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[narrator] On December 2nd, 2018,
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an unknown musician tweeted
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"Country music is evolving."
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With a goofy video,
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it was a tease for a new song
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that he dropped
on SoundCloud the next day.
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And people loved it.
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-["Old Town Road" playing]
-Whoo!
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♪ Hat is matte black
Got the boots that's black to match ♪
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[narrator] Really loved it.
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♪ You can whip your Porsche ♪
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SoundCloud featured it
in their "Top 50 Country" playlist,
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and then a TikTok user
posted a video of himself dancing to it,
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transforming into more of a cowboy getup
when the beat dropped,
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inspiring millions of copycats.
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Soon after, the song debuted
on Billboard's "Hot Country Songs" chart,
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but then Billboard removed it.
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Why would the industry be so quick
to pull it from the charts
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when it was such a clear moneymaker?
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[narrator] Here's a clue.
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When country artist Cody Johnson
started playing the song at a show,
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this happened.
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♪ Gonna take my horse
Down to the old town road ♪
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[crowd booing]
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[narrator] In a statement
to Rolling Stone,
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Billboard explained that "Old Town Road"
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simply didn't embrace enough elements
of today's country music,
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sparking some confusion
about what today's country music is.
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Confusion that predates "Old Town Road."
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You used to be able to turn on the radio,
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and you knew instantly it was
a country station just by listening.
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Now you've got to leave it there
for a second to figure it out.
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Country music is gone.
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[laughs] I don't know who's making it,
but there might be like four people.
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[narrator] In fact, insiders have been
declaring country music dead for decades.
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And yet country music
seems to be stronger than ever.
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In the US, it has the biggest
radio audience of any music genre.
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And the fastest-growing
streaming audience too.
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So why are so many people up in arms
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about what constitutes country music?
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Who gets to be a country star?
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[crowd cheering]
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[man 1] It's easier to understand a nation
by listening to its music.
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[man 2] The country music
of our pioneer ancestors.
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It is the music of the heart of America,
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and the base
of American musical tradition.
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It talks about family.
It talks about religion.
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Country music is popular internationally.
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Japan, for instance, has artists
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who will even appear in a cowboy uniform.
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[man 3] The people in the larger cities
are being invaded today by country music.
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[Britton] Country music today
can be a lot of things,
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but experts agree…
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Country singers are storytellers.
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Country music
is really about storytelling.
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I'd have to say
that mostly I'm drawn to the stories.
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[Britton] For decades,
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a show filmed
at Nashville's Grand Ole Opry…
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[announcer] The Grand Ole Opry.
Live, just as it happens.
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[Britton] …beamed these stories
into America's living rooms.
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[inaudible]
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Stories about pride and where you're from.
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♪ I'm proud to be a ♪
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♪ Coal miner's daughter ♪
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[Britton] And the importance of family.
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♪ My coat of many colors ♪
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♪ Momma made for me ♪
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[Britton] And hard times.
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♪ He stopped loving her today ♪
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That's what I love about country music.
It's down in the ditch,
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you know, of human emotion.
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There's a strong sense of history
running through country music.
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Of paying attention
to what has come before.
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[Britton] And that tradition
goes way back,
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to the European immigrants
who settled in the foothills of Appalachia
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and brought ballads with them.
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♪ Are you and I? ♪
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[Britton] Religious ballads.
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[all singing]
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[Britton] Murder ballads.
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♪ For mercy she did cry ♪
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[Britton] And they also brought
the fiddle.
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[playing "Oh! Susanna"]
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Country music was shaped by the folk music
of a lot of other countries too.
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German immigrants brought the waltz.
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["The Blue Danube" playing]
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And the French, cotillion.
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[upbeat music playing]
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Which became square dancing.
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Mexican vaqueros, the original cowboys,
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introduced their American counterparts
to mariachi.
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Alpine singing groups
spread the art of the yodel.
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And Black musicians brought the blues.
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[man singing]
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[Britton] Back in the early days,
musicians twanged on fiddles and banjos,
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and carried this blend of sounds around
the South in traveling minstrel shows.
