Viral Lil Nas X Twitter Thread Excludes Charley Pride from Country History
The aftermath of the removal of Lil Nas X’s viral trap song “Old Town Road” from the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart continues, and unfortunately, so do the misconceptions and outright lies surrounding the removal as being motivated by racism. Such claims were completely non existent in popular media a full nine days after “Old Town Road” had been removed, until Rolling Stone published an article titled, Lil Nas X’s ‘Old Town Road’ Was a Country Hit. Then Country Changed Its Mind.
The title of the article itself is incorrect, and irrefutably indefensible. “Country Music” did not choose to remove “Old Town Road” from the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, Billboard did after the publisher discovered the malfeasance that was behind the song accidentally charting on the Hot Country Songs chart in the first place. To verify this malfeasance and chart manipulation, one has to go no further than the words of Lil Nas X’s manager, Danny Kang, who explained in the very same Rolling Stone article,
“On SoundCloud, he listed it as a country record. On iTunes, he listed it as a country record. He was going to these spaces, gaining a little bit of traction on their country charts, and there’s a way to manipulate the algorithm to push your track to the top. That’s favorable versus trying to go to the rap format to compete with the most popular songs in the world.”
Furthermore, not even Lil Nas X is claiming racism in his removal from the chart. Though he believes the track should be included on the Hot Country Songs chart, when asked point blank by Time if he thought the removal had racial undertones, Lil Nas X simply responded, “I believe whenever you’re trying something new, it’s always going to get some kind of bad reception. For example, when rap started, or when rock and roll began. But with country trap, I in no way want to take credit for that. I believe Young Thug would be one of the biggest pioneers in that.”
Nonetheless, the issue continues to be hammered home in now dozens of articles and think pieces accusing country music of a racist conspiracy against Lil Nas X, even though an African American artist, Jimmie Allen, became the first artist of any race to have the longest-leading debut song on top of the Billboard Country Airplay chart since 2001 when his song “Best Shot” hit #1 for a third week in December. Kane Brown is also currently at #10 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart with “Good As You,” and has both the #7 and #9 albums on the Billboard Country Albums chart. If black artists were being excluded exclusively due to race, how are these two artists currently charting?
But the whitewashing of facts reached a new level when Shane Morris, who claims to be a “former country music label person,” published a series of tweets that outright whitewashed the legacies of multiple country music artists while presenting completely erroneous facts that have since gone viral, and end with the pronouncement that both country music and Billboard are “racist as fuck.”
In one tweet that has received over 160 retweets at time of posting, Shane Morris assets, “This same week in 1963, Alabama Governor George Wallace delivered his infamous ‘segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever’ speech. Billboard started their Hot 100 in 1958. The Top Country songs started in 1964. A black man didn’t make it to #1 until 2008.”
Then in the following tweet, which has received over 360 retweets at time of posting, Shane Morris says, “Four black men in total have ever topped Billboard’s Country charts with either a single, or an album. Darius Rucker, Kane Brown, Jimmie Allen… and as of last week Lil Nas X. 25% of black men to ever top Billboard’s Country chart have been removed. Not a great statistic.”
Within the people who have retweeted this information are numerous high-profile celebrities, including Questlove, and dozens of blue-checkmark verified journalists. However this information is completely untrue.
First, Lil Nas X did not “top” Billboard’s country chart, even before he was removed. The song wasn’t even in the Top 10. “Old Town Road” only came in at #19.
But the biggest error in Shane Morris’s tweets is that he completely eliminated the legacy of Country Music Hall of Famer, Grand Ole Opry member, Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, CMA Entertainer of the Year, and one of the most commercially-successful country music artist of all time, Charley Pride.
Not only did Charley Pride chart #1 singles between 1964 and 2008, he had 40 of them when counting radio metrics, and 29 that crested the disputed Hot Country Songs chart. Here they are:
- 1969 – “All I Have to Offer You (Is Me)”
- 1969 – “(I’m So) Afraid of Losing You Again”
- 1970 – “Is Anybody Goin’ to San Antone”
- 1970 – “Wonder Could I Live There Anymore”
- 170 – “I Can’t Believe That You’ve Stopped Loving Me”
- 1971 – “I’d Rather Love You”
- 1971 – “I’m Just Me”
- 1971 – “Kiss An Angel Good Mornin'”
- 1972 – “It’s Gonna Take A Little Bit Longer”
- 1972 – “She’s Too Good to Be True”
- 1973 – “A Shoulder to Cry On”
- 1973 – “Don’t Fight The Feelings of Love”
- 1973 – “Amazing Love”
- 1974 – Then Who Am I”
- 1975 – “Hope You’re Feelin’ Me (Like I’m Feelin’ You)”
- 1976 – “My Eyes Can Only See As Far As You”
- 1977 – “She’s Just an Old Love Turned Memory”
- 1977 – “I’ll Be Leaving Alone”
- 1977 – “More to Me”
- 1978 – “Someone Loves You Honey”
- 1979 – “Where Do I Put Her Memory”
- 1979 – “You’re My Jamaica”
- 1980 – “Honky Tonk Blues”
- 1980 – “You Win Again”
- 1981 – “Never Been So Loved (In All My Life)”
- 1981 – “Mountain of Love”
- 1982 – “You’re So Good When You’re Bad”
- 1982 – “Why Baby Why”
- 1983 – “Night Games.”
Along with these #1 songs, Charley Pride also had an additional 22 Top 10 hits, and 9 total #1 albums. Charley Pride won the 1971 CMA Entertainer of the Year award—the highest award the genre bestows, as well as the Male Vocalist of the Year award in both 1971 and 1972. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000, and received the Grammy of Lifetime Achievement in 2017.
Beyond Charley Pride, there are multiple other African Americans whose charting contributions on Billboard are being glossed over by Shane Morris and others, including Rhiannon Giddens participating in the song “Kill A Word” with Eric Church that went #9 on the Hot Country Songs chart in 2016, and has been Certified Gold by the RIAA, and Mickey Guyton who had a Top 40 hit with “Better Than You Left Me” in 2015.
So how is someone who claims to be a “former country music person” gloss over all of this country music history? First, there is no public record of Shane Morris working for any country music label, though he may have at some point. Instead, Shane Morris is a political figure who works as a web developer who made headlines in 2018 when he offered to help young progressive candidates with web development for their candidacies. A profile of him in the Nashville Scene also led to revelations that he regularly has used abusive and discriminatory language online.
One of the reasons Shane Morris’s tweets went viral is due to portraying himself as a “former country music label person,” when in truth his primary occupation is as a political operative, selectively presenting facts and purposely excluding others to bolster his argument, similar to how Rolling Stone presented the fact that Beyonce had been disqualified from consideration for a Grammy Award in 2016 for her song “Daddy Lessons” as their only corroborating evidence that racism was behind the exclusion of Lil Nas X for the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, but failed to mention Beyonce was also bestowed the marquee performance, and largest performance slot during the 50th Annual CMA Awards.
