American rap artist Lil Nas X performing at a music festival in 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Credit: © Denise Truscello, Getty Images

June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month. All month long, Behind the Headlines will feature lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning pioneers in a variety of areas.

Lil Nas X rode in on his horse on the “Old Town Road” and became a star. He is an American rap music artist. He gained widespread fame for his first single, the country music and rap hit “Old Town Road” (2018) and its 2019 remix featuring the American country singer Billy Ray Cyrus. The song enjoyed success on the country music charts, marking an unprecedented feat for an African American rapper. In 2020, Lil Nas X and Cyrus shared a Grammy Award for best pop duo/group performance for the song.

Montero Lamar Hill was born on April 9, 1999, in Atlanta, Georgia. He grew up with an interest in music, briefly playing the trumpet. After graduating high school in 2017, he attended the University of West Georgia in Carrollton, west of Atlanta, for one year. He tried comedy writing, then began working to establish his musical career.

Hill began releasing singles under the name Lil Nas X on the music-sharing website SoundCloud. Nas was Hill’s internet alias (online name). He added Lil before Nas as a joke, because many rap artists at the time had stage names beginning with Lil. He added X to represent the Roman numeral 10, because he believed it would be 10 years before he became known as a “legendary performer.” Shortly before the release of “Old Town Road,” Lil Nas X released a mixtape titled Nasarati (2018). In hip-hop culture, a mixtape is an independently produced recording, often distributed for free. In December 2018, Lil Nas X released “Old Town Road” under SoundCloud’s country category. The song blended elements of rap and hip-hop music with tones and themes from country music. “Old Town Road” gained rapid popularity when it was featured on the social media video-sharing service TikTok.

In March 2019, “Old Town Road” entered the Hot Country Songs chart, published by the magazine Billboard. The placement of a rap song on the country charts proved controversial. Billboard later moved the single to its Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. Some critics attributed the move to racism among the overwhelmingly white country music establishment. Recording a remix with Cyrus, an established country musician, boosted the song’s country appeal. The remixed version returned the song to the country charts. It also reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, remaining on the chart for a record-breaking 19 weeks.

Lil Nas X signed a recording contract with Columbia Records in 2019. The same year, he released his first EP, 7 EP. EP is short for extended play, a collection of recordings somewhat shorter than a full-length album. 7 EP also included the song “Rodeo,” featuring the American rap artist Cardi B. Lil Nas X followed up 7 EP with the single “Panini” (2019), which reached the top 10 on the Billboard “Hot 100″ chart. In 2021, his single “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” debuted at number one on the chart.

TikTok, a social media app
© XanderSt/Shutterstock

TikTok’s Time in Congress

United States Congress met with TikTok CEO Shou Chew last week in his first appearance defending the use of the mobile app (application) in the United States. TikTok is a social media service for sharing videos. The mobile app enables users to instantly post (publish online) short videos set to music or other sound. While TikTok is a Chinese company, it is not accessible in China. However, it is extremely popular in the United States. The main concern over TikTok is that the app collects data from users that could be sent to Chinese authorities. Lawmakers also stated that the app is unhealthy for children since the algorithms can show dangerous videos to young users. Shou Chew maintained the technology is not different than other United States tech giants like Instagram and Facebook. Some people have skyrocketed to fame through TikTok, including Addison Rae, Charli D’Amelio, and Lil Nas X. Many popular users in the United States defended TikTok on their platforms, reaching millions.

TikTok, which is called Douyin in China, was created in 2016 by the Chinese company ByteDance. TikTok has since become internationally popular. ByteDance purchased the lip-syncing app Musical.ly in 2017 and merged it with TikTok in 2018.

TikTok has several features that allow users to slow down, speed up, or otherwise edit videos. Users can enhance (improve the appearance or quality of) their videos with special camera filters, stickers, text, and video clips. Several TikTok videos are often joined together to make the person on camera appear to instantly shift locations, clothing, or makeup. Users can respond to other videos in a duet. In a duet, two videos are posted side by side and run simultaneously. Duets encourage TikTok users to collaborate (work together).

TikTok videos are often informal and silly. They frequently involve lip-syncing, a style of performance in which the performer’s mouth moves in time with a recorded musical track. The service makes use of hashtags to organize similar videos. A hashtag is a keyword or phrase preceded by the hash symbol or pound sign (#). Hashtags enable users to participate in trends or challenges. In a challenge, users copy a particular video topic or theme—such as a specific visual gag, dance, or song—and post their version on TikTok with the challenge hashtag. Trends and challenges rapidly rise and decline in popularity on TikTok.

Each user has a custom home page that presents select content based on the user’s watching habits. TikTok uses a computerized mathematical procedure called an algorithm that learns a user’s preferences and interests to suggest video content. Users also can become followers of other users, or search for videos by hashtag or username. They can send messages directly to other users and post comments about videos. Some users have gained or increased their fame through the app. The rap and country singer Lil Nas X, for example, was discovered after he began lip-syncing on TikTok. Many songs have grown in popularity after being featured in TikTok videos, trends, and challenges.

“This next tune is from ’72… 1872, that is!”
Credit: © DoublePHOTO studio, Shutterstock

In December 2020, a 26-year-old Scottish man named Nathan Evans decided to “seas” the day. He shared a video of himself singing a sea shanty called “Soon May the Wellerman Come” on the service TikTok. Popular in the 1700’s and 1800’s, sea shanties were songs sung by sailors to accompany their work. More than 300 years later, people still sing them, but for entertainment. Some TikTok users have given in to “pier” pressure and are posting videos of themselves singing these maritime tunes, causing ShantyTok to flood the internet like a tidal wave.

Evans posted his video and, “schooner” or later, professional singers, musicians, and maritime enthusiasts started posting videos of their own. Others made use of the social media platform’s “duet” feature to make videos with fellow sailors—or at least wannabe sailors. Some water-dwelling creatures even joined in. For instance, one video featured the Muppet Kermit the Frog! Not everyone performed traditional songs like “Soon May the Wellerman Come.” One person, for example, transformed the rock song “All Star” by the band Smash Mouth—made popular by the movie Shrek—into a sea-shanty-esque song.

A sea shanty is a type of folk song called a work song. Centuries ago, a sea shanty served two purposes in the sailor’s workplace. First, it created a rhythm for work. For instance, if sailors were hauling sail, they could follow the beat of the sea shanty. That way, everyone pulled at the same time. Second, sea shanties distracted sailors from their work. Just as you might play music during a grueling workout, so, too, did sailors use sea shanties to take their minds off hard labor. Much like the lead singer of a band, a person named a shantyman led the shanty. The shantyman sang a line, and then everybody joined in.

You may wonder why so many people have hopped “on board” with ShantyTok. The answer may have something to do with the ongoing pandemic (global outbreak) of the coronavirus disease COVID-19. The sailors of centuries ago were often isolated at sea, away from family and friends. Sea shanties provided them with a sense of togetherness. Today, efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19 have left many people separated from family and friends, unable to see them in some cases for nearly a year. A 21st-century shanty might involve electronic dance music and a smartphone, but the purpose it serves is the same: to give people a sense of community.