Any follower of country music knows that change comes slowly to Nashville. But Sunday's ACM Awards should have been the place to continue a conversation about who belongs in the genre, writes mikaelwood.
Jason Aldean, center, performs with Florida Georgia Line during Sunday's ACM Awards in Las Vegas.
Surely the event, broadcast live on CBS from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, had its opening number locked by the middle of last week. But that was before “Old Town Road”So what better way to air out the issues — and draw a few million eyeballs — than to scrap whatever had been planned and put Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus onstage for the first time to do their viral smash instead?
Which means that the ACM’s annual awards show was absolutely the place to continue the conversation “Old Town Road” started — or restarted — about who belongs in country music.” is a country-trap song by the 19-year-old Atlanta rapper Lil Nas X. It has a sampled banjo lick and lyrics about horses and boots; it also has a hypnotic beat out of hip-hop.
But the racial and cultural implications run deeper, of course; they weren’t going to be settled in five minutes at the ACM Awards.
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