Over the course of 2023, the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart has seen unmatched performances from numerous songs in the country music genre. Multiple chart records have been broken, and landmark peaks have been reached by country songs and artists, some being established names backed by Nashville’s Music Row, and some being complete Billboard rookies.
The Billboard tracking week of August 26th, 2023 was headlined by Oliver Anthony Music debuting his acoustic, folk-country protest song “Rich Men North of Richmond” at #1, backed by massive amounts of YouTube views and digital sales, with Billboard reporting 37% of all country track sales last week to the singer. While this event may be the most attention-grabbing and shocking to the public so far due to the sheer magnitude of its chart entrance, this trend has been slowly building over the past few years.
Country music has seen an undeniable upswing in overall popularity since the turn of the decade. New life was breathed into mainstream country by songs such as Chris Stapleton’s “You Should Probably Leave,” Bailey Zimmerman’s “Rock And A Hard Place,” Morgan Wallen’s “7 Summers,” and Luke Combs’ “Forever After All,” to name a few. Sadly, mainstream country is still fairly male-dominated, as popular women like Kasey Musgraves, Marren Morris, and Lainey Wilson tend not to crossover as consistently to the charts. Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” has continued to lay framework for hip-hop and country fusions, with a clear example being Wallen’s enormous single “Last Night,” which has seen a combined 16 weeks at #1 since its debut in February.
Before his historic chart run began, Wallen unfortunately put his bright future as a country hitmaker into question. TMZ broke footage of him using the N-word following an intoxicated fight with friends on Feb. 2nd, 2021. He apologized, telling TMZ “I’m embarrassed and sorry. I used an unacceptable and inappropriate racial slur that I wish I could take back. There are no excuses to use this type of language, ever. I want to sincerely apologize for using the word. I promise to do better.”
Not even a month prior, Wallen had released his sophomore effort Dangerous: The Double Album, which debuted atop the Billboard 200 albums chart, going on to spend 10 weeks at #1. As of the current chart week (9/2/23), the project is spending its 137th week on the chart perched at #10, with his 2023 follow-up One Thing At A Time lodged at #2 behind Travis Scott’s UTOPIA. Released on March 3rd, One Thing is a 36-track behemoth that has already spent 15 weeks at #1 this year.
While Wallen does not directly delve into conservative topics in his lyrics, it is the surge in popularity of Wallen’s work in the direct aftermath of his racist comments and short public fallout that ties him into a larger conversation regarding politics in recent country hits. His fanbase chose to ignore or forgive his use of a slur, and seems to be instead buying into his art at extreme levels to contend with the public degradation of his image, causing him to be easily re-accepted into the industry as a massively marketable star, actively growing despite his racist actions.
It must be restated that Wallen’s career path was bright before his controversy, as well as after. Wallen had 23 songs that debuted on the Hot 100 prior to Feb. 2021, five of which peaked within the top 20. This is very impressive for a rising country star, and it is clear that a very strong fan base and industry push had already formed. While Wallen was already poised for success, his audience forgave him for a choice that could have derailed his career.
