Music journalist suggests country fans are racists, says they and 'other supporters of racial slurs' are buying Morgan Wallen tickets in droves



Music news outlet Consequence of Sound rolled with a story headline Tuesday that reads, "Country Fans, People Who Like N-Word Buy Ungodly Amount of Morgan Wallen Tickets."

And if the headline isn't inflammatory enough, a sentence in the first paragraph of Wren Graves' story gets more specific: "Country fans, and various other supporters of racial slurs, have bought over 700,000 Wallen tickets since the tour was announced three weeks ago."

"Country fans, and various other supporters of racial slurs": How do you feel about that, country music fans?

What's the background?

Wallen made big headlines earlier this year after a video surfaced of him using the N-word — and then his label, Big Loud Records, suspended him indefinitely and radio stations dropped his music.

But less than a week later — akin to a collective "Oh, yeah?" — it was reported that Wallen's sophomore effort, "Dangerous: The Double Album," was skyrocketing in sales.

In fact, just a month later, the "Dangerous" album shattered a 64-year music chart record as it spent its eighth-straight week in the Billboard 200's No. 1 slot.

Wallen, as you might expect, apologized for his use of the N-word: "The video you saw was me on hour 72 of a 72-hour bender, and that's not something I'm proud of, either. Obviously, the natural thing to do is to apologize further and continue to apologize, because you got caught, and that's not what I wanted to do ... I let so many people down who mean a lot to me, who have given so much to me. It's just not fair. I let my parents down, and they're the furthest thing from the person in that video. I let my son down, and I'm not OK with that."

Now what?

And after all that, Consequence of Sound seems perplexed and distraught, noting in its story that Wallen's "massive arena tour has become the hottest ticket of 2021" — and then appearing to stick it to country music fans for contributing to Wallen's success.

COS added that nearly all of his tour dates have sold out, and that Billboard has declared "Dangerous" the top-selling album of the year. The outlet also said that while Wallen pledged $500,000 to black-led organizations in response to his N-word controversy, a September COS article said he was several hundred thousand dollars short of that promise.

What did observers have to say?

Commenters on the COS Facebook page seemed mixed in their reactions to the outlet's "People Who Like N-Word" story.

Some appeared to align with the outlet's take, with one commenter responding "good headline" and another saying "Lol @ the title. That is accurate." Another ally said "country has been, and continues to be, the bottom feeder of popular music."

But others were annoyed and took COS to task:

  • "Or...I don't know...judging someone because of a drunken mistake is stupid.....But go ahead and bash him and listen to Chris Brown or other artists who have done far far far worse," one user replied.
  • "Country fans aren’t the only ones who like that word or use it daily...or in songs," another commenter offered.
  • "People who like the N-word buy ungodly amounts of rap music," another commenter said.
  • "Y’all are race baiting; pretty f***ed up," another user declared.
  • "This is a s**tty take LMAO this publication is a joke," another commenter wrote.
  • "Unfollowing this ridiculous publication," another user decided. "Worthless."

The Rolling Stones haven't played 'problematic' anthem 'Brown Sugar' on current tour: 'They're trying to bury it'



Legendary rock band The Rolling Stones are back on tour, and they're singing and playing in front of fans despite the recent death of founding drummer Charlie Watts, who was 80.

And something else noticeably different on this tour — so far, at least — is the absence of their anthemic song, "Brown Sugar," which the Los Angeles Times referred to as a "gleefully problematic early-'70s smash that opens on a 'Gold coast slave ship bound for cotton fields.'"

'They're trying to bury it'

"You picked up on that, huh?" guitarist Keith Richards replied when the Times asked him why he, Mick Jagger, and the rest of the Stones aren't playing the song. "I don't know. I'm trying to figure out with the sisters quite where the beef is. Didn't they understand this was a song about the horrors of slavery? But they're trying to bury it. At the moment I don't want to get into conflicts with all of this s**t."

The paper added that Richards "laughed in his signature raspy fashion" and then said he's "hoping that we'll be able to resurrect the babe in her glory somewhere along the track."

The publication that bears the band's name — Rolling Stone — reported Tuesday that there's been no sign of "Brown Sugar" four shows into the group's 2021 No Filter Tour. The fourth show was Saturday in Nashville; the band's next gig is Thursday in Los Angeles.

For context, the magazine said "Brown Sugar" has been a cornerstone of the Rolling Stones' concerts since it was released 50 years ago, and it's the second-most played song in their catalog with 1,136 known performances. (The magazine added that "Jumpin' Jack Flash" is on top of the list.)

But those lyrics...

Rolling Stone magazine said given the current social climate, it's not difficult to see how playing "Brown Sugar" night after night might eventually spell trouble.

After the first line ("Gold coast slave ship bound for cotton fields"), things get specific and ugly: "Sold in the market down in New Orleans/Scarred old slaver knows he's doin' alright/Hear him whip the women just around midnight."

More from the magazine:

This is indeed an historically accurate description of the horrors of the slave trade. And while nobody is seriously suggesting the Stones released a pro-slavery song, it continues on with lines about the unimaginable sexual abuse many slaves faced once they reached southern plantations.

"Drums beating, cold English blood runs hot," Jagger sings. "Lady of the house wonderin' when it's gonna stop/House boy knows that he's doing alright/You shoulda heard 'em just around midnight."

"We've played 'Brown Sugar' every night since 1970, so sometimes you think, 'We'll take that one out for now and see how it goes,'" Jagger told the Times. "We might put it back in."

The magazine concluded by hypothesizing why Jagger may not be into performing "Brown Sugar" at the moment: "It just doesn't taste so good in 2021."