More troubling is this biased dissemination of facts is directly whitewashing the contributions of African Americans to the country music genre.
In a later tweet, Shane Morris said about his claim of being previously employed in the country music business, “Re: My “What do you/did you do in music?” DM’s… I don’t want to use this viral moment to talk about my accomplishments because… (*checks notes*) … using the pain of (literally) centuries of civil rights battles to promote my career would make me a tremendous asshole.”
Shane Morris’s entire Twitter thread on the Lil Nas X matter can be seen below.
Hi. Former country music label person here.
@LilNasX was kicked off the Billboard country charts because the (mainstream) terrestrial country music market is filled to a surfeit with racism and bigotry. Allow me to explain…If you know me, you know I once worked for a large country music label in Nashville. (The largest, actually.) I won’t name them here, because I don’t like when lawyers call me. Was the label populated *mostly* with racists? No. But were there a lot of racists? Yes.
Using
@billboard‘s justifications for saying “Old Town Road” doesn’t contain enough country elements, I could just as easily say “GIRL” by@MarenMorris doesn’t belong on the Billboard Country charts. I love “GIRL” by Maren Morris. But it is, objectively speaking, a pop song.My favorite album last year was “Golden Hour” by
@KaceyMusgraves. (Hey neighbor!) Many songs from that album have performed well on Billboard’s Country chart. They’re definitely pop-leaning, but have enough country elements to be “Country” enough for “Country” people.What’s the difference between Kacey Musgraves, Maren Morris and Lil Nas X? Lil Nas X doesn’t play guitar. Just kidding. Well, I mean, he still doesn’t play guitar, but the real problem here is that Lil Nas X is a black man, from Black Hollywood, AKA Atlanta.
Lil Nas X is no different than Ray Charles in 1962. He’s taking country sounds that already exist, and making them better. Ray Charles, a black man, re-recorded “I Can’t Stop Loving You” and it went to #1 on the Pop Charts.
“Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music” was the #1 selling album of 1962, spending 14 weeks at the top of the charts. Ray Charles, a black man, was redefining country music. … and racists hated it.
There has always been a rift between black people and county music. In 1963, Ray Charles reached #1 on the Pop Charts (again) with his rendition of “You Are My Sunshine” — a song that was formerly a traditional country tune. Ray Charles just made an objectively better version.
Country legends like Gene Autry and Bing Crosby had previously recorded versions of “You Are My Sunshine” — but Ray Charles, his version had energy, jazz, soul and the power of a black church. This was 1963. The year after President Johnson banned housing discrimination.
This same week in 1963, Alabama Governor George Wallace delivered his infamous “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever” speech. Billboard started their Hot 100 in 1958. The Top Country songs started in 1964. A black man didn’t make it to #1 until 2008.
Four black men in total have ever topped Billboard’s Country charts with either a single, or an album. Darius Rucker, Kane Brown, Jimmie Allen… and as of last week Lil Nas X. 25% of black men to ever top Billboard’s Country chart have been removed. Not a great statistic.
In the past,
@kanebrown has tweeted (and deleted) his thoughts about the racism in Nashville. “some people in Nashville who have pub deals won’t write with me because I’m black” Why delete it? Politics. Kane Brown is on tenuous footing as a black man in a racist industry.Go to any writer’s round in Nashville, at legendary places like The Bluebird Cafe, and you’ll see a diverse array of people with all skin colors, from paper and ivory, to papyrus and cream. Nashville’s country music scene is welcome to Caucasians from all backgrounds.
By removing Lil Nas X from the Country Charts, the powers that be (and yes, I’m openly saying the Country music industry operates like the mafia) continue what they want country music to sound like, and more importantly… LOOK like. Because this isn’t about sound. At all.
Billboard Country had no problem with Taylor Swift tracking pop tunes onto their Country chart. Sam Hunt has been using autotune and rap beats for a long time. Dan + Shay (hi
@andrewtothemoon!) make pop music and if you disagree, you are wrong. But they’re all “Country”.Lil Nas X made a song that is country enough to be country, and trap enough to be trap. That should be something we celebrate, as an unknown artist rode a TikTok meme to fame, and brought two audiences together. Instead, Billboard was like, “Nah, let’s be racist as fuck.”
March 31, 2019 @ 11:41 am
I am going to have a lot more on this issue upcoming. In running Saving Country Music for 11 years now, and posting over 5,200 articles, I have never seen anything like the misinformation and outright lies surrounding this Lil Nas X story. With no hyperbole, I feel more confident than ever that country music as a cultural institution is under the biggest existential threat in history, with individuals using this Lil Nas X story in an attempt to destroy the genre, and are willing to perpetrate outright lies to do it, and are getting away with it due to outright media bias, and in some instances, participation.
March 31, 2019 @ 11:51 am
Does this make you want to shift to the right any? Because you know this is leftism manifested.
Disclaimer: By “right”, I do not mean Trumpism.
March 31, 2019 @ 12:09 pm
I really don’t think this is a right or left thing, this is an anecdotal action by a single sham journalist, albeit appealing to leftists elements. One could easily find examples of right wing journalists deliberately echoing cherry picked and false information about pop culture in order to advance right wing goals
March 31, 2019 @ 12:25 pm
Tubb,
I’m pretty sure Shane Morris isn’t a journalist.
Also, “King Fu” Sean Shamnity is neither right wing, nor an actual journalist.
March 31, 2019 @ 1:36 pm
If you want to say that Hannity isn’t really a conservative, that’s one thing. I thing I’d agree. But he’s a fire breathing right wing populist.
March 31, 2019 @ 2:46 pm
Jack,
Populism doesn’t have an ideology; it simply means to promote or to adhere to whatever is popular with a large segment of the population. It’s basically emotionally driven politics.
So yes, Shamnity is most definitely a populist. But he’s not right wing in the slightest. Right wing means as little government as possible. Shamnity loves the government, as long as it’s used in the way he wants, which is the way Donny wants.
April 3, 2019 @ 6:58 am
Incorrect. Populism is product of Progressivism and progressivism is an ideology. It was spawned by the Progressive “Bull Moose Party” and it’s first President Teddy Roosevelt.
March 31, 2019 @ 12:11 pm
King Honky Of Crackershire: I’m a lefty and I find the claims of racism in this case as ridiculous as anybody. Does everything really have to be about politics?
March 31, 2019 @ 12:32 pm
I too am also left-wing (pragmatic progressive) and I too also find these claims to be full of it.
March 31, 2019 @ 2:49 pm
Jason,
I suspect you’re more of a socially liberal right winger than you are a leftist. I hate that everything has to be political, but it is. Might as well acknowledge that and figure out where you stand.
