There's a guy called A Dose of Buckley who does a whole bit about how easy it is to get free publicity if you're a musician: do something that either pisses off the parents or pisses off the religious nuts, wondering why they fall for it *every single time*
Psy is a fucking megastar in Korea off the back of “Gangnam Style” and started his own record label. When Hyuna (basically the Korean Madonna and who did a remix of Gangnam Style with Psy) got fired from her label for dating (yes, for dating), Psy swooped her up and made her the star of his new label and from what I’ve heard, he treats his artists like people and not cattle. That’s fucking unheard of in k-pop. So he made a huge positive impact in his industry with that novelty hit.
Probably my favorite response to the controversy was "So Christians say gays are going to hell, but now they're angry Gays are accepting it? Make up your mind."
@@renzo_kookin4208 That's definitely not true. It would've been so easy to let gay people have marriage certificates and leave them to their own business, but that didn't happen. So most people do care, even when it doesn't really affect them. Maybe you just want to be left alone, but that's not what most people want. Around 5% of the population identifies as LGBT. If around 1 in 20 interactions remind you that LGBT people exist, that would be about right. If you want that number to be 0, then you don't want to be left alone, you either want to carefully ignore them or erase them.
"This queer anthem by a black man is not meant for you, TODD" lol, I died. But for real, I appreciate the acknowledging that it's ok to let your opinion not matter. I don't know why people are so obsessed with wanting other people to have the same opinions about everything.
I hope this doesn’t come off rude to Todd but I feel this is a lesson he’s learned and I’m glad he has. He and other critics often do (did) this thing where they SCREAM their opinion like it’s the most important thing to ever exist and it’s always turned me off to them. I love discussing entertainment and getting better at voicing my opinion and listening to other perspectives, but when the approach is so….. arrogant and presumptuous, it’s just not my thing (me, acknowledging that this is just my opinion haha). So seriously, I’m glad he presented this idea and it seems to be reflected in his content more too.
@@bobobo7730 You learned some new words today, Bobby, I’m so proud of you! Tomorrow we can try learning how to use them correctly, but for now, well done.
As a queer white person I am obsessed with lil nas x! Like Todd said it is VERY gay and the lyrics are fucking spot on for a closeted queer hookup and I love how gay it is. I LOVE IT. Also I think the whole album is brilliant and I think it explains why some of the songs are shorter bc they are meant to be part of a project and this song was more of a troll than anything which I love.
@Keu V but a lot of queer experiences are similar so I wouldn’t say it’s niche….the LGBTQ+ community make up around 50% of the population so it can speak to a lot of people.
@@trtx84 Exactly! This is why I love Todd's videos so much. He's honest about how he feels, but he points out his own biases and tastes, and tries to see the song from another, wider perspective, and he does the same for when he likes a song that everyone else hates. It's a great way to review things.
Its not “new art they don’t understand” it’s just fucking weird lmao seriously I get hes gay and all but full nude slight blur dancing with 7 others dudes on camera is simply too much.
Reactionaries like to pretend that 'liberal cultural Marxist SJWs' have won but it's still very much still their culture. And that culture is queerphobic, sex-negative and generally puritanical. WAP and Montero are very much subversive reactions.
I had a roommate who loved a guy that was on the DL. My roommate eventually called it off because he was tired to the guy pretending that they were just friends. It does get to you eventually.
Same. I'm bi and my first love was a girl who liked me back and literally kissed me and cuddled me multiple times but nothing ever came of it because we lived in a small, conservative Texas town. That line hit me so damn hard and I love Nas X for vocalizing those struggles that seem to be universal in the LGBT community yet never really discussed
@@coastercraziness That line is just heartbreaking, unrequitted love is hard, it must be 100 times harder when you also have to deal with bigotry on top of that.
I've always known I'm younger than Todd and if I struggle to dig 100 gecs (I get their appeal though) he's not the one who should have the right to feel old.
@@alannahfisherman1321 I can see how she appeals to millenials but I do still think that she was meant to appeal to gen z more. drivers license was literally built for gen z and todd in the shadows said that it will end up the soundtrack to many first break ups. and mic the snare said that its like a gen z version of some of the early 2000s defining albums so I think that she at least attempts to appeal to them more
Am I the only one that has some serious problems with this lyric? Like, I feel like it would be mad difficult, nay, near IMPOSSIBLE to get good aim for the mouth at a riding angle.
The word choice "child", compared to alternatives like "load" or "seed", is an extremely awkward one. It seems optimized to piss off the "every sperm is sacred" crowd of Christians which tend to strongly overlap with the homophobic ones.
For me, the word choice feels provocative, but not (just) in a way of "Gotcha, bible-thumpers" - using "child" makes it feel more... I dunno, primal? Especially as it's at the tail end of the refrain, as he's scaling up in his passion and just kinda breaks by going for the most extreme euphemism he can come up with before it cuts to his self-reflection. "Seed" could work, but it's a euphemism that doesn't carry the weight, or the intrinsic value, something like "child" would. The choice implies that the act carries heavy meaning - a plant isn't as impactful in the mind as a human being - and puts the emphasis firmly on the act of sex itself rather than "You're giving me a blowjob." Top 10 things I wouldn't have ever imagined talking about in a TH-cam comments section...
"Doja cat is also way too online but her music is fairly normal" the first time I ever saw doja cat she was dancing in a cow suit with fries up her nose?
@@ritacirocavalcante idk man I guess I just consider free screen anime tiddies and the lyrics "got methane, I'm a farter" a lil weirder than a song about embracing your own sexuality so hard you kill the devil but w/e
@@B4K4xNi Yeah Doja's had things like that (I literally didn't even realize she was a legit singer for a while after Moo) but at the end of the day, Say So fits in line with any of the other pop songs of today. I say that as someone who listened to Say So practically on repeat for two days after it came out. LNX's music isn't groundbreaking or so "out there", but he's clearly not following the conventional record studio mold with things like his song lengths, explicit queerness, and general career trajectory. I think that's what Todd was getting at.
"Lil Nas X experiences music differently than I do" is actually a really interesting insight. I wonder if the reason his songs tend to be short is because he was born into a world where music is streaming, so if you want a song to be longer, you can just listen to it again, immediately. You don't need to wait for it to come up again in radio rotation.
Actually, it could be less that and more just a sense of wanting to be raw and to the point. I mean, look at punk music back in the 70s: it was short, raw, and to the point. Yes, I'm ABSOLUTELY saying Lil Nas X is exuding punk energy.
Streaming services also count a certain percentage of a song as one "play", so the shorter the song, the more likely it is to meet the minimum before it might get skipped.
I think part of it is that memes/TikTok is a new avenue for promotion so he understands that you don't need to overstay your welcome to get over with the target audience.
Songs are shorter for streaming analytics, it looks like you listened to a higher percentage of the song before you skipped. It doesn’t behoove artists to make long songs anymore because the algorithms don’t favour them. Instead of an 11 song album with each song lasting 4 minutes, an artist might put out a 20 song album with each song being approximately 2 and a half minutes and double their streaming income. Rappers especially take advantage of this since rap is a stream heavy genre as opposed to say, Country music which is still strong on digital/physical
@@IsaacPrinTheNerd that would be absolutely wild. Even 100 gecs is mild compared to some of Dorian Electra's stuff. Though to be fair I haven't heard the Friday remix itself.
It, makes *sense*, since he started reviewing music in the exact era that 100 gecs is explicitly referencing with a lot of their songs, but still the phrase "Todd in the Shadows likes 100 gecs" is so fucking wild
@@MultiNevyn It's standard hyperpop, they don't really change Rebecca's lyrics, but Dorian and Freedia are great. 3OH!3 is on there too. But yeah, imagine Todd listening to Flamboyant or Man to Man or F the World, or Guyliner, or even Daddy Like. Holy shit it would be incredible. It's like two music nerd circles colliding with the force of a surprise Beyonce release.
Acknowledging that a piece of art wasn’t meant for you and not getting super fucking mad about it and demanding other people feel the same way is the most refreshing take about a pop song I’ve heard all year.
I love how Old Town Road was the last huge pre-Covid pop culture phenomenon and Lil Nas X's first #1 hit after that literally opens with "I caught it bad yesterday"
A big part of Lil Nas X's appeal for me is his voice. Not as a singer, although he is a solid singer, but he can convey so much emotion with not much. He can be insanely seductive, distraught, ecstatic, resigned, satisfied and the actual tone doesn't change much. It's all in his enunciation. His talents aren't obvious, but they are there.
As an older queer person, this song just...hits hard. Obviously the lyrics, especially "tell me you love me in private" - that one stabbed me in the heart and stole my wallet. But the instrumental itself calls to my lived experiences, to how being queer has shaped my life and worldview. It has an element of disorganization, of being just a little broken, that throws me right into those times where I wasn't sure if it was safe to tell someone who I was, where I had to choose between being myself and being accepted. It's a celebration, and it's a mourning, and I'm too old to be getting this emotional over this.
