The song became so popular online it reached number 19 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart before being disqualified because the magazine decided the song did not actually fit the genre. Importantly, if anyone streamed or bought a digital copy of the track, it added to the position of “Old Town Road” in the platform’s country charts. In fact, “Old Town Road” remains the most popular country music song on SoundCloud. These tags can help musicians connect with users who are interested in discovering the latest tunes in a particular genre. When Lil Nas X uploaded the original track to SoundCloud, he selected “country” from the list of genres available in the drop-down menu.
We will return to the western genre in our analysis of the video’s narrative and representation, but it might be more appropriate to begin with a look at the controversy surrounding the song’s classification and then consider the broader definitions of music video categories.
“Old Town Road” repeats well-worn genre tropes, but Lil Nas X plays with the conventions to create his own vision.
Inevitably, the narrative ended with a duel between quick-drawing gunslingers – a battle between good and evil.Īudiences also expect certain technical codes: slow cuts between dramatic long shots and close ups of intense stares, high-key lighting of exterior shots, and guitar strings punctuating the scenes. Armed with revolvers and wearing their Stetson hats, the protagonists often connoted social order and power over nature. Genres are specific combinations of codes being reused and reworked into lots of films.įor example, westerns normally follow the stories of drifters, cowboys, and outlaws struggling to survive in the desolate and cruel deserts of America’s “Wild West” in the 19 th century. Filmmakers are able to encode messages through the “interplay” of dialogue, gestures, costumes, sets, lighting techniques, camera shots and movement, non-diegetic sound, editing, and many other important elements. Steve Neale (1980) believed films were “signifying processes” full of “meanings and positions”. Video can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Lil Nas X – Old Town Road (Official Movie) ft.
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