The sociology of country music lyrics

WITH ITS lilting banjo, cowboy theme and lyrics like “Ridin’ on a tractor” and “Wrangler on my booty”, not to mention an extremely catchy refrain, Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” should be a country-music hit. Yet it was kicked off the Billboard country-music chart for not embracing “enough elements of today’s country music”. Billboard later told Rolling Stone magazine that its decision to take the song off the chart “had nothing to do with the race of the artist”. Lil Nas X, the 20-year-old African-American who blended hip-hop, rock and country in his earworm of a song, does not look like the typical country star. Those tend to be white, and most are male.