Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: New Books in Biography & Memoir
Episode: Chris Molanphy, "Old Town Road" (Duke UP, 2023)
Description: In Old Town Road (Duke University Press, 2023), Chris Molanphy considers Lil Nas Xâs debut single as pop artifact, chart phenomenon, and cultural watershed. âOld Town Roadâ was more than a massive hit, with the most weeks at No. 1 in Billboard Hot 100 history. It is also a prism through which to track the evolution of popular music consumption and the ways race influences how the music industry categorizes songs and artists. By both lionizing and satirizing genre tropesâitâs a country song built from an alternative rock sample, a hip-hop song in which nobody raps, a comical song that transcend...