Source:
https://scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3014171/after-old-road-town-blanco-brown-next-country-trap-viral
Lifestyle/ Entertainment

After ‘Old Road Town’, Blanco Brown is the next country trap viral sensation with ‘The Git Up’

  • Songs from Taylor Swift, DJ Khaled and Ed Sheeran, and Justin Bieber could not knock Lil Nas X’s breakout hit ‘Old Road Town’ from No 1 spot
  • It’s Brown’s trap-country song that is the internet’s current favourite, compete with a line dance meme on YouTube and Instagram
A still from Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road video. The song is the biggest single of 2019 so far, topping the Billboard Hot 100 for a ninth straight week.

Old Town Road is currently enjoying an astounding run as the biggest single of 2019 so far, topping the Billboard Hot 100 for a ninth straight week on Monday. Even new songs from Taylor Swift, DJ Khaled, Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber are proving incapable of knocking Lil Nas X’s breakout hit from the No 1 spot.

And with country trap trending as the internet’s current favourite micro-genre, Blanco Brown’s The Git Up is following Lil Nas X’s example to its own viral success, complete with an accompanying line dance that has officially become a meme.

Following the release of The Git Up on SoundCloud on April 26, Spotify’s charts featured the track at No 1 on the streaming service’s influential Global Viral 50 and US Viral 50 charts. The Git Up is also climbing Nielsen’s digital songs charts, jumping an impressive 69 spots to reach No 63 on this week’s charts after debuting at No 132 a week earlier, its first week on the charts.

Brown, who claims Johnny Cash and OutKast among his musical influences, is making the rounds with Nashville audiences, headlining Spotify’s showcase at last week’s CMA Fest with what he calls “trailer trap”.

On social media, though, is where The Git Up has found its largest audience. On April 19, Brown filmed himself performing a simple line dance to the track and posted it to his Instagram page.

In the weeks since, the #GitUpChallenge has taken hold on YouTube, Instagram and, most notably, soundtracked over 130,000 videos on TikTok with fans posting their increasingly complicated takes on his choreography.

“When I wrote and recorded The Git Up, there was just this energy around it that made all of us so happy. It’s so exciting to see that energy connecting organically with people around the world,” Brown says.

“Young and old. Female or male. Black, brown or white. It seems to be bringing a smile to everyone’s face, and that is a big part of what I believe is driving this virally.”

Brown has since shared an official dance tutorial as well as a video performing the dance with Nashville labelmate Lainey Wilson, which has racked up a million views and climbing.

“I love watching people get down to The Git Up,” Wilson says. “There ain’t nothing like a good ol’ line dance. It’s one of those things you can do anywhere and it brings people together for three minutes of good times and no worries.

“It was a blast learning it too. Blanco taught me the dance right there in the foyer of Broken Bow Records and we filmed it the next day in the car park. The hardest part was trying to keep my drink in the solo cup!”

Beyond The Git Up, Brown released his self-titled debut EP on BMG’s BBR Music Group imprint, and from his CMA Fest presence and Spotify support, seems to have the music-industry infrastructure in place to turn his viral success into a big breakout summer.

“I have always wanted my work to have purpose. Specifically, I’ve wanted my music to be a unifying force and source of joy in a world of deep divisions,” Brown says.

The Git Up to me is all about bringing people together to have a good time and escape the challenges of their world, if even for a moment. There is nothing more powerful and unifying to me than a smile.”