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[man] White performers would put on
blackface makeup
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and adopt an incredibly
caricatured presentation,
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in which they were mimicking
and trying to approximate
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some version of what Blackness
was supposed to be.
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[Britton] You can hear that
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in Emmett Miller's rendition
of "Lovesick Blues."
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He starts by parodying Black speech.
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[Miller] ♪ I got the blues
That's what's the matter with me ♪
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[Britton] And mixes his take on the blues…
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♪ I got a feeling called the blue-hoos ♪
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[Britton] …with a kind of Alpine yodel.
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These different sounds
had been melding for a long time
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when the commercial music industry
took off in the 1920s,
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and music needed to be branded to sell it.
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[Hughes] Two kinds of music emerge.
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Country music, or what was
then known as hillbilly music.
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[Britton] Hillbilly, as in
from those Appalachian foothills,
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which was later broadened
to country and western.
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[Hughes] And race music or race records.
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[Britton] As in anything
by a Black musician,
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which was later rebranded
as rhythm & blues.
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[Hughes] These were designed
to be marketed
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towards racially-specific audiences.
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[Britton] And over time,
the sounds became more distinct too.
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Black musicians started
experimenting with more drums
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and rocking beats.
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And country split into its own subgenres.
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Bluegrass, which took its name
from Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys,
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sounded a lot like those old string bands.
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♪ Blue moon of Kentucky, keep on shining ♪
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[Britton] Then came honky-tonk,
which had a stronger rhythm.
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You might recognize this cover.
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♪ I got a feeling called the blues ♪
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♪ Lord, I don't know what I'll do ♪
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[Britton] Hank Williams was called
"The Hillbilly Shakespeare."
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He brought a more modern style
to the Grand Ole Opry,
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singing lyrics with a sexy edge.
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♪ Hey, good lookin' ♪
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♪ What you got cookin'? ♪
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[Britton] But you couldn't push
the boundaries too far.
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The image the Opry projected
of country in the '50s
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was wholesome.
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Nostalgic.
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[man] It is the music
of the heart of America.
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[Britton] Drums were even banned.
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But then,
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country started to rock.
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♪ I said, blue moon of Kentucky ♪
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♪ Keep on shining ♪
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♪ Shine on the one that's gone ♪
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♪ And left me blue ♪
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[Britton] Elvis sang country songs,
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but with a beat
borrowed from rhythm & blues.
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The style was later dubbed rockabilly,
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as in rock meets hillbilly,
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and with influences
from lots of other artists,
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this eventually became rock and roll.
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The country industry tried to resist,
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forming the Country Music Association
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to save the imperiled genre.
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And creating the more modern
Nashville sound,
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with artists like Patsy Cline,
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whose voice helped define
a new kind of country singing.
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♪ I ♪
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♪ Fall to ♪
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♪ Pieces ♪
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[Britton] But then, a musician in Memphis
paid a visit to Elvis's producer.
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♪ I shot a man in Reno ♪
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♪ Just to watch him die ♪
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[Britton] Johnny Cash's
"Folsom Prison Blues"
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hearkened back to old murder ballads,
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but with the rhythm of a freight train.
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Johnny Cash was a folk hero,
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and country music was the music
of the folks, of the people.
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And Johnny Cash was a man of the people,
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with a poetic vision
and with a trillion-dollar voice.
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[Britton] And he paved the way
for other musicians
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who wanted to make country their own way.
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And some of them
recorded an album together.
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And then somebody stumbled onto,
"Let's call them The Outlaws."
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You know, ladies love outlaws.
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And, you know, bam!
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The first platinum country record
ever made.
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[Britton] But you could say
the marriage of rock and country
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was consummated by Garth Brooks.
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He summed up
his stadium rock style in one word
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in a TV interview.
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It's sex.
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[Britton] But the ways country had evolved
over the decades,
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becoming more rock and also more pop,
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came with a backlash.
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Like when Shania Twain
made country pop for the MTV age,
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combining twang and sex appeal.
