Is "Old Town Road" a country song?

[Sambalada]

So this is an interesting topic. There has been many arguments flying around that OTR is a new sound of country trap and Billboard removing it from the Country chart is a racist move. But the majority of regular country listeners are in agreement that this song doesn't belong in country radio/charts. Which comes to the question, is it only considered a country song by people who doesn't listen to Country? Does it deserve to be played on Country radio? Share your thoughts on this poll!

[Sambalada]

Personally, I can't see how this is a country song. Yes there are elements of Country but for me it's just a trap song that spiced up by banjo strings. It's like calling "Just Like Fire" by P!nk is a rap song just because she raps in the bridge, and letting it chart on the Hot Rap songs chart for that sole reason. And the argument that OTR is country because it is labeled so on iTunes and other services is irrelevant, because even Lil Nas's executive have confirmed that it was purely strategical commercial move.

And then there were the racist argument. Billboard have had black singers having hits on the country charts multiple times before so the "racist" backlash is invalid. If anything, it's "anti-trap bias" and not "racist", but then again this song is not even country to begin with.

[Kanenrá:ke]

Apr 10, 2019 9:16:02 GMT -5 Sambalada said:

Personally, I can't see how this is a country song. Yes there are elements of Country but for me it's just a trap song that spiced up by banjo strings. It's like calling "Just Like Fire" by P!nk is a rap song just because she raps in the bridge, and letting it chart on the Hot Rap songs chart for that sole reason. And the argument that OTR is country because it is labeled so on iTunes and other services is irrelevant, because even Lil Nas's executive have confirmed that it was purely strategical commercial move.

And then there were the racist argument. Billboard have had black singers having hits on the country charts multiple times before so the "racist" backlash is invalid. If anything, it's "anti-trap bias" and not "racist", but then again this song is not even country to begin with.

I co-sign this!

[recordyear]

Just like NF's Let You Down charted in Hot Christian Song for 4 weeks before being removed from that chart (despite not sent to Christian radio I think?), while continued to chart in Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs for some more weeks, will anyone say it is a Christian song now? Or a Christian-hip-hop crossover?
Also, down to the fundamental of the song, "cheated on my baby" line is so obvious copied and pasted from these bragging in trap songs. Given the chivalry nature of cowboys, don't you think discovering someone cheating on them is more similar to the narrative for these types of songs?
I hope no one is classifying the sampled song (Nine Inch Nail's 34 Ghosts IV) as country just because it has banjo, as well.
If you followed the interviewS (Idk why this song has so many interviews to begin with) about this song that well, you will see the producer claims this song is country just because of Lil Nas X's accent. Tbh it is the same that some people say "modern country radio music is just pop music with southern accent".
And it is the funniest out of this mess that some magazines (RS, obviously) start pushing the Yeehaw narrative that concerns black cowboys, where in reality, this song is just a meme associated with a challenge. It has no fundamental difference to Mason Ramsey last year, for which a website (SCM) claimed it blew up because "it awakened the love and memories for what country music once was in the hearts of millions"...LOL

[Linnethia Monique]

Better yet, what makes a country song a "country" song?

[Kanenrá:ke]

Apr 10, 2019 10:12:08 GMT -5 Linnethia Monique said:

Better yet, what makes a country song a "country" song?

"Country music often consists of ballads and dance tunes with generally simple forms, folk lyrics, and harmonies mostly accompanied by string instruments such as banjos, electric and acoustic guitars, steel guitars (such as pedal steels and dobros), and fiddles as well as harmonicas."

That's from Wikipedia and I support that definition though there's obviously more nuance to it than that obviously.

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

Each genre has elements and qualities about them that make them distinct from each other, so it’s when different elements are combined that it creates either something new, or something that overlaps. I once saw a graph/grid that laid out all the different genres and sub genres, many of which had overlap or connecting/similar attributes and hip-hop and country are obviously far apart because of how little they have in common. Hip-hop can have guitar and other string instruments but how they are used don’t align with how they would sound in a country song. But then there are some elements from both genres that can be used across other styles of music. You can rap over anything with a tempo, for example, or you can add a fiddle and slide guitar over any type of beat.

