HOW THEORIES APPLY

• Clay Shirky came up with the concept of mass amateurisation. It refers to our ability to use technology to compete with professional media producers. Lil Nas X had not been signed by Columbia Records at this point so he recorded the gameplay on his console and then created a really engaging montage to match his song. Little Nas X deleted the original upload from YouTube, but there are still plenty of other fan made edits to get a sense of what he created and why it appealed to the gaming community.
• REPETITION & DIFFERENCE IN GENRE

  A performance video performed directly to camera in direct mode of address is an example of Steve Neale's theory repetition in genre. Old Town Road follows this traditional music video convention.The video also however exhibited some original and unique differences in genre with its Sci Fi time travel and western genre elements
• IDEOLOGY

  This means the ideas and beliefs held by the song writer,performer and film makers that they are trying to convey to the target audience. Stuart Hall would say It is the encoded message in the music video for the audience to decode as a dominant or negotiated or rejected reading.

  The different modes and language associated with different media forms such as in this case a music video communicate multiple meanings to the target audience.
• The Black Atlantic Culture concept by Paul Gilroy is the mixing of different identities to create new meanings. It is as a result of the slave trade and the diaspora that attended it.

  Old Town Road is a track lassoing modern African American hip hop and saloon bar western influences into something new but still unarguably country therefore fitting into the category of the Black Atlantic Culture where unique hybrid music styles can be created. 

  So Old Town Road does follow Gilroy's Black Atlantic Culture Theory in that the end product in terms of the music and the video is something new. 
• Paul Gilroy - Black Atlantic Culture. The culture of the Black Atlantic is a result of the slave trade but has adapted and changed according to the new location e.g. America. Old Town Road references the history of the slave trade in the imagery of the old west and being shot at by the white male cowboy home owner but adapts its message to the African American experience in modern America.
• SOMETHING NEW

  The hybrid music style mixing music of black origin eg hip hop with music of white origin eg Country & Western leading to the new music style called Country Trap supports Gilroy's theory about Black Atlantic Culture.
• BEYOND RACE & ETHNICITY

  Black Atlantic Culture also moves beyond race and ethnicity by signposting different gender identities illustrated by Lil Nas X hinting at being a gay man with the elaborate over the top outfit he buys and then wears in the bingo hall and Billy Ray Cyrus sporting a bright pink outfit.
• The  video encourages the audience to make connections between the message of the video and the experiences of many members of the African American community. This represents what Gilroy would call a double consciousness  as members of this culture are both part of the African heritage but they also identify as Americans. The lyrics and imagery of Old Town Road show that African American musicians are still treated as outsiders to the dominant hegemonic culture which is white and the laws have allowed segregation both in terms of music and separation of races in American society to continue.
• Double consciousness, as Gilroy describes it, is a condition of being simultaneously aware of one's own cultural heritage, and the dominant culture of the society one is living in. This creates a sense of alienation, as people of African descent are often made to feel like outsiders in Western society and are not fully accepted by either culture. This results in a fragmented sense of self and a feeling of not belonging fully to either culture.
• The music video relates to the Genre Of Order Theory as Montero Hill takes on the role of a cowboy hero who is trying to escape the villain that is racial oppression towards African American's in the US. He then departs through a tunnel into the modern world similar to how a western hero would escape the scene. Lil nas is comparable to western heroes such as Clint Eastwood who also fight's off threat.