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

Mid-May of this year, I was putting together a karaoke list with my students* and they all agreed on this song. No one actually chose it come time for us to actually do the karaoke but it was unanimously chosen as a good option.

*young adults mostly of hispanic heritage, one Nigerian lady

i don't think it'd be fun to sing but the crowd reaction would prob make up for that

My friend just did it at karaoke this weekend. At least it's a short song

seems like one of those songs where before you're done singing the first line you'll know you either nailed it or you're in for a long 2:04

otm, so much rests on where you choose to place the YEAAAAAAAAAAH

interesting with this chart record also is that billie eilish must have been sat doggedly at number 2 now for quite a significant amount of weeks also

Eilish: the new CCR?

the specific word/note where everything would go wrong, if it went wrong, is probably the first "road," that or not knowing the horse tack verse

or forgetting that that the correct pronunciation of "matte" is "matty"

http://vm.tiktok.com/8hDvUD/

lmao

hahaha

otm

v good

https://variety.com/2019/music/news/blake-shelton-trace-adkins-take-shot-at-lil-nas-x-old-town-road-1203304986/

blake shelton and trace adkins have created zero good music between the two of them

had to go back and listen to "this ain't no thinkin' thing" again to verify - like a poor singer's version of "seminole wind" with dumb lyrics. '96 is when country really started to suck

Ugh, of all bs they had to pick Hank Jr. to big-up?

To some listeners, that’s just Shelton and Adkins pitting real country, as represented by Williams Jr., against fake country, in the form of Lil Nas X’s country-trap hybrid. Others have wondered about the optics of bringing up Lil Nas X, one of the few black stars in history to have a substantial hit with a country (or at least country-adjacent) song, in an unfavorable comparison to, of all people, Williams Jr., who for decades has been practically a poster boy for the Confederate flag and pro-Confederacy sentiments.

Among those expressing concern over the juxtaposition was David Cantwell, a country music author and historian whose books include an acclaimed Merle Haggard biography (and who wrote about Hank Jr.’s complicated legacy for the New Yorker). “On the new Blake Shelton single, saying ‘Hell Right’ to someone taking off ‘Old Town Road’ and putting on something else is, in this moment, a dick move,” Cantwell tweeted. “OK, whatever. But taking off Lil Nas in favor of Hank Jr. will be predictably, understandably read as a racist dick move. WTF Blake?” Other country music journalists and observers chimed in in agreement with Cantwell’s take.

A spokesperson for Shelton insists no disrespect toward Lil Nas X was intended in the new song: “It’s absolutely not throwing any kind of shade at Lil Nas X at all. Blake says this literally has nothing to do with anything at all except how much the song is played. It could have been ‘Achy Breaky Heart’ or any other (overplayed) song.” Speaking of Billy Ray Cyrus, who did a duet with Lil Nas X on a remix of “Old Town Road”: “Blake talked to Billy Ray,” said the spokesperson, “and he thought it was funny.”

https://yahoo.com/entertainment/blake-shelton-takes-shot-old-003320704.html

all my racist friends are coming over tonight

Pretty sure Webster's uses a photo of Shelton for one of the definitions of "Dick Move"

Oh, I didn't realize Billy Ray thought it was funny, nm.

according to a Shelton publicist

I asked another white guy my age and he didn't think it was racist

was he Shelton's publicist

haha I meant the fact the publicist asked Billy Ray if it was cool instead of Lil Nas X

lol i love that. we talked to billy ray and he said we were cool. ????

Glad they're getting called out for this. It drove me crazy when Tim McGraw released an album called Sundown Heaven Town 5 years ago and nobody said anything.

ha -- that McGraw album has a couple of his best tunes (and McGraw's the Dem).

sundown town yikes

wow, I've never heard that term before.

"hell right" is also not a term

hell right fucking yeah

maybe they are trying to make hell right a thing.

the song appears to be about the correct way to party ("raise hell right"), which appears to be:

- get twice as drunk as you initially planned
- be a football fan
- play hank williams junior (??) instead of the most popular song in America

so far so fuckheaded, but I'm confused by "a bottle to burn and a fire to light". what does that refer to? molotov cocktails??

It’s def NAGL but I’m inclined to believe Blake in that he HAS made very awkward inroads at genre-crossing and racial harmony (I’ve said this before but this video is a great example of when someone is trying to woke but ends up lowkey racist)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JXAgv665J14

I mean, it could be a Miley sitch of abandoning black culture when it’s not convinient or profitable, but Blake was obv on that country-rap ish six years ago and could probably be milking it idk.

fuck bro country

there's absolutely nothing about the 'genre-crossing' nashville-approved country hits that's in any way supportive of racial harmony

^ otm

except "Old Town Road."

I thought OTR wasn’t Nashville approved!

once you get Cyrus it's a chef's kiss

there's absolutely nothing about the 'genre-crossing' nashville-approved country hits that's in any way supportive of racial harmony

I'm reluctant to give Shelton the benefit of the doubt because he sucks.

Hank Jr. is explicitly right wing, explicitly racist, explicitly a piece of shit so saying they turned him on when they could have said Johnny Cash or Willie or whoever is absolutely code

In April 2012, Trace Adkins announced that he was backing Mitt Romney in the presidential election. Part of the reason is that he's a proud supporter of the NRA, and feels Republicans better represent his ideology. “I don’t like the direction that Democrats want to take this country,” he said. “I’ve been a Republican since I registered to vote in 1980.”

In August, Adkins performed a new song called 'Tough People Do' that many wanted to call the "GOP anthem." He sang it at the Republican National Convention, but said it was a song for all people, no matter their political affiliation.

Trace Adkins Set to Perform at Fundraiser Where Donald Trump Will Headline

If racists get triggered by OTR does that mean I have to like it

i think whiney is right these civil rights activists definitely deserve the benefit of the doubt

https://www.thedailybeast.com/in-trumps-america-homophobe-blake-shelton-is-the-sexiest-man-alive

Hank Jr. is explicitly right wing, explicitly racist, explicitly a piece of shit so saying they turned him on when they could have said Johnny Cash or Willie or whoever is absolutely code

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, August 17, 2019 2:21 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Hank is pretty much who every country song uses as a signifier though (see "My Church," "How I'll Always Be," "Redneck Crazy," you could really do this forever) -- it's code, but code for "REAL country music, none of that pop crap," which obviously has certain implications baked in, but one step removed.