Issue #36: "Ins" and "Outs" for the New Year, Country Music Edition

I'm guessing Carrie Underwood is going to the gym?

My year ended, and a new one began, a little bit like a country song: something about sickness, family, broken-down cars and looking for solace in a lonely, late-night beer (er, a well-dosed gummy, a Schitts Creek re-watch and a slice of rainbow cake). But we won’t get into that. Hope your 2023-recapping and 2024-ringing-in went a bit more smoothly than mine, but, even if they didn’t, I hope you got to listen to a lot of very good country music (you can catch up on some of the best of the year past here, picked by us).

So what will 2024 hold for country music? My guess is a lot more men with number one singles, more Morgan Wallen double-wides, more retrospectives about country music being liberal or not liberal or MAGA or woke or some combination thereof, probably written by someone with barely a passing interest in the genre, and hopefully new albums from folks like Kacey Musgraves, John Moreland and John Fulbright (no intel here, just my personal wish list). In the spirit of that forward thinking, here’s a rundown of what we, your Don’t Rock the Inbox trendlords, think should be in and out for country music in this new year. Enjoy, debate (and, please, consider becoming a paying subscriber if you are in the position to do so, to help us grow this newsletter and keep it sustainable well into the next year and beyond). And feel free to tell us what should be in and out for future Don’t Rock The Inbox newsletters in the comments! - Marissa

In

Charlie Worsham finally getting his due. Recently signed to UTA, it is absolutely high time that we get The Year of Charlie Worsham, and also give him his retroactive Grammy for Beginning of Things, while we’re at it (I’ll take a new record though). - MM

Jason Isbell’s new teeth. Well, not really his teeth - they’re great! - but what I mean here is more of artists being super honest and forthright about these kind of procedures and more people being willing to talk about the class politics of dental care and access to dentistry (and not having stupid knee jerk reactions). - MM

Going to shows. Timing is not optimal on this one as we seem to be in the midst of yet another COVID wave (mask up, stay safe, try not to be self-conscious about taking precautions…I say this to myself more than anyone else (also if you’re due for a boost I had a great experience with Novavax)). Also relevant: The work that the Clean Air Club and others have been doing to make concerts safer for everyone. With that extended caveat I do want to drive home that not only is live music special and magic, it’s one of the better ways to support musicians you like. All the better if you can spend your money at that endangered species, the local independent venue or festival. Pack houses for smaller and local artists, and you’ve got a classic win-win-win situation! — NW

Country artists talking about sex and therapy. Kelsea Ballerini, Brett Eldredge and others have been super vocal about therapy and issues around mental health, which is so sorely needed in this genre and beyond, with Kelsea in particular also speaking openly about sex and women’s pleasure in a way that would get her kicked off country radio if they hadn’t already reduced her tracks from rotation anyway. More of this in 2024, especially in making space for queer and non-white artists to enter these conversations. - MM

RVSHVD on country radio. I’m going to keep speaking this into existence! — NW

Telling your friends about music (and listening to the music they tell you about). Word of mouth is so crucial! Music can obviously be very personal (I remind myself, as I emphatically tell my friends to listen to something and they ignore me for the millionth time and I do the same) but social media has gotten so bad and press basically no longer exists that it is harder than ever for artists to get the word out. Think of sharing a song rec with a friend as a way to disrupt tech hegemony in some small way! Granted they will likely stream it, but still at least you won’t have created content for Elon or Mark or whoever (again, saying this very much to myself). — NW

Black Opry. Always. - MM

More folks writing thoughtfully about country music who aren’t white, straight cishet folks. - MM

Out

“Interpolations” that are really just writing dumb song lyrics over good ones. Who needs AI with songs like these? - MM

Operating out of fear. The running joke that is Nashville stalwarts professing their love for outlaw country folks while happily working within the narrowest strictures imaginable is less and less funny because they still don’t see the dissonance. Stepping out of line in a substantive way, whether it’s stylistically, politically, aesthetically or otherwise, is such a jolt of energy — I don’t think Jelly Roll or Zach Bryan challenge the status quo in particularly meaningful ways, but if they inspire others to push further then we might have a better country music in 2024. — NW

Passing off very toxic diet culture as cute instagram content. Country music is still downright obsessed with the idea of its new female artists being white, skinny, blonde women (and don’t give me that example of that one woman who is over a size eight). I’m all for Carrie Underwood talking about fitness, but her diet plan just looked…vaguely pro-ana? Maybe think before you share your 800 calorie regimen on the gram. - MM

