Country Music's Identity Crisis: Thoughts from Ward Davis and Kelsea Ballerini.
Country artist Ward Davis criticized the CMT Music Awards for featuring too many non-country artists and performances, saying that country music has completely lost its identity. He expressed disappointment with the industry's focus on demographic algorithms and targeting kids and their parents, and praised his own "little outlaw world" as the real country music. Many viewers and social media users also expressed negative opinions about the awards show.