The Morgan Wallen situation is also a good example of the not-great reality of music journalism today. Editors and publications want to cover major label artists because they want clicks and want to keep their relationships with those labels strong for access purposes.

The reason why you see Morgan's face plastered everywhere is because there is a machine behind it, a well-organized PR strategy that works, because that's how the system is. Writers who don't necessarily love the artist cover it because that's their beat, that's the assignment.

Critical analysis on major label artists is not a frequently seen thing because of this. If we talk about Jason Aldean's blackface or Trump support on social media, what if they revoke access to his labelmates? This is something I've heard from editors multiple times.

If music journalists are on staff, they are pretty much in a spot where they have to cover what their editor says. If they are a freelancer, they risk losing out on a paycheck by not covering an artist in a rosy profile piece.

In other words... it's all kind of fucked.

also, it's important to note that I've worked with great editors who want to do important journalistic things but are tied to expectations and goals given to them by their bosses. many times they want to do more and better, but can't.

also for those of you saying to me "Big Loud isn't a major label," sure they aren't one of the top three. But they have distribution through UMG and a lot of big business partners, they are by no means a small indie label.