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[Britton] Traditionalists hated it,
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but it brought new fans to the genre.
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And in the '90s, and the '80s,
and the '70s,
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and even before that,
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people would complain about
too much pop in country music.
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It's not a bug. It's a feature.
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[Britton] Some traditionalists
also bristled
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when pop star Olivia Newton-John
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took home country's top award.
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And the following year,
the presenter literally set fire
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to the name of the winner, John Denver,
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who was more of a folk musician.
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Folk, rock, and R&B
were the soundtrack of the protests
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against the Vietnam War
and for civil rights,
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while country was making
more anti-protest music.
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Our willingness to not only wear the flag,
but to stand up for the flag.
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And country music does that.
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[applause]
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[Britton] Like "Okie from Muskogee"
by country artist Merle Haggard.
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♪ We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee ♪
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[Britton] So John Denver didn't
exactly align with country's politics.
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But on his fifth studio album,
side two, track one,
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came something more expected
from a country singer.
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♪ Country roads ♪
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♪ Take me home ♪
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♪ To the place ♪
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♪ I belong ♪
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In the '70s, it was a real struggle
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for some people in Nashville
to accept John Denver.
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But, boy, the audience loved those songs.
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[Britton] But when a new subgenre
sprung up in the '80s,
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a blend of country and R&B
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with music videos
of artists in cowboy getups
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and rapping country themes…
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♪ Wild, wild West ♪
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[Britton]
…the country industry drew a line.
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But still the genre continued to thrive.
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♪ I figure that's enough time for me
To get the whole rundown ♪
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♪ Awnaw! Hell naw, man
Y'all done up and done it ♪
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♪ You never hear my lyrics
Over a bass guitar ♪
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♪ My horse is a car ♪
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[Britton] And in 2005,
the artist Cowboy Troy
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released a video featuring
screaming cowboy hat-wearing fans,
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and addressed the industry's
resistance to outsiders head on.
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♪ Too radical ♪
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♪ But I already been on the CMAs ♪
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♪ Hell, Tim McGraw
Said he liked the change ♪
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[Britton] But a lot
of country stations didn't.
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As one program director put it,
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"We don't think it fits our format.
We don't consider it country."
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When we talk about country music,
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I think it's important
to make certain distinctions.
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There's country music, the genre,
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and then there's also country music,
the format on radio.
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To get on the radio,
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it's a pretty narrow pipeline.
246
00:12:21,407 --> 00:12:27,037
And that's almost always
going to involve getting signed
247
00:12:27,121 --> 00:12:29,957
to a large record label,
almost always in Nashville.
248
00:12:30,499 --> 00:12:32,710
[Britton] Probably
after playing bars in town,
249
00:12:32,793 --> 00:12:35,087
or songwriting for other artists.
250
00:12:35,171 --> 00:12:37,923
And once you finally
cut an album of your own,
251
00:12:38,007 --> 00:12:41,343
you need the label to promote it
to country radio stations.
252
00:12:42,219 --> 00:12:45,097
There are more than 2,000 of them
around the US.
253
00:12:45,181 --> 00:12:47,016
[man 1] Country 102.5.
254
00:12:48,058 --> 00:12:49,268
[man 2] Echo Country 105.
255
00:12:49,351 --> 00:12:51,771
♪ Coffee, Country, and Cody ♪
256
00:12:52,354 --> 00:12:54,565
[Britton] If these DJs are
into your record,
257
00:12:54,648 --> 00:12:57,526
it'll rise on Billboard's
"Country Airplay" chart.
258
00:12:57,610 --> 00:12:59,153
And thanks to the promotion,
259
00:12:59,236 --> 00:13:02,948
your album might sell enough
to rise to the Billboard album chart too.
260
00:13:03,449 --> 00:13:05,618
If you wanna have a superstar career,
261
00:13:05,701 --> 00:13:09,538
if you want to have a long-lasting career,
262
00:13:09,622 --> 00:13:13,292
you go through radio
at least a little bit.
