Old Town Road

“I never fully understood, appreciated, or contextualized popular music until I read Chris Molanphy.” - Jesse Eisenberg

“Chris Molanphy provides a (typical for him) master class in understanding ‘Old Town Road’ as well as the interaction between race, the charts, and country music. A fascinating, rigorous, and joyful book.” - Emily J. Lordi, author of The Meaning of Soul: Black Music and Resilience since the 1960s

"More than just an analysis of 'Old Town Road.' This book has wide appeal for music and pop culture fans." (Starred Review)
  - Rebekah J. Buchanan, Library Journal

"Molanphy's astute analysis shows readers the full cultural 360 in tracking the success and controversy of the song, the artist, and the evolution of online platforms like TikTok and YouTube to democratize the distribution and awareness of music. He also discusses the role that Lil Nas X's queerness has played in his success and post-"Old Town Road" career to date. Molanphy's book is a masterful and entertaining piece of cultural studies that, at 152 pages, takes exactly the time it needs to tell its story." - Elizabeth DeNoma, Shelf Awareness

"It takes Chris Molanphy just 125 pages to brilliantly chronicle the twists and turns that made Lil Nas X single ‘Old Town Road’ such a phenomenon." - Andy Davidson, Americana UK

"Readers with a general interest in American music history and the intersection of pop culture, race, and the evolution of music genres will find Molanphy's book informative and well-documented. Old Town Road offers insightful observations about the cultural and commercial impact of this hit song's cross-over between Rap and Country music and the coming-of-age of Generation Z artist Lil Nas X (Montero Lamar Hill). . . . Molanphy's book is a great starting point for additional analyses and enjoyment of this remarkable record-breaking song." - Kirsten Møllegaard, Journal of American Culture

"Molanphy’s Old Town Road offers as much to musicologists as it does to a general audience of music enthusiasts. It is an essential read for anyone interested in the intersections of music, race dynamics, country music, genre formation, and technology. Molanphy’s Old Town Road is a backstage pass to understanding how songs can redefine cultural norms, highlight the instability of genre categories, and disrupt an entire industry." - Rosheeka Parah, MUSICultures

"Molanphy’s book is a well-thought-out approach to understanding how conditions of the chart aligned in such a way that Nas’s subversive OTR could manipulate the chart itself, country gatekeepers, and audiences, and break chart records and remain relevant, a true cultural watershed. Well supplemented with examples, readers can overlay their own experience of the song onto the map Molanphy creates, and critically reconsider what the charts really show us, who is empowered by them, and who is excluded." - Sarah E. Cooper, Journal of American Studies