So remember how people boycotted The Chicks for their statements on George Bush? I feel like Carrie Underwood is getting some heat but NOT NEARLY as much as The Chicks for performing at the inauguration. And many people are happy with Green Day taking their stance. Idk I just feel like we need to normalize artists being able to express their political views. Politics can totally influence art because it’s life. If you don’t agree with someone’s politics you can just not buy their music or learn to separate the two (depending on the specific issues). I just feel like many conservatives feel they are being prosecuted for their views when they aren’t. What are your opinions?
(Also some people are claiming that doesn’t mean Carrie is MAGA just cuz she performed for him but clearly his politics didn’t deter her enough to reject the invitation and I think she’s definitely MAGA).
It feels like what conservatives are trying to say is that only THEIR views are ok to express and no one else’s (country music really sucks with this).
Comments
Well the demo matters. Country stars have more conservative fanbases.
Like it depends on what fans you offend
Most of their fans were & still are conservative White folks. So it makes sense that those folks disagreed with their comments against a conservative president.
Consider politics, prominent people, social ideas, trends, racism, tribalism, patriarchy, misogyny, capitalism, and every other “system” or “ism” have been influencing art since the dawn of time.
Henry Ford dumped a lot of money promoting country music and square dancing in the 1920s in an attempt to keep his workers away from Black, Jewish jazz.
I think there is also still a huge with race in music, specifically country. Remember when people lost their shit at Lil Nas X and Old Town Road, a country song, being sung by a Black gay man and it was only made “legit” when Billy Ray Cyrus did a remix? Or when Beyonce, who is from Houston, made a country record AND performed at the CMAs? Despite all that Black folks and cowboy culture go deep into American history.
Country has seemingly always leaned very white, male, racist, Christian/Evangelical, conservative, and gatekeep-y toward anything but despite having roots in Black culture and history.
Carrie Underwood is a white female country artist who won a Grammy for Best Roots Gospel Album, is a practicing Evangelical, and is from Oklahoma. Appearance wise, she fits the Republican “ideal”. She fits right into the Right crowd, so why would she be catching heat?
Also, how many leftists or people in general do you know who actually watched the inauguration? I had no idea she performed at it until this post and frankly don’t really care because I’m not a fan of hers.
Art is inherently political.
However, if I were an artist, and my core demographic was , for example, selling art based on video games to gamers, it would be a poor business decision to publicly state that I thought Baulder’s Gate 3 was a crap game (I don’t, btw).
There are some groups who are just waaay louder than others when they feel slighted in any minorly perceivable way. Liberals are, statistically, better educated and more likely to use better critical thinking skills when faced with a political slight from an artist. Conservatives will cry about how Starbucks allegedly started a “war on Christmas” because they put out a plain red cup one year. Some folks just like to get mad about stuff.
A lot of the appeal of conservatism in general is “they don’t like group I don’t like” whereas more liberal artists will lose support for not having the same views as all of their fans. I think a lot of conservative artists in more mainstream and alt genres are smart or PR trained enough to not openly discuss their views