March 31, 2019 @ 3:01 pm
Hey King Honky and others,
Let’s please try to keep to the subject on hand from here on out. This is already a contentious enough subject. Getting into political classification talk will just muddy up this comments section.
Thanks!
March 31, 2019 @ 1:32 pm
It is written in the founding charter of Saving Country Music, as well as in the business plan to not take or promote any political affiliations whatsoever when it comes to covering music. Though I’m sure love will love to portray articles like this and others as breaking those oaths, but the broaching of these political subjects is often to diffuse or fight back against the politicization of music. That doesn’t mean that some music isn’t political, or shouldn’t be able to be political. But it is an ongoing effort on my part to never allow personal political feelings to enter into how I cover a subject or artist, or if I cover a subject or artist. I’m not saying I am perfect in this effort, but it is a strong point of emphasis. And beyond music, I remain a vehemently unaligned, apolitical individual. I will not change that over this subject or any other. As others have pointed out, at times the right has gone mad when it comes to country music, resulting in the embarrassing blackballing of the Dixie Chicks, and others black eyes. That’s why it’s important we don’t allow ANY political rancor predicated on outright lies to permeate music culture. THIS is what I battle against, not any one political ideology.
April 1, 2019 @ 12:06 pm
This Old Town Road charting controversy came about for one reason: the Hot Country Charts is a bad metric for measuring the popularity of specifically country songs. Billboard just adds up the number of times a song is played, regardless of who is listening and why. They only afterwards divide by genre, meaning that inevitably the music most resembling more popular genres will climb the charts fastest. The answer to this problem is to go off of a different chart; one which measures the popularity of a song amongst country fans who are purposely listening to country music. If you want to save country music, promote the country Airplay chart as a better measure. That way country deejays, and therefore their listening audiences, get to classify what is and isn’t country instead of the folks at billboard.
I understand the belief that “Old Town Road” was unfairly removed. There is plenty of rap-influenced music on the charts these days, and probably will be in the foreseeable future, and being somewhat of a parody of country music does not disqualify this song from the country charts. Country music has often embraced songs with a healthy dose of self depreciating humor. It’s not too hard to find misogynistic lyrics on the country charts, either. None of these are criteria that make as much sense as separating out what actual country fans tune into as opposed to squabbling with Billboard about what popular songs could conceivably be labeled “country.”
It would be easy to say that radio airplay is becoming less and less relevant to mass media, but country is a unique genre in it’s relationship to radio. Radio built and maintained country music from the very start, and continues to do so. country survived the Great Depression because people who couldn’t afford records gathered every Saturday night to listen to WSM in Nashville or WLS in Chicago, and others. When ASCAP’s draconian licensing fees threatened to drive many artists and radio stations out of the industry, the radio deejays created BMI largely to represent country artists. Ag reports today often share airtime with country music programing, and radio remains a big deal in rural areas where people spend a lot of time in vehicles.
The point is, country station deejays have an ear to the ground and know what people want when they tune in to listen to country music. They have a local audience to cater to and call-ins to answer. I looked on the Country Airplay chart that came out on March 16th to see if “Old Town Road” was on it. If it was, I would say that actual country fans had determined that Lil’ Nas’ surprise hit is a country song. It seems that they haven’t.
April 5, 2019 @ 1:35 pm
do you recall the outrage at justin timberlake man of the woods .. that turned out to be not really country however he was dragged and mocked and been called a racist cause he just called the album man of the woods…critics called it dumb try to mix genres … do we see the double standards ..its pretty damn disgusting
April 9, 2019 @ 12:52 am
You are wrong, his point in his blog was about radio airplay on country stations, Charlie Pride never had a number 1 song in terms of radio airplay on country stations, https://www.billboard.com/music/charley-pride/chart-history/country-airplay, never was higher than 50, which is his point, country radio stations do not play great songs by black artist at the rate they should. Yes he had number one songs on other list based on sales and other factors.
April 9, 2019 @ 8:42 am
Completely incorrect.
First off, the Billboard Country Airplay did not start until 2012 when Billboard made the Hot Country Songs chart, and all other genre charts separate from airplay to factor in downloads, streams, and other consumption. Even if this is what Shane Morris was attempting to say, it’s still incorrect, because he mentioned 2008 and Darius Rucker, which came up BEFORE the split.
Nice try.
March 31, 2019 @ 12:07 pm
You left out Louis Jordan, the second artist to score a #1 hit on the first version of the Billboard country charts, “Juke Box Folk Records”, in 1944. Jordan topped the charts with two more songs in ’44, and the King Cole Trio took “Straighten Up and Fly Right” to the top three different times that year.
March 31, 2019 @ 12:16 pm
Same people bitching about this are the same people bitching that Beyonce wasnt nominated for country single just this time thr volume is turned up to 11
March 31, 2019 @ 12:33 pm
You can’t destroy a genre, and it’s sociopathic to try.
This Morris person is just another neurotic “activist” out to poke a stick in his favorite fantasy monster’s eye. Because in the end, he’s the racist.
Hey Shane, out here in the cornfields, the only people we really don’t like are like *you.*
March 31, 2019 @ 12:40 pm
These assholes trying to start political fights off of this stupid song are the worst thing ever. Get this dumb rapper out of country music, and bring FGL, Kane Brown and Jason Aldean out as well.
March 31, 2019 @ 12:42 pm
Not sure why he decided to use Marren Morris, Kacey Musgraves, and Taylor Swift as his main examples to drag down. If you’ve been paying attention to country music in the past couple of years you’d know that women have been mostly systematically excluded from the upper echeleons of country music, so his point falls flat to me.
March 31, 2019 @ 1:36 pm
It’s because he doesn’t know anything about country music except for what he brushes up against from the outside looking in, similar to the “Rolling Stone” writer who started this whole incredible episode of division and misinformation, and other journalists who’ve broached this subject and others. Of course there is and has been racism in country music. But Shane Morris is not helping the cause in any way. His efforts will just stir division, and are likely to create more racists than vanquish them, because his rhetoric is predicated on lies.
April 3, 2019 @ 6:39 pm
It’s because he doesn’t know anything about country music except for what he
Definitely. The Hot Country Songs chart did not start in 1964 like he claims it did. That was the country albums chart which debuted in 1964.
the Hot Country Songs chart started in 1958 the week after Billboard’s last previous country songs charts were published.
March 31, 2019 @ 12:47 pm
Trying to purge country music of rap and electronic elements is as ridiculous and backward-thinking as the Opry banning electric guitars in the 40s, or drums until the 60s. It doesn’t matter if you like it or not (I don’t for the most part), it’s happening, it will continue to happen, and it will not stop anyone making country music in the styles you like. Really, this site needs to stop being so obsessed with the charts and go out and listen to the thousands of artists making real country music.
