the LA Times mention of the four #1 country songs excludes Zach Bryan’s collaboration with Kacey Musgraves on “I Remember Everything.” Again, Nashville had nothing to do with Zach Bryan’s ascent, and he was able to do what the entirety of the country music industry failed to do over the last decade—get Kacey Musgraves to #1, and all genre to boot. The best Musgraves had done previously was #10 in country. These are the kinds of achievements happening at the moment in the supposed toxic environment that Maren Morris has declared completely irredeemable and worthy of utter destruction.
The issues Maren Morris raises about “country music” ultimately boil down to a feud she chose to pick with the spouse of another country star, and an obsession over the trolls in her social media mentions. This was all stimulated by the media’s unhinged and disproportionate obsession over Brittany Aldean’s social media activity, including multiple dedicated articles about it in the Washington Post, spurned by viral tweets by activists larping as country music journalists since a country artist’s wife’s activity was deemed existential to their project to realign the political persuasion of country fans through the medium of country music.
The idea that country music as an industry or a monolith ganged up on Maren Morris is once again a self-centered notion that is fed through the hero/victim behavioral pattern at the heart of all clinical narcissism. This isn’t to chastise Maren Morris for her mental health issues. But it is important to understand this is not “country music’s” doing. This is on Maren Morris. She picked the fight with the wife of a country star who is not in any way directly relevant to the country genre.
All that said, country music is leaning more right these days, but it’s in part because of people like Maren Morris and the blowback to their constant effervescent hall monitoring that is really nothing more than gaming the media for favorable coverage.
Despite the glowing press coverage, Maren’s last album Humble Quest was a flop, debuting at #21 on the country charts. And so Maren Morris muck racks on social media to satiate her extreme appetite for attention. That’s not the kind of community member country music needs. Maren Morris isn’t combating country music’s continued representation issues with her constant grousing and backbiting. She’s proven time and time again to be counter-productive to these initiatives.
Meanwhile, if Maren Morris truly cared about the progressive values and the representation of women in country music that she purports to espouse, she wouldn’t tuck her tail between her legs and retreat to pop. If she had any pluck she would stand and fight for country music instead of seceding it to people she believes are unsavory, and leaving us with one less woman in the genre. Retreating shows a lack of resolve.
Country music should be a place for everybody, no matter who they are, including Maren Morris, if she wants to make actual country music. But Maren Morris wasn’t working toward that end with her supposed activism, despite the characterizations of herself and her sycophants in the media. She was making it a toxic place for people who did not adhere to minority viewpoints about contentious topics.
Maren Morris is no victim, nor is she a hero. Kristen Hall of Sugarland, she was a victim. KD Lang, she was a victim. So were The [Dixie] Chicks. Meanwhile, a hero fights for their beliefs, stands their ground, and figures out smarter ways to reach the intended audience to pull people towards their side, often by using love as opposed to judgment like Willie Nelson has done for going on a century.
Country music won’t just be fine without Maren Morris, it will be better off. And hopefully Maren Morris will be off better off as well. Politicking and bad blood aside, it just wasn’t a good fit between Maren Morris and country music. And Maren Morris is right when she says that country music has issues to resolve when it comes to making sure everyone has an equal opportunity to make it within the genre. But the idea that country music is in a regressive pattern is just a canard sown by social media types looking to pander to their constituencies by painting an endless timeline of worst case scenarios.
The first time Saving Country Music ever mentioned Maren Morris, it was a positive review speaking on the promising nature of her career via her first single “My Church.” Her song “Loose Change” remains a standout from The Highwomen album, and one of the most country songs from that project.
You can’t blame Maren Morris for moving on if she feels like country music is not a good fit. She should have the right to follow her muse wherever it takes her as an artist. But there are big lessons country music needs to learn from the experience of investing in pop-leaning performers. And anyone talking about burning country down—roots, branches, and all—is someone’s whose ideas don’t deserve to be entertained, or even placated. Maren Morris has some personal issues to work out. And luckily, country music no longer will be intertwined with them.
September 18, 2023 @ 10:15 am
and a demonstrative example of what the kids these days call “cope.”
Whole lot of seethe,, too.
September 19, 2023 @ 3:57 am
Don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split you!
September 18, 2023 @ 10:21 am
I don’t think her latest releases will burn down anything, least of all country music. Except maybe her career if pop doesn’t welcome her with open arms.
September 18, 2023 @ 1:51 pm
Amen and a long awaited good-bye to her. Country has a problem. None of us 50 plusers care for this CRAP, Country Rap, nor these cheerleader singers. They all sound the same and dress like pole dancers. Is exposing yourself as much as you can how you make it in the music industry for a female. We are listening to Pardi, Midland, McBryde, Combs and a very few others. Recently we to Nashville. Will never go back.
September 18, 2023 @ 3:13 pm
I gotta be honest…I like jer when she’s playing Dustin on Stranger Things. I couldn’t really mame any of her songs though. I guess she should stick to acting.
September 20, 2023 @ 12:41 pm
Door. Ass. One should watch for the other.
September 20, 2023 @ 12:44 pm
Taylor did it better in both genres. Shania did it sexier. And Natalie did it more victimy.
September 18, 2023 @ 10:35 am
I was hoping that you would be writing an article about this! ????
Anyway, Maren could’ve left in the classiest way, but, no she didn’t. That’s the other problem with proclaiming “your truth”… it’s not *the* truth.
September 18, 2023 @ 11:48 am
She’d have to have a passing acquaintance with the concept of class for that, and she has repeatedly shown it’s a completely foreign one to her.
September 29, 2023 @ 1:26 pm
You have to admit that Natalie kept it country back in the heyday of DC.
September 18, 2023 @ 10:37 am
You hit the nail on the head with this one. In my opinion she brought this all upon herself by being a keyboard warrior and picked a fight with a spouse of a country singer just because she doesn’t share the same views, then tucking her tail and leaving when she received backlash and didn’t have the spine to stay and fight for her beliefs. There was nothing holding her back and was not oppressed by anyone. Hell like you said country music is more diverse than ever, you have great artists who are gay (Sam Williams, TJ Osbourne, Brandy Clark, Brandi Carlisle and a country music host Cody Alan). Artists who promote progressive ideas such as Willie Nelson, Sturgill Simpson, Tyler Childers, etc. Black artists such as Kane Brown, Darius Rucker, Jimmie Allen, YOLA, War and Treaty, etc.) I feel there would be even more black artists represented if the mainstream promoted black artists who were actually country instead of trying to promote rap/hip-hop artists as a country singer. Artists such as Tony Jackson. Good music always prevails no matter what ideology it professes. I would have to quit listening to a ton of my favorite artists if I based it on how our ideology compares. I have to say this time we are living in just sucks based on tribalism or tearing each other down over beliefs. Bring back the 80’s and 90’s when races were closer, comedy was funny, tv was more enjoyable, news was more trusted, etc.
September 20, 2023 @ 12:42 pm
Door. Ass. One should watch for the other.
September 21, 2023 @ 8:02 pm
Kane Brown is NOT black, he is biracial. I’m sure you didn’t mean to, but by pretending that his quarter blackness overrides the white mother who’s womb he came out of and contributed to him having more white genes than black, is a “black” country artist, you absolutely make country fans look racist by suggesting that blood blood, no matter how minuscule, “taints” the nonblack blood. Again, Kane Brown isn’t black and doesn’t even look it. I’m tired of people playing dumb and acting like they don’t know the difference between someone like Kane Brown and Don Cheadle or Whoopi Goldberg and Mariah Carey!
September 18, 2023 @ 10:43 am
Morris’ obnoxious narcissism was always at odds with her middling talent and attractiveness.
You can’t be hard on the eyes and ears and make it in pop. For all its faults, the Nashville country scene offers a much softer landing for banal female talent. Fortunately, she seems content to burn that bridge for a Rolling Stone byline. Good riddance.
September 18, 2023 @ 12:22 pm
Saying what I’ve been thinking….
September 18, 2023 @ 1:36 pm
You think she’s hard on the eyes? I don’t think she’s the hottest woman in the world or anything, but there’s something about her that does it for me. Her looks is the only thing that does it for me. Her music sure doesn’t.
September 18, 2023 @ 3:21 pm
The ones that run theor mouths the most are the ones who are the hardest on the eyes…Maren Morris, the little, fat one from the Dixie Chicks, etc
September 18, 2023 @ 5:38 pm
Well, this is gross sexistCriticism for a woman’s outspoken beliefs should be separate from criticism for their appearance. I agree with a lot of what Trigger wrote here, but good for Morris gir not giving a f—- about misogynist who think you need to be more attractive to be outspoken.
September 18, 2023 @ 6:04 pm
I’ve been trying to stay out of this comments section, but I agree that the cracks on the looks of Maren Morris are counterproductive to the cause, and uncalled for. One of the things Morris has been saying is that women are held to a higher standard than their male counterparts, especially when it comes to appearance. We can see that in real time in this comments section. Morris has given plenty for us to criticize. No need to go looking for other things.
