How to deal with MAGAcore type tracks ?

[rainie]

okay so this is a bit more serious then most of the other your opinion please threads but after the try this in a small town controversy, im genuinely curious y'all's opinions on the best way to handle xenophobic or even outright racist conservative talking point type songs (ie am i the only one, that let's go brandon song, tom macdonald in general, etc)

i bring this up because the CMT ban clearly had an unintentional effect and drew a lot more attention to the dog whistley ass jason aldean video, which i think also boosted the careers of people like tom macdonald after well meaning folks like anthony fantano made multiple videos reacting to him, creating a streisand effect of sorts. should we just. ignore it and let the bigotry go unchecked ? should we continue to criticize these tracks knowing that the negative attention is likely what they want / any bans or boycotts will be used as an example of "censorship" and "cancel culture" ? is there a different approach we should be taking ? i (naively) hoped these sort of songs would at least have minimal staying power, but since try that in a small town appears to be sticking around (and since morgan wallen seems to have leveraged the boost he got from saying the n word into being the biggest artist alive rn), i suspect MAGAcore as a genre of music is just getting started :/

[jdanton2]

many of those songs were doing well on itunes for awhile but nothing in streaming . now streaming is catching up. sadly it could be a trend that will continue.

[HamedM1 💔]

As long as humanity exists there will always be hatred and racism in the world, it impossible to rid of such a large scale problem. You can only change the minds of so many people, so in the grand scheme of things ignoring it is the best course of action. All the attention and reaction that spread like wildfire onto online communities only further accomplishes what people like Jason Aldean want. He created a mass hysteria and will reap the benefits of all that attention.

[PREDS PRIDE]

a couple months ago (around the start of pride month), I was involuntarily introduced to a song on twitter by some rapper who calls himself the "mayor of magaville" who made a song about boycotting target due to them selling pride stuff. I listened to some of it just out of curiosity (the vid was right there on twitter) and minus the reasoning behind the song it wasn't even good at all musically, it was mostly just the dude repeating "target on decline" the entire fucking time. I thought it was absurd that this was getting promoted somehow but I didn't say or think anything else about it cause really a lot of those people are just trying to get clicks, and with most all social media sites now those clicks turn into money, which obviously we don't want for them.

I don't think this just applies to music, it applies to any of this kind of content in general. an easy solution is to just ignore them because they're just either attention seeking or trying to promote their (very wrong) agendas. as someone who's very chronically on twitter (as you can probably tell), it's very tempting to interact with articles or any kind of posts you don't agree with and share your thoughts, but even though it can be hard you just can't engage with them because it's really only helping them and not the side that you're on. even after muting most of the main conservative twitter influencers, I still see a lot of that kind of content because it's reposted by more liberal posters I follow and making fun of it and/or talking about why it's bad. so just not sharing it or interacting with it as much as you can I think is the best way to go about it.

[lyhom]

idk, like "don't hatestream" is always good advice, but I always kind of resent the notion that there's just this magic threshold of pushback that would make jason aldean (or anyone else trying this desperate controversy bait strategy) not cry about "cancel culture" to promote the song.

like, maybe cmt should've been more quiet about not airing the video, or even just put it in the rotation anyways, but I'd argue that this would've just delayed the inevitable. the entire time, the strategy was to make a song provocative enough to entice right wingers who feel seen with a major artist having a single with those lyrics, but vague enough to easily defend when someone asks if there's a darker context to the song. with how divisive politics are and how very few people express their opinions with the foresight to ask themselves "am I actually helping this out by disapproving of it", it was a matter of time before his team found a company not playing the song and giving them an out to frame it as "the out of touch country establishment doesn't want you to hear this!".

this is probably going to be a thing for as long as media and social media incentivizes clicks and outrage to survive, frankly

[Ezekiel 23:20–21]

I have checked some of these ones out to hear what they are saying to know what's contained in them so then I can then do my part to counter these dangerous and harmful messages.

I do find it most unsettling that these types of songs have resonated with so many, although, considering how many people are ready to re-elect Trump and will support DeSantis, MTG, Boebert, RFK Jr, etc., it really isn't surprising. This is really fuelling a very dangerous pressure cooker situation in the U.S. that may eventually come to a head at some point and we have no idea when it will happen and how bad it could be and how widespread the fallout will be and how far-reaching it will be.

