{"id":230072,"date":"2021-04-19T02:36:30","date_gmt":"2021-04-18T23:36:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/how-black-artists-are-breaking-country-musics-color-barrier\/"},"modified":"2021-04-19T02:36:30","modified_gmt":"2021-04-18T23:36:30","slug":"how-black-artists-are-breaking-country-musics-color-barrier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-black-artists-are-breaking-country-musics-color-barrier\/","title":{"rendered":"#How black artists are breaking country music’s color barrier"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#How black artists are breaking country music’s color barrier<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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When Nashville breakout Mickey Guyton<\/a> gave a powerful performance of \u201cBlack Like Me\u201d at the Grammys last month, it was a statement moment for her and all of the other African-American artists who are stomping across country music\u2019s color lines.<\/p>\n

No doubt \u2014 black artists such as Guyton, Kane Brown, Jimmie Allen and Nashville veteran Darius Rucker are leading a diversity movement in the traditionally white country-music industry. Look no further than the genre\u2019s two biggest awards shows: After Rucker became only the second black artist to ever co-host the CMAs in November, Guyton will be the first African-American woman to co-host the Academy of Country Music Awards \u2014 with Keith Urban<\/a> \u2014 on Sunday.<\/p>\n

On top of that, the ACMs will feature a record five black acts performing. Guyton, Brown and Allen will all take the stage, as well as Americana duo the War and Treaty, while gospel star CeCe Winans will join Carrie Underwood for a special duet.<\/p>\n

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\"Jimmie
Jimmie Allen<\/figcaption>
John Shearer<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Not to mention, Allen has already been announced as the new male artist of the year\u00a0 \u2014 a historic victory for the \u201cBest Shot\u201d singer<\/a> as the first black recipient of an ACM new artist award.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about time,\u201d Allen, 34, told The Post. \u201cWhat I\u2019m hoping it does is open some doors for more black artists to have success in country and more black artists to feel comfortable enough to do country if that\u2019s what they want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Allen made his ACMs history, Guyton will make hers on Sunday. \u201cWe\u2019re incredibly proud to have her as the co-host,\u201d said Damon Whiteside, CEO of the Academy of Country Music. \u201cShe\u2019s got the wonderful personality and is so talented. And she\u2019s a member of our Diversity and Inclusion Task Force, so we work a lot with her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite her recent buzz, Guyton, at 37, is no newcomer to the game<\/a>. But she\u2019s faced her share of obstacles as a black artist in country music \u2014 which perhaps helps explain why she has yet to release a proper debut album despite dropping four EPs since 2014. (Her first full-length is finally coming later this year.)<\/p>\n

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\"Mickey
Mickey Guyton<\/figcaption>
CBS via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cTo be honest, I think that we probably \u2026 underestimated a lot of [Guyton\u2019s challenges],\u201d said Cindy Mabe, president of her label, Universal Music Group Nashville, \u201cYou go out and see it in the marketplace. She\u2019s out on festival dates, and there\u2019s confederate flags flying around.\u201d<\/p>\n

But embracing her African-American experience with \u201cBlack Like Me\u201d<\/a> has helped Guyton find her lane, said Mabe: \u201cShe took on a whole completely different life of, \u2018All right, this is what my mission is: My mission is to open the door wider for other people. I\u2019m gonna say the things that are true to who I am.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n

Holly Gleason, Nashville Editor of Hits magazine, credits Rucker for jump-starting the current wave of black artists in country music when he made the move from Hootie & the Blowfish to Nashville in 2008.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that Darius Rucker showing up, having No. 1\u2019s \u2026 broke the door down,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I think that Kane Brown having such massive social<\/a>-media impact with young people reinforced the message [from Rucker\u2019s success] that younger country-music fans were more interested in the sound of the voice than the color of the skin.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Darius
Darius Rucker<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Still, country music isn\u2019t exactly woke yet. When young Nashville star Morgan Wallen was caught on video using the N-word<\/a> earlier this year, it reinforced some racist \u201cgood ol\u2019 boy\u201d stereotypes about the genre. But JR Schumann \u2014 senior director of music programming (country) on SiriusXM\u2019s \u201cThe Highway\u201d channel \u2014 says that old stigma is about as played-out as a tattered guitar strap.<\/p>\n

\"Kane
Kane Brown<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cA lot of the people that perpetuate the stereotypes of country music aren\u2019t actually familiar with the diversity that exists in country music today,\u201d he said. \u201cNashville has been a really progressive town a lot longer than it might get credit for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, an artist such as Allen no longer has to worry about being \u201cthe only one.\u201d While he\u2019s gotten counsel and commiseration from both Rucker and Brown, he told The Post he \u201cspent the most time talking to Charley Pride about it when he was alive. Me and Charley would talk on the phone every other week about what he went through.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Charley
Charley Pride<\/figcaption>
Getty Images for CMA<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And when Pride \u2014 who was the only other black artist to co-host the ACMs before Guyton, in 1980 and 1984 \u2014 received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the CMAs in November, just a few weeks before he passed<\/a>, Allen was right there on stage to play tribute to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery black artist in country now,\u201d he said, \u201cwe are all the legacy of Charley Pride.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#How black artists are breaking country music’s color barrier” When Nashville breakout Mickey Guyton gave a powerful performance of \u201cBlack Like Me\u201d at the Grammys last month, it was a statement moment for her and all of the other African-American artists who are stomping across country music\u2019s color lines. No doubt \u2014 black artists such…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":230073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/country-music-artists.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[102528,71153,70576,79810,102578,81585],"class_list":["post-230072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-4-18-21","tag-academy-of-country-music-awards","tag-country-music","tag-country-music-association","tag-darius-rucker","tag-grammys-2021"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}