September 19, 2023 @ 10:47 am
Well you may as well fucking own it. You know damn well what you’re doing writing this type of article and how it caters to this type of cretin. Hell, over the past few years your articles have become more and more like the scribbles of a 4chan jacker offer.
September 19, 2023 @ 10:51 am
Have you figured out how to demonetize him yet?
September 19, 2023 @ 11:13 am
Well it’s such a good thing that the SCM comments section is not “a toxic place for people who did not adhere to minority viewpoints about contentious topics,” like sexism, racism and homophobia. Much better to welcome bigotry or do nothing about the multiple sexist comments.
Maybe you should look inward when examining who makes the country music culture such a toxic place.
Otherwise, good article, glad she’s finally left the genre that built her up, and glad there’s authentic female country singers still here doing great things. The female representation is so much better than it was when Swift left, or when The [Dixie] Chicks were blacklisted for daring to go against the conservative safe space mentality.
September 19, 2023 @ 12:13 pm
As I have said, many many times, deleting a comment doesn’t delete the sentiment behind it. I have, do, and will delete comments, but will never pass up the opportunity to use a comment like this to explain why they are offensive and unhelpful. If you see a comment you believe deserved to be challenged, challenge it. That’s what I did. That’s what you can do. We’re all part of this community, and no single comment represents it in total. Complaining about the rules is not going to change them.
September 19, 2023 @ 1:13 pm
“If you see a comment you believe deserved to be challenged, challenge it. That’s what I did.”
No, you didn’t. You replied to a comment challenging it. You just admitted you’re trying to stay out of the comments, avoiding challenging the rampant sexism in your community.
Or maybe I’m wrong. I’d love for you to point to where you directly challenged a sexist comment in the comment section for this article.
I’m not complaining about the rules, I’m complaining about you choosing to welcome bigotry in this community. I’d love to see you challenge comments but you only do when others call out bigotry, threatening to shut down the comment sections. You’re happy to censor and delete comments then.
September 18, 2023 @ 10:46 am
Hopefully she will play the pied piper and lead the rest of the pop princesses (and princes!!) out of the genre with her.
Good riddance.
September 18, 2023 @ 5:34 pm
Jesus, dude. Talk about a mouth running problem.
September 18, 2023 @ 10:47 am
Heck of an article. With Ashley McBryde, Carly Pearce, lainey, etc. success over the past few years excited about the future of women in country music, plus you throw in Carrie and Miranda. As you said, marren morris doesn’t need country music, and country music doesn’t need her. She comes off as really soft, think she showed up to the cmas briefly because she wasn’t comfortable there. To each there own i suppose
September 18, 2023 @ 10:47 am
Yes, country music is finding unprecedented success today. But is it real country music finding success, or the stupid pop that is still plaguing country radio that is finding success? The answer might be about half and half? Not sure.
As for Maren, goodbye and good riddance.
September 18, 2023 @ 10:53 am
Man I honestly loved “Get the Hell out of Here.” I thought the video was awesome and the production and writing were down my alley. If you can separate it from the commentary that goes with it, it stands alone as a well written song. She makes that really hard to do though, like a lot of artists on both sides of the aisle.
September 18, 2023 @ 10:55 am
I couldn’t wait to read this. Buh bye MM. Thank you Trigger. This is the kind of column, that, combined with so much great music from so many different artists truly is…..Saving Country Music.
…..now back to Willie’s latest bluegrass collection and some more Turnpike! (Mmmm or some Blindfaller? Billy Strings? Greensky? Donato? Kimmi? Fleet?) Think I’ll go with Jenny Tolman for the moment!
September 18, 2023 @ 10:55 am
Now I have ‘Burn It Down’ by Parker McCollum as the soundtrack to Maren Morris’ departure from country.
September 18, 2023 @ 10:58 am
“Maren Morris is a middling star with a massive and disproportionate head.”
FTFY
September 18, 2023 @ 11:26 am
Forgive me if I’m simply restating what you already wrote, but I think a big part of Maren Morris’ bitterness is likely the dissonance between how the media props her up and how she has actually been received by the country music community. They seem to roll out the red carpet for her any time there’s anything to talk about to get her opinion, yet few in the industry nor listeners seem to actually care. Anecdotal experience is by no means definitive, but I can’t say I’ve ever even been around a conversation that mentioned Maren Morris, much less have I met any self-described fans. I’ve met fans (or at least been party to conversations) of every other artist listed here. Again, anecdotal, but I’m pretty sure most people don’t even know who she is, and probably wouldn’t know any of her songs if you played them. Compare that with, say, John Rich, who I know that nobody but me likes around here, but he had his hand in a little bit of everything in the 2000s: writing with Taylor Swift; writing for Aldean, McGraw and Hill (among many others); producing for John Anderson; working with Billy Joe Shaver.
It seems to me that Morris is angry because the media treats her like she’s royalty, so it not only fed her ego, but it likely placed expectations in her head that may not have been there if the media had not tried to throw their cachet behind her and turn her into a lightning rod for their agendas. It’s also arguable that doing so created the reverse of whatever the Morgan Wallen (or Try That In A Small Town) effect is, which is to cause people to specifically ignore her because of the exact reasons that people ran out and bought Wallen’s albums and Aldean’s song. It may even be simpler than that: the quickest way to get me, personally, to not care about something is to constantly try to sell it to me as the greatest thing ever, which is arguably what the media has done with Morris. Her thinking she can burn it all down with her exit is a result of a fire that people with an agenda have tried to keep burning as everybody else has largely forgotten. I remember hearing “My Church” on the radio, but I legitimately forget this girl exists until the few articles about her raising hell about some issue come out each year. At best, she’s making big waves in a small pool, or maybe it’s just a puddle at this point.
September 18, 2023 @ 12:30 pm
There is a lot of this today. Not just music, but sports. You have a bunch of yes men telling you that you are the greatest, but when it comes time to prove it, the market says otherwise. Instead of getting rid of the yes men, Morris has chosen to change the market.
Country music was just fine before her, it will be just fine without her. The problem with trying to make your career on just a pretty face, is there will be another pretty face to take your place, and the public will forget who you are.
I wish her luck. she’s gonna need it.
September 18, 2023 @ 1:29 pm
Pretty face? ????
September 18, 2023 @ 2:24 pm
She always reminds me of a cartoon character who got smashed in the face with a frying pan!
September 18, 2023 @ 3:02 pm
Thats cause she has a lazy eye.
September 18, 2023 @ 4:25 pm
And what about her country music singing husband Ryan Herd? He’s in a bit of a pickle now!
September 18, 2023 @ 8:44 pm
Ryan Hurd’s music, including songwriting credits, is terrible. I had the misfortune of listening to his Pelago album out of curiosity. It is equally “safe, pallid, unimaginative and creative-bereft corporate pop for the passive listening masses” as anything his wife has done. They are perfect for each other in that regard. I truly hope that they have a happy life with their child and their future ambitions. I mean that truly, but they are artistically and personally adverse to all that makes country music meaningful and special. If Maren’s exit includes Ryan’s exit from country music, we can be thankful.
September 18, 2023 @ 11:43 am
“ …a massive and disproportionate media footprint due to her allies in the press who promote her due to her political beliefs being parallel to their own.”
Morris is delusional and not really even worth thinking about, but…imagine..if you will…being one of her allies in the press. Does it get any lower than that?
September 18, 2023 @ 11:47 am
That’s lower than a rattlesnake’s taint.
September 18, 2023 @ 11:53 am
I legitimately forgot she existed until her self proclaimed “exit” from country music. She is such a spoiled brat who is the embodiment of the entitlement complex of the millennial generation. Aside from a few of her songs, she was at best the typical mid level Nashville talent that would not make it as a successful pop act. Happy trails!
September 18, 2023 @ 12:07 pm
But can we not diagnose her with a personality disorder (clinical narcissistic)….opinions, rips, harsh criticism sure, but keep it classy.
September 18, 2023 @ 12:21 pm
::yawn:: Bye, Felicia,err,Maren.
September 18, 2023 @ 12:26 pm
Various reports put her net worth at 5 to 8 million dollars. She doesn’t need country music for a quality life, regardless of how well her career goes moving forward. On a slightly Divergent subject, back in the day alternative country at least partially came about to allow space for Progressive folks. Country music has never been very welcoming if you don’t support “America, love it or leave it” and Bible thumping. Folks claim country music doesn’t need folks like Tyler Childers, maren morris, and Jason Isbell; but even reading the comments of this site it is pretty apparent that these folks are still necessary. If Woody Guthrie himself were alive today, he would be ostracized as well. And that’s okay, this is a big old world, there’s plenty of space for all of us.