263
00:13:14,168 --> 00:13:17,671
[Britton] And that's put female artists
at a major disadvantage.
264
00:13:17,755 --> 00:13:22,426
In 2000, they got just 33%
of radio airplay.
265
00:13:22,510 --> 00:13:25,596
And then that number
actually started going down.
266
00:13:26,847 --> 00:13:30,059
In 2015, a radio consultant, Keith Hill,
267
00:13:30,142 --> 00:13:31,810
told a trade publication,
268
00:13:31,894 --> 00:13:36,232
"If you want to make ratings
in country radio, take females out."
269
00:13:36,315 --> 00:13:38,484
"They're just not the lettuce
in our salad."
270
00:13:38,567 --> 00:13:41,862
"The tomatoes of our salad
are the females."
271
00:13:41,946 --> 00:13:44,657
Which, of course,
proved incredibly offensive
272
00:13:44,740 --> 00:13:46,283
to many female artists.
273
00:13:46,367 --> 00:13:48,619
[Britton] It sparked an uproar
in the industry,
274
00:13:48,702 --> 00:13:50,663
dubbed "tomatogate."
275
00:13:50,746 --> 00:13:53,833
But the numbers since then
haven't really budged.
276
00:13:54,416 --> 00:13:58,379
In 2019, a group of female musicians
formed a country supergroup,
277
00:13:58,462 --> 00:14:02,258
"The Highwomen," in the hopes
of trying to break the logjam.
278
00:14:02,341 --> 00:14:04,718
And the next year, they won top group,
279
00:14:04,802 --> 00:14:06,136
top album,
280
00:14:06,220 --> 00:14:09,098
and "Crowded Table,"
a call for togetherness,
281
00:14:09,181 --> 00:14:10,683
also won top song.
282
00:14:11,225 --> 00:14:14,478
♪ I want a house ♪
283
00:14:14,562 --> 00:14:18,440
♪ With a crowded table ♪
284
00:14:18,524 --> 00:14:21,026
[Britton] Not at
the Country Music Awards, though.
285
00:14:21,110 --> 00:14:23,612
At the Americana Awards.
286
00:14:23,696 --> 00:14:25,781
Americana is a newish genre.
287
00:14:25,865 --> 00:14:28,492
Billboard added it
to their charts in 2016,
288
00:14:28,576 --> 00:14:31,120
featuring more acoustic
singer-songwriters,
289
00:14:31,203 --> 00:14:34,331
who you're more likely
to hear on alt-country radio.
290
00:14:34,415 --> 00:14:37,793
Even though, in many ways,
they sound closer to country's roots
291
00:14:37,877 --> 00:14:40,754
than what you hear today
on mainstream country stations.
292
00:14:40,838 --> 00:14:43,007
Because in the last decade,
293
00:14:43,090 --> 00:14:46,135
the sound on country radio
has changed again.
294
00:14:46,218 --> 00:14:48,429
In 2011, Jason Aldean
295
00:14:48,512 --> 00:14:51,473
put out a video for his song
"Dirt Road Anthem."
296
00:14:51,557 --> 00:14:55,060
It looks and sounds
pretty classic country.
297
00:14:55,144 --> 00:14:56,937
Dirt road, pickup truck.
298
00:14:57,021 --> 00:15:01,066
But then he leans against that truck
and basically starts rapping.
299
00:15:01,150 --> 00:15:03,527
♪ You better mind your business, man
Watch your mouth ♪
300
00:15:03,611 --> 00:15:06,030
♪ Before I have to knock
That loud mouth out ♪
301
00:15:06,113 --> 00:15:08,908
[Britton] And it topped
the country radio charts.
302
00:15:08,991 --> 00:15:11,619
And the videos
for other country hits since then
303
00:15:11,702 --> 00:15:15,080
look a lot like R&B and hip-hop videos
from the '90s.
304
00:15:15,164 --> 00:15:16,999
Low-angle camera shots,
305
00:15:17,082 --> 00:15:18,584
cruising in cars,
306
00:15:18,667 --> 00:15:20,753
girls in not much clothing.
