Does Bad Publicity Really Sell?

One old adage I have always heard is that there is no such thing as bad publicity; of course there are many ways of wording this expression, but I have often doubted this ideology.  Even in situations where a negative could provide publicity, I always questioned if this helps, or if the press drives away too many people.  This appeared true in music in many situations until there was one massive test case:  “Try That in a Small Town” by Jason Aldean.  After the music video was released, the video was immensely controversial and faced accusations of promoting/endorsing (or at least accepting) racism, violence, and lynching.  That said, the song was embraced by many individuals (many of whom are typically more conservative), and the song ended up reaching number 1 in the U.S., giving Aldean his first chart topping hit.  However, it dropped to number 21 the following week, which was the largest drop for a number 1 song.  This has made me even more uncertain about if this expression is true in music.

I think the most likely cause of being cancelled or receiving bad publicity in this current day and age is by facing accusations of misconduct or some form of sexual nature or a domestic crime.  While there are many artists whose popularity or careers have dipped after facing accusations, including R. Kelly and Marilyn Manson (though there are significant legal repercussions for these), there have been artists who faced accusations prior to continuing to find popularity.  As a note, I am not considering situations where an individual is accused of something that it was revealed later that they did not do these, whether it was disproven, the allegations were retracted, or something else along those lines, including artists like Justin Bieber, Conor Oberst, or Freddie Gibbs.  Some artists who have continued to have success include Chris Brown (though there was some immediate backlash after assaulting Rihanna), multiple members of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Trent Reznor (of Nine Inch Nails), Maynard James Keenan (of Tool), Win Butler (of Arcade Fire), Ronnie Radke (of Falling in Reverse), and Oliver Sykes (of Bring Me the Horizon).  That said, I can’t think of a situation where somebody was accused of anything of this nature and received more attention, especially not since the Me Too movement gained popularity in 2017.  In most situations, the artist either faces backlash or life largely continues on, but they haven’t seen to increase in popularity.

While the political divide between right and left has been more pronounced in recent years since Donald Trump was elected and more so since the pandemic, there were previously instances of artists receiving attention for their political believes.  Historically, various genres have been associated with certain political views, including country being associated with more right wing politics, indie music is often associated with more left leaning politics, and punk music is historically associated with anti-establishment policies.  That said, what typically has happened with artists is that either an artist was hurt by going against the trends of their genre or nobody batted an eye when an artist went along with them.  For example, we have seen artists like The Chicks deal with controversy for criticizing the Iraq War and Ariel Pink run into trouble for leaning more right on several matters.  While some artists might be able to withstand differing political views from their genre, including Morrissey, Tim McGraw, and Kanye West (prior to making antisemitic statements), I think that there is very little for artists to gain by expressing their political views in most situations, which is why I think there are a lot of artists that don’t express many political opinions.

Another aspect that I find I’ve found interesting is when artists not only embrace being cancelled, but in some cases are proud of it.  Four examples that come to mind include DaBaby (for making homophobic comments), Tory Lanez (for shooting Megan Thee Stallion), Boosie Badazz (for making several controversial statements, including ones where he was accused of transphobia, homophobia, grooming, and paying for sex acts for his underage children), and Kid Rock (for leaning entirely into right wing politics and conspiracy theories, as discussed earlier).  While they each have their fanbases and followings, neither are anywhere near as popular as they were prior to their controversial incidents.  Prior to DaBaby’s statements, he was one of the biggest names in hip hop and had chart topping albums; since, he has performed at smaller venues and hasn’t had anywhere near the commercial success as before (one solo top-40 hit and his highest charting solo album/EP reaching #34).  Prior to his sentencing, Tory Lanez still had commercial success with his albums, though more limited (he had two albums reach #10 in the US, which isn’t as high as he did prior) and had very few songs chart in the US compared to prior.  While Boosie Badazz was not a household name, he still had commercial success prior to his incarceration and after his release; since then, none of his albums or songs have charted and his guest features have been less prevalent.  Kid Rock’s situation is different and interesting:  he is still performing massive venues, but his sales have substantially declined, as he went from consistent top-10 albums to his last album peaking at #124.  While it should be noted that part of the cause is due to changes in how Billboard calculates the album charts to favor individual streamed songs, it is worth noting that the individual sales and listens to his albums have also decreased significantly.

While there are artists who have found both short-term and long-term success after receiving very bad press is Morgan Wallen (though Travis Scott has found success despite Astroworld and Kanye West thrived until he made anti-Semitic statements).  After a few controversies that weren’t long lived related to partying/kissing during the pandemic, a video was released on February 2^nd which included him saying the n-word.  From a publicity standpoint, he did and said all the right things:  he apologized, explained what happened while expressing remorse and realizing he was wrong, asked fans not to defend him, and didn’t tour consistently until the following year.  Despite the controversy, his popularity actually increased, as streams and sales for his released increased significantly, in some cases even doubling.  While he was rising in popularity prior to the event, he is now probably the biggest country artist in the world, almost as if many country fans were using him as a pariah against cancel culture.  His popularity has remained well after the incident, but it is strange to see a racial incident appear to increase an artist’s popularity and keep it sustainable.  It seems to be a rare case where bad press not only led to short-term success, but also has seemingly not faded.