September 18, 2023 @ 2:37 pm
Yep. Agreed. I think what can also be kind of difficult is the idea of how you make authentic country music in 2023. Back in the golden era…it was just regional, home grown music given a polished up studio treatment for the most part. Today, adopting the stylistic cues of country music is an intentional aesthetic choice, because we’ve all heard everything, and grown up with radio that mostly plays non country music. So on the one hand you have indie artists like Jesse Daniel making a type of authentic country music that really gets the details and attitude of a particular kind of country sound that he’s embraced as his own. You get people from (I think) somewhat lower middle class white and rural backgrounds like Zach Bryan that are from the country, and make music that isn’t exactly purely an existing country sound, but because of the performer’s background, it is in a different way. And artists like Maren Morris that grew up in the burbs and kind of got groomed to sing, and who grew up on everything on the radio including country, pop, rnb, rock, etc – and end up sounding like her. And then you have the official Nashville/country radio definition, which is its own thing altogether, and which is a pretty narrow thing. So for an artist like MM that’s tried to do the Nashville thing, while also incorporating what to her probably feel like authentic sounds, but not in the way Nville does it, coupled with the media praise – that probably is incredibly frustrating in a way. Meaning even though she’s in the Nashville system, her aesthetic choices also put her a little outside it, just not as far out as a Jesse Daniel or a Zach Bryan – all of whom including MM are riding different settings of authentic v inauthentic characteristics. Not really sure where I was going with that except to say Nville is weirdly narrow about some things, and weirdly broad about other things – and more often than not it doesn’t lead to good country music. And my comment is a mess!
September 18, 2023 @ 3:43 pm
>>And my comment is a mess!
I think you nailed it.
September 18, 2023 @ 4:04 pm
Well, tell me what you think I’m attempting to say if you have a more straightforward way to say it.
September 18, 2023 @ 9:42 pm
You mean the internet says she’s worth $5-8 million. Lol. I read a recent internet report on my net worth. It was pegged around $5 million. I laughed and laughed. It’s nowhere near that. I doubt Morris is worth anywhere near that either.
September 19, 2023 @ 6:01 am
You can have left leaning views and not be an asshole. Isbell doesn’t fall into that category
September 18, 2023 @ 12:28 pm
Never heard of her, don’t care outside of getting to read a Trigger article filled with distain, which I enjoy greatly.
September 18, 2023 @ 12:33 pm
Second observation, her lips are really weird.
What a little crybaby. Jason Isbell is a flaming libtard yet he still seems to make it work in this “toxic” culture.
September 18, 2023 @ 2:30 pm
Well, Isbell has the advantage of talent.
September 18, 2023 @ 4:04 pm
I can think of something she can do with those lips for me.
Also, your use of the word “libtard” lets me know your opinion isn’t worth my time.
September 19, 2023 @ 4:18 am
She isn’t sleeping with you.
September 19, 2023 @ 5:18 am
“flaming libtard” because context matters, Buddy.
September 19, 2023 @ 9:21 am
Really trig???You let this comment fly?
September 19, 2023 @ 12:04 pm
Of course he did. As long as you don’t put a racial slur in your comment, you can get away with saying some fucked up shit on this site.
September 19, 2023 @ 4:33 pm
I took a walk in the forest today. Went over into the next county, climbed the highest point. I finished around and found my binoculars and looked all around. I’ll be damned, but I still couldn’t find the son of a bitch who asked you.
September 18, 2023 @ 1:07 pm
Let me weigh in on this. Maren Morris is part of the current generation: progressives. With this crowd, you aren’t allowed to disagree with someone that outranks you in the hierarchy. You get to say your piece, but ultimately you have to apologize and back down. If you don’t, you will have a flood of people attacking you in every channel, and you may even lose your career. That is how it is with environments that progressives control i.e. higher education, mainstream entertainment etc.
But country music isn’t like that. Jason Aldean was allowed to publicly disagree with Morris and suffer absolutely no consequences whatsoever. So now Morris has shifted to a space where American straight white males are basically nonexistent – quick (or even slow!) name one under 40 – and they are so leashed and muzzled that Justin Timberlake has to apologize for writing a song about Britney Spears cheating on him. (Apparently for a guy to complain about his wife or girlfriend cheating on him … infringes on her freedom?) Look at how Joe Jonas got raked over the coals for saying that his wife’s running out partying while she has 2 toddlers at home played a role in his divorce. If Jonas was selling records before, he isn’t now. There was also this guy recently whose girlfriend was an actress, and he confessed that seeing her kiss other guys in her roles made him feel jealous and uncomfortable. It caused a meltdown – he was accused of being “abusive” and “manipulative” and they harassed the actress – until she broke up with him. By contrast, female entertainers trash their male exes all the time – just rip them to shreds including making accusations that they later acknowledge aren’t even true! – that all but encourage their fans to harass them on social media and in public … and the guys receiving the abuse aren’t allowed to say a peep if they want to continue to work in Hollywood.
That is what Morris wants from country music: a “safe space.” for people like her to do and say as she pleases, and where guys who refuse to comply get the Chris Rock treatment. (Note: if Rock’s comedian fraternity hadn’t threatened to boycott all future Oscars, Smith would have gotten away with even fewer real consequences than the minimal ones that were meted out to him.) When she found out that it was never going to be that, she decamped to one where males who disagree with her are silenced, if they still exist at all.
And oh yeah, good luck to her. She is going to find that pop music isn’t particularly kind to 30+ year olds who haven’t yet reached mononym status. She is also going to QUICKLY find that where she is progressive by country music standards, by pop standards just by being a “married with kids” white woman from Texas in a pop game that is dominated by nonwhite and/or LGBT single women in their teens and twenties she is VERY conservative. The fact that she was ever part of the country music culture in the first place will be disqualifying for a lot of people. How many years did Miley Cyrus have to spend apologizing for being Hannah Montana (and remember the absolutely ghastly things that she had to do)? So she is just going to be trotted out when it is time to bash country artists and fans … and then summarily dismissed. Take the Dixie Chicks. The mainstream types gave them plenty of awards and put them on lots of magazine covers. But buy their music? Or play them on top 40 radio? Yeah, like that was going to happen. And the pop music industry was actually conservative back then compared to now.
5 years from now she will proclaim “country music has finally started to make some progress and I am going to come back and help it along” and she will be back making country music. And you will see a bunch of “country music has another shot at the Dixie Chicks test … will it pass this time?” articles.
September 18, 2023 @ 1:34 pm
Well said.
September 18, 2023 @ 3:11 pm
I don’t know that your premise strictly true. Obviously, the Dixie Chicks are the big example, and you mentioned them without really addressing their cancellation. Country is a “safe space,” just not for progressives. You say people are allowed to “publicly disagree without consequences,” but that’s only when they’re the ones forwarding the presiding wisdom of the demographic. If Jason Aldean put out a song advocating for gun rights and his label put millions behind it to promote it to radio, do you think he’d be insulated from criticism? What about Travis Tritt singing about abortion rights? No, country is a “safe space” for the values these guys represent. It cuts both ways. The main issue is that Morris has tried to change the tide and lead the entire genre in a different political direction and she’s barely a blip on anybody’s radar. And country kind of exists unto itself in a lot of ways, which is partly why people like her try to come in and disrupt things.
Yes, some country stars are liberal, but for the most part they seemingly have to keep those elements out of the music. And they don’t harp on these issues like pop stars do in the press. That’s how you end up with people who’ve likely listened to Willie Nelson for decades suddenly figuring out he’s a “libtard” when he endorses Beto O’Rourke in a concert. That’s how you end up having your career in country music cancelled overnight just because you criticized a president. And that’s when how you end up with people saying “shut up and sing,” because it’s only “political” if you’re stating a viewpoint conservative listeners don’t agree with. If you’re braying about the land of the free, you’re right to have a small arsenal, or platitudes from the Bible, that’s part of the safe space.
This isn’t a perfect explanation, mind you, and I’m sure someone’s going to come along and poke holes in it. But I hope you got my point.
September 18, 2023 @ 4:13 pm
What a shame.
Every other genre is a safe space for liberals.
Country Music is the conservative friendly genre.
September 18, 2023 @ 5:55 pm
Though it might seem otherwise, my comment wasn’t intended as some sort of value judgement. It was merely to point out that pretending country music is the domain of free speech is a fallacy. Free speech is only free when the crowd you’re addressing predominantly agrees with you.
That said, we don’t need someone like Marren Morris trying to change it to suit their image. Country music doesn’t need to be “fixed,” at least not the way people like her think it does.
September 18, 2023 @ 8:38 pm
I never said that country music was a free speech domain. But here’s the deal: Maren Morris doesn’t want a free speech domain. If she did, pop music is THE LAST place that she would go. Instead, Morris wants a domain where only she and people like her get a platform and everyone else is silenced. When she realized that country music was never going to be that no matter how many times she ran to the media with the “bigot” and “Trump” card she went to an industry that won’t even countenance bland inoffensive studio-assembled boy bands like One Direction anymore.
