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In a surprising turn of events, country music sensation Maren Morris is distancing herself from the very genre that catapulted her to fame. The Grammy-winning artist has voiced her concerns, declaring that country music has become unrecognizable to her, accusing it of transforming into a platform for pure political posturing.
Maren Morris, whose career was firmly rooted in the country music scene and was once considered a Nashville darling, has unleashed her frustrations upon her peers. This emotional outpour came on the heels of the release of two new tracks that serve as a poignant reflection of her anger and disillusionment regarding the current state of the music industry. One of her music videos vividly depicts her walking away from a burning town, a symbolic representation of her feelings towards the industry. In a subsequent interview with the LA Times, Morris emphasized her sentiment by stating, “I thought I’d like to burn it to the ground and start over. But it’s burning itself down without my help.”
One of Morris’s primary grievances revolves around the perceived disconnect she feels from the stories being told by mainstream country artists today. She candidly admits to attempting to avoid aligning her musical style with the traditional country paradigm, denoting the entire genre as stale and out of touch with the current cultural landscape.
In a bold statement, Morris lays bare her observations: “After the Trump years, people’s biases were on full display. It just revealed who people really were and that they were proud to be misogynistic and racist and homophobic and transphobic.” She concludes by drawing a sharp critique, implying that these problematic attitudes found an unsettling home within a hyper-masculine branch of country music, humorously labeling it as “butt rock.”
“After the Trump years, people’s biases were on full display. It just revealed who people really were and that they were proud to be misogynistic and racist and homophobic and transphobic.” -Maren Morris
Although Morris refrains from naming specific artists, it is apparent that she alludes to songs like Jason Aldean’s ‘Try That in a Small Town’ and others that she perceives as excessively political or harboring divisive themes.
Maren Morris’s departure from her country music roots, driven by her dissatisfaction with the genre’s perceived transformation into a platform for political rhetoric, marks a significant moment in her career. It remains to be seen whether this departure is temporary or if she will continue to explore new musical territories.
