Country Music Needs Its Own Elon Musk To Buck Against Left-Leaning Groupthink That's Taking Over Industry

Does the country music industry have an ESPN problem?

The music genre leans to the Right, with most crooners embracing Heartland values while rejecting the “woke mind virus.” The fans either fall in line with those beliefs or prefer music to remain apolitical.

Yet Country, Inc., epitomized by radio stations, Nashville-based labels and CMT, pretend country music lovers are woke snowflakes raging against the patriarchy.

OutKick exists to show ESPN that its hard-left politics don’t reflect fans who love the meritocracy of sports and hate hypocritical athletes. (Just Google “China LeBron James Human Rights” and you’ll get the picture.)

Does country music need an OutKick-like competitor, an Elon Musk type to swoop in and better reflect the genre and its base?

It’s hard to argue otherwise given recent events.

Look At Morgan Wallen, Jason Aldean Situations

Last year, country superstar Morgan Wallen got canceled by Country, Inc. after being caught uttering the “n-word” in private. Not only was Wallen immediately contrite, he didn’t use the word in a vicious manner nor direct the barb at any black person.

Fans accepted his apology at face value. The industry, in sharp contrast, did everything it could to end his career, removing him from country music radio stations, barring him from industry events and severing his professional networks.

The industry misread the moment, and his admirers, and nearly silenced one of its biggest stars. The fans won out, Hoovering up Wallen’s records and restoring his career in the process.

More recently, CMT decided it can no longer play the number one song in the nation, one sung by country superstar Jason Aldean.

The singer’s recent track, “Try That in a Small Town,” offers a fiery response to far-Left protests that roiled the nation three years ago (along with similar, violent protests since then). The mainstream media framed the song in the ugliest light possible, ignoring the role it played in stoking the very riots Aldean is lashing out at and downplaying the violence.

Remember the "mostly peaceful" meme?

Fellow singers like Sheryl Crow lashed out at it, as did the freedom-averse Rolling Stone.

The singer is in no mood to apologize.

Will Aldean suffer professional fallout from the song and its incredible success? Possibly, even though country music fans are rallying, en masse, around the track. The film hit the top of the iTunes chart in a hurry once the controversy exploded.

Once again, the people overruled the gatekeepers.

The Problem Isn’t New For Country Music

Country singer Buddy Brown traveled to Nashville at the start of his singing career, eager to sign with a country music label. It’s what most country crooners dream about, hitting it big in 

He says the executives loved his music but didn’t appreciate some of its right-leaning lyrics. Thanks, but no thanks, he says of their response.

What happened next? 

For starters, he didn’t sell out to make a living. He took his act to YouTube where he spoke directly to potentional fans. Today, he has nearly 1 million YouTube subscribers and his videos (songs and commentary) rack up 100s of thousands of views.

Musk famously bought Twitter, exposed the extreme censorship behind the scenes and allowed more conservative voices to flower on the platform.

Perhaps a right-leaning millionaire, or a freedom-friendly type like Musk, could swoop in and buy some major country platforms. They could make a fortune by simply letting the customer come first, not berate them for failing to follow progressive groupthink.