And your comparison with the Dixie Chicks does Maren Morris no favors. Remember: Natalie Maines and company were actually willing to stand their ground and fight Toby Keith in the public square, the battle of ideas thing. Country music wouldn’t let them! Radio stations wouldn’t touch them. Stores wouldn’t carry their CDs. Labels wouldn’t sign them. That isn’t what Morris is experiencing! At all! She has been trashing country music artists and fans as bigots for over a decade and has retained her major label contract, huge promotional budget, airplay, industry awards (not the Grammys like the Dixie Chicks, who have given far more awards to bluegrass acts like Alison Krauss than they have to actual country artists, but legit country awards).
The Dixie Chicks never at any time argued that Toby Keith should be silenced. They agreed with his free speech rights. Morris is leaving country because she disagrees with the industry giving Aldean a platform to disagree with her. And keep in mind: Aldean’s statements against Morris are VERY MILD compared to what Keith did against the Dixie Chicks, especially during his concerts. You should research some of Keith’s antics against them … they weren’t pretty. No hint of chivalry or Oklahoma gentleman stuff at all.
Even within the constraints of country music, Morris was free to say as she pleased. Her sole problem was that Jason Aldean gets the same freedom. Had Aldean’s label, country radio or even other artists taken action against Aldean over his song – and especially over their personal war of words – she would still be a country artist today. Nothing comparable to what the Dixie Chicks went through at all.
September 19, 2023 @ 1:24 am
I don’t listen to music to be “enlightened” by anyone, of either side. Why does politics have to step in and ruin everything? I just like good music.
September 18, 2023 @ 1:30 pm
Maren (which my phone keeps autocorrecting to Karen! HA!) Morris wanted to be some sort of civil rights leader in country music. Two problems: 1-she lacks the talent to takes to become the voice of a genre. She’s never been anything more than OK at her best. 2- great leaders don’t pander. They stand for something and stand by it. Morris isn’t mad that country doesn’t share her complete set of moral values. No, she’s mad that people quickly saw through her bullshit. “Burn it down.” Ha! Fuck you, Maren. No one will miss you, and you’ll come crawling back when you realize that you’re not pretty enough to be a pop starlet.
September 18, 2023 @ 4:46 pm
I think out of respect for the perfectly fine Karen’s of the world, we should start referring to all the obnoxious females as “Maren’s”.
September 18, 2023 @ 9:58 pm
“Morris isn’t mad that country doesn’t share her complete set of moral values. No, she’s mad that people quickly saw through her bullshit”
I don’t think it is this, exactly. I think it’s that she can’t pop off like the leftist equivalent of a right wing cultural icon and keep a country fan base. . .I sort of get it. If you see loudmouths on the right praised for “telling it like it is,” it’s frustrating to have to rise above that. But it is the better and more respectful move to not match those people in demeanor and tone. I think that the way she expresses herself is much better suited to songwriting than to political and cultural commentary.
September 19, 2023 @ 7:54 am
That’s a fair take, even if we disagree. I truly do think that Maren thought she would position herself atop a moral mountain that she constructed for herself, and people realized that she really just wanted some attention. If she was as popular (or as talented) as some of the leading ladies in country, I don’t think she would pretend to care about the things that she’s built her platform on. Fortunately, we won’t have to find out because she “left” a genre she was never really a part of.
September 18, 2023 @ 1:32 pm
Great article on ‘Karen’ Morris..????
September 18, 2023 @ 1:32 pm
Looks like genius marketing to me. She’s got a ton of press, got “The Bridge” merch up on her website, got her side to rally around her and she’s got the other side agitated. Plus she’s gotten the attention of those who “forgot “ about her.
September 18, 2023 @ 1:36 pm
Yeah, but this press won’t lead to actually success.
September 18, 2023 @ 1:39 pm
This is all marketing. She knew how to push all the right buttons to get the press swooning. But press coverage doesn’t always translate into success, just like radio play. Ultimately, you need organic appeal, especially these days.
September 18, 2023 @ 1:47 pm
She’s definitely getting the press she “needs” so bad, However, it’s I highly doubt that either of these songs will end up going anywhere chartwise.
September 18, 2023 @ 1:42 pm
I can’t say I’m surprised about any of this. It was all so predictable, her leaving country, being completely classless about it, blaming others, thinking of herself as better than she actually is; it was all so obvious that this was going to happen. I’m not a massive Taylor Swift fan by any stretch of even the most wild imagination, but I always respected the way she chose to leave the genre, and I respect her even more now. Maren Morris is just an ungrateful Hagg who, at 33, is far too old to start a pop career, in my humble opinion.
September 18, 2023 @ 1:44 pm
Also, is it just me or does she always look disgusted?
September 19, 2023 @ 7:13 am
…Yeah, like her guy forgot to eat the pineapple.
September 18, 2023 @ 1:58 pm
So basically, Brittany Aldean won. Bwaaahaaaahaaaa!
I agree with hilive’s comment above, and may I just add that I see Maren divorcing Ryan Turd (ehhh, Hurd) and rebranding herself as pansexual. I’m calling it now!
September 18, 2023 @ 9:21 pm
???? nailed it.
September 18, 2023 @ 1:59 pm
As with her idea of “in the dustbin of history”, she’ll be forgotten about in a few years. Anyone remember Jamie O’Neal, Jessica Andrews or SHEDaisy? They were big around the turn of the century and now they are not heard from anymore.
I say, it’s time to replace Ms. Morris with Melissa Carper and/or Sierra Ferrell whom would do the genre some true justice.
September 18, 2023 @ 2:05 pm
Never heard of her but Greg Kurstin is an amazing musician. I heard him at a jazz gig 25 years ago and he just blew my mind.
GodI love jazz. Very little of this authenticity blather in that world for one thing. Just the best music.
September 18, 2023 @ 2:55 pm
Me and some college roommates met Greg Kurstin at a gas station after seeing him perform earlier in the night in his Geggy Tah days. Super nice guy – and they let us change lanes and pass them on the highway afterward. He was a pretty incredible musician, often playing two instruments at the same time by using a tapping technique on the bass.
September 19, 2023 @ 10:18 am
Greg Kurstin has produced some incredible pop music – Kelly Clarkson, Pink, Adele, etc. His work with Maren has been pretty sleepy in nondescript though. The new song sounds so much like all of her old stuff, as Trig pointed out. With the Jack Antonoff song I at least expected some 80s/Springsteen/synth/Bleachers influences. What a let down.
September 18, 2023 @ 2:09 pm
Wait. So you’re NOT a Maren Morris fan? ????????
September 18, 2023 @ 2:18 pm
She’s going on 34. Isn’t that pretty much Grandma age in the pop world unless you’re really really really talented, ( which she’s not) or really really really hot (which she’s not)? I imagine she’s going to blow all the top DJ’s so maybe she can find another quick hit like “The Middle”
And who is she going to bitch about in the pop world to get attention like she did in country?
Left wing publications used her as a tool for their agenda and she’s too damn dumb to see it. They will be done with her after this week.
September 18, 2023 @ 2:21 pm
Maren Morris (affectionately called “Karen” Morris by some), is a MEAN GIRL. A JEALOUS GIRL. She tried to deflect from that by aligning with the current “trans movement” where she expected to find loads of support and become a trailblazer in the country community in the ideology of letting children decide if they wanted to be a different gender–and supporting their mutilation and lifetime of commitment to harmful drugs to do so. Maren and her friend Cassadee Pope attacked Mrs. Aldean on social media for her simply stated opinion on transing children. They called her names publicly and directly and guess what…country fans did not like it. No one likes a mean girl. Then she doubled down and flipped the bird at Tennessee by performing with Drag entertainers and daring the police to arrest her for letting her toddler hang out with them at the event. She dug her own grave by assuming she could take country fans, who are largely conservative, down a far left path to enlightenment. Her narcissism made her believe that she had that much hold and power in country music–she found out that she, in fact, has no clue how to read a room.
Cassadee Pope was also kicked to the curb and her career tanked immediately–she has also returned to rock music because she killed any future she had in Nashville. The short career she did have was made possible by Blake Shelton, who did a lot for after she won the Voice.
September 18, 2023 @ 5:52 pm
You don’t have to be a Maren Morris fan to know that Brittany Aldean is awful and pretends to care about child welfare to score culture war points.
Trigger was astute in his characteristic of Morris as narcissistic. Telling B. Aldean to stuff it is a public service, not a “mean girl” move.
September 19, 2023 @ 7:10 am
I respectfully disagree. You don’t have to be a Brittany Aldean fan (I’m not) to dislike 2 grown women attacking and name calling another woman on social media. If you think it’s okay to do that to someone because you don’t agree with their opinion, then perhaps you’ve been guilty of the same. What they did “is” a mean girl move, and if so many people didn’t feel the same way, then this wouldn’t have been an issue.
September 19, 2023 @ 5:02 pm
This is what you said originally: “Maren and her friend Cassadee Pope attacked Mrs. Aldean on social media for her simply stated opinion on transing children.” Respectfully disagree. Mrs. Aldean was incendiary, careless, and ignorant. As a celebrity in her own right, telling her as much is not “mean” or “bullying.” Mean is using vulnerable trans people as a punching bag (under the guise of “concern for children” when they face real physical danger in so many areas of the U.S.