Yeah that line hit me like a pile of bricks too! And especially the line that follows it up, “I don’t care if you’re lying.” It reminds me of that line in nobody by Mitski when at first she asked for one honest kiss, then in the next verse she asks for a movie kiss. To me it articulates loneliness in such a heart wrenching and succinct way. It’s wanting to be loved so badly that you’ll take what scraps of affection you can get. Those lines, and the, “I only fuck the ones I envy,” just hit completely different when you’re gay.
My dad is in his 70's and only came out two years ago as bi. He has been in this exact relationship (tell me you love me in private + you live in the dark, you ain't living right) and this song hits like a freight train for him. It is a celebration and a mourning but above all it's a moment of being seen that a lot of queer people have found solace in. It's a moment of 'oh, other people have been here' and I think that's great. We need that in the world.
As someone who grew up with that video when they were in college and that memory alone being a very nostalgic wistful thing this thread both warms my heart and chills my bones
It is. It's a crescendo of passion all the way through the "Shoot a child in your mouth" line before it plummets to earth with "... why me?" It's produced real well.
I really enjoy how honest Todd is about his opinions. He acknowledges the song's positives, even if he himself isn't really a fan of it, which is pretty commendable. I too come across many pieces of art that I realize are objectively good, but aren't necessarily suited to me specifically.
i don’t really think there’s any objectively good or bad art, mainly because the term “good art” has no universal definition or metric. what defines “good” varies so much across time/place and from person to person
@@rashotcake6945 that is an extremely postmodernist statement. Sometimes shit is just shit and those who like it are simply coprophiles, whose opinions can be disregarded
@@osamavindiesel that opinion rejects nuance on a face level. Let's not classify entire complex opinions under labels like "post-modernist", which seems to have lose every bit of meaning by this point because you can pretty much call anything that. You're giving an objective statement of conclusion to a subject without objective premises, and by that regard you yourself are objectively wrong
I agree but I don't he need to find himself as an artist. So he can stay around for 20 years, I don't really see him as a dancer, he's okay at singing (he deliver more emotion than Khalid in his one octave voice). And he hasn't prove that he can rap traditionally with skill! I guess now I can see why he said he wanted to be like drake but the thing drake at least showed that of that he had skills in rap before he became... DRAKE...
@@miserirken umm no, drake my be lacking a musical direction in his artistry and not pushing himself to reach no heights as rapper/entertainer. 🤔( Well damn maybe he is like lil nas x) but either or, drake has solidified himself as a legend and icon. We still gotta see what lil nas x first album is hitting like then his second and third...
...you may be onto something there. Our current song format is based around radio play, which seems ridiculous when I say it out loud because the preferred platform for new music is streaming.
Yeah you’re totally right. First time I listened to it I felt I just had to listen to it again because it came and went before I’d even properly tuned in
My favorite part about Todd in the Shadows? The fact that he can make a 14+ minute video about how he doesn’t understand a song or the artist, but he respects the hell out of them (pun intended)
I audibly "Awww"'d in disappointment when Todd said he didn't like the song. I'm the same age, and to me the song was stuck in my head for weeks, and I am never unhappy when it comes on. I think it is, as the kids say, a bop.
I liked that he spoke about how it wasn't made for him. He doesn't have to like all the songs others do. He absolutely trashed one of my fav songs and while I respect his opinion, I disagreed with him. But we all listen to, and appreciate, music differently. Our childhoods, location, age and community usually play a large part in forming our tastes.
+1 on the whole musical subjectivity thing. I’m not a massive fan of Lil Nas’s Music like vocal delivery or the limited chord progs (with the exception of Old Town Road, cause 🤠) but I really appreciate (and yeah, kinda enjoy) their cultural effect
I love the song, but I can agree with Todd on one thing: Lil Nas X's music can sometimes feel too short to be satisfying. To me, the definitive version of Old Town Road is the one with Billy Ray, Young Thug and the yodelling kid and I cannot listen to the short version of Montero - the bridge and the outro feel essential to the song.
I don't even think I've seen the video more than twice. It's all about the way he sings it. It sounds seductive and real at the same time. "you live in the dark, boy. I cannot pretend", who hasn't been there? I guess if you're lgbt it's obvious, but people reject how they really feel all the time.
Sometimes I think a lot of these ideas of shame towards dating and keeping people secret are piled on LGBT and younger people can't even fathom that things like interracial couples aren't that common still. He wrote his LGBT story, but damn if more people don't understand it from some angle. Hollywood makes all this vast range of dating look bigger and more accepted, but I'm not that old and I got told a lot "I only date ___" or people saying I couldn't date someone or someone would accept me having a crush on them due to race and that was before realizing more about my sexuality.
Or sometimes a message goes right over your head when it doesn't apply to you, if the shoe fits works both ways, if a person is saying "hey, you're too loud" I'd just be wondering who they're talking to because it's clearly not for me lol
It’s so funny bc part of why he gained so many fans in the very beginning is bc of his country song, and was not out as gay and a bunch of country white guys were drawn in by it. That’s how he drew his audience in, and climbed to the top. How he got their attention.Then he came out, and started making hella gay songs, and pushed it in their face. He made sure that they saw it. That they heard it. They couldn’t just ignore it. It’s great.
I love when Todd is able to step aside and say, "this song isn't meant for me, it is meant for the people who can relate to this song." I just think that's a pretty humble thing to do and I respect it.
I appreciate that Todd recognizes this song isn't really for him. This isn't at all to say non queer people can't enjoy this song by any means, but I can understand how it might make it harder to "get" the song. I know I genuinely consider the song to be a bop that I listen to even without watching the video, and being queer myself probably has helped me to connect with it.
The idea that you can't enjoy/criticize something that wasn't made for you is inherently flawed, but the idea of not really being able to 'get' something not made for you is totally fine and being able to recognize the difference, like Todd does here, matters. Having different perspectives matters and knowing where those perspectives come from is equally important. It's certainly not for him, but that doesn't mean he can speak to some truth about it, and despite what he says he at least gets it enough to see why other people feel how they do.
I'm queer and have had a long struggle with religion, so this song speaks to me on such a deep level. I have had to watch people around me say that Lil Nas X has been possessed by evil and is trying to drag little kids to hell, conspiracy theory shit like that. That's just resulted in me loving the song even more, my own way of giving a middle finger to those fuckwits I have to deal with in my life.
For some people, lyrical content makes a bop. For some (like myself), it' almost all based on sound. And some people are sorta in the middle. I would never listen to this willingly, but I'm happy that the content resonates with others. Music is so personal, which is one reason it's awesome.
im straight and personally i had zero trouble relating. Lil nas x managed to strike that really narrow balance between telling a vivid story and being just general enough to make it broadly relatable.
He also made a video for the tenth anniversary of Numa Numa that was way better than the Numa Numa 2 video. It's him lipsynching to a bunch of random soundbytes and song clips. In true early internet fashion, he uploaded it to Newgrounds first.
The Numa Numa guy lipsinked to a song by a Moldovan!!!! group called O zone - who recorded Numa Numa Dragostea Lei around 2002. The song in Moldovan (A form of Romanian and thus a romance language rather than slavic - part of the reason the Transdinestrians who are slavs oppose Moldova and Romania is protective of them like giving them top marks every Eurovision) became a slight hit outside of Romania and Eastern Europe. The singer is an American Jew of Dutch origin who did not speak Romanian or Moldovan - and to me looks like he may be special needs.
I think it's really cool that even if you don't vibe with the song itself, or even with a lot of Lil Nas X's projects, you can still understand the important societal context and how important it is to a lot of people as more than just a song. And that even though you can't relate to the song, you can step back and acknowledge that you're not the "target demographic" and that you don't have to "get" it for it to be good, important, meaningful, etc. and for it to belong in the musical conversation. This is why you're my favorite music reviewer.
@@MrCobaltScar As far as how enjoyable the song as a song is, I'm completely down to agree to disagree. Like, I personally do enjoy listening to it as just a song in itself, but I can totally get that it's not up a lot of people's alley and I can see where the criticisms of it on a musical level are coming from.
I'm a straight, 37yo dude from the UK, and the song still resonated with me. Being judged & alienated, wanting somebody that may not want you back. Seeing people you care about self destruct while you want to be with them. Hell, even the lines about being told you're loved in private hit me, not caring if it's sincere. Most of my time growing up people would seek me out and befriend me privately, but in public would treat me like dirt bc it was social suicide to be friends with me. Not the same experience, obviously, but it seriously hit for me. I got no problem singing along and enjoying a gay anthem, but the underlying themes are WAY more universal than the (pun intended) straight reading. That's pretty good for such a direct, short, and personal song. I genuinely enjoy it too, even if I think Todd is right suggesting it sounds unfinished.
