{"id":484,"date":"2019-09-20T18:16:33","date_gmt":"2019-09-20T12:46:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.flintzy.com\/blog\/?p=484"},"modified":"2025-02-04T13:23:50","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T07:53:50","slug":"how-lil-nas-xs-old-town-road-got-insanely-popular-overnight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flintzy.com\/blog\/how-lil-nas-xs-old-town-road-got-insanely-popular-overnight\/","title":{"rendered":"How Lil Nas X\u2019s Old Town Road Got Insanely Popular Overnight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lil Nas X\u2019s Old Town Road has stood its ground as the longest-running Billboard No 1 of all-time. And who would have thought that an artist who was unheard of, could surpass all odds and break this massive record! Lil Nas undoubtedly has some remarkable marketing secrets up his sleeve. Here\u2019s how this genre-defying hit blew up the internet and made critics reel in wonder.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>The song sparked racial controversy<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The music industry was skeptical of Old Town Road fitting into the country genre. Racial power struggle has always been a hot and sensitive topic. The slightest trigger can set off a wildfire of reactions and Lil Nas knew exactly where to poke the stick. In a country genre that is predominated by \u201cwhite cowboy stereotypes\u201d, this bold hybrid song weaves wild country imagery with hip-hop symbols. Old Town Road attempts to redefine country music and make it more racially inclusive.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Lil Nas X - Old Town Road (Official Movie) ft. Billy Ray Cyrus\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/w2Ov5jzm3j8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lil Nas maxed out on his social media strategy<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before releasing Old Town Road, Lil Nas made Facebook comedy videos and ran a meme Twitter account. He mastered the social media platforms to understand exactly what his audience wanted and go viral.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/media.giphy.com\/media\/pJjKzRqY9HwME\/giphy.gif\" width=\"802\" height=\"445\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lil Nas promoted memes and challenges to promote Old Town Road<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lil Nas created the \u201cYeehaw Agenda\u201d meme appropriating cowboy fashion. The memes were picked up by trollers and gained traction as the \u201cYeehaw Challenge\u201d. People posted funny videos of themselves transforming from their normal attire to a full-blown cowboy costume.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.giphy.com\/media\/elsXjrPbWA9nRJ8NUU\/source.gif\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Old Town Road leveraged TikTok\u2019s virality<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Old Town Road kickstarted virality on TikTok, an app predominantly used by teenagers to create short 15 second video renditions and memes of popular songs and movie clips. TikTok was growing in popularity when Old Town Road was released. The song is short, has simple beats and catchy loops &#8211; perfectly optimised for TikTok videos. In an age where vines and quick consumption videos are blowing up to meet the short attention span of today\u2019s Gen Z and Gen Alpha audience, it\u2019s becoming extremely important to specially optimise video formats to succeed on trending platforms.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Old Town Road (Tik Tok Compilation)\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LxwpKKK3P4s?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lil Nas chose a genre that has less competition<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lil Nas listed Old Town Road as a country record on SoundCloud and iTunes. The competition on the country charts was less when compared to rap songs that were taking over the world. So, Old Town Road immediately gained traction on the country charts and had more chances of going viral as a country record.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/media.giphy.com\/media\/1eEJXBPLkBoNdB0rzc\/giphy.gif\" width=\"811\" height=\"388\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Old Town Road was remixed featuring powerful influencers<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A remix of Old Town Road was released with country star Billy Ray Cyrus, rapper Young Thug and viral yodelling champ Mason Ramsey. These powerful influencers represented different genres Lil Nas wanted to tap into. This strategy attracted a massive audience base from the country, hip hop and yodelling genres.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Lil Nas X &amp; Billy Ray Cyrus feat. Young Thug &amp; Mason Ramsey - Old Town Road (Remix) [Lyric Video]\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/loSuMqwQA38?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lil Nas focused on a long term strategy<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Though it has been over a year since Old Town Road released, the song is still the talk of the town. Lil Nas released his music videos in succession to ensure the buzz didn\u2019t die out. He released Old Town Road independently in December 2018, following a remix with Billy Ray Cyrus in April 2019 and went on to release another remix with Young Thug and Mason Ramsey on July 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 640px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('video');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-484-1\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"https:\/\/media.giphy.com\/media\/l3gIXbk0VqqWlF1Riq\/source.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/media.giphy.com\/media\/l3gIXbk0VqqWlF1Riq\/source.mp4\">https:\/\/media.giphy.com\/media\/l3gIXbk0VqqWlF1Riq\/source.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lil Nas knows exactly how to play his cards right and win over his audience. We sure won\u2019t be surprised if he comes out with another jaw-rattling hit in the coming days.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Interested in getting your YouTube channel seen by a huge audience? Get started here: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flintzy.com\">www.flintzy.com<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>(Header image credit: Lil Nas X via<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BzWPf1LlI7p\/\"> Instagram)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lil Nas X\u2019s Old Town Road has stood its ground as the longest-running Billboard No 1 of all-time. And who would have thought that an&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":488,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"no","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[152],"tags":[457,459,460,454,446,449,447,450,448,455,461,453,451,452,456,458],"class_list":["post-484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-viral-influencers","tag-horses-in-the-back-meme","tag-how-lil-nas-x-blew-up","tag-how-lil-nas-x-old-town-road-blew-up","tag-how-old-town-road-blew-up","tag-lil-nas-x","tag-lil-nas-x-billy-ray-cyrus","tag-lil-nas-x-old-town-road","tag-lil-nas-x-old-town-road-reaction","tag-lil-nas-x-old-town-road-remix","tag-nas-x-old-town-road","tag-old-town-road","tag-old-town-road-billy-ray-cyrus","tag-old-town-road-lil-nas-x","tag-old-town-road-remix","tag-tik-tok-horse-in-the-back","tag-who-is-lil-nas-x"],"modified_by":"Flintzy","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flintzy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flintzy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flintzy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flintzy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flintzy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.flintzy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7731,"href":"https:\/\/www.flintzy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484\/revisions\/7731"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flintzy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flintzy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flintzy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flintzy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}