Let's Stop Talking About Authenticity
It's a rant, y'all
Kat Hasty, a great emerging country artist, recently jumped onto social media to get a reaction from someone like me, writing that Morgan Wallen singing about girls and getting drunk is more authentic than law-abiding, tax-paying country artists singing about “amphetamines and killing a man.”
Hank Williams, whose country bonfires aren’t often questioned, never worked a farm job but said that to sing hillbilly music — or what country music was called before it was codified by record executives — you had to have smelled a lot of mule manure. While this may have been a joke about dealing with recorded labels and suits, it’s more likely a straight quote, as the first half notes that to “sing like a hillbilly, you have to live like a hillbilly.”
For the love of Patsy Cline, can we get past this? Authenticity is a myth Music Row promotes to sell records, increase streams and juice ticket prices. And while Hasty’s point is well taken, as “Outlaw mythology” used to ground edgy-yet-mainstream acts stinks of marketing-as-reality, it doesn’t matter.
If you like Morgan Wallen’s music, that’s fine — you have the right to bad taste. But his authentic country persona is hand-crafted — like every other major artist today (and in the past).
In fact, we know Hank did it that way.
When looking at the original Outlaw movement in country music, we see people who rebelled against the slick marketing campaigns and the Nashville Sound. It was more about making art they liked than “amphetamines and killing a man.” When it became massively popular, it became commoditized.
Sturgill Simpson, a well-known hatter of institutional country music, famously wrote, “The most outlaw thing that [he’s] ever done was give a good woman a ring.” And after keeping his promise to deliver a range of concept albums culminating with his brilliant Western, The Ballad of Dood & Juanita, he’s gone full dad country, talking about stepping on Lego bricks and riding a scooter.
It seems that raising kids and running in the sand is more Outlaw than tossing a chair off the roof of a bar. He’s rebelling against the establishment by living a boring life — it’s expected that country stars like Wallen and the rest of BroCountry, Inc., act like assholes.
It’s almost as if they are playing to the act that Hasty cites as authentic.
There is no authentic country music. The manufactured, curated, focus-group-tested lyrics and performance of Wallen are just as real as Simpson’s targeted festival tour and self-written album. We cannot know who is authentic when performing — as it is all an act.
Interestingly, Simpson put out this new album under a different name.
The argument about authenticity is boring, as it ignores who governs authenticity in country music and the impact of the genre’s orthodox belief in this Apocrypha. Who benefits the most from being labeled authentic? Who does the labeling? Often, those who fit whatever narrative sell the most records, merch and concert tickets are labeled authentic by those who make the most money from these transactions.