Who Wrote ‘Old Town Road’?
Youāve heard it playing in the background of TikTok videos. Youāve seen Miley Cyrus dancing to it on Twitter. Youāve read Instagram captions of people who will āride ātil they canāt no more.ā Now, find out who, exactly, has the horses in the back and what was the inspiration for his viral song, āOld Town Road.ā
Lil Nas Xās song, āOld Town Road,ā features a surprising country artist
The 20-year-old rapper and musician, Lil Nas X, first became famous
Pair the internetās meme king with country musician and Hannah Montana alumni, Billy Ray Cyrus, and youāve got a meme-worthy, horse-themed anthem. Within a few months, the remixed song climbed the country music charts and gained social media popularity. The two even joined Diplo during his set at the music festival, āStagecoach,ā according to Variety.
āOld Town Roadā is both a viral song and the center of country-music controversy
One of the reasons for āOld Town Roadāsā success is Lil Nas Xās audience. The rapper explained the reasoning behind his song in an interview with Rolling Stone.
āI knew the way I was going to have to push the song to get it to hit more peopleās ears,ā Lil Nas X said. āI run a meme type of account on Twitter; I know what my audience is looking for. So I put some potentially funny lines in there.ā
And hit peopleās ears it did. The āOld Town Roadā remix has over 200 million plays on Spotify and is the center of countless TikTok videos and Instagram captions.
The song didnāt initially enjoy success on the music charts, even though fans raced to YouTube to stream the song. On March 27, 2019, Billboard removed āOld Town Roadā from its Hot Country Songs chart. The reason for pulling this song, Billboard firmly claimed, was not racially motivated.
āWhen determining genres, a few factors are examined, but first and foremost is musical composition,ā representatives from Billboard told Rolling Stone. āWhile āOld Town Roadā incorporates references to country and cowboy imagery, it does not embrace enough elements of todayās country music to chart in its current version.ā
Noah Cyrus appeared at the premiere party
While Lil Nas X originally featured Billy Ray Cyrus on the āOld Town Roadā remix, he could not attend the premiere party. Instead, Billy Rayās daughter, Noah Cyrus joined Lil Nas X in launching his newest movie.
Think a music video, but ten times bigger. Lil Nas Xās āOld Town Roadā movie is currently the number one trending video on YouTube. This new movie pokes fun at old westerns, set to everyoneās favorite trap-country track.
According to the YouTube videoās description, the video features special guest appearances from Chris Rock, Haha Davis, Rico Nasty, Diplo, Jozzy, Young Kio, and Vince Staples.
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