I feel like at this point in his career you really can't ignore Tyler, the creator's sexuality, igor was literally about a relationship with a man and not in subtext, in text. Which is great because it was emotionally genuine and raw and real.
@@jacksonsmith2955 Flower boy is literally his fourth album and it didn’t come out at the height of his popularity though, if you wanna compare the two it would be like if he was blatantly out during his Loiter Squad days, which he just was not and that’s understandable because homophobia in hip hop is for really real and the difference a few years has made to that on the cultural front can’t be denied. But you also can’t deny he was way more forthcoming once he was better established, had gone through controversy for homophobic lyrics, and the focus had waned a bit on him. Where as Lil Nas X has never really been in the closet in terms of image. I would say Frank Ocean is also kind of the same in that vein but ultimately the ease of it is because of this particular time it being more acceptable for a Pop star to be queer. So it’s not a knock on Tyler or Frank but it’s also just true that we haven’t seen this like this before.
todd-strodamus strikes again, that little spanish guitar flair after "You live in the dark boy I cannot pretend" is one of the best musical moments all year, period
I by no means want to take away from Lil Nas X or any of the other producers on this song but Omer Fedi is the kingmaker in music right now. He plays the banjo riff (its not a guitar believe it or not) and contributes to the percussion on Montero. He also is behind guitar on Mood by 24K Goldn and contributed heavily to his album El Dorado. He worked with MGK and Travis Barker on the album Tickets to my Downfall. He contributed the guitar on Without You by The Kid Laroi. Montero, Without You, and Mood are all centered around a guitar (or banjo) riff provided by Fedi. I may be overstating his contributions but it feels like anything this kid touches turns to gold right now.
Queer former farm kid in his mid 30s here- having had roughly a year and a half to sit with the album, "Montero" was absolutely groundbreaking when it came out & it's the song that got me to listen to the rest of the album, but it's not the song that I end up gravitating to now- that'd be "Tales of Dominica," which, while still absolutely based on a very common queer experience, is more generally about the emotional experience of leaving a bad situation and not knowing if you're actually escaping or just moving from one routine built around trauma to another.
It's so depressing that so many Gen X's were all "you hippies sold out and we are furious"... and then went and did the same. I have bigger hopes for Millennials and Z's. Especially Z's. Maybe a generation's remove is what it really takes to shift things. Like Millennials (rightly) calling out their grandparent's generation for things like environmental damage and change denial or dominating the house market for investment reasons, leading (at least in part) to unaffordable homes. Maybe the Z's are in a position to say with reason: "You spoke and sang about social injustice - we're actually living calling it out and being who we are" or... something... let's just conclude Lil Nas X has spoken and is heard and bops ;-)
@@dontbefatuousjeffrey2494 Every generation claims they're gonna be the ones to save the world and ignores how many of them suck until they can't anymore. By and large, it wasn't "boomers" who marched in Ferguson, or stormed the Capitol. It wasn't even all gen-Xers and up. Plus, I read an article about how the reason every generation tends to get more conservative over time is that the less conservative ones tend to _die sooner._ And I can think of no generation more poised to die early than the one that famously can't even afford the basic necessities of life.
His songs may not be traditional bops but I gotta respect the kid for fucking shit up as much as he has and not losing a wink of sleep. He's making this "old" millennial proud. Cause chaos kid.
Same point about Dungeons and Dragons. "Come on, mom, there's demons on the cover because we're going to have an adventure where we kill the demons! What do you want me to do, NOT kill demons? Jeeze"
To be honest, I asked for the White Stripes' "Get Behind Me Satan" as a teen, and while my parents were never fundies, I got raised eyebrows and had to buy it myself. "But it's based on a Bible quote about expelling demons!"
@@marctm7614 sure technically panini made lil nas x not a one hit wonder before montero ever came out but look at his one hit wonderland series. theres a ton of artists that are technically not one hit wonders (for example I melt with you never hit the top 40) but still are now
I’m a lesbian, too, but I’ve never been able to relate to gay men. Honestly, gay male representation has just never meant anything to me. And it seems to me a lot of the time like gay men are everywhere and gay women are just nonexistent. I liked this song because of the Satan stuff, because I’m a Satanist. The gayness of it didn’t do anything for me. I like Lil Nas X for how much he upsets right-wingers and the way he’s gotten everybody talking about Satan again (Lucien Greaves of The Satanic Temple, my favorite Satanic organization, even got to do this interview for a great Refinery29 article called “Satanism Sounds Pretty Great: Lil Nas X, Satan & Tik Tok” aka “Honestly, Satanism Sounds Pretty Great” because of it) and because he seemingly tweeted support for “Those Who Have Chosen Not to be Mothers” on Mother’s Day :) I’m a rocker, not normally into pop music at all, but I’ve listened to “Montero” quite a few times just because I like Nas as a person.
@@autumnphillips151 I’ve noticed one place it’s the other way around: animated content. There seems to be a lot more wlw rep than mlm rep. (Legend of Korra, She-Ra, Steven Universe, Owl House, vs ....the gay relationship in Kipo comes to mind)
It's rad And especially the first couple weeks after it came out, i loved seeing people online defending the message and artistic choices even though many of the people aren't gay and don't even necessarily like the song or whatever. Like a lot of people just got it
He absolutely dumpstered Poo Poo Bennett. Her only responses were racism and homophobia, really bottom of the barrel shit, and when he clapped back she had no response except to feign outrage.
Todd: "I don't get this because I'm old." My dad, who came out as bi last year and is substantially older than Todd: "This song is the greatest song in the English language."
@@罪のアリス Apparently how effective the song is might hinge on whether or not you've been in the relationship described in the song. My dad has, so he thinks it slaps.
@Sam Of course there are differences, but I don't think those differences are too big. One is-generally-going to have more complex notation and the other is more bare-bones and less produced. But even between them, there's quite a bit of overlap.
I still have friends who think Tyler the Creator was just memeing about being gay. Once I told them..."no dead ass he's gay", they went blank, but they still like him. I just laugh because they fought me on it for so long.
As someone who was there for the 80’s, I can honestly say that the Satanic Panic was one of the most hilarious parts of that decade. I, for one, am happy to see its return.
It's genuinely amusing this time around. Of all things to be up in arms over - a talented young guy who knows who the hell he is and disrupting the fuck out of their industry isn't one of them. It's goddamn beautiful!
Eh, what about all the people accused of being devil worshipping peadophiles, and the not inconsiderable number of innocent people who went to prison or had their lives ruined because of the satanic panic. It wasn't all just protests over Ozzy Osbourne and Dungeons and Dragons. People's lives were seriously fucked by the witch hunt.
@@erichobbs4042 I'm happy I didn't have to be the one to say it. Children were brainwashed into thinking their parents were satanists and sexually abusive. Some really fucked up stuff happened due to the ridiculous Satanic panic.
I'll just say, as a gay person, the song means a lot to me for what it represents. I grew up catholic so I have a very sour relationship with the christian church and it was great to see a gay poc use religious imagery against the people who have weaponized it to make queer kids hate themselves.
@Brillemeister (This is not an attack so please don’t take it that way) That’s not really the point. LGBTQ+ people are smart enough to realize that the minority is not the group, but that doesn’t magically change our experiences with them. It’s a true statement that the religious factions of this country have for literal decades weaponized their religion against us. Most of us when we were just kids. A “not-all-Christians” statement won’t heal anything or change our perceptions. If you are a Christian and an Ally then that’s great but pointing this out helps no one and only serves to make you feel better. Sorry if that got to intense and I do respect you a ton for being an ally while being religious but please just remember what I said. Thank you.
@@crossedroses4827 To add to this (as a cishet white dude myself), there's a saying I once heard from a random black woman on Twitter and it's stuck with me ever since; "If what's being said doesn't apply to you... we ain't talking about you." I don't have to wade into the discussions with things like "Don't worry, trans people, not all cisgender people are like that" or "Don't worry, black people, not all white people are like this" because I know that I'M not the person being addressed and I can just keep doing my thing and speaking up for them if my voice is absolutely needed in the discourse. At the end of the day; my feelings aren't what matters in this discourse... it's about the people who society has deemed fit to shit all over and trying to do our part to help fix these problems.
I’m glad you’re acknowledging how much this song means to people even if you don’t really get it. Because for the gay community, this has absolutely made waves for us. I’ve never felt so seen by the media i consume until he came out (pun intended) with this, and it feels amazing.
