Wherever Lil Nas X goes, controversy and conversation follow. God, remember 2019? I'd say that was the last year I remember the world being relatively sane, but the world's always been crazy and chaotic. In 2019, Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" hit the airwaves, and everyone listened. Trust me, you listened -- it was only playing on every single radio station, almost transcending genre!
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However, some members of the general public seemed to believe the artist didn't belong in the country space. An online war broke out over "Old Town Road" being "country enough" for the genre. As a matter of fact, Billboard removed the song from its Hot Country Songs chart. Billboard told Rolling Stone the following.
"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."
"It does not embrace enough elements of today's country music." Hmm. I wonder what factors could knock Lil Nas X out of consideration? Ah, I guess we'll never know! There was a time, unfortunately, when all the negative attention convinced Lil Nas X that "Old Town Road" wasn't good enough.
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It would seem, however, that the eccentric musician has come around on "Old Town Road," as he should! It's a great song!
Lil Nas X Hated "Old Town Road" For A Long Time
"Don't think for a second that this isn't one of the most influential pieces of popular music of this century," one TikTok user says. It's hard to argue with that, especially if we're going by the number of times the song was played on the radio!
"Old town road brought me into your life the music you've made after just beautiful this song was never cringe love never!"
I wonder if "cringe" will ever itself be cringe to use? A true Ouroboros situation if you ask me!