Pretending that the success of three white men this year meant country music is “having its moment.” Correction: white men with guitars are having a moment. Which is different from other years how? Same devil, different costume. - MM

Self-seriousness. I’ve been banging this drum, but I just can’t stand the humorlessness. “Save A Horse (Ride A Cowboy)” is starting to sound witty to me solely because there’s barely any contemporary radio stuff that’s even in that lane. — NW

Positioning yourself as someone who cares about human rights for all humans and then taking a tour spot opening for a racist homophobe. Ahem! - MM

Duets with zero chemistry. This is almost all of them. I cannot take the awkward award show performances anymore. - MM

A note on Substack

Because, three days in, media is just as much of a nightmare in 2024 as it was in 2023, we’re staring down the barrel of another stupid Substack fiasco; this time, about unapologetically platforming Nazis as well as TERFs. We’ve left the platform before because of their slimy approach to content moderation (and the lack thereof), and ultimately came crawling back because, frankly, it’s much more effective as a mode to reach new readers than any of the alternatives. Neither of us have social followings that could be described as “huge,” and with social media becoming increasingly useless (and just bad) we rely more than ever on the kinds of referrals and traffic that come from Substack.

So! We’re thinking about all of it, and what to do; we don’t want your hard-earned dollars going to a place that’s making money off extremism, we want to keep doing the newsletter, we want it to have a shot at it becoming something sustainable. Leaving or not is a lose-lose scenario, and not one we take lightly (especially having already done it once). We’re grateful for your support in the meantime, and will certainly keep you posted if things change. — NW

Below is an open letter that we’re sharing belatedly; they have already responded, but just as an act of solidarity with the people who wrote it and who are leaving:

-------------------

Substackers Against Nazis

A collective letter to Substack leadership

Dear

Chris Best

,

Hamish McKenzie

&

Jairaj Sethi

:

We’re asking a very simple question that has somehow been made complicated: Why are you platforming and monetizing Nazis? 

According to a piece written by Substack publisher Jonathan M. Katz and published by The Atlantic on November 28, this platform has a Nazi problem: 

“Some Substack newsletters by Nazis and white nationalists have thousands or tens of thousands of subscribers, making the platform a new and valuable tool for creating mailing lists for the far right. And many accept paid subscriptions through Substack, seemingly flouting terms of service that ban attempts to ‘publish content or fund initiatives that incite violence based on protected classes’...Substack, which takes a 10 percent cut of subscription revenue, makes money when readers pay for Nazi newsletters.”

As Patrick Casey, a leader of a now-defunct neo-Nazi group who is banned on nearly every other social platform except Substack, wrote on here in 2021: “I’m able to live comfortably doing something I find enjoyable and fulfilling. The cause isn’t going anywhere.” Several Nazis and white supremacists including Richard Spencer not only have paid subscriptions turned on but have received Substack “Bestseller” badges, indicating that they are making at a minimum thousands of dollars a year.

From our perspective as Substack publishers, it is unfathomable that someone with a swastika avatar, who writes about “The Jewish question,” or who promotes Great Replacement Theory, could be given the tools to succeed on your platform. And yet you’ve been unable to adequately explain your position. 

In the past you have defended your decision to platform bigotry by saying you “make decisions based on principles not PR” and “will stick to our hands-off approach to content moderation.” But there’s a difference between a hands-off approach and putting your thumb on the scale. We know you moderate some content, including spam sites and newsletters written by sex workers. Why do you choose to promote and allow the monetization of sites that traffic in white nationalism? 

Your unwillingness to play by your own rules on this issue has already led to the announced departures of several prominent Substackers, including Rusty Foster and Helena Fitzgerald. They follow previous exoduses of writers, including Substack Pro recipient Grace Lavery and Jude Ellison S. Doyle, who left with similar concerns. 

As journalist Casey Newton told his more than 166,000 Substack subscribers after Katz’s piece came out: “The correct number of newsletters using Nazi symbols that you host and profit from on your platform is zero.” 

We, your publishers, want to hear from you on the official Substack newsletter. Is platforming Nazis part of your vision of success? Let us know—from there we can each decide if this is still where we want to be.

Signed, 

Substackers Against Nazis