307
00:15:20,836 --> 00:15:23,297
And some of the sounds are similar too.
308
00:15:23,380 --> 00:15:26,175
808 kick drum beats and snap tracks.
309
00:15:28,510 --> 00:15:31,096
♪ Lay on back and relax ♪
310
00:15:31,180 --> 00:15:34,141
♪ Kick your pretty feet up on my dash ♪
311
00:15:34,975 --> 00:15:36,727
[Britton] The streaming service Pandora
312
00:15:36,810 --> 00:15:39,146
did an analysis of how much other genres
313
00:15:39,229 --> 00:15:41,857
were influencing the top country songs,
314
00:15:41,940 --> 00:15:44,610
and found the influence of rock on country
315
00:15:44,693 --> 00:15:48,072
had gone down from 2010 to 2018,
316
00:15:48,155 --> 00:15:51,283
while the influence of hip-hop
had gone way up.
317
00:15:52,076 --> 00:15:56,121
Over the course of its history,
country music has been very, very good
318
00:15:56,205 --> 00:15:58,040
at incorporating Black music,
319
00:15:58,123 --> 00:16:00,459
but has not been very good at all
320
00:16:00,542 --> 00:16:02,628
at incorporating Black people.
321
00:16:02,711 --> 00:16:04,797
[Britton] In the commercial
country industry,
322
00:16:04,880 --> 00:16:10,969
artists of color make up
less than 4% of songs played on radio,
323
00:16:11,053 --> 00:16:13,514
and of artists signed to major labels.
324
00:16:14,056 --> 00:16:17,184
That was the world Lil Nas X landed in.
325
00:16:18,978 --> 00:16:22,106
"Old Town Road"
starts with a twangy banjo.
326
00:16:22,189 --> 00:16:25,234
[banjo strumming]
327
00:16:25,317 --> 00:16:27,736
And his lyrics hit on country themes.
328
00:16:27,820 --> 00:16:31,407
♪ Hat is matte black
Got the boots that's black to match ♪
329
00:16:31,490 --> 00:16:32,950
♪ Ridin' on a horse ♪
330
00:16:33,033 --> 00:16:35,703
[Britton] But it has a trap beat,
808s for the bass,
331
00:16:35,786 --> 00:16:37,538
and hi-hat flourishes.
332
00:16:37,621 --> 00:16:40,874
♪ Can't nobody tell me nothing ♪
333
00:16:40,958 --> 00:16:44,002
[Britton] Which was pretty new
for country, but not that new.
334
00:16:44,628 --> 00:16:49,174
So Billboard's decision to remove the song
started a conversation
335
00:16:49,258 --> 00:16:52,386
about race and discrimination
in country music.
336
00:16:52,469 --> 00:16:54,555
Some called it a reckoning.
337
00:16:55,139 --> 00:16:57,516
"Old Town Road" was a perfect example
338
00:16:57,599 --> 00:17:01,186
of the way that policing
the borders of country music
339
00:17:01,270 --> 00:17:03,230
is a stand-in
340
00:17:03,313 --> 00:17:06,650
for policing the borders around
a certain kind of American identity.
341
00:17:06,734 --> 00:17:09,695
[Britton] But on top of being
a queer Black musician,
342
00:17:09,778 --> 00:17:12,448
Lil Nas X also didn't play the game.
343
00:17:12,531 --> 00:17:15,951
In some ways, it sounded
very much like a country record,
344
00:17:16,034 --> 00:17:19,747
but it neither came from
nor really courted
345
00:17:19,830 --> 00:17:23,709
the historic, traditional
country music audience.
346
00:17:23,792 --> 00:17:27,880
And I think the mainstream
country music community
347
00:17:27,963 --> 00:17:30,591
recognized that pretty quickly.
348
00:17:30,674 --> 00:17:34,261
[Britton] But Lil Nas X
didn't even need the country chart.
