Background and historical contexts
Read this Vox feature and podcast transcript on Lil Nas X and Old Town Road. Make sure you read the whole thing - including the podcast transcript - then answer the following questions:
1) What is the big debate regarding Old Town Road and genre?
The debate was, if the song was considered country or not.
2) What do you learn about the background of Lil Nas X and Old Town Road from the podcast transcript?
He started out on sound cloud as a small music producer, after that he went out and bought the musci sample for Old Town road and then released it on Tik Tok, at the time people heavily used Tik tok and his song gained attention, as a result lots of people started using it and then he decided to make the full song.
3) What is the Yeehaw agenda?
It was what criterias must be met in order for it to pass to become a western cowboy genre
4) How did the story become a debate about race in America?
Because the "Yee Haw Agenda" had made it so that country songs were more traditional and how that mostly white people had made country songs instead of black people.
5) How does Charlie Harding sum up the whole thing in the final part of the podcast transcript?
He says said that how something that initially sprung out from a meme had caused such debates and events to happen such as deciding if the song was considered country or not. And how all of the stereotypes that come with country music.
Now read this Salon feature on Lil Nas X and LGBTQ+ identity. Answer the following questions:
1) How did Lil Nas X announce his sexuality on social media?
Lil Nas X had come out on by announcing his sexuality on twitter.
2) Why does the article describe Old Town Road as 'genre-blurring'?
The debate whether the song was to be considered country had made it so that it seemed to be "genre-blurring"
3) How has country music demonstrated the social change taking place in American culture and society?
We can see this as in 2014 Herdon had become the first male country music star to ever come out.
Old Town Road textual analysis
Watch the video again and answer the following questions. Use your notes from our in-class analysis to help you:
1) How is the narrative features used in the music video? Apply narrative theory here.
We can use Todorov's equilibrium theory and how the in the music video there is a story, we can see that in the opening that Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus is escaping on horses from the sheriff and once they are clear, we can see how they want to rest up, the disequilibrium is when Lil Nas X gets shot at by the land owner and how he crawls into a hole into the "present day" Old Town Road and how he is now in a place he does not know. The new equilibrium could be that when they go to the bingo game they start to socialse with the elder people and how they at the end Lil Nas and Billy fit in with the crowd.
2) What examples of genre conventions and intertextuality can you find in the video?
All of the Costume and props such as the money bag, horses and cowboy hats are give the connotations of a western genre. We also have things such as the cars brands in the modern section being mentioned and some other brands in them.
3) How are technical codes used to create meanings in the video? Analyse camerawork, editing and mise-en-scene and make specific reference to moments in the video.
In terms of editing we can see how the opening shot has a traditional cowboy movie opening of the black bars opening up slowly to reveal the scene.
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4) How are representations of race and ethnicity constructed in the video?
We can see that the in the beginning of the music video we can see that the sheriffs are black which will subvert the general stereotype of law in cowboy movies as they are usually white men, we can also see that the land owner is a white man with a gun which is another generic stereotype in the cowboy genre.
When Lil Nas goes into the hole we can see that he lands in the modern day world in which the neighbourhood is full of black people living "The American dream" with the white Pickett fences and fancy cars being fixed, this would usually be suberted stereotype as mainly white people area pictured to have these kind of settings.
When Lil Nas is at the bingo game we can see that he gets along with the elderly white people in which subverts the stereotype of old white people having a more traditional view in which people would deem racist.
5) What other representations can you find in the video? You may wish to comment on gender, sexuality or America/American culture.
In terms of American culture the entire genre of western and cowboys is the main theme and a big part of American culture and history.
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