Yeah, like... I think my first impression of it and the explosion on twitter and how unabashedly gay it was and how it felt like a gay icon was born was sitting there going "this must be how the generation of queer people before me felt when Born This Way came out." Except no, not even, this is way more unabashed and not straight friendly than that. And like, yes, I personally find it super catchy and I really like the lyrics and the craft of it... But it's still clear that it just would not hit the same if I were straight. Like, when I was imagining what this review would be like, I expected exactly this. I expected Todd to basically say "I am straight and way out of my depth." And I'm very glad he is mature enough to see that and say it and admit it; I mean that shouldn't be impressive, but this is TH-cam, so critics saying "I don't get it so it sucks" isn't exactly uncommon. Because yeah, even though the song made me super excited so I really wanted him to talk about it at first, after a while I thought he just wouldn't because he's just not the person who has things to add to this conservation
I'm not gay but I really do appreciate seeing someone sing a song saying its okay to be gay and they actually are. Its more meaningful then all the straight people singing about how its okay to be yourself though they can't actually understand the struggle. I hope there can be more songs like this. Help push the message that being gay is normal and perfectly okay.
@@tyefrentzel2602 See, that's where I disagree. But it is a case where the video and the song are very, *very* different. Like, I feel like Take Me to Church is a closer comparison because that's a song where the video is thematically linked but not about the same thing as the song. But honestly I think I like Montero better without the video.
I have no idea how common the experience is overall, but I can absolutely relate to dating someone in the closet and that being a really destructive relationship for both of you. Sometimes it works out, but most of the time you end up hurt and they end up even further away from acknowledging their own attractions.
Yeah, this was my dad's experience dating a guy while closeted back in his 20's. To be fair to him, in his home country it's still illegal to be queer and out to this day, so circumstances kind of forced it, but it was still too much of a stressful, hurtful, emotionally taxing, work-intensive, exhausting relationship that it made him go "I can't deal with this again", hence him not coming out until his 70's. Which is why my boomer dad blasts this song in the car, despite the weird looks it gets him. It speaks to his bi boomer Central Asian lived experience in a huge way despite being written by a gay young black man. It's not a universal queer experience but it's one a lot of people have had.
@@burnheal6063 its fun, loud and genuine. Dylan Brady has been part of the scene for years and finally got his break with 100 gecs. I don't think it's contempt because they've been doing it for so long. They're just making the music they want to make without conforming to what the listener wants to hear.
The thing about Montero that I love is that I've heard it actively and passively about 100 times by now, and I don't really get tired or annoyed at it, it's just there, and it's fine. And sometimes I groove to it, sometimes I don't.
I love the fact that he seems to genuinely understand the impact despite not being able to relate to the themes and seeming concerned about how to address that. One of those times where I really see how cool he is
Dude that moment where he said “maybe, as a zoomer who grew up with steaming/Internet, Lil Nas X just experiences music differently” also reminded me why I watch Todd. Really good thing to point out
Hey Todd, I’m a huge Tyler fan and just one thing! As a gay man myself, Tyler wrote verses that hit very hard in an overtly gay way. Igor as an album is actually a story about being the lover of a man masquerading as straight with his girlfriend. It’s very very overt and in fairness Igor hit No. 1 on Billboard too
Lil Nas is more educated than a lot of people think, the whole reason I finally listened to the song is because the inscription in the tree in the video is a section from Platos symposium in attic Greek. He really kinda plays a part to get the attention and it works. The whole opening scene also felt deeply reminiscent of early 20th century avant garde French ballet
You do know that pop artist don't make music videos themselves, right? You likely have Tanu Muino to thank for that. Or the set designer, who ever that was.
"Kids these days are too sensitive" who says that? Aren't all those 25 years old farts on twitter? Im a youngster and I honestly make fun of everything. Stop using the internet dude, is rooting your mind.
Maybe it's because I'm an extremely online, young, bi guy, but this has skyrocketed to maybe one of my favourite songs of all time. - The lyrics are incredibly clever. Not sure what you meant by him not being technically proficient because the lyrics of this song run circles around anyone else at his level of fame right now. I think if this song was just a poem with no melody or video it would still hit so hard. He manages to get across a compelling story, with heartfelt emotion, on an incredibly undiscussed topic, while simultaneously having really clever, thought-provoking word choices, rhyme schemes, and sentence structures. And it’s also just full to the brim with double-entendres, and not just in the "haha that’s about sex" way, but the "this joke about sex is actually also a layered metaphor for his partners spirally depression". Its also not just about gay sex. It manages to fit in that, a deep insight into the life of this partner, his own biography as a gay, newly famous artist, and a commentary on the relationship between religion and the lgbt community, all into 2 and half minutes of lyrics. - Saying that though the melody is also a bop. I'm not a music theorist but the way the rhythm keeps shifting, and the kinda strange inflections feel so unlike anything else in an incredibly satisfying way - And then obviously the video is incredible. Recounting the story of the song, and its themes, in a biblical but extravagantly colourful setting. He, like in the lyrics, uses himself as an analogy to Eve in the garden; told that he's committed a great sin and has to be persecuted for it, when all he was doing was existing authentically as himself with the freedom and knowledge offered by the snake. When he's then murdered for being gay (yep, no one talks enough about how he's murdered in this video) he then decides that because society has told him he should go to hell just for being who he is, that the logical conclusion of that is that he should in fact actively choose hell, if heaven is a place he isn't wanted anyway. Or indeed if heaven is a place these horrible people will supposedly end up in. Even giving Satan a lap dance is layered in metaphor, and killing Satan and taking his crown can be seen as the ultimate act of taking ownership of the world’s perception of gay people. Honestly everything about this song and video is a masterpiece to me, and will probably be remembered for a long time.
I also love how so easily comes across as two different voices. How he switches from sounding almost lethargic as “Adam” to be more forceful and raunchy as the snake, his very “good” quiet gay self going against his more “risqué” gay self.
2:33 Wow.....either Todd did his homework or he by chance had the luckiest random draw cause that is Gal from Norway, a black metal singer who is in fact gay.
Todd, to your point about why Lil Nas X’s music feels incomplete and why his approach to music doesn’t seem to fit with conventional notions of pop stardom - this is my take: Lil Nas X seems more like an influencer who happens to perform music rather than a musician who happens to be an influencer. For this reason, there seems to be more substance in his image, message, and discourse around his music than in the music compositions themselves.
for me the hook is that "RO-MAN-TIC, talkin'? You don't even have to try You're cute enough to fuck with me tonight" bit. I like the slow build up with the latin guitars before it all comes crashing down
Honestly aside from just being proud he is so openly gay in the song, the sensitivity is actually so sweet and verbally romantic in so many lines and really resonates even with my experience being ace. He obviously wants the physicality feels really strongly about this guy, but there's also this strong sense of longing for just the acceptance of the partner, giving yourself to feel something, especially in that final post-chorus. It is just generally a brilliant romantic song, and the religious allusions are incorporated well too.
I think montero is designed for you to watch it once, go “what?!” and watch it again immediately. That’s why it’s on the short side, you’ve got to sit through it twice. At least that’s how I experienced it and I love it
I have struggled to get their appeal for as long as I knew of their existence. It literally doesn't sound like music. gecgecgec is the worst song ever made to me.
@@DJsocial7102 I mean gecgecgec is literally a joke, although I will say I think the two Midi-Hell breakdowns on the album are the worst tracks by far.
“One of these characters has to be straight. Maybe.” As an ex Gleek that made me laugh harder than it should’ve. Also it took me forever to get Old Town Road cuz the lyrics are actually really sharp and fun which is obscured in a casual listen. The more I thought about it the more I found that I liked it tbh
Most of the time, I first hear new pop songs on the radio, so I like stuff from Lizzo or Dua Lipa, who clearly enunciate, much faster than Billie Elish or Lil Nash X, who just sing too quietly half the time for me to understand what they're saying. It's not that the latter two aren't worth the hype, it's just that I'm a little deaf with the road noises and by the time I recognize Montero's getting into the rhythm section it's over and I end up with what has been called "the greatest Country and Western song ever written" stuck in my head instead. (Which, clearly, wasn't the intended message, but the parentheses portion of the title is just so similar...)
I'm 34 and finally have a song I can jam to WHILE identifying with it. I came out at 13. It's been a long time coming. Can't imagine the elation in those older than me. Lil Nas X is a goddamn hero.
"Old man yells at could for 14 minutes straight" Just kidding, Todd. As a bi dude who's lived this song, it's definitely a bop for sure. I'm glad you recognize it's not necessarily bad, it's just not for you. And that's okay.
Thanks for talking about the difference bt being “tolerated” and feeling truly accepted or equal, Todd 👍 Having legal rights and feeling free to be yourself are 2 very different things, and as a formerly closeted gay teenager, songs and imagery this explicItly gay being in the mainstream do make a difference, even though a lot of ppl rn don’t seem to understand why. They’d rather complain about 2 guys they saw brazenly holding hands in the street and then wave away their obvious disgust with lgbtq ppl with phrases like “I believe in equal rights” or “I don’t care what you do in the bedroom, just keep it there.”