[Daenerys]

Jul 25, 2023 17:41:16 GMT -5 lyhom said:

 I'd argue that this would've just delayed the inevitable. the entire time, the strategy was to make a song provocative enough to entice right wingers who feel seen with a major artist having a single with those lyrics, but vague enough to easily defend when someone asks if there's a darker context to the song. with how divisive politics are and how very few people express their opinions with the foresight to ask themselves "am I actually helping this out by disapproving of it", it was a matter of time before his team found a company not playing the song and giving them an out to frame it as "the out of touch country establishment doesn't want you to hear this!".

this is probably going to be a thing for as long as media and social media incentivizes clicks and outrage to survive, frankly.

I agree with this view. 

I posted this in the Aldean song thread, and I think it applies here as well: 

To me I think this almost feels like a counter moment to Childish Gambino's 'This Is America' a little over 5 years ago. One of the rare cases of music hitting a cultural and socio-political protest kind of lens. There has been a shift and counter-shift that we are living today, and these two songs and moments seem to have characterized both subsets of views and had similar impact on the charts.

I think it was only a matter of time before we saw a MAGA chart hit on the Hot 100, and I see this as a sort of culture clash moment bookended to what we first sort of saw with This Is America. I think in general DEI(A) is on a down swing overall now, in the general public's consciousness, a lot of DEI leaders have been downsized, as organizations aren't focusing on the challenges and problems which made headlines back in 2020. I would also say music in general has been waning in terms of chart points and chart peaks with this summer being in a sort of dead period. This I think has contributed to the rise of this summer being very Country heavy, because there was a vacuum which several Country artists are taking advantage of. 

It's a weird time right now. 

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

I think giving as minimal a response as possible. Someone said in one of the other threads that this could open the floodgates for other artists with similar views or even more extreme and outwardly racist and xenophobic views to write and release music that doesn't go for any sort of subtly because it guarantees them success. If there's one thing the right love to do (and the left, tbh) is riling up the left. So when the left complain about something they're doing, that energizes them. The success and money made from the singles is the bonus. We're in such a petty place now when it comes to the political divide that people do things just to piss other people off and they know they'll get a reaction. Unfortunately, there's always going to be a reaction when a song like this comes out so I'm certainly expecting a storm on the charts. Maybe I'm being dramatic but I'll probably do more to stick to my own tried and true artists.

[Ezekiel 23:20–21]

We need artists to release material with strong left leaning views and even go to the extremes. We need songs about being pro-late term abortions, drag queen storytime, pro-Hunter Biden, pro-hard drugs, pro-PrEp, pro-bareback sex, etc. songs.

[.indulgecountry]

Literally no one cared about this song until the video came out, and furthermore until CMT announced they were pulling it which triggered all the "cancel culture" hysterics. It was two months into its run and floundering on country radio barely gaining anything and had yet to reach a new peak after debuting at #24 thanks to the typical iHeart Radio premiere. Everything about the release was subdued up to that point, and it probably would've quietly faded away before too terribly long given how radio was reacting to it (it must be testing rather polarizing, which doesn't surprise me).

So, the clear answer here is that ignoring would've been the correct course of action. Now even if it still ends up underperforming at country radio -- which it probably will, I still have a hard time imagining this going anywhere close to #1 on Country Airplay -- Jason Aldean still "won."

Granted, most of this was beyond the average person's control. Most of the controversy was pushed thanks to CMT's decision and the follow-up from every news media outlet imaginable jumping on the story to boost their own clicks and revenue streams, which is hard to argue against from a business standpoint. Sadly, not much probably could be done by anyone to not feed into the drama since the media did that for us. It's all just frustrating, to say the least.

[dbhmr]

Literally just don't listen. No TRL, radio is obsolete...it's never been easier to avoid shit you don't like.

[SPRΞΞ]

vote blue.

[Az Paynter]

A thought just occurred to me after reading a post in the TTIAST thread over in the country forum; but how many of these so-called 'MAGAcore' songs have been by huge names? Thinking about it, sure those songs blew up on iTunes but none of them stuck because none of them were huge name music stars (or at least, not of recent times). Aldean meanwhile, has been and was a massive country star in the past and maybe that's a big part of the difference here. Nobody really cared about the artists behind those other songs, but they care about the artist here.

If that's the case then this current situation is more likely going to be an outlier and not the establishment of a new norm.

[.indulgecountry]

Jul 26, 2023 10:54:25 GMT -5 Az Paynter said:

A thought just occurred to me after reading a post in the TTIAST thread over in the country forum; but how many of these so-called 'MAGAcore' songs have been by huge names? Thinking about it, sure those songs blew up on iTunes but none of them stuck because none of them were huge name music stars (or at least, not of recent times). Aldean meanwhile, has been and was a massive country star in the past and maybe that's a big part of the difference here. Nobody really cared about the artists behind those other songs, but they care about the artist here.

If that's the case then this current situation is more likely going to be an outlier and not the establishment of a new norm.

