There are way too many country awards shows. In the last month alone were the CMA awards, TCMA awards, BBMA awards, and IWMA awards and probably a few others. Grammy nominees were announced, too. Nothing against any of these, but I listen to music. I do not listen to little statues. I’ll go ahead and throw in some opinions, anyway, because I need something to discuss.
The biggest story of the CMA awards was the crowning of Lainey Wilson as entertainer of the year. In terms of qualifications, she’s tremendously behind, but the voters loved the view. What’s the real story here? I suspect that a contributing factor is that Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert both turned 40 this year. The industry has been trying to figure out how to establish a new female superstar ever since those two broke in. Another big story from the CMA awards is Jelly Roll’s win for new artist, along with having both the opening and closing performance slots. The Nashville industry has been trying to shoehorn rappers into country music for years and finally found one who seems to be well received, perhaps because he’s a Nashville local who shows familiarity with the country scene. Whatever you think of Lainey Wilson or Jelly Roll, it’s very obvious that both have enjoyed tremendous support from Nashville in 2023. If the goal of the industry was to elevate both of these artists into major stars this year, then it appears the efforts have been successful. Do country music fans actually consider a cover of “Fast Car” the best “country song” this year? Seriously?
Morgan Wallen has been the dominant artist on the country charts this year and took home multiple Billboard music awards after being curiously shut out at the CMAs. Zach Bryan won Billboard’s new artist award, after he also came home empty from the CMAs.
Leftist bias is obvious in the list of Grammy nominees. Although country music enjoyed a record breaking year on the charts, country was completely shut out of most all-genre awards categories. If you prefer good music to leftist interest groups, there’s not much to pull for. I can hear better local musicians playing for tips than most of this and without dishonest DEI pandering.
Although I created this blog largely because of my interest in music outside of the mainstream radio scene, I’ve pulled way back from attending indie country shows, because I got sick and tired of the negativity and egos in the “indie country scene.” I tired of the annoying indie fans and even indie artists themselves trashing Chris Stapleton and other artists on every social media platform. Even though I’m not closely related to Chris, I am a Stapleton and I don’t care to spend my time and money supporting an “indie scene” that attacks a Stapleton who never talks trash about anyone. I have seen approximately a thousand musical artists across all genres perform over the years. I will probably always be out here somewhere watching someone play music, no matter the genre, but I have very little interest in “artists” and “scenes” who attack anyone, much less a Stapleton.
I greatly enjoyed attending all ten days of Wurstfest in New Braunfels, said to be the largest polka event in the country. It was so refreshing to hear so many quality musicians, some of whom also play country, and not hear any trash talk whatsoever about any artist at any point during the ten days. The “country scene” could learn from that.
Robert's Country Blog 