'but then i remembered that i wasn't in touch with the kids even when i was a kid' that's really relatable when you're 20 but but you're the last person to learn about some new thing your peers are into
I love the song, luckily I managed to grow up in a very loving and accepting household. My girlfriend, however, did not. Even if this song doesn't hit as hard for me as it does for her, it hits so deep. Growing up with people weaponizing the thing they swear "protects" and "loves" you above all else, is devastating. To see it used in a song about this experience and about being gay is so so so so very important.
Gay can be an umbrella term, but for the sake of accuracy I'm compelled to remind people that Frank Ocean, Tyler the Creator, and Lady Gaga are all bi not gay.
@@autumnphillips151 Amen! I'm bisexual myself and the fact that bisexual erasure is alive and well in the musical industry just disgusts me. It's 2021 for fucks sake!
Yup. And furthermore, David Bowie doesn't deserve to be on the screen when we're talking "are they, aren't they" LGBTQ rock stars -- he was pretty definite about being bisexual, it was everyone else who constantly questioned and poked at it.
I get the sense from Lil Nas's social media presence that this dude was always gonna make it big, no matter the medium or vehicle. It doesn't matter if he "doesn't seem to even like music" - the kids a star, and you just can't stop that
Hearing Todd fully embrace that this song is not for him feels so good. With how diverse mainstream music is getting, I've grown to love critics that can have a negative opinion while being self-aware of who likes the song and why it's important. It might not garner as much attention as a more extreme opinion, but I bet it'll age way better.
I'm really interested to see what he thinks of Sun Goes Down. It's my favorite song by him so far. Love those moody, emotional, melodic/harmonizing hooks ala Brockhampton/Frank Ocean, and it scratches that itch. Plus I just love the production on it.
I have to say that Frank Ocean is bisexual, not gay. A lot of people forget that bisexual men do in fact, exist. As for Tyler, with the way he sings and raps about men as of late on his own music but sings and raps about women on features, I think he could be bisexual with a preference for men, or he could be gay.
To my knowledge Frank Ocean never labeled himself clearly? So I tend to refer to him as not straight, cause putting a specific label onto him isn't fair. If you can share with me where he said he's bi please do cause that would be great!
I agree! Bisexual men are particularly erased, so I think it's important to make the distinction. Also: Michael Stipe is currently in a relationship with a man, but has also dated women, and doesn't call himself gay.
Something about that 7 EP really clicked for me. It was the rare mainstream pop album I felt I could just sit down and listen to many times, like a Strokes album or something. I thought Holiday was mediocre, but Montero is a massive course correction and since this begins the album cycle, I think I'm gonna really like his debut record
10:50 It is a common gay experience. When marriage and family life and stable employment and housing and spiritual community (!) are systemically denied to you, sometimes drugs and partying are all that's left, the only thing worth living for.
Sliding down a strip pole to hell is probably one of the best controversy baits I've ever seen.
Madonna looks at her own "controversial" videos and realizes Lil Nas X is the new master.
There's a guy called A Dose of Buckley who does a whole bit about how easy it is to get free publicity if you're a musician: do something that either pisses off the parents or pisses off the religious nuts, wondering why they fall for it *every single time*
I wish I was that fabulous.
@@outstretchedwings Yeah, I fully agree with that notion.
Ray Stantz: "You gotta try this pole!!"
Psy is a fucking megastar in Korea off the back of “Gangnam Style” and started his own record label. When Hyuna (basically the Korean Madonna and who did a remix of Gangnam Style with Psy) got fired from her label for dating (yes, for dating), Psy swooped her up and made her the star of his new label and from what I’ve heard, he treats his artists like people and not cattle. That’s fucking unheard of in k-pop. So he made a huge positive impact in his industry with that novelty hit.
That's pretty cool. Thanks for sharing.
He’s literally the founding father of the k-pop wave, so even if he isn’t popular in the west he’s still an icon imo.
@@dania-hk6qo Lol yup, he's the reason k-pop actually broke into popularity in the West
PSY was famous in Korea and Kpop way way before Gangnam Style. ,
Wow! Good for him!
Probably my favorite response to the controversy was "So Christians say gays are going to hell, but now they're angry Gays are accepting it? Make up your mind."
What's sad is... there's a VERY easy explanation for that; they want gays to shut the fuck up and fall in line.
@@renzo_kookin4208 That's definitely not true. It would've been so easy to let gay people have marriage certificates and leave them to their own business, but that didn't happen. So most people do care, even when it doesn't really affect them. Maybe you just want to be left alone, but that's not what most people want.
Around 5% of the population identifies as LGBT. If around 1 in 20 interactions remind you that LGBT people exist, that would be about right. If you want that number to be 0, then you don't want to be left alone, you either want to carefully ignore them or erase them.
@@renzo_kookin4208 most of the people that were against it are still alive.
"Don't say you wanna go to hell!! That's what WE say to insult YOU!!"
@@renzo_kookin4208 buh buh buh bullshit. Gay people DO leave you alone. Say what you mean: You don't want gay people to be publicly gay.
"This queer anthem by a black man is not meant for you, TODD"
lol, I died.
But for real, I appreciate the acknowledging that it's ok to let your opinion not matter. I don't know why people are so obsessed with wanting other people to have the same opinions about everything.
Echo chambers got super popular with algorithmic learning and targeted ads.
I hope this doesn’t come off rude to Todd but I feel this is a lesson he’s learned and I’m glad he has. He and other critics often do (did) this thing where they SCREAM their opinion like it’s the most important thing to ever exist and it’s always turned me off to them. I love discussing entertainment and getting better at voicing my opinion and listening to other perspectives, but when the approach is so….. arrogant and presumptuous, it’s just not my thing (me, acknowledging that this is just my opinion haha). So seriously, I’m glad he presented this idea and it seems to be reflected in his content more too.
@@bobobo7730 You learned some new words today, Bobby, I’m so proud of you! Tomorrow we can try learning how to use them correctly, but for now, well done.
As a queer white person I am obsessed with lil nas x! Like Todd said it is VERY gay and the lyrics are fucking spot on for a closeted queer hookup and I love how gay it is. I LOVE IT. Also I think the whole album is brilliant and I think it explains why some of the songs are shorter bc they are meant to be part of a project and this song was more of a troll than anything which I love.
@Keu V but a lot of queer experiences are similar so I wouldn’t say it’s niche….the LGBTQ+ community make up around 50% of the population so it can speak to a lot of people.
I wish more people had the maturity to say “yeah, I don’t think this is for me” when confronted with new art they don’t understand.
Yeah I’d rather have people admit it’s not for them instead of making excuses on why it’s bad when it isn’t
It's such a genuine review: "I don't like this song, but I can see how it's message connects with people."
@@trtx84 Exactly! This is why I love Todd's videos so much. He's honest about how he feels, but he points out his own biases and tastes, and tries to see the song from another, wider perspective, and he does the same for when he likes a song that everyone else hates. It's a great way to review things.
Its not “new art they don’t understand” it’s just fucking weird lmao seriously I get hes gay and all but full nude slight blur dancing with 7 others dudes on camera is simply too much.
@@bigdbandit64 Why is it too much? The only real nudity in that video is a female ass. I assume you meant to refer to that, too?
The reason Todd’s videos take so long to come out is because it takes him a month to figure out how to play it on piano
You’ve cracked it lmao. I genuinely do wonder if he composes something by ear or has to wait for somebody to post sheets,
@@happysillygoofy ive always imagined that he plays by ear but i dont actually know
It all makes sense now lol
@@WrenCubes He said in previous episodes that he figures it out himself.
@@arturo182 yeah, i remember when he was so proud to have figured out "Whip my Hair"
This man really caused every controversy and managed to use all of them to market himself. Absolute legend.
Based tbh
Very based
Yup
Every generation there's a couple artists that figure that out
he's our king now.
Between this song and WAP, I think it's become very obvious that monocles are still extremely poppable these days
And I'm glad for that. Popping monocles was always one of the funniest parts of pop music
Though I can see why someone wouldn’t like WAP, but Montero had a music video where he goes to h3ll, which is what they asked for.
Necklaces will be 50% more clutch-able
There’s a difference between monocles popping and “dude...do what you want, but at least don’t market it to children”.
Reactionaries like to pretend that 'liberal cultural Marxist SJWs' have won but it's still very much still their culture. And that culture is queerphobic, sex-negative and generally puritanical. WAP and Montero are very much subversive reactions.
”tell me you love me in private” hit me like a pile of bricks
I had a roommate who loved a guy that was on the DL. My roommate eventually called it off because he was tired to the guy pretending that they were just friends. It does get to you eventually.
