If we want to have constructive conversations about what and who best represents the city, we need to focus on the merits of those we encourage from the country music world, not their race.
CMA Fest: Lainey Wilson on Festival Opening and ‘Strong Country Women’
Lainey Wilson opened CMA Fest 2023 to a packed crowd on the Riverfront Stage.
Nicole Hester, Nashville Tennessean
- Davis Hunt is a lifelong Nashville resident and editor-in-chief of The Pamphleteer.
Re: “Contrary to my critics, research proves country music is for everyone,” by Andrea Williams, January 12.
In her response to my valid criticism of her original column, Andrea Williams cited a study commissioned by the Country Music Association. According to the survey, only one in four black and “Hispanic” fans and only one in five Asians listen to country music weekly. This information is provided as sufficient evidence to justify her proposal that Nashville impose economic sanctions on the country music industry until it is sufficiently diversified.
The data supposedly “debunks” my point that country music has limited appeal to the black community and underscores the fact that, as Williams says, “this industry is not white in nature by chance or self-selection.” In plain English, she says the industry is white-only because of alleged deliberate efforts to exclude minorities.
Horowitz Research, which conducted the study, describes itself as a “full-service consumer agency with a mission to deliver insights that inspire change.” It appears to be an organization that is paid to produce studies that reveal “problems” like this, to which they then offer solutions.
Focus on the merits of the creators, not their race
I openly and proudly oppose efforts by people like Williams to apply bureaucratic racial calculus to everything from airline pilots to art.
My perspective stems from the belief that public art and events like NYE’s Bash can be good and moralizing for the people of Nashville. All great art aspires to Universal and we must consider only criticism of him which speaks directly to his merits. “Discrimination based on anything other than merit is wrong,” Elon Musk recently tweeted. Agreed.
In an article about The free press, contributor Evan Gardner writes about his relationship with country music and his journey south to commune with it. “…Country music is not really white because nothing in America is entirely white or black or anything else,” he writes, “and nothing that lasts—nothing of value—is at all about race. He goes beyond that.
As Gardner points out, an incessant focus on race is pointless, and even entertaining these arguments gives them more credit than they deserve. If more white people like country music, so what? If the genre reflects the demographics that patronize it the most, so what?
If we want to have constructive conversations about what and who best represents the city, we need to focus on the merits of those we encourage from the country music world, not their race. As much as I love old Lynyrd Skynyrd songs, maybe having a geriatric band playing on New Year’s Eve wasn’t the best look for a city on the rise.
Why can’t we allow a top-down imposition of Art
On “CBS This Morning,” when a reporter called Jerry Seinfeld out about how most of his guests on Comicians in Cars Getting Coffee are white men, Seinfeld responded, “That really pisses me off. People think [comedy] is the census or something, it should represent the actual pie chart of America. Who cares? It’s just funny… you’re funny, I’m interested. You’re not funny, I’m not interested … I don’t care about agenda or race or anything, but everybody else is kind of calculating, ‘Is this the right mix’ … to me it’s anti-comedy.”
If you, like Williams, truly believe that something is built on pure evil and “the worst aspects of the human condition” (her words), what would you do if you were in her shoes? You would probably advocate its destruction.
“Once upon a time, art served society instead of nipping at its heels while demanding unequivocal financial support,” declared sculptor Frederick Hart in a blistering critique of the art world in a 1989 guest opinion column for The Washington Post. the banner of beauty and order, art was a rich and meaningful embellishment of life, embracing—not desecrating—its ideals, its aspirations and values.”
“The flaw is not the public refusing to nurture the arts,” Hart said in a later speech. “Rather, it is in the practice of art that refuses to feed the audience.” The top-down enforcement of racial equality is no in service to society, but also to people like Williams, who has built a career airing such grievances.
In short, allowing the racist (or “anti-racist”) dictates of the burgeoning DEI industry to make its way into Nashville’s finest cultural product all but guarantees its eventual failure, and that’s the point.
Davis Hunt is a lifelong Nashville resident and Editor-in-Chief of the The pamphleteer.
