Kacey Musgraves and Reese Witherspoon want to make country music “more inclusive and representative” with their new series, My Kind of Country. The show aims to feature musicians who don’t “fit the mold” of traditional country singers and will include individuals of different ethnicities, backgrounds, and yes, different gender identities.
One of the “scouts” tasked with selecting contestants, Orville Peck, openly identifies as “LGBT” according to the Washington Examiner. Peck is known to wear a bearded mask or bandana covering his face — making him look truthfully, ridiculous. He also stated on Instagram that he has been a fan of RuPaul’s Drag Race since the first season, and called it a “dream” to be on the show.
While most country music has fairly conservative undertones like faith, family, and freedom, several liberal pop-country musicians are eager to launch a Hollywood-style takeover of Nashville. As a result, country greats like George Strait and Allan Jackson began recording songs like, “Murder on Music Row” which alludes to the end of an era relating to true country music.
Country musicians Kacey Musgraves, Marren Morris, Cassadee Pope, and the band Brothers Osborne, have all been outspoken about their progressive worldview. Musgraves has taken several shots at conservatives and has expressed her desire for stricter gun control in tweets following the El Paso, Texas shooting.
“I’m from Texas. I grew up around hunting and guns,” the country singer said before stating that there is no use for an automatic firearm — the primary gun used by most Americans for hunting, sport shooting, and self-defense.
Musgraves continued, writing, “I love keeping things about the music and usually stay out of politics publicly UNTIL it barrels past political party preference points and dangerously encroaches on fundamental human rights.” But what “fundamental human right” is she referring to? Clearly, she doesn’t agree with the Second Amendment’s application, which effectively makes self-defense using a firearm a human right. Is she referring to the overarching fundamental right to life?
That would be ironic, considering the country music star is a staunch abortion advocate who attempted to blast lawmakers in Alabama following a near-total abortion ban being implemented in the state. “Sooo what’s gonna happen when one of those Alabama senators knocks up one of his mistresses?” Musgraves wrote to Twitter. Yahoo News answered, “The implication, of course, is that these senators are anti-abortion only until they would benefit personally from the procedure.”
Of course, that line of thought plays directly into the pro-life argument. Abortion is not the best choice for the mother or the baby but is sometimes used to perpetuate sexual abuse, hide scandals, and benefit men who don’t want to be responsible for their actions. But maybe Musgraves just truly worried about those Alabama lawmakers may not be able to hide alleged their affairs.
Reese Witherspoon, the beloved Legally Blonde star, actress, and now-producer, just hours following My Kind of Country‘s announcement, quietly made a statement on Instagram that she is divorcing her husband of nearly 12 years.
The stardom duo promise to bring more diversity to Nashville and country music as a whole. Witherspoon told Billboard, “Why is country music so closed off? Why are there not more global influences and people who have a different perspective?” But many argue that the genre isn’t just “twang” or a specific set of instruments used, it is lifestyles that frequently accompany the musicians which make the music enjoyable for fans. Not everything needs to be inclusive for the mere sake of inclusion over talent, and Nashville does not need to become Hollywood.
