Fusion of Country and Western/Hip-Hop...the wave of the future?

ah I had a phase where I was looking for dark country/hiphop-trap but I didn't really find anything interesting...

elias leight, who reliably serves up incisive reporting on the charts, has gone deeper on lil nas x's removal from the country lists. billboard stated that its initial inclusion on the country charts was an error, and in a further statement provided to genius claims the race of the artist had zero influence on the decision to revoke its country standing. (in much the same way that race has no effect on the actions of supposedly colorblind whites who nonetheless manage to perpetuate the systemic failure to include blacks in myriad white-associated spaces, presumably.)

in the meantime, the song is struggling to gain acceptance at any radio format, although a small number of stations that span a wide range of programming orientations are giving it a try, including, apparently, radio disney country. lil nas x's management, despite initially tagging the tune as country on digital services to help it stand out during its initial ascent up the charts, seems to be rethinking positioning the tune so aggressively as 'country' since they believe it might dampen the artist's acceptance in hip-hop further down the line.

my own take: while it's obvious that the song has a strong novelty quality that deploys its country signifiers very ironically and playfully, this hasn't stopped several other songs and their artists from being accepted as country, including perhaps most notably big & rich's breakthrough single "save a horse (ride a cowboy)".

in any case: this turn of events certainly isn't a big blow for the song's commercial prospects: it's up 19 positions to number 32 on the hot 100 this week. on top of that, leight's story has spread to a number of other outlets, including generalist pop-culture sites, rap-oriented ones, and even taste of country. saving country music has predictably posted a blog headlined "Opposing Lil Nas X's 'Old Town Road' in Country Is Not 'Racism'" that i am not interested in clicking on.

Just bc you’re applying the paltry list of remaining signifiers that can make a likely-to-chart song “country” to trap instead of pop shouldn’t be grounds for exclusion, in my eyes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ysFgElQtjI

sorry for basically spamming this thread w/ blow-by-blow developments on what is probably going to be a #1 hit in due time

dang both versions of this song are good

i like them too. pretty smart to enlist a country singer best known for a crossover novelty hit for this remix

Not a very flattering way to talk about Miley

shocked that in the last 16 years I haven't linked this song into this thread, Imani Coppola - "Legend Of a Cowgirl", one of my absolute all-time favourites

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n26hAOmkmFE

Pack my bags and mount my horse
I'm gonna ride on into the next town
Spend all my money on absolutely nothing
Need no man to pay for anything

Ain't got no shame
Nobody knows my name
I'm gonna ride on into the next town
Pecos Bill couldn't hang for long
A female legend with a song

oh that's really nice, hadn't heard it before somehow. the video is very 90s in the best way.