I’ve found some great acts through here, but every article like this one is an article not promoting a good artist. Try Gangstgrass, and see how bluegrass and hip-hop can mix well.
March 31, 2019 @ 1:53 pm
Steophan,
This article has nothing to do with “Trying to purge country music of rap and electronic elements.” It also has little to do with charts. This has to do with a political activist purging the legacy of the most important African American artist in country music from historical context in Tweets that are then being shared by individuals with millions of followers. Talk about racism. The point of this article was defend the legacy of Charley Pride, and correct misinformation, which I can’t imagine being a more important task for a site called “Saving Country Music.”
“I’ve found some great acts through here, but every article like this one is an article not promoting a good artist.”
I appreciate the feedback, but this is an incredible misnomer. Just this week I have posted features on Jamey Johnson and Kelsey Waldon, Tim Bluhm, Jack Ingram, Wanda Jackson, Roger Alan Wade, The Railbird Festival featuring many independent artists, Keith Whitley, and Ian Noe. The problem is BARELY ANYBODY READS THEM. But I still write them, over, and over, and over again, sacrificing time and wealth to do so, believing in this mission, and the importance of covering artists and stories nobody else will because there’s no commercial viability in it. And still, this comment has been the most common comment on the site for 11 years. I cannot cram any more music in my brain than I already do. Even if I only wrote album reviews for independent artists, I would still only write three album reviews a week, because that’s all I can handle. So I write about other subjects that speak to the underlying reasons why some of our generation’s best music is going ignored. You want to read articles about good artists, GO READ THEM. In fact I featured Gangstagrass prominently in my recap of Folk Alliance that you and everyone else ignored:
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/2019-folk-alliance-international-in-words-and-pictures/
I don’t mean to be combative, and I appreciate the feedback. But I am tired of giving pieces of my soul to this website, especially to promote important artists, only to have them mostly ignored, and then turn around and get shit on for it.
April 1, 2019 @ 4:51 am
For whatever it’s worth, I read your articles about the good artists. Heh, sometimes I curse you for it…I’m gonna go bankrupt buying all these records! 😉
April 1, 2019 @ 6:00 am
FWIW, Trig, I (and probably many others) really do appreciate your work. You’ve turned me on to a lot of fantastic songwriters.I appreciate it even more since moving out of Texas.
March 31, 2019 @ 2:02 pm
I’d be quite happy if the opry still banned electric guitars and drums. Sure it would be a smaller institution but it would have an absolutely dedicated fanbase and respect of the world.
March 31, 2019 @ 2:05 pm
And the highly successful MTV Unplugged albums could have been Opry albums. Real artists respect real music and don’t care for devolving
August 15, 2022 @ 1:46 am
The only thing that would’ve resulted from such a backwards maneuver is the Grand Old Opry being left behind by the wider world culturally and socio-politically, and only being listened to and followed as a niche thing by a small poolo of fans who would shrink with every decade.
March 31, 2019 @ 3:00 pm
Steophan,
Can you please objectively explain why it’s “backward-thinking”?
If you’re able to do that (which you won’t be), can you please objectively explain to me why backwards is negative?
March 31, 2019 @ 1:43 pm
I have to say I’m a bit disappointed in Questlove. For some reason, I thought maybe he’d know better.
Back when I was a kid growing up in the New York area, I didn’t really like country music all that much. But I knew who Charley Pride was, knew what he looked like, and could probably identify Kiss an Angel Good Morning as his song.
March 31, 2019 @ 2:19 pm
Questlove is a very intelligent person who has been an important music advocate in popular culture. There are scores of very intelligent and upright people who are being duped into spreading this misinformation—just as they were with the ‘Rolling Stone’ headline that started this whole thing—due to the incredibly diabolical prevalence of Twitter echo chambers. Someone like Questlove sees a tweet or retweet from blue checkmarked verified Twitter accounts of celebrities and journalists, and trusts the source without any thought or verification. Meanwhile if you’re like me and try to share context or clarification on Twitter, you’re hounded down as a racist, and risk getting banned on Twitter for racism.
All of this is a Twitter construct. People have been tweeting at this Shame Morris guy for over a day now to at least clarify his tweets, and he refuses. The entire reason his tweets went viral is because he excluded facts to make country music look more “racist” than it could ever be. You would think that EVERYONE who considers themselves an educated music fan, especially someone like Questlove, would remember the legacy of Charley Pride. But unfortunately these days, especially on Twitter, people just believe what they want to believe, and purposely shield themselves from facts that challenge their belief systems.
March 31, 2019 @ 3:09 pm
Trigger,
How do you figure Questlove is intelligent?
I swear he’s just another dime-a-dozen pseudo-intellectual with a platform and a mouth.
March 31, 2019 @ 3:44 pm
This was a really good essay by Questlove, and speaks to the very monogenre concerns that are presenting themselves in this Lil Nas x issue.
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/mono-genre-watch-questlove-says-hip-hop-failed-black-people/
April 1, 2019 @ 1:38 am
It’s like he can’t shut up since he is getting notoriety. The guy is constantly tweeting now that he knows he has eyes on him and just saying hot garbage. It’s even worse since Nipsey was shot as he is now trying to put him in the category of 2Pac while inserting himself in there as someone who had beef with Nipsey. My favorite line of the whole last bit from him has been that independent artists couldnt afford him.
April 1, 2019 @ 7:50 am
You wouldn’t shut up either. He’s gained 3000-5000 followers over this thing. He’s an internet celebrity now. He exposed country music for the racist institution it is. And all predicated on lies. Meanwhile my tweet of this article got 12 retweets, and caused multiple people to unfollow me for my racism. Folks that are not seeing just how dangerous this situation is are not paying attention.
April 1, 2019 @ 11:59 am
Don’t worry this guy (and lil whoever) will die away soon enough. We will go on listening to country music no matter what. Anyone with half a clue could see that thread was full of crap. The Ray Charles stuff was also so wrong – he was such a fan of country music! It’s all got so out of hand and ridiculously political. Anyway I think it has also made me change my mind about Maren too – I thought her voice sounded country enough but maybe you were right and mixing genres is a slippery slope. Out of interest if you had to write a guideline for billboard of what a song should have to be eligible for the county chart what would you include?
April 1, 2019 @ 12:41 pm
Look, I’m not a fan of Maren Morris, and I definitely think she belongs on the pop charts as opposed to country. But I’m not going to write and article demanding she be taken off the country charts. I get it. She started her career writing for other country artists. She’s on a Nashville-based record label, and started her career off with a pretty country-sounding song. You’ve got to pick your battles, and whether Maren Morris is country or not is a popcorn fart compared to what’s going on with this Lil Nas X issue. I drew the line at “Meant To Be” by Bebe Rexha, because she was clearly not a country artist, demanding she be taken off the country charts. So I can speak for others, but I am on the record saying a white performer didn’t belong there way before Lil Nas X showed up. And Lil Nas X doesn’t belong there either. As bad as the upheaval has been removing Lil Nas X from the country charts, it may have even been worse if they kept him on there.
