Old Town Road CSP
Background and cultural contexts
Read this Vox feature and podcast transcript on Lil Nas X and Old Town Road. Make sure you read the whole thing - including the podcast transcript - then answer the following questions:1) What is the big debate regarding Old Town Road and genre?
Whether “Old Town Road” should be classified as country music.
2) What do you learn about the background of Lil Nas X and Old Town Road from the podcast transcript?
He is a 20-year-old rapper from Atlanta. Technically his birth name is Montero Hill, but he has been calling himself “Lil Nas X” for several years now. And last year he joined SoundCloud, as many people do. And by the end of the year in December he released a song called “Old Town Road.” He bought a beat that had this sort of country-sounding instrumental to it. And he said he was living at home feeling very lonely, feeling like a lonely cowboy, and he decided to pair that feeling with this sort of twangy beat that he bought. So “Old Town Road” starts off very much as this deep-voiced ode to the simple life on the dirt road path with your horse. And then it breaks into what he calls “country trap.”
3) What is the Yeehaw agenda?
Bri Malandro tweeted about how a lot of black artists are getting interested in sort of the country aesthetic.
4) How did the story become a debate about race in America?
In mid-March the Billboard charts come out. And the song had become so much of a viral hit that it actually appeared on the Billboard charts; it appeared on the Hot Rap Hip Hop songs chart and the Hot Country Songs chart. Five staffers from Billboard released an article in the publication and the majority of them wrote it off as, “Oh, it’s sort of a fluke hit, it’s a joke.” The following week it was gone from the country chart. It was on the Hot 100 and the rap chart. But “Old Town Road” was not on the country chart.
You’ve got a black artist in America who’s charting in a very white music space and his song gets quietly removed by a very powerful, influential organization. How much of this is about race? Or how much does the conversation then shift to race?
5) How does Charlie Harding sum up the whole thing in the final part of the podcast transcript?
When we look at the history of where genre in pop music comes from, we’ll see that there are some not-so-pretty histories. The short of it is that what is now known as R&B — so, progenitor to hip hop — was at one point called “race music.” It was specifically for people who were of a specific race, whereas country music was called “hillbilly music” for people of another race. And basically we had black and white music segregated along those lines with marketing definitions, so that labels would produce music for a specific racial audience. It was that explicit, and we live with that history today.
Now read this Salon feature on Lil Nas X and LGBTQ+ identity. Answer the following questions:
1) How did Lil Nas X announce his sexuality on social media?
In a series of tweets, he encouraged fans to listen to his song “c7osure,” which talks about coming clean about secrets and accepting oneself. He then posted a tweet featuring the artwork from his new EP “7,” which features an illustration of him wearing a cowboy hat and riding a horse towards a building glowing with rainbow lights. His deadpan caption reads, “deadass thought i made it obvious.”
2) Why does the article describe Old Town Road as 'genre-blurring'?
The article describes the breakthrough hit as having harnessed both hip hop and country sounds and fans.
3) How has country music demonstrated the social change taking place in American culture and society?
1) How is the narrative features used in the music video? Apply narrative theory here.
2) What examples of genre conventions and intertextuality can you find in the video?
3) How are technical codes used to create meanings in the video? Analyse camerawork, editing and mise-en-scene and make specific reference to moments in the video.
Country music has a long tradition of valorizing American political ideals like patriotism, liberty and opportunity. Yet music like Carlile's questions who — especially under an administration that openly opposes LGBTQ rights — has true access to those rights and who much of country music is made for. But with artists as critically and commercially dominant as Carlile and Lil Nas X starting and continuing conversations about queer representation and acceptance, the canon of country classics preaching other cherished American ideals — like inclusion and freedom through the lens of LGBTQ visibility and power — will hopefully continue to grow.
Old Town Road textual analysis
Watch the video again and answer the following questions. Use your notes from our in-class analysis to help you:1) How is the narrative features used in the music video? Apply narrative theory here.
