"Old Town Road" Deemed Not Country Enough By Billboard Standards
Lil Nas X scored a viral hit with his country-trap track "Old Town Road," which shot up the Billboard Hot Country chart, debuting at No. 19. The song also made history by being the first song to appear on the Billboard Hot 100, Hot Country and Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs charts.
Billboard stated to Rolling Stone Magazine that, "Upon further review, it was determined that “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X does not currently merit inclusion on Billboard‘s country charts. When determining genres, a few factors are examined, but first and foremost is musical composition. While “Old Town Road” incorporates references to country and cowboy imagery, it does not embrace enough elements of today’s country music to chart in its current version."
Billboard has also gone on record, saying that this decision to take the song off of the country chart had absolutely nothing to do with the race of the artist. Some Twitter users have a different opinion.
billboard wen they saw old town road rising on the country charts pic.twitter.com/9QGfGtCyI5
— nope (@LilNasX) March 28, 2019
The song was widely popular on Tik Tok and a "Yee Yee" Challenge was issued where users would portray themselves being fooled into drinking a "country persona" when consumed.
I for one was confused as to the actual lyrics at first. here they are for anyone else that's curious.
So is this song "country" enough in your opinion, or does the genre require more authenticity to be real country?
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