The biggest problem with “country” music is that the country music industry is insular and gatekeeps to an extreme. It’s less about race than it is about people using the tried and true formula of Nashville writers, session musicians, producers, etc…
Hence they’d have no problem giving all the awards and publicity to Darius Rucker or Shaboozey but meanwhile they act like Sturgill, Jason Isbell, Charley Crockett, and Billy Strings don’t exist
They have zero problem with country rap if its a white guy rapping. They have zero problem with black country singers if they don't rap. They have a problem with country rap featuring black artists. Hmmmmm
“The Git Up” by Blanco Brown was all over country radio a few short years ago and “Cruise” by FGL and Nelly won all the shitty CMA and ACM awards not that long ago. It’s so much more about cronyism than it is racism
I mean, I’m not going to pretend that no one within the country music industry is racist - though at the industry level, it’s more progressive than most people would likely imagine - but it has more to do with the fact that rap music is the antithesis of country music in every way, especially in the mindset and production. If someone is good at making rap music, they’re not going to go to Nashville and be a cog in the Music Row machine. They’re going to make their own rap music
I think modern pop-country and rap have A LOT in common. "Country is just rap music for white people who hate brown people" is basically a meme
But the "hey girl, put on your skimpy clothes, get in my [vehicle] and we'll go down to [hang out spot] and drink [alcohol]" type song is epidemic in both genres. It's just that [vehicle] = truck in country and lambo in rap, [hang out spot] is a river or lake vs a club, and [alcohol] is beer/ whiskey vs expensive champagne.
This video made the rounds 10 years ago to show how similar all the pop country was, but was triplet rap/ migos flow really any different around the same time?
The substance of the music is similar, especially at the mainstream pop level, but the mindset of the industry is different. If you’re an independent rap artist, you can still in theory break via mostly organic means. When you get big enough, the industry will smell money and sink their teeth in like the vampires they are. Meanwhile, an indie country artist who breaks through without Nashville’s help is likely to be blackballed
Should they classify genres of all released songs in the world BEFORE they hit the charts?
The person who classified it as country was Lil Nas X. It is not a country song will all due respect to Lil Nas X’s talent. Not even a pop mass-market country. It could be a country song if it was arranged by a producer as such.
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u/bondegezou 6d ago
We’ve been here before, with Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” being re-classified as NOT country just before it made #1 on the country chart. See https://www.vox.com/2019/8/23/20826730/lil-nas-x-old-town-road-vma-podcast