Binary oppositions:
- time period
- horse and car race
- costumes and props
- conflict=dance off
- race/ethnicity
Action and Enigma codes:
- gun reveal = classic western action code
- race, horse(hooves sparks) all action
Todorov:
- 'in media res' = starts in middle off action
- multiple examples of disequilibrium
- ends with new equilibrium
- culture conviviality
Propp:
- Lil Nas X character as hero
- Billy Ray Cyrus as helper/sidekick
- This subverts stereotypes towards race and age
Intertextuality:
- Billy Ray Cyrus = country legend
- Pink suit to subvert it
- Rap genre = mariachi. porch, wrangler, Gucci, fender
- Dialogue = Compton
- car/horse scene = Lil Nas X tune in background
- back to the future (time travel)
- fast and furious = lots of pop culture
Celebrity cameo:
- Chris Rock out takes
- comedy pieces included
- Billy Ray Cyrus
- Vince Staples
- Rico Nasty
- Diplo
3) How are technical codes used to create meanings in the video? Analyse camerawork, editing and mise-en-scene and make specific reference to moments in the video.
Opening scene:
- western move genre(dialogue)
- transition, title font, music and sfx
- social media/Tiktok=dancing, screen within screen
Race/ethnicity:
- almost entirely black cast
- 'Yeehaw agenda'
- final scene predominantly white but also scene of cultural conviviality to appease mainstream white audience?
Gender:
- opening reinforces gender stereotypes
- mainly subverts traditional masculinity 'Marlbar man'
- pink suit, Lil Nas X's jacket= modern masculinity
LGBTQ:
- clothing bright, blinding
- Lil Nas X open about sexuality
- not explicit? but alluded to it
America:
- white picket fence
- cultural conviviality
- American white dream street but all black people living there
Old Town Road Media Factsheet
Finally, read Media Factsheet #262 - Old Town Road. You'll need to log in to Google using your Greenford Google account to access this. Read the factsheet and answer the following questions:1) Who are the celebrities that appear in cameos in the video?
It featured comedians Chris Rock and Haha Davis, rappers Vince Staples and Rico Nasty, songwriter Jozzy, producer Youngkio, and DJ Diplo.
2) Choose three of the key terms defined on the first page of the factsheet and write the definitions here. Focus on terms you are unfamiliar with.
- Mytheme: Small units of narrative in cultural products; such as theme, character and action, the study of which can reveal the dominant ideas and values of culture.
- Double consciousness: The idea that conflicting racial identities can exist within an individual.
- Cultural Myth: Deeper ideologies that have been shaped through cultural coding through connotations over time.
3) How did Lil Nas X use social media to boost his own popularity and the success of the video?
By trafficking in memes, viral threads, engagement bait, and Nicki Minaj stanning, he was able to create a six-digit follower base on Twitter, a process that is known as tweetdecking.
4) Look at the video analysis on page 3. What conventions of the western can be found in the video?
The video is a camp black western, complete with a hick hoe-down, car vs. horse showdowns and most importantly a stranger riding into town, with a deserted rocky, uninhabited setting so depict a particular form of American intrepidness that was dangerous and hostile for individuals, but if embraced could be a “land of opportunities”. Bank robberies and hostage situations were also conventional.
5) How does the video begin?
The video starts in media res and shows Lil Nas X riding through rugged countryside of the outback being chased by the sheriff and his deputies.
The suburban streets of Los Angeles where the inhabitants are filmed in slow motion astonished at the sight of this newcomer. The “dance-off” and “car-race” between Lil Nas X and the street people are represented in a friendly manner. The video ends with Lil Nas hugging a little white Bingo playing, line-dancing old lady, subverting the negative stereotype of the threatening black man as well as suggesting that outsiders should not be feared. This culminates in a message which constructs a hyperreality of inclusivity and community above fear and violence.
7) How can the video be read as a reinforcement of capitalism and the American dream?
Signifiers of wealth such as clutching a money bag with a dollar sign on it, construct the hyperreality of The American Dream, a cultural myth that states everyone should have equal access and opportunities, especially when it comes to success.
8) How does the factsheet suggest the video creates a hyperreality?
The factsheet suggests that the cultural conviviality seen in the ending creates a hyperreality of inclusivity and community and it also creates a hyperreality of the American dream through the signifiers of wealth that are seen throughout the video.
9) How is masculinity represented in the video?
The representation of masculinity is subverted in this video mainly through the costuming as both Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus are dressed in bright, colourful and flashy suits that would not typically be seen in stereotypical men's clothing as they are designs that are associated with women's clothing more.
10) Look at the final page. What theories are suggested for this CSP and which do you think are the most useful?
Judith Butler’s theory effectively links to the video as it draws attention to the performative nature of gender. Stereotypically feminine gender codes, such as the pink suits and flowers, highlight that “the inner truth is a fabrication.” Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus do not “perform” like conventional cowboys.
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