So the question here is, at what point does a song leave the realm of country’s boundaries and limits for it to no longer be a country song? If you took any country song and gradually removed or added elements, what changes would need to take place for it to no longer be a country song?

I’ve heard songs that were labeled country and the only thing that jumped out at me to make them country was the vocal stylings (twangy singer). I’ve heard songs that weren’t country that had elements of what I consider to be country music qualities (much of Jewel’s This Way album). Kid Rock’s Only God Knows Why - is it a country song? If you removed the vocoder from his vocals, would that make it a done deal? Why or why not? What makes Rainbow by Kacey Musgraves a country song but not Do You Remember by Adele, for example.

I think if you’re exploring this particular song, it helps to look at a bigger picture.

[.indulgecountry]

Not even a little. Slapping a banjo onto the production (and it's still mostly buried under the trap beat anyway) and recruiting Billy Ray Cyrus to put his country bumpkin voice on part of it doesn't make it a country song. It's basically been confirmed this was labeled as country just as an attention-grabber not because the song actually is (which it isn't).

[mrmike855]

No it isn't. If the banjo melody was there throughout the whole song, then you could kind of argue it was a country song. Instead, the banjo basically disappears after the intro and the rest of the song has a standard trap beat. It sort of reminds of how Party Like a Rockstar is just an average rap song, but it has some looping guitar in it, but I don't think very many people would call it a rock song. At best you could say it was a rap country song, emphasis on the "rap" being more prominent than country. 

[jenglisbe]

Is it a country song in and of itself? No. Having said that, there are plenty of songs on country radio that don't have any/many elements of traditional country, so I don't know why "OTR" should be singled out. A banjo is a traditionally country instrument, and you can argue the lyric is traditionally country, too. So, it has those elements going for it.

[jenglisbe]

Apr 10, 2019 10:21:11 GMT -5 Kanenrá:ke said:

Apr 10, 2019 10:12:08 GMT -5 Linnethia Monique said:

Better yet, what makes a country song a "country" song?

"Country music often consists of ballads and dance tunes with generally simple forms, folk lyrics, and harmonies mostly accompanied by string instruments such as banjos, electric and acoustic guitars, steel guitars (such as pedal steels and dobros), and fiddles as well as harmonicas."

That's from Wikipedia and I support that definition though there's obviously more nuance to it than that obviously.

I'd argue electric guitars are more associated with rock than country, though a lot of current "country" music is essentially 80s rock music so...

[kcdawg13]

Yes

[Kanenrá:ke]

Apr 10, 2019 20:55:57 GMT -5 jenglisbe said:

Is it a country song in and of itself? No. Having said that, there are plenty of songs on country radio that don't have any/many elements of traditional country, so I don't know why "OTR" should be singled out. A banjo is a traditionally country instrument, and you can argue the lyric is traditionally country, too. So, it has those elements going for it.

Yes banjo is traditionally and typically used in Country, but having one does not make a song Country. One example I can think of where it was prominently used outside the genre was on Nelly Furtado's 'Folklore' album. None of the songs on that album are country but she incorporated banjo's into the musical arrangements.

There's also a way to play instruments in certain genres of music, this song contains none of the country style of playing. It barely sounds like they're playing more than one note on the banjo.

It's also not traditionally country lyrically, the phrasing isn't anywhere close, and I'm not talking about his accent.

Also yes there's tons of songs in country radio/charts that aren't traditional. Most however to have connections to the genre, and the ones that don't I readily admit shouldn't be charting there either. A current example is Maren Morris' "Girl". I love it but really it's not country in the slightest. She's got country on her album but the title track isn't one of them.

But since this thread is about wether or not the song is country the answer is no. It's a rap song that takes a western theme. If every song that mentions cowboys or other western related imagery was going to be considered country we may as well add Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead Or Alive" to the list, or Will Smith's "Wild Wild West".

I'm fully open to hearing someone actually mix the genres, I'd love it actually. This again is not that, as confirmed by his manager, it's was just a marketing ploy.

If you want a great mix up of genre's go listen to Priscilla Renea's amazing album from last year 'Coloured', that was a perfect example of someone actually taking influences from both genres. (In 'Coloured's case it's R&B & Country not rap.)