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Old Town Road

T

TheBigA

Very few country singers have had the experience of having a huge hit at the start of their career, and then have another monster 26 years later. That happened to David Lee Murphy last year, and it's happening to Billy Ray Cyrus this year. I'd say that Old Town Road is a bigger hit now than Achy Breaky was in 1992. It is reaching a completely new audience who don't know Billy as anything other than Miley's dad. But this song is incredible, and Sean Ross has written an article about it:

https://radioinsight.com/ross/177022/the-gyrations-of-billy-ray-cyrus/

If you've never heard this song, you owe it to yourself to just experience the video. And be sure to stick around for Chris Rock at the end.

https://youtu.be/w2Ov5jzm3j8

The video seems to draw on one of my favorite movies: Blazing Saddles

Is it country? I don't care. It's great.
 
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I'll take "Achy Breaky Heart" anytime. People hated it but it's my kind of country.

I liked Chris Rock at the beginning. Okay, I suppose the end was good too.
 
Has this song gotten ANY airtime on Country radio? I know there’s been a stink about this being removed from the Billboard Country chart, but I don’t see it anywhere on the Mediabase Country radio charts.

Correction: I found my answer. It peaked at #50. Do you think it’s a shame Country programmers aren’t playing it or is it just too out of place?
 
chrocket87 said:
Do you think it’s a shame Country programmers aren’t playing it or is it just too out of place?
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I think it's a shame because the country audience knows this song. However, there are some who feel the song makes fun of country, because the lyrics are sort of caricatures of the country culture. The other issue is the melody was sampled from a Trent Reznor. So it's one of those things.
 
chrocket87 said:
Has this song gotten ANY airtime on Country radio? I know there’s been a stink about this being removed from the Billboard Country chart, but I don’t see it anywhere on the Mediabase Country radio charts.

Correction: I found my answer. It peaked at #50. Do you think it’s a shame Country programmers aren’t playing it or is it just too out of place?
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Whether the rap is an issue or not, the instrumentals need some real work before this song gets any country airplay.

I think I'm remembering this correctly. There was an autistic child who responded to this song. It was a news story.
 
vchimpanzee said:
The mere presence of a banjo proves nothing. "Unwell" by matchbox 20 is more country and yet people won't call it country.
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You're the one who brought up instrumentation.

People can call things whatever they want. They can call hamburger "steak" if they want. It doesn't make it so.

If Waylon Jennings was singing on it instead of Billy Ray Cyrus, would that make it country?
 
TheBigA said:
You're the one who brought up instrumentation.

People can call things whatever they want. They can call hamburger "steak" if they want. It doesn't make it so.

If Waylon Jennings was singing on it instead of Billy Ray Cyrus, would that make it country?
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In a somewhat related area, I once heard that the only reason that Crystal Gayle was considered "country" was because she's Loretta Lynn's sister.
 
vchimpanzee said:
Who cares? I like her music.
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I do, too. Her late '70s work was excellent, especially songs like "Why Have You Left The One You Left Me For," "Ready For The Times To Get Better" and "The Blue Side" that didn't cross over to pop but didn't sound especially country either.
 
CTListener said:
I do, too. Her late '70s work was excellent, especially songs like "Why Have You Left The One You Left Me For," "Ready For The Times To Get Better" and "The Blue Side" that didn't cross over to pop but didn't sound especially country either.
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The songs were written by Nashville writers, recorded in a Nashville studio, using Nashville musicians. The same one who played on Eddie Rabbitt songs. Then again there are those who say he's not country either. Probably since he's originally from New Jersey.
 
TheBigA said:
The songs were written by Nashville writers, recorded in a Nashville studio, using Nashville musicians. The same one who played on Eddie Rabbitt songs. Then again there are those who say he's not country either. Probably since he's originally from New Jersey.
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Correct on all counts, although Rabbitt did have a few country-only hits that had a bit of twang to them -- fiddles and steel, to be precise. Those Nashville session musicians were a versatile bunch and could give a producer any kind of sound desired in any particular session. Check out the mid-'90s collection "The New Nashville Cats" and you'll hear amazing variety and virtuosity.

Crystal Gayle's producer for the albums containing the three songs I mentioned was Allen Reynolds, who was Garth Brooks' producer from day 1 and also produced people like Don Williams, Kathy Mattea and Hal Ketchum, all of whom have had big country chart hits that stressed clean-sounding acoustic guitars and piano rather than banjos, pedal steel, etc. The period from the mid-'70s through the mid-'90s saw the very definition of country music broaden to the point that you could hear records with strong bluegrass, honky tonk, folk, pop and rock influences being played on the same stations, along with the cheatin' and drinkin' songs traditionally associated with Nashville country music.
 
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