September 18, 2023 @ 7:32 pm
Don’t be a dick, man.
September 18, 2023 @ 7:47 pm
I grew up on country music, and I had to leave the genre as a listener in the mid 90s and especially after 9/11. It’s only the indie scene that’s brought be back…to the indie scene pretty exclusively.
September 19, 2023 @ 6:05 am
Regarding your last paragraph—so true! Why does the country genre, at least initially, accept (promote, play their music) certain emerging artists who clearly aren’t country artists…never were. It’s like the “wanna be’s” say…”Well, I want to make records, and to start out I’m going to bill myself as “country” because they will accept ANY KIND OF MUSIC and call it their own.” Their second thought is probably that if they have some success, they’ll move on to the genre they REALLY want to be be identified with. Does any other genre do that…take in anyone who says their music is country? I think this wide so-called “acceptance” is why country music has become so watered down in the last few years…with a few notable exceptions.
September 18, 2023 @ 2:21 pm
To be fair, the path young MM is on worked out just great for The Band Perry.
September 19, 2023 @ 7:44 am
Now, Kimberly Perry has returned to country music
September 18, 2023 @ 2:31 pm
How does one leave a genre that they were never really part of?
Go back to my “My Church” comments. I called it that she was a Trojan Horse. She namedropped some old-time stars, and people thought she was legitimate.
Her motives were blatantly transparent.
September 18, 2023 @ 2:32 pm
If Rachel Bilson were maimed in a fire, she’d look like Maren Morris.
September 18, 2023 @ 2:39 pm
When you have the IQ of a pencil eraser, pop music is where you belong.
September 18, 2023 @ 2:51 pm
Outstanding piece, especially the point about women who want to be in country. Carly Pearce, who was a Dolly Parton impersonator, is definitely one of them. I wonder how many A&R guys are signing women who are doing the rounds in Nashville. My pick is Mia Mantia, who is signed to Creative Nation as a writer. Mackenzie Carpenter, too, is a great writer/artist.
They will do brilliantly as they know the ecosystem.
September 18, 2023 @ 3:13 pm
I gotta be honest…I like jer when she’s playing Dustin on Stranger Things. I couldn’t really mame any of her songs though. I guess she should stick to acting.
September 18, 2023 @ 3:17 pm
I think you overkilled this. Almost no one know who she is and you spent a lot of words on her. Relax.
September 18, 2023 @ 6:09 pm
This isn’t about Maren Morris as much as discrediting her characterization of country music and the potential harm this could cause to the genre via the rebroadcast by the media.
September 19, 2023 @ 6:55 am
“Almost no one knows who she is” is just wrong. Shes had hit songs on country and pop charts. Her fame is waning and this is obviously a gasp for attention but acting like no one knows who she is is ridiculous.
September 20, 2023 @ 12:48 pm
Plenty of people know her and her music.
September 18, 2023 @ 3:43 pm
I liked the song My Church but will not miss anything about her. Good riddance.
September 18, 2023 @ 3:51 pm
I got burnt out of “My Church”. “80s Mercedes” was a guilty pleasure but I don’t seek it out. I heard “The Middle” a bunch but I couldn’t tell you about any of the others. We’ll never hear from her in pop music.
September 18, 2023 @ 4:06 pm
????♀️????????????????
September 19, 2023 @ 6:03 am
On FOX news today: ????
Country singer quitting genre due to effect of ‘Trump years’ will have no impact on industry: Music critic
Freelance writer and music commentator Kyle ‘Trigger’ Coroneos spoke with FOX News Digital on Maren Morris’s announcement about leaving country music
September 18, 2023 @ 4:15 pm
I thought “My Church” was pandering and blasphemous and that’s the only song I know of hers. I’ve heard some others, but none of them sounded country to me. So I’m not mourning the loss of some amazing female country artist.
By the way, Trigger, I appreciate the “Tombstone” reference at the beginning of the article.
September 18, 2023 @ 4:30 pm
“What makes a woman like Maren Morris, Doc? What makes her do the things she does?”
”A woman like Morris has got a great big hole, right in the middle of her. She can never kill enough, or steal enough, or inflict enough pain to ever fill it.”
“What does she need?”
”Revenge.”
“For what?”
“Bein’ born.”
September 18, 2023 @ 6:15 pm
Forgot to mention my appreciation of the Tombstone quote, myself. This is its 30th anniversary, but since it’s owned by Disney they’ll do fuck-all to acknowledge it. Also, RIP Powers Boothe.
September 18, 2023 @ 5:06 pm
I’ve definitely rolled my eyes at Maren Morris’ statements in the past but a couple things about this matter seem pretty close to the truth (shoutout to Jim Lauderdale):
1. It’s great timing on her part, coming on the heels of the Jason Aldean controversy and the viral singing guy with the terrible song
2. It makes complete sense
3. If there’s a potential loser in this situation, it’s definitely not Maren Morris, it’s country music. Not because losing Maren Morris is a great loss but because many people who aren’t country fans will view this as further confirmation that country music is an insular, reactionary, problematic genre.
September 18, 2023 @ 6:07 pm
#3 is the reason I went so long in this article. I think we need to address these accusations in detail, and I definitely think Maren’s words will dissuade certain women from pursuing careers in country music, exacerbating the issues she’s attempting to challenge.
September 18, 2023 @ 7:39 pm
Look, I’m not even a fan of MM, but I think her position is a lot more reasonable than someone like Jason Aldean, who is a complete ass clown, and who is IMO promoting a really backwards, provincial worldview. At least she is looking outward. I get the source of her frustration, too. She’s kind of in the mainstream Nville world, but because she has opinions on current issues, and because she (maybe?) uses a slightly different sonic palette than mainstream Nville and is female, she gets nowhere on radio, which is where it counts – if you’re her and more or less trying to play within the mainstream. So I get her frustration. The bigger issue is the FCC limits on ownership that changed with the 90s telecommunications act (which allowed ClearChannel to own everything), combined with the major label mergers, REALLY put the clampdown on the country genre. I remember in the 90s, on request night, I couldn’t get country stations to play anything from A.M. or Being There, even though Wilco were from fucking STL at the time, and at that time WAY countrier than half of what was on the country stations. So I get it. These two songs to me sound like country songs, also, even if her vocal stylings lean RnB. But to that point, she’s no less country than Chris Stapleton as a singer. They both take a similar vocal approach. She’s right.
September 18, 2023 @ 8:13 pm
Please don’t confuse me as a supporter of Jason Aldean or “Try That In A Small Town.” I said my peace about all that as well. As far as I’m concerned, Jason Aldean and Maren Morris are two sides of the same coin, just on opposite sides. If anything, I would probably find more favor with the Maren Morris side of that coin under other circumstances, but I absolutely cannot abide by the gross mischaracterization of country music by Maren Morris, or her attitude of “burning it all down” as the proprietor of a website called Saving Country Music. Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
September 18, 2023 @ 8:36 pm
I get that, and I didn’t read you as a JA supporter. I agree, both are reflective of the extreme polarization we see. Like Jann Wenner and his book the Masters. The under-30s have jumped ALL OVER his comments, which if you actually bother to take 5 minutes and really pay attention to what he’s actually saying, do make sense in the very specific context of what he was doing with that book. But I’m getting off topic. My opinion of this matter is that when she’s talking about “country music,” she’s most likely talking about “country radio” or the “nashville studio system,” more than anything. So while I’m indifferent to her more or less, that’s how I interpret what she’s saying – i.e. it’s targeted at Music Row, and country radio broadcasters, and a specific version of toxic redneckery that both promote, a version of country music that IMO aligns with current popular perception of “country music.” I realize the indie scene is a different beast altogether, and that there are occasional diamonds in the Nville system, but those diamonds don’t get the play usually, and what they do get comes from a fanbase outside Nville country. That’s my perception anyway. Anyway, I overall like what you do, and that’s why I’m here.
September 19, 2023 @ 4:22 am
#3 will never change for people, who dislike country music because of country’s core values of faith and small town living. So why bother? Country doesn’t need to change.
September 19, 2023 @ 10:16 am
I agree, the people who believe that country music is an insular, reactionary, problematic genre have always felt that way and will always feel that way. Something like this might cause those folks to pat themselves on the back a little harder for “being right,” but I don’t think this adds to their number or their influence in any meaningful way.
September 19, 2023 @ 10:24 am
Country Music have rolled over and allowed all kinds of genres to appear during those awards shows.
The same reputation remains.
September 18, 2023 @ 5:09 pm
How do I put this nicely: a horrible p*ss stain.
September 18, 2023 @ 5:14 pm
Well I definitely can’t say I will miss her. I did like her first song but that was just one of those get your foot in the door songs. After that, nothing. It’s fine to have opinions, but a good artist just lets their songs do the talking. I guess it’s hard in this day n age but I still feel that’s the way to go
September 18, 2023 @ 5:21 pm
I just want the article where Morris and Aldean fall for each other because their careers get washed up and see the world on fire.
