I mean, it’s 2019 and we’re still asking white singers to wear blackface in Aida.Ī post shared by Maria Jose Siri on at 2:01pm PDTīut with “Old Town Road,” Lil Nas X manages to reference multiple subcultures at once, even satirize them, without ringing the cultural appropriation alarm bells. Even so, musicians are beginning to ask questions about whether or not the inherent colonial biases of these works have a place in an increasingly global world. The “exoticized” works that these composers produced have been historically revered for their beauty and maintain a significant place in the canon. Some of the worst appropriators are composers whose work we are still performing again and again: Debussy, Puccini, Verdi, and others. Standing in one musical tradition, they’ve reached across oceans to “borrow” elements from another tradition, translating these elements into their own language-i.e Western language-with a romanticized, exoticized twist that renders the borrowed tradition almost unrecognizable. For centuries, composers have reinterpreted the music of other cultures. In fact, they revel in the boldness of genre-bending.īorrowing from other traditions is something classical music listeners will recognize. Yet audiences clearly aren’t put off by the way “Old Town Road” reaches across subculture to create something new. Up until a few months ago, that any kind of crossover could achieve mainstream success would have been difficult to imagine. Each comes with their own expectations: Rural vs Urban, White vs Black, Patriotic vs Political, all false dichotomies perpetuated by the music industry. Many view country and hip hop as diametrically opposed. And yes, before “Old Town Road,” Lil Nas X described himself as a rapper, not a country artist. Yes, the song also has elements of hip hop and has managed to find a home in that genre as well.

While Lil Nas X has described the song as “country trap,” every bar oozes with Americana sentimentality, exactly what 21st-century country music has been trying to capture for decades now. The song by Lil Nas X has been at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart for a record-breaking 20 weeks, after it was removed from the country charts for “not embracing enough elements of today’s country music.”

As classical music continues to wrestle with its own place in an increasingly diverse world, I think there is a lesson to be learned from “Old Town Road” about how to reference other cultures without appropriating. It’s unusual, but nothing about “Old Town Road” is usual. Coming from the classical music and opera world, I can’t say very often that a popular hit has smashed through my blinders and made me reconsider everything I understand about music and genre.

Nas hate me now classical music