349
00:17:34,344 --> 00:17:36,722
Thanks to Twitter,
and TikTok, and streaming,
350
00:17:36,805 --> 00:17:39,683
"Old Town Road"
was the number one song in America
351
00:17:39,767 --> 00:17:42,102
for a record-breaking 19 weeks.
352
00:17:42,728 --> 00:17:46,148
Streaming is a new way for any artist
to break into music, period.
353
00:17:46,231 --> 00:17:48,609
You just pick up your phone and voilà.
354
00:17:48,692 --> 00:17:50,986
Here's what's great.
Here's what's trending.
355
00:17:51,070 --> 00:17:53,697
The world makes that decision.
356
00:17:54,656 --> 00:17:57,576
[Britton] Blanco Brown has
a similar story to Lil Nas X.
357
00:17:57,659 --> 00:17:59,745
They both grew up in Atlanta, Georgia.
358
00:17:59,828 --> 00:18:02,706
I have several musical influences,
359
00:18:02,790 --> 00:18:05,751
from Aretha Franklin to George Strait,
360
00:18:05,834 --> 00:18:07,086
Outkast.
361
00:18:07,169 --> 00:18:08,879
The list goes on.
362
00:18:08,962 --> 00:18:11,965
[Britton] Fusing them into a sound
that he gave his own name.
363
00:18:12,466 --> 00:18:16,136
"TrailerTrap." It's trailer park music
meets trap music.
364
00:18:16,220 --> 00:18:19,056
I just bridged the gap
and I called it "TrailerTrap."
365
00:18:19,139 --> 00:18:21,850
It's country music with 808s,
a little flair.
366
00:18:21,934 --> 00:18:22,810
Prah!
367
00:18:22,893 --> 00:18:26,271
[Britton] Like his song "The Git Up,"
which was a line dance.
368
00:18:26,355 --> 00:18:27,898
In May 2019,
369
00:18:27,981 --> 00:18:30,609
two half brothers posted a video on TikTok
370
00:18:30,692 --> 00:18:34,029
of themselves doing a dance
of pure joy to that song.
371
00:18:34,613 --> 00:18:37,449
And it spread.
By summer, it had gone viral,
372
00:18:37,533 --> 00:18:40,452
just like "Old Town Road" had
a few months before.
373
00:18:41,245 --> 00:18:45,624
I mean, from two to 92, everybody
and their grandma did the dance.
374
00:18:45,707 --> 00:18:48,043
I've seen people go viral,
but I never felt it.
375
00:18:48,127 --> 00:18:51,964
[Britton] In his video,
he wore Nikes decked out with spurs,
376
00:18:52,047 --> 00:18:55,926
played a drum machine,
but also a lap steel guitar,
377
00:18:56,009 --> 00:18:58,554
and lead a diverse group in a line dance,
378
00:18:58,637 --> 00:19:02,349
with cameos from the TikTokers
who'd helped make his song a hit.
379
00:19:02,850 --> 00:19:05,769
♪ Go on and do the two-step
Then cowboy boogie ♪
380
00:19:05,853 --> 00:19:08,313
♪ Grab your sweetheart
And spin out with 'em ♪
381
00:19:08,397 --> 00:19:10,274
Blanco was very much interested
382
00:19:10,357 --> 00:19:14,111
in being part
of the country music community,
383
00:19:14,194 --> 00:19:18,448
in a way that I'm not sure
Lil Nas X ever wanted to be.
384
00:19:19,074 --> 00:19:21,827
[Britton] And in the end,
the song got enough radio play
385
00:19:21,910 --> 00:19:23,954
to crack the "Country Airplay" chart,
386
00:19:24,037 --> 00:19:25,539
although not that much.
387
00:19:26,373 --> 00:19:29,042
But the following year in 2020,
388
00:19:29,126 --> 00:19:31,920
this song hit number one on that chart.
389
00:19:32,504 --> 00:19:35,841
It starts with an old sample,
which is common for hip-hop songs,
390
00:19:35,924 --> 00:19:38,510
although this was
an old honky-tonk classic.
391
00:19:40,554 --> 00:19:42,181
And then it starts to warp.