September 18, 2023 @ 5:43 pm
Nice work, Trig. Much better and probably cuts deeper than Charlie Robison’s rant — if Maren Morris ever took the time to read it. There are people in country music who have no love for or interest in country music. It’s just grist for whatever mill they come in with.
September 18, 2023 @ 5:53 pm
You don’t have to be a Maren Morris fan to know that Brittany Aldean is awful and pretends to care about child welfare to score culture war points.
Trigger was astute in his characteristic of Morris as narcissistic. Telling B. Aldean to stuff it is a public service, not a “mean girl” move.
September 19, 2023 @ 10:19 am
Brittany Aldean and Maren Morris are the exact same narcissistic, pandering airhead standing on opposite sides of a particular issue. There is no good girl in that conflict.
September 18, 2023 @ 6:37 pm
We saw Maren at Buck Owens Crystal Palace in ’18 and she was really good. Yes, but a really good pop act. There was a lot of sound coming out of a band that size. There was almost nothing country about her. But she was a really good pop act, As opposed to her opener, Mitchell Tenpenny. He was not very good. At all. actually he was dreadful
September 18, 2023 @ 6:52 pm
When you look at Morris’ recent chart history, there were already signs she was stagnating beginning with the direct follow-up to her massive hit “The Bones”, “To Hell & Back”: which was the third single from her sophomore album and failed to go Top Twenty outright.
Now that single’s underperformance could definitely be attributed in large part to heavy recurrent play for “The Bones” diminishing the potential for any direct follow-up to chart well. But then “Circles Around This Town” was released as the lead single to her most recent album, and for a lead single it burned through so many chart weeks only to scrape the bottom of the Top Ten, with the direct follow-up to that not even going Top Fifty (!).
I just simply feel the buzz surrounding Maren Morris had already dried up after “The Bones”, and Morris knew it. I really think she saw the signs and realized there really wasn’t a viable future for her in the genre. So I can’t fault her for moving on.
September 18, 2023 @ 6:55 pm
The way the songs are still under the country genre…
September 18, 2023 @ 6:58 pm
Margo Price, Maren Morris, Amanda Shires, Kelsey Ballerini – If I never hear another song by any of these women that is more than fine by me (not to mention having to see the lack of clothing they often seem to be showcasing just as much as their music). There are so many other women in country music who could use (and who deserve) the attention. If you look at Trisha, Patty, Wynonna, Lorrie, Suzy, Lee Ann, Reba, etc.. next to them – there is no comparison. Yes, please leave country music and don’t let the door hit you in the fishnets on the way out. Make more room for new ladies as well as more room for Lainey, Carly, Ashley, etc… “…. a self-centered notion that is fed through the hero/victim behavioral pattern at the heart of all clinical narcissism.” <— THIS. Always the victim! When it doesn't work out in pop I'm sure country music will be thrown under the bus again. Also – Spotify posting Zach Bryan's mugshot on the Outlaw Country playlist and then posting Maren's photo as the cover of the New Music Friday Country playlist … ???? ????
September 18, 2023 @ 7:30 pm
who?
September 18, 2023 @ 7:47 pm
Bye MM. Turning up the Sarah Shook..
September 18, 2023 @ 8:22 pm
Regardless, Jason A. and his obnoxious wife are WAY worse.
September 18, 2023 @ 9:51 pm
Only to leftist dildos. ????
September 18, 2023 @ 8:26 pm
I’m sorry but I’m tired of us pretending country music is an uber-conservative genre when only one personwho would have been left behind had not been for liberals has shown explicitly conservative views.
September 19, 2023 @ 12:00 am
We don’t need her. She’s brought nothing to country music, she can leave with nothing. Fuck those stupid, baseless awards.
September 19, 2023 @ 12:03 am
…again: country music will not lose its latent inferiority complex ever by belittling or even insult artists, who dare to color outside the lines. or, who strive for something new like in this case. since when is throwing of the shackles not “country” anymore?
September 19, 2023 @ 5:27 am
Way to go trigger!, Top story on Fox News Online this morning!
https://www.foxnews.com/media/country-singer-quitting-genre-due-effect-trump-years-no-impact-industry-music-critic
September 19, 2023 @ 1:28 pm
it was weirdly dovetailing with this hyper-masculine branch of country music. I call it butt rock
Only, the term “butt rock” as used by pretty much every other person on the planet refers to something else entirely.
God, Maren Morris is such narcissistic trash.
September 19, 2023 @ 6:15 am
She might want to ask Grace Potter how much greener the grass will be in the pop world. After a couple candy-ass pop album fails Grace is back to her rootsy, soulful, hippy-chick sound ripping off Stones’ riffs and just put out a heck of an album that will hopefully do well for her somewhere. Although Grace didn’t burn it down on her way out. MM won’t have country to come back to when pop radio doesn’t give her any love.
September 19, 2023 @ 6:42 am
I would be upset by this if Morris’ music had been actually country. Let’s be honest. Other than a few songs on her debut that may qualify as pop country, her entire catalog consists of pop music. Morris rose up quickly in the country genre, but as she has become more and more pop, her numbers are waining. What a better excuse for her full time exit to pop than to blame the bigoted hillbillies for keeping her down.
But i’m not angry. Don’t let the door hit ya Maren. I wish you all the success that the Band Perry received on their glorious switch to pop music while making the same erroneous claims. See ya when you get back. Maybe you and Kimberly can tour together.
September 19, 2023 @ 7:07 am
Not really a fan of where Aldean’s style went after his first couple of albums, but Maren’s entire career won’t outweigh his debut album. Maybe Bill Gates will do a bulk buy of her pop stuff.
September 19, 2023 @ 7:34 am
Well, congrats on the Fox News mention Trig ????
September 19, 2023 @ 7:35 am
Great article. Was just discussing this topic last night with a friend. Good to see you quoted in the Fox news online article about Maren this morning.
September 19, 2023 @ 8:39 am
Yes attention, that’s all this is. I can’t say anything that hasn’t already been said except .. Maren, just go do a duet video with Lizzo and get it over with.
September 19, 2023 @ 8:45 am
She was never really country and in my opinion not that good. Liked one of her songs on her first album. Since that one real hit, she has moved further and further away from what is country or what I would call good pop music. She seems to feel she is more important than she is with some of her comments in the last year or so and more recently, I saw her supporting the Dixie Chicks and didn’t think much of her performance. No doubt when her pop career evaporates, she will return to country music or try to. She might well have burnt her boat. . No loss to country music. I wish her well. Good luck to her.
September 19, 2023 @ 9:03 am
So I’ve had time to think about it, and I wasn’t going to say anything, but here are my thoughts.
1. I personally love Maren’s music. Is all of it country? NO! But I would argue that the following are near perfect songs and are easily categorized as country:
My Church
I Could Use a Love Song
Detour
To Hell and Back
Hummingbird
I can’t love you Anymore
The Furthest Thing
Circles Around this Town
2. As much as I love her, I don’t love the performative nature of her exit from country. I think she should have followed the Taylor route…leave graciously and do what you want. But don’t say you want to burn the place down. It just looks petty.
3. I totally understand where she’s coming from. As a gay, left-leaning individual who loves country music, I don’t always feel welcomed by the genre. It’s thanks to folks like Maren, Kacey, Brothers Osborne, Miranda, and others that I even feel like my community is even seen by Country Music. So the frustration is understandable.
4. I think Trig could have made his point with being so brutally condescending. First of all, too much of this article sounds like armchair psychology masked as analysis. Calling her a clinical narcissist is just name calling disguised as journalism, and frankly trig, I think it’s beneath you.
I also think it’s dismissive to call her middling. An artist with a Grammy, multiple CMA and ACM awards, hit records and massive crossover success is not, by any definition, middling. A middling artist doesn’t win CMA’s for Album, Female Vocalist, Song, and Single of the Year. You may not care for her music, but she’s clearly a talented singer and songwriter. I can say that Jason Aldean has talent even though I don’t like his music. And considering Maren writes so much of her own songs, I think I would even give her a leg up.
September 19, 2023 @ 11:24 am
1. It’s laughable that you refer to any of those songs as “near perfect”. It’s one thing to like a song, it’s an entirely different issue when you have to lie to yourself like that. I actually don’t mind My Church or I Could Use a Love Song, but they are fairly mediocre pop country songs, if we’re being honest.
2. A middling artist absolutely can, and more often than not, does win all sorts of awards. Just look at the winners and nominees at the Grammy, CMA and ACM awards over the past decade or so.
3. Also, it’s just a flat-out lie to say she’s had “massive crossover success”. She was featured on The Middle, which was a massive pop hit, which likely had almost nothing to do with her being a part of it, and certainly didn’t make her more popular outside of the “country” genre. The Bones was a big crossover hit, but none of her other singles have went any higher than #44 on the Billboard Hot 100. George Strait and Alan Jackson have had significantly more crossover success than Morris, and they did so without trying to appeal to that audience.