March 31, 2019 @ 2:22 pm
What about the other black musician in the C M H O F. Deford Bailey?
April 2, 2019 @ 12:37 pm
If we want to go down that road we could also throw Rufus “Tee Tot” Payne into the mix. Being virtually the only musical influence of Hank Williams his indirect influence on subsequent generations of country artists is likely rivaled by very few people. Being that they weren’t recording artists with success on the Billboard charts I don’t know if their stories are relevant to this specific discussion, but they certainly have a place in the overall discussion of racial issues in country music.
March 31, 2019 @ 2:28 pm
This Shane guy is a total idiot. Thanks for debunking this once and for all
March 31, 2019 @ 3:16 pm
Is Shane Morris a real person?
March 31, 2019 @ 4:32 pm
I consider myself a left-wing anti-authoritarian, and this situation is absolute horse shit. It’s a manipulation (political or otherwise) not based on history or fact. The song is not country. Period. Has there been hip hop that leaned country that could have been on the chart? Perhaps (think Bubba Sparxxx, a white guy, from his “Deliverance” era, but this song does not fit that mold at all.
March 31, 2019 @ 5:50 pm
The thing topping the charts country wide is ignorance. Anyone who allows another person on social media, or in real life, to allow anothers opinion to sway their opinion without hard evidence is ignorant.
March 31, 2019 @ 8:01 pm
Do with this what you want, but I did some digging around and I feel pretty comfortable that Shane Morris’s label claim is true. Going through his old tweets there are numerous references to working for a label and specifically Sony. I also found what I believe is his LinkedIn page listing Sony, although for only 9 months. This also isn’t his first music controversy as he apparently claimed that Travis Scott (don’t ask, I don’t know or care who he is) raped a woman: https://www.reddit.com/r/hiphopheads/comments/a98b30/former_travis_scott_associate_shane_morris/. He also claims to be friends with a couple producers of at least one Drake song.
March 31, 2019 @ 10:52 pm
I don’t doubt that at some point Shane Morris worked in some capacity in the music industry. I worked in restaurants for a number of years. That doesn’t make me a restaurant expert. I worked in construction when I was younger. That doesn’t mean I’m Bob Vila. This guy passed himself off as some sort of country music insider or label executive, and then proceeded to disseminate utter falsehoods anyone could refute by a passing glance at Wikipedia. And working with or around Travis Scott doesn’t in any way verify his country cred. It means whatever time he did spend in the music industry most likely was in the hip-hop wing.
April 1, 2019 @ 5:52 am
The Travis Scott thing was more to show he’s made pretty wild music related claims in the past and I would hope if there was any shred of truth to the allegation that somebody would have investigated (and my 30 second search found none).
The fact that he has refused to correct any of the inaccuracies when pointed out to him should be telling enough. It’s not like there’s any ambiguity involved over whether Pride had a #1 (or dozens of them between songs and albums) or whether this hip hop song ever hit #1 on the country chart.
April 2, 2019 @ 12:39 pm
So you’re saying you can’t get me an autograph from Norm Abrams?
March 31, 2019 @ 8:32 pm
Hats off to you, Trigger. As one of the few people who cover this issue, you are (and have always been) a leader and gatekeeper for country music. To me, this issue really combines the two biggest threats to country: the politicization of the genre and the idea that douchebags like Lil Nas X can shit on it to get ahead. Keep fighting the good fight and reminding us that there’s still good music in the world.
March 31, 2019 @ 8:39 pm
My favorite black country artist was Stoney Edwards. Had a couple of minor hits in the ’70s. I keep a compilation CD of his in my car and I’ll pop it in, occasionally, if I’m on a long drive. I have the Essential Charley Pride compilation, but I never play it.,
March 31, 2019 @ 10:07 pm
A week ago I watched a video on the Youtube channel of Grady, the guy who has had a few viral videos on today’s country music that Trigger has covered, and I commented stating I had heard Lil Nas X made the song to troll and how successfully it worked. All quiet on my post until this weekend when I am getting bombarded with replies stating how it IS a country song, one calling me a racist, and another to “tell my buddies to quit listening to it then.” I can understand hip-hop fans getting triggered with it being taken off by Billboard because ‘Old Town Road’ has an obvious attempt to sound country (IMO, not country), but sounds more trap and is by a hip-hop artist. Meanwhile, you have all of today’s ‘country’ artists (FGL, Sam Hunt, etc.) using hip-hop beats in their music and their music is allowed to chart. I’ve seen Bebe Rexha being brought up a lot in comments saying how she is a popstar and she just made country music ‘history’ on the charts with ‘Meant to Be’. But, racism? C’mon! Can’t even have an opinion these days without be labeled a racist.
March 31, 2019 @ 10:46 pm
This is a good illustration of what I’ve been saying the whole time, which is that it was Rolling Stone’s misleading, clickbait headline that stirred this whole issue that nobody cared about until a good 10 days after the song was removed from Billboard. It’s no longer pop and hip-hop’s infiltration into country music that is the biggest threat to it, it’s the media, and Rolling Stone specifically.
March 31, 2019 @ 11:10 pm
Wholeheartedly agree, Trigger. I checked out Lil Nas X’s Twitter just for the hell of it and he tweeted tonight he kinda wants it to be left alone. Quote: ‘u never know how serious ppl take this and I’m not tryna be no martyr over this sh*t’. Shows how inciteful media can be. Even he didn’t think it would go this far.
March 31, 2019 @ 11:23 pm
doesn’t matter if the song is good or not..dudes’ rap name is dumb as fuck
March 31, 2019 @ 11:38 pm
In addition, Ray Charles hit #1 in 1984 or ’85 with “Seven Spanish Angels”, that great duet with Willie Nelson. Ray started out as a country musician early on, playing for The Florida Playboys out of Jacksonville for a brief time in 1947. He used to live a few blocks from my old office in downtown Jacksonville shortly after finishing school at St. Augustine’s Florida School for the Deaf and Blind.
April 1, 2019 @ 5:51 am
In unrelated news, George Strait released a new album Friday. Hasn’t anybody noticed?
April 1, 2019 @ 6:37 am
Aggc,
I’ve noticed. It’s a fantastic album. I was just thinking the same thing. This whole “controversy” is taking away from “Honky Tonk Time Machine,” which, by the way, is 150% more country than this Lil Nas X song. The return of George Strait should be getting covered, not this wanna be “country” song.
April 1, 2019 @ 7:38 am
No, this controversy is NOT taking away from “Honky Tonk Time Machine” or anything else.
