The social media pop fan ecosystem is fragile. Its participants are easily excitable and just as effortlessly aggrieved, their collective nervous system tied somewhat intrinsically to social media notifications. On Tuesday, the popular update account on X posted: “Fans speculate Tate McRae is featured on Morgan Wallen’s new album after she posted a Tennessee jersey with his initials.” With it appeared a split photo of the pop and country singers alongside the orange jersey in question, marked with McRae’s signature T8 abbreviation and a much smaller “MW” on the collar printed in white.
It wasn’t a speculation at all. Wallen’s official fan account had confirmed the collaboration in an Instagram broadcast channel, which allows for direct communication with fans. That the admins of Pop Crave, Pop Base, and the rest of the pop stan accounts to whom this information is at all relevant weren’t privy to this before it hit their timelines speaks to the overlap deficit between Wallen and McRae’s audiences. When Wallen revealed the track list for his album I’m the Problem on Wednesday, the fans who were still hoping it was just a rumor faced reality. There was McRae’s name listed beside “What I Want.” Now, they’re asking the same question: For what?
“This sucks so bad lmao tate literally is one of my favorite people on the planet im just so shocked and disappointed ab this,” one fan posted. Another responded to the Pop Crave announcement with a video of Wallen using a racial slur in 2021. “In case you all forgot why we don’t like Morgan Wallen,” they captioned. Wallen addressed the racist incident months later as his music was pulled from radio and digital playlisting, which did little to impact his direct sales and streaming numbers. It might have even helped. “I was around some of my friends, and we just… we say dumb stuff together,” he said at the time by way of explanation. “In our minds, it’s playful. I don’t know, that sounds ignorant, but that’s really where it came from.”
The country musician has mostly kept that particular controversy in the rearview by racking up plenty of others. His latest followed his appearance on Saturday Night Live, when he abruptly exited the stage during closing credits and soon after posted a photo of a plane with the caption: “Get me to God’s country.” It was more confusing than controversial. It still stuck in the news cycle for a few days too long. Regretfully, McRae might lead to it coming back. “I literally just said I liked her and now she wanna go to God’s country…,” one fan wrote on X. Another added: “Tate mcrae when we said we wanted more collabs we meant with Olivia Rodrigo & that finished Tyla scrap, NOT m*rgan w*llen.”
Representatives for McRae and Wallen did not respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.
Some of McRae’s fans are in damage control mode. One of her biggest update accounts, @t8mcraetours, which boasts over 26,000 followers, reposted the singer’s Instagram Story post teasing “What I Want” without comment. The admin followed it with a dejected reaction gif, but otherwise didn’t mention Wallen by name at all. Instead, it shared two posts about McRae having collaborations with Rodrigo and Tyla “coming out soon,” despite not having any confirmation on either. Some other fans are pushing back against the backlash by deflecting it elsewhere. “I am very disappointed that Tate is collabing with that man,” one wrote. “But I will NOT forget Post Malone did too yet all I see is praise for him. I’m so sick of the double standards.”
It’s a fair point — Malone collaborated with Wallen on the hit single “I Had Some Help,” released a little over a month after he appeared alongside Beyoncé on the Cowboy Carter deep cut “Levii’s Jeans.” But it’s not really a double standard at all. On Monday, Noah Kahan fans experienced similarly dejecting news when an ASCAP registration posted by a country outlet (and begrudgingly aggregated by Kahan’s biggest update accounts) circulated listing Kahan as a co-writer on a Wallen song titled “Your Turn.”
“I was already disappointed in Posty for collabing with him, I’d hate for Noah to as well,” one Kahan fan shared. Another account, Noah Kahan Archives, said: “You know what I’m actually pissed off.” However, by the time the official I’m the Problem track list was revealed later in the week, Kahan was no longer credited on the record. Instead, the fourth songwriter on the track was listed as “Unknown Writer.” The song itself doesn’t appear on the album, either. Representatives for Kahan did not respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment on whether the musician was ever involved in the record. His fans are just happy his name is no longer near Wallen’s.
Malone and Wallen announced another collaboration this week, the album cut “I Ain’t Comin’ Back.” He joins Eric Church, Ernest, and Hardy as the other featured collaborators on the album besides McRae. That the pop musician, who released her third studio album So Close to What in February, has received more backlash than these men is more indicative of a distinct difference in the expectations of their audiences than a gendered double standard.
When Carrie Underwood accepted an invitation to perform at Donald Trump’s inauguration, her own fanbase grappled with her alignment with an administration targeting the rights of the groups that comprise most of her audience. But with Wallen, his actions are filtered through an entirely different lens. “It’s been so obvious that people leaned into this guy,” a Nashville artist manager told Rolling Stone about Wallen in 2022. “It made him a martyr oddly, to people that hold what I would say are prejudices, and to other people who so firmly believe in being able to say whatever they want. It’s disappointing. I feel like there could have been a situation in which people welcomed him back, but I don’t feel he did the work.”
“The white equivalent of the R&B girls collabing with Chris Brown,” one viral post about the McRae and Wallen collab read. ”When the Chris Brown brand gets dragged, the fans think they’re being dragged,” journalist Ernest Owens told Rolling Stone in 2023. “They’re not defending Chris Brown just because of his music and him. They can’t separate themselves from the brand.” It’s the application to most fandoms’ run-ins with controversy.
To ask why the likes of Malone or any of the country artists who run in the same Nashville close circles with Wallen aren’t being criticized as heavily is to ignore a clearly established track record. Pop fans tend to expect a higher level of loyalty and consistency from their favorite artists. In response to the collaboration, McRae fans have resurfaced her interview with Pride from earlier this year. “My whole team is gay! That’s the only opinion I really want when I’m releasing music,” she said. “I feel lucky that I have their opinion. We want to do the most and push the boundaries, but it’s also the most brutally honest advice.”
McRae has managed to build a promising pop career over the past five years without any extramusical stumbles. In 2021, when Wallen was saying the n-word in a playful, non-derogatory way (which doesn’t exist), she was enjoying the success of “You,” her collaboration with Regard and Troye Sivan that marked her first Billboard Hot 100 entry since her breakout single “You Broke Me First.” She’s kept her collaborations to a minimum, partnering with Khalid, Jeremy Zucker, and Tiesto on one-off singles. So Close to What is limited to only two, the Kid Laroi and Flo Milli.
If McRae had a country-pop pivot in mind, there were plenty of options that wouldn’t place her next to one of country’s most radioactive stars. She’s stepped into the hazard zone, but it’s unlikely to completely derail her rising star — it might just bring her to an audience that doesn’t care much about morals as long as the music is good. It’ll have to run its course. “Every upcoming pop girl makes one horrible collaboration that should’ve never left the drafts,” one pop fan wrote on X. “This is just nature at work. We gotta let it happen.”
