Rebel Country Stars On The Future of Country Music

The country music genre is one of recent contention. Artists have been blasted in the news, while new artists have found success quickly thanks to social media. The genre is growing, as is the fan base. So muchchange is bound to cause rifts, but it is long overdue for country music to break out of its stereotypes and fully embrace the wide array of talent pursuing the genre. Rebel Country dives into the history of the genre, as well as recent changes that point to a new era for Nashville. Pop Culture Planet’s Jordan Bohan spoke with Rebel Country director Francis Whately and the country stars in the film at the Tribeca Festival premiere about their hopes for what kind of conversation it will stir up. 

Francis Whately is a highly regarded producer and director known for his work on music -based documentaries. Though he is British, this isn’t his first time working in the country music space. In 2019, Whately directed Dolly Parton’s documentary Here I Am. After that he was asked to work on Rebel Country, which was previously called Rebel Soul. “I thought of rebellion in country music. Rebels in country music now are those people who are defying the system and trying to show that they have a place at this party and those people who are doing it through social media rather than the traditional forms,” he said about tackling the topic. “I think it's a shame, and I hope the film highlights this to some degree, that people of color, people who are not heterosexual males are still struggling to find their place in country music. It's still a struggle in a way that it isn't in any other genre. Coming from the outside, I think that is an extraordinary situation that has to change and it has to change soon.” 

Rebel Country features a slew of up and coming stars including Breland, Blanco Brown, Brooke Eden, Lindsay Ell, Jelly Roll, Frank Ray, and Lainey Wilson. Whately was sure to do his due diligence in picking artists that are the clear change makers in the genre. “I just researched and I looked at these various artists and what they were trying to do. How can you deny someone like Breland when at the beginning of his fabulous, and in some ways atypical song Don't Touch My Truck, he pushes the white guy out of the frame?” said Whately. “In one small clip, it says how country music is changing.”

Breland is one of the central artists of the documentary, with his genre mixing singles hitting charts immediately. Looking back, his music was something fresh and new, but was his wave-making impact intentional? “Some of it was planned, some of it was unplanned. I came into this with a level of ignorance about all of the dynamics within the genre that I think allowed me the freedom to explore on that first single,” Breland told me. “I was living in Atlanta. I'd been working on a lot of R&B and hip-hop music at the time. You can hear some of those influences in that debut single, but I put it out independently. I didn't have a PR strategy, a marketing plan. I didn't have management. I didn't have a label. It was really just something that I put on the Internet for fun that started to form a life of its own.”

Breland’s breakout single “My Truck” blends country, trap, and R&B. Accompanied by a music video that was a mix of serious and satire, the song caught fire. “The song being received by larger and larger groups of people, I definitely started to see why it was such an important piece of art for the time that it was released. It's a song that was controversial. Is this country? Is this not country?” Breland shared. “You had these hip-hop fans, a lot of Black dudes in Southern cities, that were really repping the song. Then also a more conservative white crowd that was really enjoying the song. I was like this is really powerful that this song is able to reach both of these groups of people at the same time. There isn't a lot of music that actually does that.”

While the documentary highlights the artists who are initiating change, it is hard to ignore the power that record labels hold in the production and distribution of music. Whately believes it takes an artist’s work to make change, and when that happens, the powerful corporations will follow. “The market will lead, labels won't,” he said. “As soon as the likes of Breland hit through and get an audience on their own, then the record labels will be right behind them.”

Breland has been vocal about supporting other country artists of color, shouting out Beyoncé for helping to break barriers. The megastar made a huge statement this year in releasing her first country album after not feeling welcomed i the genre. “I've seen even just in the last year there has been an effort to sign more artists of color at these record labels, but it still doesn't always work,” he revealed. “I'm thinking about Tanner Adell and Tiera Kennedy who both got major deals in the last year and then within a year were both dropped from their labels. It took someone like Beyoncé coming along to then put those artists on her project.”

Art will always win out in the end. “It's going to take artists like myself or some of these other artists that are coming up now, where the music speaks for itself. You get a little traction with the music, you get a little traction on social media, some viral videos, and then it gives the artist the opportunity,” said Breland. “It's going to take the artists putting out music that connects with people and resonates with people before the labels are going to fully understand the cultural impact and the cultural currency.” 

This is Breland’s second film of the year, after making a cameo as himself in Road House. He even has ties to one of this summer’s most anticipated blockbusters. “I have a song on the Twisters soundtrack with Shania Twain that I'm really excited for. Shania and I were on tour together last year and we had a really great time,” he shared. “[And] I'm in the process of working on album number two right now so definitely some new music on the horizon.”

Breland’s strategy to collaborating with other artists is a fitting lesson for breaking into country music as well. “Closed mouths don't get fed, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take,” he shared. “I've just never been afraid to ask.”