Same. I'm bi and my first love was a girl who liked me back and literally kissed me and cuddled me multiple times but nothing ever came of it because we lived in a small, conservative Texas town. That line hit me so damn hard and I love Nas X for vocalizing those struggles that seem to be universal in the LGBT community yet never really discussed
And then following it with “I do not care if your lying” 😭 THE UTTER DESPERATION IN HIS VOICE
@@coastercraziness That line is just heartbreaking, unrequitted love is hard, it must be 100 times harder when you also have to deal with bigotry on top of that.
@@claudialomeli4048 seriously, that last chorus is by a mile the best part of the song
Todd saying “100 gecs are great and I have no problem understanding them” is one of the most insane reveals in TH-cam history
legit cause I’m a zillennial and I JUST DONT GET THEM
I've always known I'm younger than Todd and if I struggle to dig 100 gecs (I get their appeal though) he's not the one who should have the right to feel old.
im a zoomer and I understand 100 gecs more than olivia rodrigo. definitely speaks a lot about who i am
@@ForestGreenSharpie I think Olivia rodrigo is more for millennials
@@alannahfisherman1321 I can see how she appeals to millenials but I do still think that she was meant to appeal to gen z more. drivers license was literally built for gen z and todd in the shadows said that it will end up the soundtrack to many first break ups. and mic the snare said that its like a gen z version of some of the early 2000s defining albums so I think that she at least attempts to appeal to them more
"Ask me again in a few months."
"Montero (Call Me By Your Name)" confirmed for Todd's top 10 best songs of 2021 list.
Calling it for slot number 5.
I think it's gonna be an honorable mention
@@MeNowDealWIthIt BARE MINIMUM, it's an honorable mention.
I Agree.
He said the same thing about "The Box" though, so, eh.
"No shit this wasn't made for you todd! You're..........old."
Had me dying.
What is this a phish concert?
I think he is 40 lol, I am impressed how on top of things he tends to be
@@nerojones2280 I know he was under 28 in 2010, because he makes a joke about the fact that Kimberly Perry is older than he is.
This is pop culture every year after you're 25 for real...
I was hoping he'd say "white" and have "As far as YOU know" flash on screen.
PS: He turns 37 next month
"Shoot a child in my mouth while I'm Riding" is a long lost cousin of the WAP top ten best moments
lil nas x: now i wait for hoes to be mad.
as a straight man: lmao
Am I the only one that has some serious problems with this lyric? Like, I feel like it would be mad difficult, nay, near IMPOSSIBLE to get good aim for the mouth at a riding angle.
The word choice "child", compared to alternatives like "load" or "seed", is an extremely awkward one. It seems optimized to piss off the "every sperm is sacred" crowd of Christians which tend to strongly overlap with the homophobic ones.
For me, the word choice feels provocative, but not (just) in a way of "Gotcha, bible-thumpers" - using "child" makes it feel more... I dunno, primal? Especially as it's at the tail end of the refrain, as he's scaling up in his passion and just kinda breaks by going for the most extreme euphemism he can come up with before it cuts to his self-reflection.
"Seed" could work, but it's a euphemism that doesn't carry the weight, or the intrinsic value, something like "child" would. The choice implies that the act carries heavy meaning - a plant isn't as impactful in the mind as a human being - and puts the emphasis firmly on the act of sex itself rather than "You're giving me a blowjob."
Top 10 things I wouldn't have ever imagined talking about in a TH-cam comments section...
"Doja cat is also way too online but her music is fairly normal" the first time I ever saw doja cat she was dancing in a cow suit with fries up her nose?
Yeah, pretty normal for the meme crowd. Tame, even.
@@ritacirocavalcante idk man I guess I just consider free screen anime tiddies and the lyrics "got methane, I'm a farter" a lil weirder than a song about embracing your own sexuality so hard you kill the devil but w/e
@@B4K4xNi Yeah Doja's had things like that (I literally didn't even realize she was a legit singer for a while after Moo) but at the end of the day, Say So fits in line with any of the other pop songs of today. I say that as someone who listened to Say So practically on repeat for two days after it came out. LNX's music isn't groundbreaking or so "out there", but he's clearly not following the conventional record studio mold with things like his song lengths, explicit queerness, and general career trajectory. I think that's what Todd was getting at.
thats her image not her music
@@rencogu2877 I mean. See the above comment about the lyrics? The tune is... Nonstandard too.
"Lil Nas X experiences music differently than I do" is actually a really interesting insight. I wonder if the reason his songs tend to be short is because he was born into a world where music is streaming, so if you want a song to be longer, you can just listen to it again, immediately. You don't need to wait for it to come up again in radio rotation.
Actually, it could be less that and more just a sense of wanting to be raw and to the point. I mean, look at punk music back in the 70s: it was short, raw, and to the point.
Yes, I'm ABSOLUTELY saying Lil Nas X is exuding punk energy.
Streaming services also count a certain percentage of a song as one "play", so the shorter the song, the more likely it is to meet the minimum before it might get skipped.
I think part of it is that memes/TikTok is a new avenue for promotion so he understands that you don't need to overstay your welcome to get over with the target audience.
Songs are shorter for streaming analytics, it looks like you listened to a higher percentage of the song before you skipped. It doesn’t behoove artists to make long songs anymore because the algorithms don’t favour them. Instead of an 11 song album with each song lasting 4 minutes, an artist might put out a 20 song album with each song being approximately 2 and a half minutes and double their streaming income. Rappers especially take advantage of this since rap is a stream heavy genre as opposed to say, Country music which is still strong on digital/physical
@@nameisamine I bet strippers are LOVING these shorter songs
The most shocking thing I've ever heard was Todd saying he liked 100 Gecs.
Ikr, that caught me off guard. It's almost like if he said he liked the remix of Friday with Big Freedia and Dorian Electra.
@@IsaacPrinTheNerd that would be absolutely wild. Even 100 gecs is mild compared to some of Dorian Electra's stuff. Though to be fair I haven't heard the Friday remix itself.
100 gecs is basically Ween for Zoomers, which is may be why I as a millennial still dig 'em.
It, makes *sense*, since he started reviewing music in the exact era that 100 gecs is explicitly referencing with a lot of their songs, but still the phrase "Todd in the Shadows likes 100 gecs" is so fucking wild
@@MultiNevyn It's standard hyperpop, they don't really change Rebecca's lyrics, but Dorian and Freedia are great. 3OH!3 is on there too.
But yeah, imagine Todd listening to Flamboyant or Man to Man or F the World, or Guyliner, or even Daddy Like. Holy shit it would be incredible. It's like two music nerd circles colliding with the force of a surprise Beyonce release.
Acknowledging that a piece of art wasn’t meant for you and not getting super fucking mad about it and demanding other people feel the same way is the most refreshing take about a pop song I’ve heard all year.
I agree. I wish more people could do this about more things, like other art or politics
Yeah and when he admitted he was in his over head
Lame
I love how Old Town Road was the last huge pre-Covid pop culture phenomenon and Lil Nas X's first #1 hit after that literally opens with "I caught it bad yesterday"
Don't Start Now rivals that title I think.
I still have to wait nearly two weeks to get my first shot so I certainly hope I don't catch it at all.
.... well, that’s a mildly horrifying unintentional element of a great-ass song.
Not Blinding Lights?
A big part of Lil Nas X's appeal for me is his voice. Not as a singer, although he is a solid singer, but he can convey so much emotion with not much. He can be insanely seductive, distraught, ecstatic, resigned, satisfied and the actual tone doesn't change much. It's all in his enunciation. His talents aren't obvious, but they are there.
Ive been wondering why I'm really interested in listening to Lil Nas's voice and you finally put a tack on it. This is so on point.
Yes. He’s not the best singer I listen to in a technical sense (although he’s obviously consistently working on his skills). But, I *love* his voice.
fuck yes this exactly
Are you joking? I like him as an artist but his voice is my biggest gripe. I think it's the opposite. Lifeless and missing some kind of zest
yep his cover of jolene is a perfect example of this
As an older queer person, this song just...hits hard. Obviously the lyrics, especially "tell me you love me in private" - that one stabbed me in the heart and stole my wallet. But the instrumental itself calls to my lived experiences, to how being queer has shaped my life and worldview. It has an element of disorganization, of being just a little broken, that throws me right into those times where I wasn't sure if it was safe to tell someone who I was, where I had to choose between being myself and being accepted. It's a celebration, and it's a mourning, and I'm too old to be getting this emotional over this.
That was beautiful. Thank you for sharing this
Yeah that line hit me like a pile of bricks too! And especially the line that follows it up, “I don’t care if you’re lying.” It reminds me of that line in nobody by Mitski when at first she asked for one honest kiss, then in the next verse she asks for a movie kiss. To me it articulates loneliness in such a heart wrenching and succinct way. It’s wanting to be loved so badly that you’ll take what scraps of affection you can get. Those lines, and the, “I only fuck the ones I envy,” just hit completely different when you’re gay.
