The Official Country Music Thread Genre • Page 82

Yep! And also just completely misrepresented the facts by saying Lil Nas X topped the country charts, which he did not. AND had the audacity to compare that song to Ray Charles, which is fucking insane.

I would have a lot more patience for this whole thing if most of the people/publications jumping on it took any time to give exposure to any of the many talented black artists in country music that are making...something that actually resembles country music. But most of them just saw controversy and decided to pile on.

 

This whole album is great.

 

Yeah, I was really blown away.

 

This Emily Scott Robinson cd has really grown on me, been listening to it a lot this week.

 

Not exactly country, but the new Tyler Ramsey album For The Morning is very good. Very mellow and chill and relaxing, but that is the main kind of music I've been listening to lately.

Also, I've been enjoying a slimmed down, 10-track version of Ryan Bingham's latest album American Love Story. The whole thing was too all over the place and unwieldy and not quite good enough to sustain it's length, but there are some damn good songs on it.

 

Jesus Christ I cannot wait for the Extremely Stupid Saga of the Very Bad Song to be over already.

Like imagine thinking he did this because he wanted to take a stand of some kind, rather than just jumping at a chance to be relevant for the first time in 30 years.

It’s also extremely funny that people think this gives nas x credibility or clout with country radio, like Billy Ray Cyrus isn’t some one-hit wonder who’s one hit was a tacky novelty song that was only popular with people who thought George Strait was too spicy and who’s last two albums sold like 1,000 copies combined.

Everything is very very dumb.

 

This thread is having very different reactions to all this than the hip hop thread lol

 

I grew up hearing country music everywhere and enjoy enough of it myself. I like "Horses In The Back". I can understand why country fans who already struggle with people not taking the genre seriously might not be amused by it.

 

Gotta hand it to the guy: he played this entire thing fucking beautifully. He’s going to ride a nothing song and a wave of controversy to the top of the Hot 100, regardless of whether Billboard decides to let this version chart country. He never needs to engage with the genre again—I seriously doubt he will—and he’s going to get a record deal and be one of the big names in pop for 2019. A masterclass of viral marketing.

I still don’t like the song, and I think it’s incredible that the country critics who are advocating for it are the same people that otherwise argue (rightfully) for playing more female artists and getting misogynistic songs off the country charts. And, well:

Ridin' on a tractor
Lean all in my bladder
Cheated on my baby
You can go and ask her
My life is a movie
Bull ridin' and boobies
Cowboy hat from Gucci
Wrangler on my booty

I think I’d have more patience for this if all the publications picking up the story made any attempt to reckon with the genre at large, or with how important country radio still is as a gamehanging force, or how giving this (pop) song and (pop) songs like it limelight is going to affect the chances of struggling young artists who are living in Nashville and trying to make ends meet while barely keeping their careers afloat. But pubs like Pitchfork and Vox will move on when this whole thing has blown over, and will still not write about the genre, and won’t do anything to help drive attention to how fucked up country radio is or to any of the artists who deserve a shot.

I think that’s ultimately what people who don’t actually listen to country music don’t understand about this story, because streaming is king everywhere else and radio doesn’t matter as much anymore. Radio is still the kingmaker in country. If you get a record deal and release an EP and don’t chart a single, you are never making a full-length. Full stop. Letting artists like Bebe Rehxa and Lil Nas X, whose songs clearly fall into other genres, use the country chart as a tool to get on the pop charts is fucked up, to me.

 

I'd maybe be more on board with this if mainstream country wouldn't co-opt R&B and hip hop in order to climb the charts all while still being semi-hostile towards those genres whenever the situation asks for it (generalisation, I know)

 

also that song is hard ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

On that, we agree. But I don't think the solution to that kind of thing is to allow anything on the country charts. I think it's to say "Okay, this Sam Hunt guy is clearly making pop music" and drawing a line somewhere that makes sense. I'm generally annoyed by genre classifications, but in this case, I think you either need some criteria or you need to get rid of genre charts altogether. I don't think anyone wants Jason Aldean on the rap charts.

 

The problem I have with the "no genres" conversation is not that I don't understand or fully disagree with the reasoning behind the idea, but that it would also mean that genres largely owned by minorities (which is not meant to discredit the role of other participants) would be taken away from them and integrated into this larger thing that did not make room for them in the first place, and I don't think that's right.

 

And I’d love for this song to pave the way for more minorities in country music. That conversation definitely needs to be had, even though I don’t think having a pop song by a rapper on the country charts is the way to have it. My feeling is that Lil Nas X being popular is not going to make it so that Nashville labels finally let Mickey Guyton make a full-length, or turn Yola into a chart-topper, or help Jimmie Allen have the kind of successful run of singles that Luke Combs has had. I worry it will further dilute what mainstream country is, to the point where country radio is even more detrimental to quality songwriting and talented artists than it already is. I could be wrong.

 

Also, it's a beautiful irony that the guy who might get this song back on the country charts is Billy Ray Cyrus. Because, well...

It Might Blow Up, and It Will Go Pop

 

I don't think Lil Nas X really cares about his song charting on the country charts. He released a joke song on YouTube and it became a really popular meme. Other people are making the controversy for him and he's just riding the wave and having fun because it's a ridiculous thing to happen to someone. I support him having a fun time with his 15 minutes. What the media does with it is one thing but I don't see any point in being mad at Lil Nas X and acting like any of what has happened surrounding "Horses In The Back" is intentional.

 

Exactly this. It’s a fun song and not hurting anyone, and it’s certainly not like he intended for all of this to happen.

 

I mean, he slotted it as a country song. That’s why it charted in the first place, because that’s how the metadata was entered on iTunes and Spotify. The media definitely took it and ran with it, but part of the intention was absolutely to target a chart where he’d have a better chance of making a splash.

 

If you’d ask me I’d say it’s a rap song, but I can certainly hear why some would call it country, especially the remix. I also understand why some country radio stations would play it. Like is Nelly’s “Over and Over” country? A lot of people certainly said so. Within hip hop people have also used to term country when talking about some UGK stuff and so on. Some lf course use the term “country-rap” for exactly these cases. Anyway, I think this is only going to become more common, so people should get used to it and Billboard should adjust. The “not enough modern country trappings” is dumb no matter how you slice it because it demands stagnation.

 

I think him slotting it as country is part of the joke in the first place though. I know that charts are important for country, but you're taking the song far more seriously than the creator ever did. It's a song that samples Red Dead Redemption 2 from a guy who otherwise makes pretty standard rap songs. His YouTube icon is a sad emoji with a cowboy hat. It's not that deep.

 

A dude I used to work with who was a complete scumbag (literally had "Lowlife" tattooed on his arm) used to play really shitty redneck country/rap in the kitchen and it was the worst music that I've ever heard to this day.

 

I think you're making assumptions that aren't necessarily accurate. This was his response to being removed from the charts:

 

Well, yeah, but it’s not all like that lmao

 

That's the bit.