Backlash after Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" removed from Billboard Hot Country chart

Anyway, worth a read (and so is Jewly Hight's Twitter feed):

At the Pop Conference, NPR journalist Jewly Hight’s paper traced the history of the narrative that country music is the creation and property of whites only, from the earliest divisions between “hillbilly” and “race” records to the present-day example of Billboard axing Li Nas X from the country charts. She spoke to how country has struggled with this narrative and showed some of the engines of change that are pushing country toward more diverse artists. Part of that change comes from redefining the American West, and I’d argue that Red Dead Redemption 2 is key to that by virtue of its intensely immersive experience. Lil Nas X’s song clocks in at less than two minutes, but via the game you can live in a version of what Lil Nas X had in mind in a fully fleshed-out world for days and days. Watching “yeehaw challenges” on YouTube or TikTok, which involve people changing into crazy Western gear, makes me think of all the time I spent in Red Dead Redemption 2 changing Arthur into fancy new Western clothes, or fighting over a new cowboy hat I wanted for him.

Musically, Red Dead Redemption 2 breaks new ground by showcasing time-period-appropriate folk music being played by multiple artists of color. Known as “non-player characters” in video game lingo, these minor characters are sprinkled throughout the world. Walking the streets of the large city Saint Denis, you may hear a fiddle coming from a back alley, and heading behind a building you’ll see an African American woman fiddling while her neighbors dance. Riding by some row houses, you might find an African American man playing the banjo. When so few artists of color are present in American roots music today, embodying them frequently in a video game has a normalizing effect and doubles as historically accurate as well, since artists of color have always carried the lion’s share of the influence in early American music.

plus a bunch of people who say things like "I don't listen to (c)rap" -- which is usually verbatim what they, say, post on facebook

why do you follow those people on facebook?

It can't be both?

― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, May 17, 2019 1:04 PM (eleven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Alfred, a feedback loop implies both already

I don't, I'm googling site:facebook.com "old town road" news

I mean, some rap fans on social media think pop/EDM/R&B is anathema to the culture, but that didn't stop "Super Bass" from being a huge hit

sure, which is why I specified people who are outraged about old town road, who are obviously not in the majority, but exist

this debate is abt genre solely as marketing cliches rather than genre as a feedback loop between artist & audience (including marketing cliches). This is a v top down way of looking at popular music but I get it, the popular conversation is superificial and dumb

the real unpopular opinion is that billy ray cyrus ruined the song

The biggest country hit of the decade had Nelly on it.

― dragged across concrète (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, May 17, 2019 10:30 AM (seven hours ago)

very bad revisionist history. the "cruise" remix w/ nelly didn't come out until three months after the song had already fallen off the country radio charts -- it was specifically released for the song's crossover to pop radio. florida georgia line were literally three singles deep on their first album on the country airwaves at the time that the remix was going big at top 40, and the version of "cruise" in recurrent rotation at country was not the nelly remix! (on a related note, some of the hot ac stations that also eventually put the song into heavy rotation opted for a version with the updated/remixed production, but not nelly's vocals. nice, huh?)

meanwhile the saving country music crowd was scowling the entire time the song remained atop billboard's hot country songs chart, which had had its methodology revised the previous year, on the strength of that remix. i guess if you really want you can count nelly performing at the cmt music awards with fgl (and being upstaged by taylor swift dancing in the audience) as evidence that a nelly song was beloved by the country audience.

Ah, i should have posted that, thanks for clarifying

it's all in my head i think about it over and over again

that is what I should have posted, yeah

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/25/arts/music/country-music-opens-its-ears.html

this seems like max saturation to me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vWg5yJuWfs

This is the best thing I have ever seen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yvxqwlENxU

4:15 if you wanna see a bunch of elementary school kids screaming about lean hahahahahaha

lil nas x is a truly great american

that Lander Elementary video really is the best thing ever.

btw if you didn't know this guy is an A+ twitter follow

the year is 2050, stuart little is president, the 10 year world war led by shrek & thanos has ended. old town road has reached its 1,615th week at number one and brother nature has stopped global warming. the world is at peace.

— nope (@LilNasX) May 28, 2019

lil nas x is a truly great american

― be the 2 chainz you want 2 see in the world (m bison), Thursday, May 30, 2019 9:49 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

he's one of the best celebs hands down it's crazy lol

i like that him being funny & good at twitter is directly related to the organic social engineering of his song becoming a huge hit! he actually gets the internet in a real way that no marketing team could replicate

He also has that affability of a guy who won the lottery and knows it and is enjoying the ride.

When you can’t sleep so you write an emo-version of old town road pic.twitter.com/smds9fbXoD

— Beach Bunny (@BeachBunnyMusic) May 30, 2019

this song is starting to sell. i imagine it will be a goldmine for mememakers before long. (+ possibly another headache for billboard -- might as well just leave it off all the genre charts)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN8vY8qkgVs

the artist's other material (on his ep) is less gimmicky but not necessarily better. literally one song sounds like a poorly produced 'trapified' ryan tedder ballad from last decade. and uh his singing voice is not always pleasant. but the last track from the ep is pretty good/interesting!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i8C3uEJBvc

yeah, for better and worse, that sounds suspiciously like a well calculated hit

a most palpable hit!

possibly poisoned with POPULISM!

that blanco brown song reminds me of
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvTvEQjyDWw

lol @ stupid youtube thumbnail graphics

it is the kinda song i would have enjoyed awkwardly trying to follow along to at a dance in the gym or cafeteria during the elementary school years

The EP is not bad!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx0Z0B8Xox0

At 2.39, that's the longest track on the EP, whole thing lasts 18 minutes with OTRx2 taking up about 5 minutes of that.

The Cardi song rules. So "Panini," "Bring U Down," and "C7osure."

Cardi verse on this is gas

The hook on 'Panini' sounds like to me like it was based on 'In Bloom'

nas x admitted as much, and kurt is a credited writer on the song with frances bean's approval

Oh cool, what a mensch

bring u down sounds hella grungy as well, 90's revival hanging out a lot longer than i expected

Pitchfork's Alphonse Pierre doesn't like it, wants to remind you that the true soundtrack of 2019 middle school dances is still Blueface:
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/lil-nas-x-7-ep/

Carl Wilson takes an uncharacteristic swat at that review.

The EP is not bad!

counterpoint: the EP is bad

nas x admitted as much

nas x said he'd never heard Nirvana but he knew the album cover from t-shirts

an answer alone that guarantees I'll award the EP an A.

nas x said he'd never heard Nirvana but he knew the album cover from t-shirts

― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Friday, June 21, 2019 4:10 PM (seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

panini interpolates parts of nirvana’s “in bloom”. special thank you to frances bean cobain for this!! 🖤

— nope (@LilNasX) June 20, 2019

"People was like, 'Wow, he sampled Nirvana.' I was like, 'No.' It's like, I didn't realize I was using almost the exact same melody," Nas X told Beats 1's Zane Lowe in an interview on June 20.

The rapper credits this coincidence for introducing him to the band's music. "The craziest things about 'Panini' is it introduced me to Nirvana's album Nevermind," he said. "It's like, I always seen the cover, but I never actually listened to it."

We are both right, settle down

not understanding the hype for "panini", pretty forgettable track imo

don’t you be a meanie.

some of this stuff isn't awful but he's a meme maker who happened to turn a meme into a hit song... i don't get the sense from this EP that he has much future in music per se, which is prob fine anyway