My dad is in his 70's and only came out two years ago as bi. He has been in this exact relationship (tell me you love me in private + you live in the dark, you ain't living right) and this song hits like a freight train for him. It is a celebration and a mourning but above all it's a moment of being seen that a lot of queer people have found solace in. It's a moment of 'oh, other people have been here' and I think that's great. We need that in the world.
I finally understand why it sounds like it does, thank you.
Me too
As someone who is exactly Lil Nas X’s age, I gotta say. I joined the internet at age 7 watching Potter Puppet Pals and it was all downhill from there
Snape, Snape, Severus Snape
@@Zulf85 DUMBLEDOR
Voldemort, Voldemort, oh-Volde-Voldemort, Voldemort (pop)
Ron, Ron, Ron WEASLEY!
As someone who grew up with that video when they were in college and that memory alone being a very nostalgic wistful thing this thread both warms my heart and chills my bones
The build to yelling "I WANNA SELL WHAT YOUR BUYING" after the first verse is genuinely good, fight me.
Is SO GOOD!!
It is. It's a crescendo of passion all the way through the "Shoot a child in your mouth" line before it plummets to earth with "... why me?" It's produced real well.
YES, IT IS
I read an interview where he said the 'hmm's in that buildup are basically a mating call and I'm so here for it
i wanna sing/yell those four lines in the bridge at karaoke so bad, lol
I really enjoy how honest Todd is about his opinions. He acknowledges the song's positives, even if he himself isn't really a fan of it, which is pretty commendable. I too come across many pieces of art that I realize are objectively good, but aren't necessarily suited to me specifically.
i don’t really think there’s any objectively good or bad art, mainly because the term “good art” has no universal definition or metric. what defines “good” varies so much across time/place and from person to person
@@rashotcake6945 that is an extremely postmodernist statement. Sometimes shit is just shit and those who like it are simply coprophiles, whose opinions can be disregarded
@@osamavindiesel that opinion rejects nuance on a face level. Let's not classify entire complex opinions under labels like "post-modernist", which seems to have lose every bit of meaning by this point because you can pretty much call anything that. You're giving an objective statement of conclusion to a subject without objective premises, and by that regard you yourself are objectively wrong
@@osamavindiesel that's a PragerU level take. Like it's quite literally paraphrasing Dennis prager
@@redmage5251 I have literally no idea who that is... XD
Another thing I'd like to add: saying "I'm gay" in a song isn't big anymore. Actually being gay in a song is.
Yea
"I wasn't in touch with the kids when I was a kid."
You're my people, Todd.
I snickered when you said "I wish Lil Nas X would throw me a bone" cause I'm an incredibly immature gay guy.
...goddammit.
The song itself is okay, but I think Lil Nas X is here to stay for awhile. He's got a huge social media presence and knows how to market his music.
I agree but I don't he need to find himself as an artist. So he can stay around for 20 years, I don't really see him as a dancer, he's okay at singing (he deliver more emotion than Khalid in his one octave voice). And he hasn't prove that he can rap traditionally with skill! I guess now I can see why he said he wanted to be like drake but the thing drake at least showed that of that he had skills in rap before he became... DRAKE...
>he's got a huge social media presence
He's a great shitposter too. His Twitter account is wild.
@@jeremiahborders2959 Lil Nas X is what Drake thinks he is these days (except the gayness).
@@miserirken umm no, drake my be lacking a musical direction in his artistry and not pushing himself to reach no heights as rapper/entertainer. 🤔( Well damn maybe he is like lil nas x) but either or, drake has solidified himself as a legend and icon. We still gotta see what lil nas x first album is hitting like then his second and third...
@@miserirken no
I think lil nas is really smart in making his songs feel so short, because they feel so incomplete it makes you want to listen again
The first time I heard old town road I listened to it like 7 more times because I felt I was missing something, so I guess it works.
Yeah, the guy is a marketing genius it's very likely to be on purpose
...you may be onto something there. Our current song format is based around radio play, which seems ridiculous when I say it out loud because the preferred platform for new music is streaming.
That's correct. If a song is REALLY good, but under three minutes, I'll feel compelled to listen a second or third time.
Yeah you’re totally right. First time I listened to it I felt I just had to listen to it again because it came and went before I’d even properly tuned in
My favorite part about Todd in the Shadows? The fact that he can make a 14+ minute video about how he doesn’t understand a song or the artist, but he respects the hell out of them (pun intended)
as a bi girl from a conservative town, this song still slaps hard. solidarity
Bi girls represent 💜
Word!
@@lunarballoonistxo cringe
@@lunarballoonistxo based
As a straight white man from conservative Indiana, this song still slaps
I audibly "Awww"'d in disappointment when Todd said he didn't like the song. I'm the same age, and to me the song was stuck in my head for weeks, and I am never unhappy when it comes on. I think it is, as the kids say, a bop.
@Mazie Jones Very different songs tho. Plus music is very subjective. He might like or dislike a song for reasons other than the song itself.
I liked that he spoke about how it wasn't made for him. He doesn't have to like all the songs others do. He absolutely trashed one of my fav songs and while I respect his opinion, I disagreed with him. But we all listen to, and appreciate, music differently. Our childhoods, location, age and community usually play a large part in forming our tastes.
+1 on the whole musical subjectivity thing. I’m not a massive fan of Lil Nas’s Music like vocal delivery or the limited chord progs (with the exception of Old Town Road, cause 🤠) but I really appreciate (and yeah, kinda enjoy) their cultural effect
@Mazie Jones i thought he didn’t like drivers license? or maybe i’m remembering his review wrong idk
I love the song, but I can agree with Todd on one thing: Lil Nas X's music can sometimes feel too short to be satisfying. To me, the definitive version of Old Town Road is the one with Billy Ray, Young Thug and the yodelling kid and I cannot listen to the short version of Montero - the bridge and the outro feel essential to the song.
I don't even think I've seen the video more than twice. It's all about the way he sings it. It sounds seductive and real at the same time. "you live in the dark, boy. I cannot pretend", who hasn't been there? I guess if you're lgbt it's obvious, but people reject how they really feel all the time.
Sometimes I think a lot of these ideas of shame towards dating and keeping people secret are piled on LGBT and younger people can't even fathom that things like interracial couples aren't that common still. He wrote his LGBT story, but damn if more people don't understand it from some angle. Hollywood makes all this vast range of dating look bigger and more accepted, but I'm not that old and I got told a lot "I only date ___" or people saying I couldn't date someone or someone would accept me having a crush on them due to race and that was before realizing more about my sexuality.
Or sometimes a message goes right over your head when it doesn't apply to you, if the shoe fits works both ways, if a person is saying "hey, you're too loud" I'd just be wondering who they're talking to because it's clearly not for me lol
@@TheEtherny Use your imagination
Normally I'm not like that, but I feel very proud of being like 666
Yeah it's like a very raw booty call song at the very least. Seductive is right. It's about seducing someone and being seduced at the same time.
It’s so funny bc part of why he gained so many fans in the very beginning is bc of his country song, and was not out as gay and a bunch of country white guys were drawn in by it. That’s how he drew his audience in, and climbed to the top. How he got their attention.Then he came out, and started making hella gay songs, and pushed it in their face. He made sure that they saw it. That they heard it. They couldn’t just ignore it. It’s great.
As a queer and trans person: “I wanna fuck the ones I envy” hit me *so hard* when I first heard it
Fr the truth hurts so bad 😆🥲
I love when Todd is able to step aside and say, "this song isn't meant for me, it is meant for the people who can relate to this song." I just think that's a pretty humble thing to do and I respect it.
I appreciate that Todd recognizes this song isn't really for him. This isn't at all to say non queer people can't enjoy this song by any means, but I can understand how it might make it harder to "get" the song. I know I genuinely consider the song to be a bop that I listen to even without watching the video, and being queer myself probably has helped me to connect with it.
The idea that you can't enjoy/criticize something that wasn't made for you is inherently flawed, but the idea of not really being able to 'get' something not made for you is totally fine and being able to recognize the difference, like Todd does here, matters. Having different perspectives matters and knowing where those perspectives come from is equally important. It's certainly not for him, but that doesn't mean he can speak to some truth about it, and despite what he says he at least gets it enough to see why other people feel how they do.
I'm queer and have had a long struggle with religion, so this song speaks to me on such a deep level. I have had to watch people around me say that Lil Nas X has been possessed by evil and is trying to drag little kids to hell, conspiracy theory shit like that. That's just resulted in me loving the song even more, my own way of giving a middle finger to those fuckwits I have to deal with in my life.