4. Her voice is average, at best. I actually like 3 or 4 of her songs, but let’s not pretend that her signing is particularly impressive or that her writing is “anything to write home about” (pun intended). If she was better, she’d actually have an audience.
September 19, 2023 @ 9:22 am
I personally don’t care about an artist’s political affiliation or that they speak out on issues. They have that right as an American and that we can have differing viewpoints. But Morris attacked Aldean’s wife personally. Called her an insurrection barbie on social media. Totally uncalled for. Nothing Aldean said warranted that attack. Then Morris said she didn’t want to go to the awards show if the Aldeans were there. She is a triggered dolt that is wrong in everything she said about Country music. This is a great article. You can add Kelsea Ballerini as another left leaning performer who is still enjoying success in the industry
September 19, 2023 @ 9:42 am
she probably just sees the success taylor swift is having and wants a piece
September 19, 2023 @ 11:25 am
As Vince Neil would sing she wants “a piece of the action”.
September 19, 2023 @ 10:11 am
It’s laughable she was even part of country music in the first place. But clearly there’s a (successful) template for toying with pop music under the country music umbrella until you are ready for one less pedal steel and one more funky groove.
I never once considered her ‘country’ and this whole episode is both predictable and – in the manner of her exit – tiresome.
September 19, 2023 @ 10:16 am
She is a disciplined eater, that’s all I know about her
September 19, 2023 @ 11:42 am
The writer left a lot of their spleen behind venting about someone they don’t consider integral to the genre.
September 19, 2023 @ 12:44 pm
Congrats on getting so much coverage of your Fox News interview, Trig.
Great job.
I won’t miss Maren a bit.
I certainly don’t care about her (or other artists’) politics.
September 19, 2023 @ 2:03 pm
I don’t know, she sold T-shirts to raise more than $150,000 for marginalized people. That seems pretty classy to me. I’ll always have a soft spot for her for that.
September 19, 2023 @ 11:00 pm
Every human being who is not directly responsible for the creation of and distribution of $ is marginalized.
September 20, 2023 @ 10:11 am
Marginalized people?
That group has more social and political power right now than any other group.
September 19, 2023 @ 4:35 pm
1) I predict that in 5 years or less she’ll be putting out her “returning to my roots” country-ish album in a feeble attempt to resurrect her career.
2) She still looks like Dustin from Stranger Things.
That is all.
September 19, 2023 @ 4:54 pm
Totally unrelated to this, but Trigger, will you be posting anything about the big announcement from the Oak Ridge Boys?
September 19, 2023 @ 6:28 pm
Yes,
https://savingcountrymusic.com/the-oak-ridge-boys-announce-farewell-tour/
September 19, 2023 @ 7:59 pm
Maren Morris looks like Sgt. Harris from the Police Academy movies.
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/policeacademy/images/5/50/Captain_Harris_films.png/revision/latest?cb=20140315185146
September 19, 2023 @ 8:49 pm
I don’t think country music fans will lose any steam because of Maren Morris‘s latest attention-seeking outburst. Her rants aren’t my idea of entertainment. I think Maren may have just cancelled herself
September 19, 2023 @ 8:56 pm
First of all, the Dixie Chicks are not a victim. They deserved the cold shoulder from country fans, not so much for their political stance, but for their immaturity in adding fuel to the flame. From dragging Toby Kieth and Reba into the mud, and dissing country in every interviews.
And second, kacey and Kelsey can pack and move to pop too.
September 20, 2023 @ 7:43 pm
Kacey has moved to pop.
I loved Same Trailer, Different Park – country album.
I loved Golden Hour – cosmic pop album with some country seasoning.
Heard one track from star-crossed and it did nothing for me.
September 19, 2023 @ 9:54 pm
I didn’t think she was ever really “country”. Her songs were borderline crossover – not gonna miss her narcissism.
September 20, 2023 @ 7:01 am
Maren Hitler serious wants to force her love of trans people on us and if we don’t like it she’d love to place us in a reeducation camp Complete control freak
September 20, 2023 @ 7:20 am
Maren Hitler serious wants to force her love of trannies on us and if we don’t like it she’d love to place us in a reeducation camp Complete control freak
September 20, 2023 @ 7:21 am
very well put. She’s a typical leftist activist. “Hey, let’s burn down a whole city to get our point across”. the only thing it ever looks like, is a really big temper tantrum by spoiled, entitled, self centered chidden. She might be right about more equal opportunity, but what she can’t can’t handle is the unequal outcomes. If some women, POC and LGBT artists don’t sell that well in country music, it’s mostly because the audience isn’t there, not the opportunities. Let’s not forget, it’s called country music for a reason. All you have to do is drive thru a small town in the Midwest, southeast or western states, look around at the population and figure out why some artists just don’t work in country music. I hope this works out for her, but she never belonged here in the first place. Not because she’s a woman, but because she was always a pop artist.
September 26, 2023 @ 6:29 pm
Well. Tell that to my right-wing dad who insisted that our last presidential election was rigged and that we have the equivalent of Putin in office, all because he wants to believe a former disgraced POTUS isn’t a criminal. Burn it all down, indeed.
September 20, 2023 @ 8:23 am
Always felt she was pop, but this smacks of extreme petulance to me. Some progressive artists are having great success in country music right now. The difference between the and Morris is they speak their truth through their music, not on social media. She made herself a pariah to socially conservative country fans through her constant public lecturing. When she wasn’t received as a hero (but as a villain) she took her ball and went home, like a spoiled child.
As others have said, Morris was never really country anyway, and most fans won’t even notice her absence. Pop fans probably won’t notice her presence either. Women who look and sound like her are a dime a dozen in the pop genre. At least she was unique in country – which got her attention.
Bottom line for me, if she wanted to change the culture of the industry, she could have spoken through her music. Instead, she screamed on Twitter (X). And when that didn’t work, she took the coward’s way out and gave up.
Also, not for nothing, but many other country artists were very supportive and accepting of Morris. She not only slapped country music in the face with her hubris and insulting exit, she smacked those artists as well.
September 20, 2023 @ 12:37 pm
Trigger, I love your articles and your insights into country, but more and more posts are just you admonishing trashy pop artists like Maren Morris (deservedly so, mind you) and burning the brightest virtue signal fires I have ever seen in my life.
Stick to the music, stick to the fact that a lot of “country” stars are just pop and R&B acts under a Nashville label and also stick to the fact that those kinds of music are bland, boring, generic, vanilla soundtracks with electric beats, so much autotune it causes headaches and temporary deafness and stop the “OMG! I have to mention gays, blacks, and every other group in the same boat as those every article no matter the context or title!”
You’re a better writer than that for crying out loud.
Virtue signaling is the same as getting overtly political. Fine, you don’t mind the left side? Great! You love the ride side? Amazing! Bully for you!
But this is music. Stop virtue signaling to everyone who already knows that you aren’t a racist, bigoted, misogynistic, LWN/RWN, genocidal maniac with a political agenda to help push. Stop mentioned these “underprivileged groups” so much. It’s stale and sickening. We come here to learn about Country Music and you keep spitting this woke sounding nonsense all over the readers.
No one on the left needs it. No one on the right needs it. No one in the middle needs it.
We just need the chatter and articles about Country Music and the artists who are helping to further define the genre so that it can keep its soul and its roots.
So can we just leave it at Maren Morris being ugly AF on the inside and a complete and total charlatan, at best, on top of it?
P.S.
Don’t take this offensively if you ever see it. I just think you need to start leaning away from the endless desire to recognize minority groups when it LITERALLY added nothing to this article outside of undigestible word salad you have to wade through just to see the heart of the piece.
September 20, 2023 @ 4:09 pm
Jimmy,
It is a statistical certitude that Saving Country Music posts significantly less “admonishing trashy pop artists” than in previous years. As time has gone on, this has become less and less of the coverage. That said, when you have major news stories like Maren Morris exiting the genre, I am going to cover it. And if I’m going to cover it, I am going to be honest. That’s all that this is. I think if you click around the site, you will find this to be true.
September 20, 2023 @ 4:23 pm
It’s difficult to imagine a musician who loves being part of the country music family behaving like a spoiled only child.
September 20, 2023 @ 7:12 pm
For starters, I say good riddance to this spoiled brat. There’s so very much to be thankful for her walking away from this genre.
She has been insufferable for the longest time. She never showed any sense of grace or gratitude for her professional success. Her social media presence showcased the worst of what social media has foisted on our society. She acted like she was a combination of Dolly or Loretta’s talent wrapped up in Shania’s good looks. This alone made her impossible for a plebe like myself to respect her talentwise or on a personal level.
Whether you call her “woke” or some other buzzword, she leaned into her socio-political theatrics waaaaay too much.
I suspect she buys into the idea of “My Truth”, which is complete bullshit. There’s THE truth and there’s what you may think of it.
