Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” is rapidly approaching maximum media saturation. Not only has it become the No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 — as well as being the second-shortest song in history to do so — but it garnered the attention of a genuine country star in Billy Ray Cyrus, who argued that there’s no question that it’s a legit country song and joined Lil Nas X for the official remix. Now, “Old Town Road” has become the subject of parody songs, despite some listeners arguing that it’s already an effective example of the genre itself.
Sports and pop culture website The Ringer is the first to jump on the next wave of the “Old Town Road” trend, swapping the cowboy allusions of the original with some clever references from one of the biggest pop culture phenomena of recent history, Game Of Thrones. Where Lil Nas teases “you ain’t been up off the porch,” The Ringer’s Westeros-themed remix taunts “you ain’t been up out of Dorne,” while calling back to other Thrones in-jokes such as riding on a dragon, hanging out in the North, White Walkers, and more. There are even a few spoilers so approach with caution if you aren’t all the way caught up yet, although you really should be — the final season premiere’s in only four days!
“Old Town Road” became a big enough sensation to match the widespread fervor for dragons and ice zombies late last year, when memes and streams juiced its popularity to the point of appearing on both the Hip-Hop and Country Billboard charts. Unfortunately for Lil Nas X — or fortunately, depending on how you look at it — Billboard removed the song from the Country chart, stirring up fans who saw ghosts of decades of record industry racism rearing their heads. While that’s probably an exaggeration of how the decision was made, the fact remains that the discussion surrounding the track introduced it to a whole new mainstream audience — one that predictably drove the track straight to being a chart-topping hit.
