NASHVILLLE, Tennessee (AP) – Morgan Wallen fans buy the latest album from the country star, after a video showed him shouting a racial insult last week.
Wallen’s second album, “Dangerous: The Double Album,” retains its top spot for the fourth week on the Billboard Album chart, less than a week after Wallen apologized for that he used racist language.
The country music industry acted quickly to reprimand the public he, radio stations and streaming services removed his songs from their playlists. But fans responded by playing it even harder.
Billboard reports that his latest album sold 25,000 copies in the week ending Feb. 4, a 102 percent increase, according to MRC Data. Billboard reported that the album’s streaming number increased slightly by 3%, representing approximately 160 million on-demand streams. Downloading songs from the album also increased by 67%.
The growing interest has extended beyond Wallen’s current album. Daily sales of his first album “If I Know Me”, released in 2018, also increased from 200 to 2,500 in the week ending February 4, according to data provided by MRC Data.
Wallen’s popularity has grown in the last year, and songs like “Seven Summers” and “Wasted on You” have brought him crossover success on pop radio. His album already set streaming records and is the first country album to spend four weeks on the 2003 Billboard 200 chart, when Shania Twain’s album “Up!” spent five weeks at the top.
Hannah Karp, the editorial director of Billboard, said that part of her interest in music comes from people who are curious about Wallen following the scandal and media attention. But she said that this also shows how her fans respond to the decisions to remove him from the radio as well.
“His fans will broadcast him more because they don’t hear him on the radio anymore,” Karp said. “Some fans may pass on more to show their support, which is what super-fans and fan armies often do.”
Karp noted that, in general, album sales and downloads are much lower than streaming numbers for all artists, so it doesn’t take much to cause large percentage jumps in sales.
Karp said it may be too early to predict the long-term consequences for Wallen.
“I did not see the full effect of the radio withdrawal of his music from the playlists. The radio is a very powerful engine of consumption, so it is possible that it will decrease streaming and sales in the end, “she said.