392
00:19:42,973 --> 00:19:44,224
And the beat drops.
393
00:19:44,308 --> 00:19:46,310
♪ There stands the glass ♪
394
00:19:46,393 --> 00:19:47,394
[Britton] 808s.
395
00:19:47,477 --> 00:19:49,646
♪ That will ease all my pain ♪
396
00:19:50,355 --> 00:19:53,734
[Britton] Sam Hunt has been called
"The Drake of country,"
397
00:19:53,817 --> 00:19:56,195
and the guy
who brought hip-hop to the industry.
398
00:19:56,737 --> 00:19:59,448
Country and hip-hop, they too close.
399
00:19:59,531 --> 00:20:01,533
Like, it's telling stories.
400
00:20:01,617 --> 00:20:05,871
Some may be true, some may be false.
But it's getting the message across.
401
00:20:05,954 --> 00:20:08,165
That's the bigger take on it for me.
402
00:20:09,291 --> 00:20:12,461
[Britton] Rap and country do share
a lot of the same themes.
403
00:20:12,961 --> 00:20:15,088
Like pride in where you come from.
404
00:20:15,172 --> 00:20:17,049
-♪ Where you from ♪
-♪ Straight outta Compton ♪
405
00:20:17,132 --> 00:20:20,052
♪ We on the grind in Georgia
All the time ♪
406
00:20:20,135 --> 00:20:23,096
♪ Tell by my attitude
That I'm most definitely from ♪
407
00:20:23,180 --> 00:20:25,599
♪ New York ♪
408
00:20:25,682 --> 00:20:27,100
[Britton] Family values.
409
00:20:27,184 --> 00:20:29,061
♪ For my brothers with daughters ♪
410
00:20:29,144 --> 00:20:32,147
♪ Ain't a woman alive
That can take my mama's place ♪
411
00:20:32,231 --> 00:20:35,275
♪ What I wouldn't give for
One more hug from Grandma ♪
412
00:20:35,359 --> 00:20:36,568
[Britton] And hard times.
413
00:20:36,652 --> 00:20:38,820
♪ I'm tired of being poor
And even worse, I'm Black ♪
414
00:20:38,904 --> 00:20:41,698
♪ Was on my grind 'cause times was harder
Than the cellar floor ♪
415
00:20:41,782 --> 00:20:44,076
♪ The only thing on my mind ♪
416
00:20:44,159 --> 00:20:45,744
♪ I'm trying to keep on the lights ♪
417
00:20:45,827 --> 00:20:47,704
Country and R&B
418
00:20:47,788 --> 00:20:50,123
are really closely related, right?
419
00:20:50,207 --> 00:20:52,334
They're very closely related musically.
420
00:20:52,417 --> 00:20:55,379
[Britton] Rap was born out of the poverty
of northern cities…
421
00:20:55,462 --> 00:20:58,090
-[rapping]
-[beatboxing]
422
00:20:58,757 --> 00:21:02,219
[Britton] …building on decades
of their ancestors' rhythm and blues,
423
00:21:02,302 --> 00:21:04,680
which was first plucked on banjos,
424
00:21:04,763 --> 00:21:09,059
an instrument that had come to America
on slave ships from West Africa.
425
00:21:09,142 --> 00:21:11,103
And before emancipation,
426
00:21:11,186 --> 00:21:13,480
sung as spirituals and work songs
427
00:21:13,563 --> 00:21:16,233
on plantations across the American South.
428
00:21:16,817 --> 00:21:20,237
Those rural laments
evolved into the blues.
429
00:21:20,862 --> 00:21:24,866
And these sounds mixed with the ballads
of those Appalachian fiddlers,
430
00:21:24,950 --> 00:21:28,787
forming the roots of what would
later be segmented and sold
431
00:21:28,870 --> 00:21:31,665
as hillbilly music and race records.
432
00:21:32,624 --> 00:21:35,419
And they become
these sort of symbolic opposites.
433
00:21:35,502 --> 00:21:37,838
[Britton] Springing off
and tangling together
434
00:21:37,921 --> 00:21:41,341
to form almost all American popular music.
