By now, you have probably all heard of Lil Nas X and the song, “Old Town Road” and the remix featuring Billy Ray Cyrus. What you may not know, is that it has been the subject of a great deal of controversy over the past two weeks.
It debuted on Billboards Country Music Charts, and was promptly taken off. The reasoning behind its removal being that the song was ‘not country enough.’ Some people agree, citing the fact that it has a hip hop beat, and rapping, things not often found in a country song. Others claim that this is racist, coded language being used for the erasure of African American voices in traditionally white spaces.
I certainly have my opinions on that line of thinking that I won’t get into. But regardless, this song, in my opinion is a country song, first and foremost.
One of the first arguments I hear daily against the song being country is that it doesn’t sound country. This is also where one of the biggest misconceptions about country music comes into play. Country music isn’t so much a genre, about fitting into a sound, as it is a tradition of music, whose roots are not in the sound of the guitar, but rather the imagery and feeling invoked.
Lil Nas X himself, in a great piece by Elias Leight of “Rolling Stone Magazine,” said “My parents were disappointed in me for leaving school to do music, so it was like a loner cowboy [song].”
This is, at least for me, what makes a country song, it is the throughline of lonesomeness that runs through all great country musicians work. From Guy Clarke’s “Instant Coffee Blues” to Merle Haggard’s “Mama Tried” to the lonesomest of the cowboys, Townes Van Zandt’s “Waiting Around to Die,” you can tell that country musicians aren’t always the happiest fellows.
However, Lil Nas X went on to say, “I changed the meaning so I thought that ‘Old Town Road’ would be that path where you just keep winning. The horse would be not having much, but having something that you know you could use to help you get there.”
This is a more optimistic path for the song to take, sure, but that is what is so great about country music. It’s the interplay between sadness, and happiness, or rather acceptance and contentment with the fact that you may not be so happy.
One of my favorite Townes Van Zandt lyrics, I think, perfectly encapsulates this. In the track “Sky Blue,” from the similarly titled album, Van Zandt sings, “To me, living’s/ to be laughing/ in satisfactions face.” It is matter of factly stating that you cannot ever truly be satisfied, so you’re just going to have to be satisfied with that fact.
It is this sentiment that shines not only through the lyrics of “Old Town Road” but also the artists statements about the song. And that’s what makes it country music.