April 1, 2019 @ 6:26 am
Is anybody surprised that in our current political and social climate, a political operative is inserting himself into this conversation for no other reason than to spread misinformation and cause controversy?
I’m so sick of this rampant dishonesty and race baiting, pitting people against each other to fuel a political agenda. It’s got to stop.
April 1, 2019 @ 6:35 am
I take more exception this asshole calling my city “Black Hollyood”
April 1, 2019 @ 6:52 am
Really, now. You take more exception to that passing comment than him going on an monumentally dishonest extended twitter rant about how “racist as fuck” country music is?
April 1, 2019 @ 9:00 pm
Seriously. I live in ATL and I’m not sure why anyone would be upset about it being called black Hollywood. The least objectionable part of those ridiculous tweets
April 2, 2019 @ 6:35 am
this dummies whole premise is objectionable and unfounded, but I took exception to that because I live here. Atlanta has a very diverse population ranging in a multitude of genders, races, ethnicity’s and political backgrounds. To label it “Black Hollywood” screams of identity politics. Hollywood of the south is probably more appropriate since so many movie and tv productions are based in and around Atlanta.
April 1, 2019 @ 6:50 am
It’s a tricky situation here. On the one hand, excluding Charley Pride either confirms that this guy is out of his element trying to be an “insider” or blatantly lying to cause drama.
On the other hand, the amount of successful black country artists is still very small – you can literally name every chart-topper. That’s obviously not a surefire sign of racism, but it’s still something worth recognizing. And if you’re an outsider who is only following this story as a media spectator, it’s easy to reduce the success of black artists to tokenism. It’s easy to dismiss the “well what about Jimmie Allen or Kane Brown” counterargument as tantamount to “well, I have a black friend, so I can’t be racist.
None of this changes the real issue that Lil Nas X’s song isn’t country and has no place on a country chart. It also doesn’t change the issue that Lil Nas X was removed by Billboard, not “country.” But the fact that so few black artists have been successful makes it easy for people to conflate the Lil Nas X issue with what is probably a more important discussion about diversity in country.
The fact that so many non-country singles on the radio also allows troublemakers to “double dip” their argument. People can simultaneously say that he doesn’t sound too dissimilar from some of today’s big country artists … AND wonder why clear pop songs from people like Thomas Rhett, Maren Morris, Kacey Musgraves, etc get to stay on the chart while the pop song from a black guy doesn’t.
They’re obviously missing a lot of nuance here (such as the fact that those artists identify as country artists and almost exclusively promote their music to country radio) … but the point is, there enough pieces in place for this argument to have gained traction.
And then you have the worse matter of high-profile country artists and commentators taking his side, because they’re more loyal to “woke Twitter” than common sense.
April 1, 2019 @ 7:07 am
Good points.
Leaving out Charley Pride’s career is such an enormous whopper, though. This whole “George Wallace speech in 1964 and then no country #1 hit by a black artist until 2008” spiel is both very inflammatory and grievously wrong factually. Looks like it was only about 5 years after 1964 when Pride had his first hit and then won the biggest award in country music two years later.
April 1, 2019 @ 7:46 am
It absolutely bugged me that you had actual “country” artists like Kali Shorr directing people to the important “history lesson” in that guy’s thread. That’s ridiculous, because it’s dead wrong on historical ground.
If you want to be “woke,” the appropriate response is:
– We need to give women more opportunities in the country industry.
– It’d be great to see more racial minorities get chances in the country industry.
– We definitely need more country in the country industry.
April 1, 2019 @ 7:46 am
There are two reasons there are less black artists within the ranks of country music artists. The first is pretty blatant institutional racism that didn’t want to feature “colored” musicians in places like the Grand Ole Opry, which likely persisted throughout the 40’s and into the 50’s, with some exceptions of course, which helped set out country as a predominately white art form and hide its African American roots. The second reason pertaining to the modern era is because African Americans are just significantly less likely to want or pursue making country music, as an occupation, with little to nothing holding them back than their own desires.
Where are the stories of black artists being excluded from country in out generation or our parent’s generation due to race? Where’s one accusation, from one artist? Even now, the only people forwarding this notion are well-healed white intellectuals. There was JUST an American Masters special on Charley Pride where he said he didn’t face any racism when making his way up the ranks at all. Perhaps that’s the reason his name is being excluded in this argument, by both Rolling Stone, and Shane Morris.
April 1, 2019 @ 8:06 am
I think you’ve covered the stance before, but Kane Brown has addressed facing racism.
But my broader point was not that I truly believe that the current country music institution is racist … but that the general absence of racial minorities makes it easy for people to affirm their own misconception about it being racist. If someone passionately says “country is racist,” and country’s response is “well what about these five or six black artists who have succeeded in the last 60 years” … no minds are going to be changed.
And, you know how these people think. You know very well there’s also the possibility of someone saying “Of course black people aren’t going to want to make country music – because they have a literal example of a black artist getting removed from the country charts for no reason.”
All this adds up to: country got screwed in this case, because the “woke” media had enough scraps to throw together an argument.
What made this argument even easier to make is that country is not only dismissed by the mainstream (“it’s just people with southern accents singing about drinking and their dogs”) but not vehemently defended by its own artists (who allow songs that are less country than Old Town Road to succeed). Without a clear sense of what country is from an artistic standpoint … it’s easier for people to make these preposterous claims.
April 1, 2019 @ 7:32 am
1- I love Ray Charles and modern sounds in country n western is a classic but in no way his version of you are my Sunshine is better than the original.
2- Some musical genres have a higher % of black artists (jazz anyone?) or White artists (some classical music?) but that doesn’t mean fans of these musicagenres are “racist”.
3- Thanx Trigger for EVERY article you post.
4- Please America stop hating yourself so much or you’ll end up like us in old Europe.
April 1, 2019 @ 8:04 am
Couldn’t have said it better. When a trap song charts in country then is moved to rap, why must it create absolute ignorance?
April 1, 2019 @ 10:16 am
What I find really objectionable about these debates is the way in which flagrant opportunism is sanctimoniously passed off for innovation. It’s like being told, with pious, illiterate self assurance, that the eurotrash version of Cotton Eye Joe was a cutting edge advancement in Country Music. Complete nonsensical bollocks.
Also, the idea of Bing Crosby as a ‘country legend’ is funny. If this guy is representative of the average countemporary ‘country music label person’ you can sort of see where it’s going wrong at the moment.
April 1, 2019 @ 10:31 am
“the amount of successful black country artists is still very small – you can literally name every chart-topper. That’s obviously not a surefire sign of racism, but it’s still something worth recognizing”
Recognizing how, is the issue. Personally, I “recognize” it for the simple reason that artists who were black were busy *inventing* new sh*t for themselves and — if you want to put it this way — for white musicians to copy.