Her grandstanding “apologies” to “marginalized communities” are just more virtue signaling from an empty vessel. Apologizing for other people’s bad behavior, real or perceived, is only for exalting yourself in the eyes of those who you’re trying to curry favor with. The far-left have built their brand on dividing up society into more and more groups and inflicting us all with their tormented performance art designed to bring those groups together as a aggregation of the oppressed with the goal of keeping said groups agitated and in their thrall.
Yes, there are many country acts old and young who are on the left side of the aisle. Many of us on the right side of the aisle like the work of more leftist artists and choose to compartmentalize things because we enjoy and appreciate the art. We also don’t live in perpetual torment.
Unfortunately, cancel culture proponents have made so many people hive minded and, frankly, brainwashed enough to try and shut themselves out so much of life that they can’t help but be miserable and bitter. Hence, Maren/Karen’s attitude of wanting to burn down the genre that she claims to care about and that made her a celebrity. As if she had the capacity to do what she claims to want to do…
There is probably not much tread on that tire anyways and she knows she’s well past her commercial prime in Nashville. She certainly doesn’t have the decency or dignity to acknowledge that this is the case. Better to stomp her feet and bawl like the petulant child she is. Heaven knows that she never showed that she had the talent or depth to give the genre and it’s fans anything timeless.
Buh-bye, Karen.
September 21, 2023 @ 7:46 pm
Amazing the vitriol passed onto Maren Mortis. She is within her rights to critique and leave any way she chooses. She also has the right to make her points of view and beliefs just the same as Jason Aldean for instance. No better, no worse. Many participants and the author of this article speak much about the state of Country, in array of opinions. She is no different in having the ability to express her pint of view, frustrations and critique, just as said participants – even if it disagrees with the culture of this board. Singling her, her motives and method of exit is disgenuous and hypocritical, as other artists have complained, supposedly spoken out of turn or acted atrocious abd not gotten that treatment. Name calling and other stuff like that is typical of the childishness of the treatment of contrasting views here (in iit’srecently evolved and polarized form).
September 22, 2023 @ 5:25 am
Um, no one has questioned “her rights.” She can do what she wants, and we all can have whatever opinions we like about it.
Right? Or do we live in some sort of police state that enforces either one line only, or total indifference?
September 24, 2023 @ 5:53 pm
“Rights” here as in “ability to do what she wants”. Apparently, it’s okay gor some artists to say their piece but not others. I stand by my comment.
September 22, 2023 @ 7:13 am
“ Singling her, her motives and method of exit is disgenuous and hypocritical, as other artists have complained, supposedly spoken out of turn or acted atrocious abd not gotten that treatment.”
Gotcha. So she can bash country music, it’s artists, and it’s fans, but we dare not say anything back. She has a right to announce an exit, and we have a right to discuss it.
September 24, 2023 @ 5:50 pm
Maren Mortis has been critiqued and bashed here for many reasons, deserved or not. So your argument about others not having a say is moot. Gotcha back…
September 22, 2023 @ 3:18 pm
I didn’t think I’d be clapping back at anyone here about this, but here I am anyways…
Maren can make a big stink on the way out of town if she wants to. She did and it was right in character for her to do it this way.
It’s curious that you slipped up and typed her name as “Maren Mortis”, seeing as her career in Nashville was already dying on the vine. Humble Quest didn’t sell and it’s perverse that she used the word humble in any prominent fashion because she has been devoid of humility from the jump.
Trigger summed it up perfectly when he wrote this: “As was said by Saving Country Music recently, “When these activists finally conclude they will be unable to use country music to do their political bidding, they will actively work to destroy it.” This is what we’re seeing from Maren Morris and these two songs.”
You can cape up for her all you want. There’s a ton of people who have said goodbye to her and her attempt at a career long ago. There’s also a platoon of partisan media outlets caping up for her kissing her ass since her latest hissy fit. Those of us who don’t like her or what she produces or how she behaves can tell her not to let the door hit her on the way out. Unfortunately, many of the folks who react as you have in this forum have shown that they think that they should have to hear opposing views and are fine with whatever it takes to have those voices muted – See Dorsey-era Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and their collusion with the current administration in the D.C. swamp. Hopefully, you aren’t one of those people.
Maren should be prepared for whatever comes back at her when she acts up. Aside from insulting her looks, anything else is in play. We’ll see if any of these songs takes root and makes an impression. The odds of her being even one tenth of what Taylor Swift is now are long. Be careful what you wish for.
September 24, 2023 @ 6:41 pm
“When these activists finally conclude they will be unable to use country music to do their political bidding, they will actively work to destroy it”, That’s as disingenuous as it gets. So critics and dissenting points of view are destroyers? Hardly. Country will do just fine, despite her bitter burning of bridges and coarse music. She got bitter and left passed off, so what. Actually, Country has weathered many storms (Bro County, Hick Hop) and done just fine. So one very bitter exit doesn’t amount to much, does ot.
As far as partisan outlets go, Country is one of them, with its own core of values, like any “partisan” group. That’s fine. ” Acting up” (your words,) is just fine too, nothing wrong with criticism, it goes both ways. And as fas as humility, that goes out the window the minute you set your foot on stage. Feigned humility maybe for all of the “stars”.
As far as Twitter, swamps, administration’s and re-litigating the past, that ship has sailed (and sunk). We’ll have opposing views, dont we….
September 22, 2023 @ 9:55 pm
Glad to hear you admit that Taylor Swift’s manner of leaving country music was classy. If I remember correctly, at the time you accused *her* of “leavng with a torch in her hand” or some such thing.
September 22, 2023 @ 10:26 pm
Not at all. Maybe I said some sideways stuff initially, but I’ve been giving Swift credit for years for leaving country with a clean break and being honest about it. I which more artists that are truly pop would do the same. If Maren didn’t leaving going scorched Earth, I’d probably be giving her credit as well.
September 22, 2023 @ 10:28 pm
This is the article I was referring to, I think, but regardless, I do think Maren Morris should have left a long time ago: https://savingcountrymusic.com/taylor-swifts-op-ed-in-the-wall-st-journal-a-rebuttal/
September 23, 2023 @ 7:05 am
Sensitive much people? You’re reading comments on a fucking website and it’s earth shattering to you.
Go outside and breath the fresh air.
Marren Morris wasn’t country in the first place. Bye.
September 24, 2023 @ 11:15 am
So Maren Morris wasn’t country but somehow the CMA was completely unaware of this since 2016 and nominated her in various categories 26 times of which she won five awards and two times best female performer in country.
Your response shows exactly how far country remains from growing, changing and actually becoming more than just a machine that celebrates white males who are nominatively heterosexual and willing to pay lip service to a Christian God, and being a patriot while rarely actually serving their country in any way that doesn’t make them and the country machine a buck,
Your post echoes every attack against the Chicks and Natalie.
Bless your heart.
September 25, 2023 @ 6:33 am
Conveniently ignoring all of the females who are celebrated in country music is very telling. I would expect nothing less, though.
September 24, 2023 @ 10:17 pm
Hmmmmm……Twenty twenty-four will prove whether the genre is really broadening its horizons,as Ms. Morris,by her exit,seems to doubt,or will be a stalking horse for regressive nostra . Good luck on your new pop venture,Ms. Morris.
September 24, 2023 @ 10:19 pm
RIGHT ON,Ms. Seager !!!!!!!
September 27, 2023 @ 1:06 am
I’ve been a frequent visitor to SCM for a few years now. It’s a fun way to discover high-quality and overlooked artists and I also enjoy flipping through the Down With Pop Country archives to read some of the funniest rants on the internet. I also respect Trig’s willingness to call out the bullsht of both right and left wingers. However until now I’ve refrained from posting any comments because I personally like to stay guarded on the internet. But I feel like I have to speak up now because the ageism on this website is out of hand. No I’m not old (unless you consider over 25 old) but using “old” or “middle aged” as an insult is well, frankly, a vile form of bigotry that’s all too acceptable in our hypocritical society that claims to be so inclusive and tolerant. It should be even less acceptable now that people (especially women) are living longer. There’s nothing wrong with being middle-aged, old, a mom, a “soccer mom”, grandma, dad or grandpa but the commentators on this website throw them around like insults. Also, what people are calling “middle aged” or “old” now is a joke! I remember when I was a kid reading the definition of middle aged in the dictionary as 40 to 60, so you’d think the minimal definitions of middle aged and old would’ve only gone up since I was a kid due to increasing life expectancies, right? Nope, it’s gone down instead! Now I’m seeing 35, 30, even 25 called “middle-aged” or even “old”. Um, that just means you’re an adult. (Late teens/early 20s is legally adult but biologically it’s actually late adolescence) In 1999 a 30 something would be a sexy pop star (Shania, J-Lo) today they’d be “hags”? I agree Maren is incredibly obnoxious and makes women look bad but that doesn’t make it ok to bring ageism and misogyny into it.
September 27, 2023 @ 7:04 am
As I’ve said in some other comments, the personal attacks on Maren Morris do not help the cause, they hurt it.
Thanks for reading.
December 30, 2023 @ 9:17 pm
Karen morris exit was about as well thought out as prince harry’s