Lil Nas X: How He Managed To Ride Internet Fame All The Way To The Top
2019 was, without a doubt, Lil Nas X’s year. Whether it becomes the defining year of his career remains to be seen, but his rapid ascension to viral global star, the current accolade of the longest running number one single of all time, and adoration by fans and celebs alike is quite the feat. It all started with “Old Town Road”, a prototypical example of how the music industry now operates inseparably from social media, and a demonstration of the power held by creators who know how to use it properly.
His impressive overnight achievement with Old Town Road was also no accident; it was perfect storm most marketers will only ever dream of. A Gen Z individual well-versed in the internet’s preferred vernacular of memes, coinciding with a wider cultural trend — dubbed the ‘yeehaw agenda’, where cowboy aesthetics were becoming increasingly trendy. Primary use of TikTok and Twitter with an intuitive mastery that can’t be taught, to optimise chances of reaching a receptive audience to produce virality. Finally, the genre-straddling song gained further attention from controversy surrounding whether it belonged in the country music charts, which Lil Nas leveraged to his advantage to score collabs with established famous music acts.
Focusing in on how Lil Nas managed to fast-track himself to celebrity status, and how he now maintains it, we have look at how he uses the platforms available to him.
Before he was a big star he still had a fairly popular Twitter account, with follower numbers in the hundreds-of-thousands. He would anonymously push memes and engagement bait, as part of a larger network of popular accounts that would boost each other’s content, incubating popularity and almost forcing posts to go viral. This is a technique called “tweetdecking”, and it eventually got his account suspended. Nonetheless, it was an effective method which would have continued to work if not curtailed by regulatory bodies. This takes us to vital task of cross-platform engagement.
“Old Town Road” started life as a meme on TikTok, more of a funny audio element to accompany cowboy-themed visuals than (semi-)serious song. This in itself is an asset however, because it did Lil Nas X’s job for him in a way. Memes are inherently pieces of media that spread across the internet, with people replicating and imitating them ad finitum. Lil Nas’ experience with this as a teenager on lower, less career-changing levels, helped him to make a song that would almost distribute itself.
His internet presence has remained mostly consistent pre and post-fame, with the exception of more celebrity friends. He continues to talk to followers in the same way as when he was an anonymous meme account, and still engages with meme trends, for seemingly no reason other than fun. This gives him an authenticity and relatability that Gen Z audiences almost demands nowadays. His career being so heavily entwined with meme culture could stand him in good stead for longevity, providing he stays current as well as an active producer of material.