For example, oh I don’t know, jazz, blues, soul, hip hop, etc. … you know, minor contributions to world music.
Many of the great jazz musicians who were great, like Charlie Parker, thought country music was too simplistic for them. They sneered at it. Ray Charles’s “Modern Sounds” was notable for being the exception to the sneering, not the rule. And he is hailed as a “genius” by areas of the country music world who are too afraid to praise their own traditions.
There haven’t been many country artists who have been black primarily because musicians who are black have been busy doing other things of real consequence in the world.
In short, they haven’t bothered.
April 1, 2019 @ 12:33 pm
“There haven’t been many country artists who have been black primarily because musicians who are black have been busy doing other things of real consequence in the world.”
I’m trying to understand your statement, here. Are you honestly saying country is not a “thing of real consequence in the world”? I do agree with much of what (I think) you’re saying, though that conclusion is pretty insulting.
I’d say, yes, it’s absolutely true that black contributions to music are monumental, but an inherent quality of that tradition is constant forward momentum and innovation. Every successive generation of black musicians makes a leap and leaves the past behind – due to a number of factors, the most important of which is economics.
Once a genre loses commercial popularity or potential, it’s not worthwhile to keep going with it. It’s why blues, rock, jazz, and other black musical innovations are now primarily in the realm of white academics, collectors, and hobbyists – while hip-hop (still a popular black majority genre) has gone on to dominate the world commercially, making many of its black originators and practitioners millionaires. Even within hip-hop, the music is constantly reinventing itself. The most popular hip-hop recording today doesn’t sound at all like the most popular hip-hop recording ten or twenty years ago (to the genre’s detriment, in my opinion – but I digress).
By contrast, country music has an inherent sentimentality to it – old times, tradition, looking back fondly etc. For black Americans, a historically uprooted, transient, and oppressed class, “looking back” with any kind of sentimentality of fondness isn’t realistic, desirable – or, in many cases, even possible.
Country simply has some inherent qualities in it’s DNA (ie. songwriting and delivery etc.) that, I’d wager, aren’t appealing to most black Americans or black musicians. That doesn’t make country “bad” or of “no consequence” it just means it’s not going to attract every socio-racial-economic group under the sun. In regard to this whole Lil Nas X controversy, I think to say that country is racist because of its lack of black practitioners is a very superficial and disingenuous analysis.
April 1, 2019 @ 1:17 pm
“I’m trying to understand your statement, here. Are you honestly saying country is not a “thing of real consequence in the world”?”
Absolutely not. I’m saying musicians who are black have been doing *other* things of real consequence. That would’ve been a better way of putting it.
And furthermore, I think the sneering of jazz musicians against country music has to do with the desire to assert their own dignity, which is understandable, but it’s also an example of missing the point. Country music has had a rich history of great instrumental players who don’t use a lot of tritone subs and explore modal or quartal harmony. Why? Not because they’re stupid, or can’t do it, but because they are mining a different vein. This should be seen b y everybody as perfectly fine. Country music has never been about pushing the limits of western harmony. It’s primarily about telling honest stories without a lot of glitz and glamor for people who like to kick back and dance a bit. That is every bit as culturally valuable as blowing over the changes to “Giant Steps” in a smoke-filled nightclub filled with jazz nerds and their bored women.
So I agree with everything you wrote there, Tex.
April 1, 2019 @ 2:17 pm
*raises an imaginary beer*
April 1, 2019 @ 11:21 am
If nothing else on this, this should go to show that the BillBoard Charts of TODAY are a fraud. Seriously.
April 1, 2019 @ 11:53 am
The sad reality is that only the sensational “country is racist” articles and tweets will rise to the top, and all it’ll do is reconfirm many peoples’ inherent bias against country.
I can only speak anecdotally, but like most north-easterners (the seat of most mass-media, except for LA), most of my life (until recently) I’d avoided country – in part because I didn’t care to know anything about it and what I heard on the radio legitimately didn’t click with me, and in part because the genre is constantly and consistently shrouded in a contemptuous light (ie. “backwards music for, and by, rednecks and racists”) which I never questioned (again, until recently).
Sadly, I think few people who come across articles about Lil Nas X will dig any deeper to truly understand the context of the controversy. They’ll read about how “country is racist” and think “yup, I already knew that.” But, that’s the era we live in – a social media echo-chamber of uninformed and unearned sanctimony.
Despite Trigger’s sounding of the alarm (which is legitimate), my feeling is that this controversy primarily matters to non-country fans because it confirms their own inherent and unchanging biases, and real country will go on, unscathed. Unless this kid becomes a huge star (doubtful), this thing will be a minor footnote in music history.
April 1, 2019 @ 12:36 pm
Well, this song is massive. It’s on track to be the biggest song of 2019. And Lil Nas X has used the success of the song to sign a major label deal. I honestly believe this is just the start of this issue.
April 1, 2019 @ 1:16 pm
I’d imagine it’s massive with pop fans, casual hip-hop fans, but mostly with people who follow viral memes, rather than “music” (much less country music) per se.
I just can’t honesty think any of Lil Nas X’s “fans”, country music fans, or music fans in general, would ever consider what he’s doing to be actual “country.” I respect and commend your attention to this matter, Trigger, but I can’t help but think this is a tempest in a tea cup orchestrated by click-hungry corporate trash media and twitter trash opportunists who don’t know any better and who will forget about this pretty quickly.
Maybe I’m naive, but my point is that people who already hate and attack country will continue to hate and attack country, whether this Lil Nas X kid or this controversy exists or not. From another angle, good country music will soldier on and forget the rest.
That said, I do appreciate your coverage on this. It’s fascinating, and since you mentioned it before, your coverage of real country artists and albums (features and reviews) is valued and appreciated. I’m sure you’re looking at click stats your readers can’t see, but I’m guessing your coverage of this sort of drama and controversy attracts the most clicks (drama sells) – but that obviously doesn’t detract from your more traditional music coverage, which is still top notch.
April 1, 2019 @ 11:54 am
You can take your big boomy bass sound and shove it. That will never be “country”. Never.
April 1, 2019 @ 12:06 pm
Is there a sense in which some of the comments about Lil Nas X fundamentally agree with you, as they’re pointing out that the erosion of country genre into pop (and whatever else) has already taken place (Maren Morris, T Swift, etc…) so thoroughly that there no longer is really a definable line between what’s country and what isn’t? And since there isn’t a definable line, drawing one at Lil Nas X, but not at Maren Morris, could potentially be construed as racist? If have zero doubt that if Lil Nas was white, you wouldn’t have wasted a second declaring his music “not country” but I guess the question is: would Billboard have?
