Postcolonial

 Wider reading on race and Old Town Road

Read this W Magazine deep dive on the Yeehaw agenda and answer the following questions: 

1) What are the visual cues the article lists as linked to the western genre? 

• Fringed sued jackets
• Cowboy Hats 
• Cow prints
• Rhinestones 

2) How did the Yeehaw agenda come about? 

The trend of black pop-culture figures wearing cowboy garb

3) Why has it been suggested that the black cowboy has been 'erased from American culture'? 

The image associated with American cowboys are overwhelmingly white.

4) How has the black cowboy aesthetic been reflected by the fashion industry?

Fall 2018 cowboy collaboration with REEBOK 

2019 New York Fashion week- performers dressed in their best cowboy attire.

5) Read the section on Lil Nas X and Old Town Road. What does it suggest about race and the country music community?

 they don't consider Old Town Road as a type of western music genre because Lil Nas X is black and not because it doesn't sound country.

6) What elements of the song and music video are suggested to be authentically country and western?

scenery and horses

7) What genres of music does the article suggest have been shaped by black influences? 

• Rock and roll
• Punk
• Electronic Music

8) In your opinion, what do you think has been the driving force behind the Yeehaw movement? 

Ensure audiences don't see it as not normal or out of the ordinary for black artists to make music in a predominantly white dominated genre.

Applying postcolonial theory to Old Town Road

Revise the postcolonial theories we have studied and apply them to the Old Town Road music video: 

1) How does the Old Town Road music video both reinforce and challenge black stereotypes in the media?

Reinforces: Rap music, hood, race cars, guns, hip hop dancing.

Subvert: Country music, cowboy and western aesthetic that's mainly dominated by white men

2) How could you argue that the Old Town Road video challenges Gilroy's theory of double consciousness?

Because Lil Nas X is represented as a cowboy which is stereotypically known as dominantly white, it shows that Lil Nas X has found a sense of belonging as a cowboy and doesn't have to view himself through another persons eyes. 

3) How does Lil Nas X and Old Town Road provide an example of Hall's theory of race representations? Alternatively, you could argue against this if you prefer.  

Representing Lil Nas X, Chris Rock and the other 2 black men as cowboys reinforces the idea that audiences may blur race and class, therefore representing the black cowboys as dangerous and unwealthy. 

4) Are there any examples of Alvarado's theory of black stereotypes in the Old Town Road video? Why/why not?

Lil Nas X appears in the video's first scene as a violent criminal running from the sheriff, while Chris Rock then plays the sheriff in a comical way. 

5) How does Lil Nas X provide a compelling case study for bell hooks's theory of intersectionality?

Since Lil Nas X is a black man and has opened up about being gay, this shows intersectionality as it shows race, gender and sexuality. And how him opening up as gay may put him in a lower status in American society.