American singer and songwriter, Maren Morris, rose to fame with her hit collaboration with Zedd on The Middle. The 33-year-old singer is now making headlines for her decision to quit the country music industry due to its toxicity.
Maren Morris Opens Up About Quitting Toxic Country Music Scene
In a recent episode of The New York Times Popcast podcast, the singer-songwriter expressed her unwillingness to be a part of the toxic atmosphere of the country music industry in Nashville.
Morris argued that those who held hateful views towards women, racism, homosexuality, and transgender people had been supported during the Donald Trump administration, leading to a “hyper-masculine branch of country music”, referring to it as “butt rock”.
During the podcast, Maren Morris explored her journey as an artist in Nashville, as well as the public criticism she has received for speaking out about the industry’s flaws.
She said that her decision to part ways with country music has been “blown out of proportion.” She also talked about her latest EP titled The Bridges.
“I had been sitting on those songs since January and they were sort of following a ton of traumatic s**t. I felt like I really just, I don’t want to say goodbye, but I really cannot participate in the really toxic arms of this institution anymore.”
Morris labels her transition as more “hyperbolic” than realistic, saying that she requested her music should not be taken into account for any potential nominations at the Country Music Awards. Before that, she announced that she had shifted to Columbia Records from their Nashville department.
“I couldn’t do this circus anymore – feeling like l have to absorb and explain people’s bad behaviours and laugh it off. I just couldn’t do that after 2020 particularly. I’ve changed. A lot of things changed about me that year.”
Maren Morris On Social Issues
The Middle singer has always been very vocal about social issues. She has been a loud advocate for the LGBTQ community, as well as a strong opponent of racism and sexism.
In the past year, Maren Morris was embroiled in a well-publicized clash with Jason Aldean and his spouse Brittany over transgender rights. Earlier, she had expressed her disapproval of Morgan Wallen when a video of him using a racial slur emerged, and he has since issued a formal apology.
Despite Wallen’s public use of the slur, he witnessed a successful period due to the controversy. Maren Morris, however, was not surprised at this chain of reaction. She said,
“It’s very historically accurate for that reaction to happen that way. So, yeah, that sucked not because I regret what I said, because I absolutely don’t. It needed to be condemned publicly by peers, not just radio or the label putting him on notice.”
Maren Morris also revealed that not only did she receive death threats from Wallen’s supporters but they also threatened her new-born son.
“The pain that it caused — and I’m not talking about the slur, because how would I know what that feels like? I’m white. For me, the fallout, oh my god, the death threats. And not just against me, but against my son. [I] could never have fathomed it would go there just off of criticizing a racial slur.”
She further explained her decision to separate herself from the country music industry.
“I’m not shutting off fans of country music, or that’s not my intention. It’s just the music industry that I have to walk away [from].
But I think there’s so many progressive listeners too that listen to not just one genre, like, they can dabble in country and the next day they’re in hip hop, so I think that’s always kind of been my MO from the jump.”
