The uproar of non-country artists releasing covers of country songs raises the question of whether this is helping or hurting the country music industry. This time, it’s mgk, the artist formerly known as Machine Gun Kelly, diving into country music. What started with short covers of songs like “There’s Your Trouble” by the Chicks at CMA Fest and “Sun to Me” by Zach Bryan in his Live from Cheshire Cottage session has now turned into full-on studio releases. His version of “Sun to Me” was released in June of this year and has quickly moved up as one of his most popular songs on Spotify, and his most recent release with Jelly Roll has moved to the number one spot with over 29,000,000 streams.
That said, just because Post Malone can go country and make it successful does not mean that every rap artist will be able to do the same thing as successfully. What made Post Malone special in his country music right was that he was a country boy at heart. Although Machine Gun Kelly does not seem like your typical country music musician (specifically as someone who claims Cleveland, Ohio, as his hometown), he was born in Houston, Texas, and grew up all over the United States, making it much easier to understand his interest in a variety of genres of music. But, from an outsider’s point of view, it can seem like the release of country music is slightly disingenuous regarding where he is coming from. Is this a marketing scheme, or does mgk genuinely enjoy country music?
Non-country artists dipping into country music can bring good and bad things to the format. It begins to blur the line of what the genre is, which ultimately is what country music was created to do in the first place. It brings in new listeners who may have never heard of different artists. How many of mgk’s monthly listeners regularly listen to Zach Bryan? Likely not many. So, it opens up non-country listeners to other artists and sounds they may have never heard of, which can be good. When mgk performs at venues like Blake Shelton’s Nashville bar, it pulls more non-country listeners into the Nashville music scene, and vice versa. It also brings a new sound to the country music scene, just as Lil Nas X and Bebe Rexha did years ago. However, unlike to those crossover artists that attempted to pave the way a decade ago, mgk is simply not getting the same numbers that real country artists are.
This initial move to perform before CMA Fest was undoubtedly a PR stunt to announce his new song with Jelly Roll, “Lonely Road,” a rewrite of “Take Me Home, Country Roads” that confused people. The videos of the actual CMT Awards performance were all over social media, and you could hear the audience singing the song over the two of them on stage. Overall, and likely all that matters to mgk himself, people are listening to it and talking about it, whether it is good or bad press. It also lets mgk’s listeners know who Jelly Roll is, effectively bridging the gap for their future collaboration. The only people who benefited from the Lonely Road performance were the CMT Awards because regardless of whether it was a positive or negative stir, viewership for the CMT awards was still the highest among the other large televised events that were streaming at the same time (about 5.38 million viewers, according to CountryAircheck), which is all that matters when it comes to award shows.
The major negative for the country music industry regarding mgk’s creation of music within the genre is that he is taking a platform that could be used for real country artists away from more committed artists.
In addition, plenty of fans across the genre spectrum do not like mgk. Many rap fans don’t see him as a rap artist, rock fans don’t see him as a rock artist, hip-hop fans don’t see him as a hip-hop artist, and obviously, country fans do not see him as a country artist. So, it could be argued that the people who dislike mgk in all genres are creating even more of a divide in country music because of their mutual dislike of artists like him who dabble in a bit of everything.
Although it can be compared to artists like Morgan Wallen or Jason Aldean featuring rap artists in their country songs, it is slightly different in that those are country artists utilizing rap beats in country songs rather than the other way around. Still, it is similar in terms of exposure to new audiences. Unlike Post Malone, this music is not being played on country radio, further differentiating these two projects.
Ultimately, the music mgk is putting out is barely country, even if a country artist writes it. Experimenting with sound and genre is an important part of every musician’s career, so if mgk chooses to pay homage to his Texan roots for a while, that could be a great thing IF he’s genuine about it. However, if all he wants to do is cash in on the country being mainstream and what is “cool” right now in the charts, it will only make him look worse in the eyes of country music fans, who are already looking at him sideways.
This mgk “country scandal” is like Beyonce releasing a country album. It isn’t quite country, but it will still be defended as such. It gets people talking; in the end, that is what every artist wants and needs to succeed. Getting his name into different genres and working with other artists will only make mgk a better musician, allowing the country artists he works with to learn new things and grow as musicians. Whether or not the positives outweigh the negatives is something that only time and more music will tell.
