By Sam Joseph Simon for Dailymail.com
22:52 05 October 2023, updated 23:17 05 October 2023
Maren Morris spoke about her decision to leave country music behind during an interview on The New York Times’ Popcast Podcastwhich was released on Wednesday.
The 33-year-old singer initially announced that she had chosen to stop writing within her former genre last September, prompting both positive and negative reactions from her fans.
The artist, who recently appeared to criticize Jason Aldean’s controversial song “Try That In A Small Town,” expanded on her choice to stop producing country music, saying: “I can’t do this circus anymore.”
Morris began by explaining that she has changed her perspective on the issues surrounding the genre over the past few years.
She stated that she was tired of “feeling like I have to internalize and explain people’s bad behavior and laugh at it.”
“I haven’t been able to do that after 2020 especially,” the hitmaker added. I have changed. A lot of things changed about me that year.
The Grammy Award-winning artist also said the decision to leave the country was particularly difficult, even though she felt as though she had no other choice.
“I don’t want to say goodbye, but I really can’t participate in the toxic arms of this institution anymore,” she said.
Morris then recalled that she was initially pushed to stop producing country music after she received particularly hostile reaction to her tracks My Church and 80s Mercedes in 2016.
“Ironically, it was like, ‘It’s not country,'” she said. Look at the way she dresses. Get the hell out of here. You don’t belong here. “This is not like Dolly.” [Parton]””
The singer then spoke about how impressed she was by the diversity of the crowd at her first big show in New York City.
I felt diverse, accepted, and loved. “I just wanted to continue that and amplify that through my work every time,” she said.
Morris first announced that she had chosen to stop producing country music during an interview with a magazine Los Angeles Times Which was shared last month.
The artist stated that she wanted to “burn.” [country] “Get on the ground and start over,” although she described the genre as “burning up without my help.”
The artist’s jump from country to pop was also marked by a switch to Columbia Records from the company’s Nashville division.
Morris was also involved in a dispute with Aldean’s wife Brittany regarding the rights of transgender children, which also influenced her decision to begin working in other styles of music.
The artist told the Los Angeles Times that she wants to be able to move her genre forward in terms of acceptance and tolerance for all individuals.
“If you really love this kind of music and you start to see problems emerging, it should be criticized. Anything that is popular like this should come under scrutiny if we want to see progress,” she added.
. “Professional creator. Lifelong thinker. Reader. Beer buff. Troublemaker. Evil problem solver.”