In 2018, Lil Nas, an American rapper, sparked controversy in the music industry when his song “Old Town Road” rose in popularity on the country charts. Labeled as “country rap,” the song initially went viral on the social media platform Tik Tok—and then landed on mainstream music charts, rising to #19 on Billboard magazine’s Hot Country Song Chart. Soon after, though, the song was disqualified by Billboard magazine, which claimed that it did not fit the definition of a country music song. What followed was a debate among musicians, fans, and music executives about who has the power to define a genre.

^{Rap musician Lil Nas X
DiFronzo / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)}

While Lil Nas brought the debate into the public’s view, he was not the first musician to cross genres; his song wasn’t even the first to be labeled as “country rap.” For many music fans, though, Lil Nas became the best-known example of an artist who decided to push beyond the boundaries of genre and create what seemed like a new sound.