April 1, 2019 @ 12:45 pm
I can’t speak for others, but there are DOZENS of articles on this website vociferously declaring that Taylor Swift, Maren Morris, Sam Hunt, Walker Hayes, and scores of other supposed country artists aren’t country. The irony is thick in how for over a decade, country fans have been screaming that these artists don’t belong on the charts, and now their inclusion is being used to call these same fans racist.
And people continue to forget that this is not the first time an artist has been kicked off the country charts. It happened with Green River Ordinance in 2016 in a story Saving Country Music broke, and they are most certainly more country than Lil Nas X, and as white as the wind driven snow.
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/green-river-ordinance-excluded-from-billboard-country-charts-while-other-acts-go-unquestioned/
April 1, 2019 @ 1:13 pm
Right, I’m not saying you’re racist, or any of these country fans who have consistently called these non-country acts to be discluded. Just the opposite.
But can the same be said for the gatekeepers that have allowed all the white non-country to remain, but drew a line at Lil Nas X? I.e., by failing to establish some clear standard of what was and wasn’t country, they opened themselves up for criticism once they excluded anyone, because there isn’t a clear metric.
April 1, 2019 @ 1:22 pm
“by failing to establish some clear standard of what was and wasn’t country, they opened themselves up for criticism once they excluded anyone, because there isn’t a clear metric”
Yup. It’s like grade inflation. Once you start giving everyone A’s, anything less than an A is perceived as an arbitary, personal attack.
Hard to see how any of this is going to end well.
April 2, 2019 @ 8:14 am
But, again, there is a definable line. Those songs are formally positioned as country songs by artists who formally identify as country artists.
Lil Nas X is not a country artist, and this song is not being formally promoted as a country single. It was initially listed as country on digital platforms, but the Rolling Stone article exposed that as manipulation. And I believe it has since been reclassified as hip-hop on iTunes, thus eliminating any semblance of country promotion.
The label, meanwhile, is exclusively promoting this song to pop and rhythmic radio. Not country radio.
Maren Morris’ poppy-sounding GIRL, on the other hand, is being exclusively promoted to country radio. That’s why there’s a difference.
April 2, 2019 @ 8:50 am
So the line is based on how the artists and songs are formally promoted, and not the qualities of the music itself? That flies in the face of everything this blog is about.
April 2, 2019 @ 9:35 am
I disagree. It’s recognizing the reality that exists today in the mainstream country music industry, and this is not an industry blog. I think Trigger’s comments a little further above about picking battles worth reading.
April 2, 2019 @ 9:39 am
You asked how someone could defend Billboard including Maren Morris on the Hot Country Songs chart but rejecting Lil Nas X. I answered that question. This has nothing to do with whether or not me (let alone this website) believes Maren Morris is, in fact, country.
If you’re asking about the broader point about whether certain artists belong in the country genre, I believe The Triggerman already answered your question. Real country fans are most certainly not saying Maren Morris’ “Girl” or Thomas Rhett’s “Vacation” are country songs, as some media types seem to be suggesting. They want those songs out of the genre just as much as – if not more so – than they want “Old Town Road” to be far away from country radio.
All I’m saying is that if you’re talking charts, the situations are not equitable. “Girl” and “Vacation” were formal country radio singles by artists who identify as country. Until country radio rejects this kind of music / those artists reclassify themselves as pop, Billboard has to include them on the charts. “Old Town Road” is a pop & rhythmic single that was briefly listed as “country” to stand out on digital platforms.
As I said in the other thread, if you want an equitable situation, focus on Kacey Musgraves’ “High Horse.” That was a pop song promoted to mainstream radio, yet it got to chart on Hot Country Songs. There’s your best “case” if you want to suggest potential racism.
April 2, 2019 @ 11:05 am
Something just doesn’t quite add up for me. I’ve been reading (and agreeing) with this blog for years decrying the loss of a definable and authentic country genre, as the music that charts country and plays on the radio moves more and more towards pop and hip-hop. And then Lil Nas X shows up and (in a huge way) demonstrates this very issue. But instead of pointing back at Billboard and Country Radio to say “this inability to disambiguate what is and isn’t country is what you’ve brought us through years of (pick any of the examples listed so far)” now suddenly we’re defending the Billboard gatekeepers and declaring Rolling Stone the true enemy of country music. And on the basis that the artists that they do consider country are country based on signifiers completely apart from the music itself. I.e., Maren Morris is country not because of her music, but because she’s “formally promoted as country.” Is marketing and promotion of non-country music as country not a form of chart manipulation?
As something as an aside, I read almost of the articles about this (here and in RS) before actually listening to the song. I’d assumed it was very clearly a rap song, but with lyrical country references to cowboys, whatever… And then I listened, and it’s not so clear. The song is certainly not obviously less country than many of the examples listed here, and it isn’t obviously rap either. (Although I recognize that neither are some Young Thugs songs, and a lot of hip-hop involves singing and not rapping these days.) Promotion aside, is it impossible to imagine that if some Lil Nas X signifiers (name, race, past music, clothing, hair, etc) outside of the song were different, there would have never been an uproar or the boot of country charts. (Although I’m sure Trigger still wouldn’t have liked it.)
April 1, 2019 @ 12:12 pm
A simple Google search tells you all you need to know about this guy.
Dig a little deeper and you’ll find ALOT.
Here is but one:
http://whoisshanemorris.tumblr.com/
April 1, 2019 @ 5:09 pm
Darius Rucker rules.
April 2, 2019 @ 8:44 am
No. No he doesn’t! He blows even more than Hootie and the Blowfish, if that is even possible!
April 2, 2019 @ 9:43 am
It’s definitely possible. I personally thought Hootie and the Blowfish was decent roots rock, albeit a bit of a sugar rush that didn’t tend to hold up with repeated listens.
April 2, 2019 @ 10:17 am
One potential issue to allowing this Old Town song be “country” is it will send out a clear message, hip-hop is allowed in country music. Just throw some lame lyrics in about being a cowboy , riding a horse and being gangster, put a booty-shaker beat to it and earn millions. This sets precedent and every obscure hip -hop artist or even successful artist will have a try to milk that money train. Then of course you take actual country artists out of the picture. Now you’ve forever changed the style, and an actual traditional country song sounds jarringly different next to one of these tunes and you are catering to 2 different audiences. That’s where this is headed. Because music “must evolve”.
April 4, 2019 @ 11:27 pm
Billy Ray Cyrus is trending on Twitter. This is a pitiful pos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=7ysFgElQtjI
April 5, 2019 @ 2:59 pm
I see your problem here. One counterpoint, however, is that this sounds just like the shit on bro-country radio right now except that the kid has more talent than most of them. So the rest of the shit-show aside what he did himself calling it country nailed a legitimate point. The rest of this is fallout from that.
April 6, 2019 @ 7:52 am
Last I checked, Bing Crosby was an easy listening singer and crooner. Not a country great. Shane Morris is definitely slanting facts.