435
00:21:41,925 --> 00:21:44,636
So rap and country
aren't opposites at all.
436
00:21:44,720 --> 00:21:47,097
They're really long-lost cousins.
437
00:21:48,515 --> 00:21:52,811
One artist who refused
to stay inside the lines was Ray Charles.
438
00:21:52,894 --> 00:21:55,188
Back in 1962,
439
00:21:55,272 --> 00:21:59,443
he released Modern Sounds in Country
and Western Music, Volumes 1 and 2,
440
00:21:59,526 --> 00:22:01,987
with an entirely new bluesier take
441
00:22:02,070 --> 00:22:04,990
on popular country songs,
like "You Are My Sunshine."
442
00:22:05,073 --> 00:22:07,909
♪ Girl you make me happy sometimes ♪
443
00:22:07,993 --> 00:22:10,037
♪ When my skies are gray ♪
444
00:22:10,120 --> 00:22:14,207
Once Ray Charles gets ahold of it,
and he makes it start to swing,
445
00:22:14,291 --> 00:22:16,752
it makes it kind of bluesy, soulful.
446
00:22:16,835 --> 00:22:18,837
Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music
447
00:22:18,920 --> 00:22:20,881
was kind of the "Old Town Road"
of its day.
448
00:22:20,964 --> 00:22:22,466
[Britton] The country industry
449
00:22:22,549 --> 00:22:25,093
didn't accept Ray Charles
as a country musician.
450
00:22:25,177 --> 00:22:30,015
But those records
may have changed country music
451
00:22:30,098 --> 00:22:33,143
as much as any album.
452
00:22:33,226 --> 00:22:36,104
Ray Charles was a great country singer.
453
00:22:36,188 --> 00:22:37,814
One of the best of all time.
454
00:22:37,898 --> 00:22:40,484
[Britton] And you can hear
his echoes today,
455
00:22:40,567 --> 00:22:43,111
like when Chris Stapleton
performed for the first time
456
00:22:43,195 --> 00:22:46,281
at the Country Music Awards
and brought the blues.
457
00:22:47,032 --> 00:22:50,660
♪ Used to spend my nights out
In a barroom ♪
458
00:22:50,744 --> 00:22:52,746
[crowd cheering]
459
00:22:55,332 --> 00:22:58,543
♪ Liquor was the only love I've known ♪
460
00:22:59,252 --> 00:23:02,589
[Britton] Or when Mickey Guyton
performed at the Grammys in 2021
461
00:23:02,672 --> 00:23:03,840
and told a story.
462
00:23:04,424 --> 00:23:07,719
♪ If you think we live ♪
463
00:23:07,803 --> 00:23:09,971
♪ In the land of the free ♪
464
00:23:10,055 --> 00:23:13,266
♪ You should try to be ♪
465
00:23:13,350 --> 00:23:15,018
♪ Black like me ♪
466
00:23:15,102 --> 00:23:18,188
"Black Like Me" is such
an incredible song to me
467
00:23:18,271 --> 00:23:20,273
because she's singing her truth.
468
00:23:20,899 --> 00:23:23,860
Like anything in this world,
we all must evolve.
469
00:23:23,944 --> 00:23:27,989
So, if we're evolving,
then the music will evolve eventually.
470
00:23:28,073 --> 00:23:30,951
I'm hoping that young artists will grow up
471
00:23:31,034 --> 00:23:33,620
and tell the truth
like it's never been told.
472
00:23:33,703 --> 00:23:37,457
Bring it home in a way
where you go, "Whoa!"
473
00:23:38,375 --> 00:23:39,918
"There it is."
474
00:23:40,001 --> 00:23:44,381
Country music, it feels like an open road
with no dead end,
475
00:23:44,464 --> 00:23:47,342
and I feel like that's what music
is supposed to do.
476
00:23:47,426 --> 00:23:48,885
Speak to your heart.
477
00:23:51,972 --> 00:23:55,725
[closing theme music playing]