On February 3rd 2021, then-rising country music star Morgan Wallen was filmed shouting the n-word at a friend while drunk. When the video went viral online, it sent shockwaves around the US media – with Spotify, Apple, and country radio all subsequently removing his music from featured playlists. He was also dropped from his record label, the influential ACM Awards declared his album ineligible for their upcoming show, and his career seemed all but over.

However, rather than gradually disappearing from public consciousness as expected over the course of coming months, Morgan Wallen’s music experienced an enormous and unprecedented surge in sales. It would be a lie to say that his popularity came from nowhere – his second record, Dangerous: The Double Album, had already held the top spot on the Billboard 200 for a month beforehand – but it’s surely no coincidence that in the days following the controversy, sales of the record tripled and his singles remained on the Hot 100 for months despite having been erased from playlists. The album Dangerous remained atop the albums chart for ten consecutive weeks, a feat unmatched since Whitney Houston in 1987. Despite all the odds, the album has recently been named the biggest-selling album of 2021 in America, having outsold those by Olivia Rodrigo, Adele, and Drake.

“More worryingly, it’s certainly no longer just diehard country fans supporting Wallen with their time and money”

For context, the album is by no means extraordinary in itself. It has received reviews ranging from mediocre to good (6.9 from Pitchfork, 3/5 from Rolling Stone), and while it might well appeal broadly to country fans, it is not particularly original (song titles include words such as “beer”, “rednecks”, and “bartenders”), nor is it by any estimation the best country record of the year. It seems that it’s not just the album’s content that has warranted such extreme commercial success and, more worryingly, it’s certainly no longer just diehard country fans supporting Wallen with their time and money.

Having heralded him as some form of “anti-cancel culture hero”, millions of listeners seem content to not only ignore his actions, but to actively support them – rejecting both his apologies and his painstaking efforts to distance himself from the video. The comment sections of his music videos and articles about him are troubling to scroll through, filled with people bemoaning the “total loss of free speech”, and ignorantly complaining of “double standards” regarding white and black singers’ “right to use the n-word”.

Unfortunately, overt racism is depressingly prevalent within some areas of country music. Given that the genre is predominantly filled with white, male artists and is clouded by conservative executives’ repeated espousals of Southern sensibilities, it finds itself holding onto outdated values. Despite the industry giants’ outcries of disgust against Wallen – CMT claimed that his actions “directly oppose our core values that celebrate diversity”, while Kelsea Ballerini stated that “it does not represent country music” – it seems that this simply isn’t the case. Mickey Guyton, an African American country singer who has struggled for years to gain traction in the industry, and continues to be the victim of daily hate comments online, confirmed that she was wholly unsurprised by Wallen’s actions and his fans’ reactions.

“Countless musicians have been accused of awful things, but audiences still listen to the likes of Michael Jackson, R. Kelly and Melanie Martinez – even when aware of the allegations made against them”

It’s very easy to condemn Wallen, but the debate surrounding what to do with his music from here on is rather more complex. After all, it’s been long debated to what extent art should – and can – be separated from its artist. Countless musicians have been accused of awful things, but audiences still listen to Michael Jackson, R. Kelly and Melanie Martinez – even when aware of horrific allegations made against them. Perhaps the larger issue at hand in Wallen’s case is the sheer inconsistency of the message sent against him by the tight-knit country music industry.

In October, it was announced that Wallen would be banned from attending the November CMA Awards, despite having already received a controversial nomination for Album of the Year, a nomination refused to him by the ACM and CMT Awards earlier in the year. It’s this hypocrisy which is defining the Morgan Wallen case: executives make one decision but seemingly cannot make up their minds, backtracking almost immediately. At first, he was dropped by his label, but then he was picked back up; at first his singles were banned from radio play, now they’re back on the airwaves; and at first his album was rejected by awards shows, only to be rapidly accepted again.

Inevitably, many African American country artists are losing all faith in the industry, having already struggled for years to gain traction on the radio. The founder of Black Opry (a platform for African American country musicians) described the Grand Ole Opry’s decision to allow Wallen to play at their show last week as “a slap in the face”, indicating that it “was once a dream destination for many black artists” but was now “one of the many Nashville stages on which we know we are not respected.” It seems that the industry leaders must drastically reassess their principles if they want the genre to grow artistically and become less insular in the decades to come. The decision makers in the Nashville community just can’t decide between doing the right thing and pleasing one hate-filled portion of its audience: something has to change.