Why Are Country Fans Upset Over The CMT Awards?

Invision/AP (Wade Payne)

It all went down Wednesday evening, June 8th 2016 and featured a large number of collaborative performances from country musicians as well as honoring those musicians with awards in celebration of their achievements during the past year.

So, if the night featured country artists and was about country artists doing what they do best – why are their fans outraged?

As it turned out, the night didn’t include enough features about country music itself for many viewers, leaving them upset, disappointed, and bitter about the experience overall.

The show brought together many modern country stars and paired them with pop, hip hop, and rock artists for mashups that were intended to draw a larger audience than years past.

Although the idea of fresh new performances is great, the execution of this year’s show did not sit well with fans.

Remember when country music award shows had music performances of country music? #CMTawards

— Elliott (@elliottstr) June 9, 2016

Cheap Trick performed their hit “Surrender”, Pitbull teamed up with Cassadee Pope, Cam joined Fifth Harmony for an odd mashup of two hits, among other collaborations.

Since the show aired, social media has been abuzz with outcries from fans at the lack of simply country performances, and even more so over the short tribute to one of country’s legendary artists: Merle Haggard.

Really @CMT #cmtawards that’s all your doing on @merlehaggard ? Did I miss something?

— mike (@kaztheprof) June 9, 2016

 

#CountryMusicTelevision, that was a pitiful tribute to @merlehaggard. He embodied real #CountryMusic. @CMT #CMTawards

— Lily Tallent (@LilyTallent) June 9, 2016

 

That’s all for Merle??? PitBull got more time! SHAME ON YOU CMT #CMTawards

— OriginalShay (@shanshay20) June 9, 2016

Although many fans were upset by some of the show’s choices in performances and honoring a legend passed, they did praise it for the collaboration between Blake Shelton and the Oak Ridge Boys as well as featuring Chris Stapleton’s performance of “Parachute”.

Traditionally, CMT’s efforts of bringing country artists together with artists from other genres has been limited to their long-running CMT Crossroads series and they’ve seen tremendous success with it. Unfortunately, fans did not take well to this new type of genre pairing.

Did you watch the CMT Music Awards last night? If so, let us know your thoughts on the show in the comments below.

Watch the Yahoo! Superfan TV video on the show’s fan fallout below.