Yeah, this is definitely more of an outlier. I can't think of any artist on Jason Aldean's level to even properly pull something like this off if they were to even try, and even then, this only went viral because of the music video. It was out for 2 full months before anyone even cared, lol.

[Ling-Ling]

Deal with them? lol. Why should anyone have to deal with them? Quite the opposite, just ignore them. CMT pulling the video gave it some coverage, but the histrionic/ridiculous response from the left is what inflamed the press machine. It's what sent the MAGA crowd straight to iTunes and Spotify.

But let's be real, that's easier said than done. There's an entire subset (hell, superset) of people on social media that lives to be offended by something. Until we can have intelligent, rational discussions and responses to this stuff, we're gonna continue to live in this hyper-partisan hellscape.

[divasummer]

Don’t listen and do you and stick with your beliefs…

[salt]

Jul 25, 2023 23:49:29 GMT -5 .indulgecountry said:

Literally no one cared about this song until the video came out, and furthermore until CMT announced they were pulling it which triggered all the "cancel culture" hysterics. It was two months into its run and floundering on country radio barely gaining anything and had yet to reach a new peak after debuting at #24 thanks to the typical iHeart Radio premiere. Everything about the release was subdued up to that point, and it probably would've quietly faded away before too terribly long given how radio was reacting to it (it must be testing rather polarizing, which doesn't surprise me).

So, the clear answer here is that ignoring would've been the correct course of action. Now even if it still ends up underperforming at country radio -- which it probably will, I still have a hard time imagining this going anywhere close to #1 on Country Airplay -- Jason Aldean still "won."

Granted, most of this was beyond the average person's control. Most of the controversy was pushed thanks to CMT's decision and the follow-up from every news media outlet imaginable jumping on the story to boost their own clicks and revenue streams, which is hard to argue against from a business standpoint. Sadly, not much probably could be done by anyone to not feed into the drama since the media did that for us. It's all just frustrating, to say the least.

This is really scary.  The fact that the people with money can just astroturf a controversy into existence like this without the average person actually doing anything just to make a particular side look bad makes me wonder just what we're in for in the future.  It's like the Hogwarts Legacy boycott, except no one actually did anything this time.  I get the feeling that so many elections in the future are gonna be swayed by completely fake controversies like this.

[velaxti]

Jul 25, 2023 21:52:40 GMT -5 Ezekiel 23:20–21 said:

We need artists to release material with strong left leaning views and even go to the extremes. We need songs about being pro-late term abortions, drag queen storytime, pro-Hunter Biden, pro-hard drugs, pro-PrEp, pro-bareback sex, etc. songs.

Pro-bareback sex is a right-wing view. The people who are against contraception are usually very religious or conservative. In conspiracy theory circles, contraception (and abortion) is something that was introduced into Western countries to reduce gender differences (women being able to avoid having children and live a life more like a man), reduce the birth-rates, create smaller families so that people are more lonely and more dependent on the Government, etc. That's what they believe. A lot of the far-right advocate for NEVER using condoms or any other contraception, they want as many white babies as possible.

Not really relevant I guess, I was just really surprised to see someone list this as a left-wing talking point! Perhaps sex without condoms is the thing that can unite America! Who would've guessed? :)

[Koochie]

You stream Ayesha Erotica when her new shit drops

[Ezekiel 23:20–21]

Jul 30, 2023 11:04:02 GMT -5 velaxti said:

Jul 25, 2023 21:52:40 GMT -5 Ezekiel 23:20–21 said:

We need artists to release material with strong left leaning views and even go to the extremes. We need songs about being pro-late term abortions, drag queen storytime, pro-Hunter Biden, pro-hard drugs, pro-PrEp, pro-bareback sex, etc. songs.

Pro-bareback sex is a right-wing view. The people who are against contraception are usually very religious or conservative. In conspiracy theory circles, contraception (and abortion) is something that was introduced into Western countries to reduce gender differences (women being able to avoid having children and live a life more like a man), reduce the birth-rates, create smaller families so that people are more lonely and more dependent on the Government, etc. That's what they believe. A lot of the far-right advocate for NEVER using condoms or any other contraception, they want as many white babies as possible.

Not really relevant I guess, I was just really surprised to see someone list this as a left-wing talking point! Perhaps sex without condoms is the thing that can unite America! Who would've guessed? :)

I meant in terms of same-sex bareback sex. When it comes to heterosexual couples, they think it’s a beautiful thing, but when it’s homosexual couples, they start to come out with the pitchforks and torches and trot out Sodom and Gomorrah.

[Koochie]

I fuck with a hoe anthem and all but I'm not sure I can get down with someone unironically talking about raw dogging lol