Agreed
For some people, lyrical content makes a bop. For some (like myself), it' almost all based on sound. And some people are sorta in the middle.
I would never listen to this willingly, but I'm happy that the content resonates with others.
Music is so personal, which is one reason it's awesome.
im straight and personally i had zero trouble relating. Lil nas x managed to strike that really narrow balance between telling a vivid story and being just general enough to make it broadly relatable.
"Did you know the numa-numa guy made a sequel?"
Me: "...sadly I did know that."
numa guy isn't even the artist he was just lipsyncing to a song like??
@@onetrickponysona2613 I believe the artists made a new song specifically for him.
Any other old Cracked TV/Does Not Compute fans who learned about the Numa Numa followups from there.?
He also made a video for the tenth anniversary of Numa Numa that was way better than the Numa Numa 2 video. It's him lipsynching to a bunch of random soundbytes and song clips. In true early internet fashion, he uploaded it to Newgrounds first.
The Numa Numa guy lipsinked to a song by a Moldovan!!!! group called O zone - who recorded Numa Numa Dragostea Lei around 2002. The song in Moldovan (A form of Romanian and thus a romance language rather than slavic - part of the reason the Transdinestrians who are slavs oppose Moldova and Romania is protective of them like giving them top marks every Eurovision) became a slight hit outside of Romania and Eastern Europe. The singer is an American Jew of Dutch origin who did not speak Romanian or Moldovan - and to me looks like he may be special needs.
I think it's really cool that even if you don't vibe with the song itself, or even with a lot of Lil Nas X's projects, you can still understand the important societal context and how important it is to a lot of people as more than just a song. And that even though you can't relate to the song, you can step back and acknowledge that you're not the "target demographic" and that you don't have to "get" it for it to be good, important, meaningful, etc. and for it to belong in the musical conversation. This is why you're my favorite music reviewer.
I agree. Todd's willingness to question is beautiful.
Careful with this though, you know where we end up if we all stop expecting too much. 2016.
Yeah but it's a shame it doesn't have some real musical merit, and is instead just a political piece effectively. It's...unfinished at best.
@@MrCobaltScar As far as how enjoyable the song as a song is, I'm completely down to agree to disagree. Like, I personally do enjoy listening to it as just a song in itself, but I can totally get that it's not up a lot of people's alley and I can see where the criticisms of it on a musical level are coming from.
I find this interesting because I don't listen to lyrics or watch the videos so I didn't know it was gay. I just vibed with the sound
I'm a straight, 37yo dude from the UK, and the song still resonated with me.
Being judged & alienated, wanting somebody that may not want you back. Seeing people you care about self destruct while you want to be with them. Hell, even the lines about being told you're loved in private hit me, not caring if it's sincere. Most of my time growing up people would seek me out and befriend me privately, but in public would treat me like dirt bc it was social suicide to be friends with me. Not the same experience, obviously, but it seriously hit for me.
I got no problem singing along and enjoying a gay anthem, but the underlying themes are WAY more universal than the (pun intended) straight reading. That's pretty good for such a direct, short, and personal song.
I genuinely enjoy it too, even if I think Todd is right suggesting it sounds unfinished.
I feel like at this point in his career you really can't ignore Tyler, the creator's sexuality, igor was literally about a relationship with a man and not in subtext, in text. Which is great because it was emotionally genuine and raw and real.
Too be fair that wasn't his initial image so even though he's coming in hot that's like his...fourth album?
@@FreyaEinde it was absolutely in flower boy too, and that came out like, 4 years ago? It's been a big part of his music for a while
“And I wish you would call me by your name, ‘cus I’m sorry.” Tyler did it first.
@@FreyaEinde From "I Ain't Got Time," song off of Flower Boy:
My next line will have 'em like woah / I've been kissing white boys since 2004
@@jacksonsmith2955 Flower boy is literally his fourth album and it didn’t come out at the height of his popularity though, if you wanna compare the two it would be like if he was blatantly out during his Loiter Squad days, which he just was not and that’s understandable because homophobia in hip hop is for really real and the difference a few years has made to that on the cultural front can’t be denied. But you also can’t deny he was way more forthcoming once he was better established, had gone through controversy for homophobic lyrics, and the focus had waned a bit on him. Where as Lil Nas X has never really been in the closet in terms of image. I would say Frank Ocean is also kind of the same in that vein but ultimately the ease of it is because of this particular time it being more acceptable for a Pop star to be queer. So it’s not a knock on Tyler or Frank but it’s also just true that we haven’t seen this like this before.
It's weird how the Extended version sounds more like a full song than the original. That said, as a bisexual 30-year-old, I absolutely love this song.
todd-strodamus strikes again, that little spanish guitar flair after "You live in the dark boy I cannot pretend" is one of the best musical moments all year, period
I fully expect that next January we'll get a segment on the best list where Todd goes "Alright I finally get Call Me By Your Name now"
@@sovietcanuckistanian If we're lucky we might get it sooner on a completely different video.
I by no means want to take away from Lil Nas X or any of the other producers on this song but Omer Fedi is the kingmaker in music right now. He plays the banjo riff (its not a guitar believe it or not) and contributes to the percussion on Montero. He also is behind guitar on Mood by 24K Goldn and contributed heavily to his album El Dorado. He worked with MGK and Travis Barker on the album Tickets to my Downfall. He contributed the guitar on Without You by The Kid Laroi. Montero, Without You, and Mood are all centered around a guitar (or banjo) riff provided by Fedi. I may be overstating his contributions but it feels like anything this kid touches turns to gold right now.
@@ttaka8233 wtf, that was a BANJO? I had no idea! I need to look this dude up yesterday
@@ttaka8233 Holy fuck, what a legend!
The "you live in the dark boy, I cannot pretend" is pretty much a universal gay experience
Yes
not anymore , today you can get cancel and lose your job and bussiness if you do not agree with alphabet people.
@@leejoelbeasley5005 wtf are you talking about hahahahah
@@leejoelbeasley5005 Sir this is a Wendy's.
@@leejoelbeasley5005 sir this is a checkers
"You live in the dark boy"
Todd : "i felt that"
Queer former farm kid in his mid 30s here- having had roughly a year and a half to sit with the album, "Montero" was absolutely groundbreaking when it came out & it's the song that got me to listen to the rest of the album, but it's not the song that I end up gravitating to now- that'd be "Tales of Dominica," which, while still absolutely based on a very common queer experience, is more generally about the emotional experience of leaving a bad situation and not knowing if you're actually escaping or just moving from one routine built around trauma to another.
Wait… yeah I think you just convinced me to go listen to the full album
All the people freaking out now are the children of the people who freaked out with Madonna's "Like A Prayer" came out.
It’s almost like it’s a vicious cycle.
@@M0b1us_118 go in like bobby, end up like michael
In some cases, they're still the same people.
It's so depressing that so many Gen X's were all "you hippies sold out and we are furious"... and then went and did the same.
I have bigger hopes for Millennials and Z's. Especially Z's. Maybe a generation's remove is what it really takes to shift things. Like Millennials (rightly) calling out their grandparent's generation for things like environmental damage and change denial or dominating the house market for investment reasons, leading (at least in part) to unaffordable homes. Maybe the Z's are in a position to say with reason: "You spoke and sang about social injustice - we're actually living calling it out and being who we are"
or... something... let's just conclude Lil Nas X has spoken and is heard
and bops ;-)
@@dontbefatuousjeffrey2494 Every generation claims they're gonna be the ones to save the world and ignores how many of them suck until they can't anymore. By and large, it wasn't "boomers" who marched in Ferguson, or stormed the Capitol. It wasn't even all gen-Xers and up. Plus, I read an article about how the reason every generation tends to get more conservative over time is that the less conservative ones tend to _die sooner._ And I can think of no generation more poised to die early than the one that famously can't even afford the basic necessities of life.
His songs may not be traditional bops but I gotta respect the kid for fucking shit up as much as he has and not losing a wink of sleep.
He's making this "old" millennial proud.
Cause chaos kid.
He's making this dusty 40s-ish punk fan so damn proud, too, tbh.
Really a "BECOME UNGOVERNABLE" moment
His music isn't my taste... but he speaks to my "fight the power" genXer heart.
He's only causing chaos with old folks. His video and songs probably don't faze people 30 or younger.
@@thoomolong exactly. He's screwing with the right people
Same point about Dungeons and Dragons. "Come on, mom, there's demons on the cover because we're going to have an adventure where we kill the demons! What do you want me to do, NOT kill demons? Jeeze"
And so Tieflings were born
To be honest, I asked for the White Stripes' "Get Behind Me Satan" as a teen, and while my parents were never fundies, I got raised eyebrows and had to buy it myself. "But it's based on a Bible quote about expelling demons!"
@@sovietcanuckistanian That was 20 years later
@@B2WM that's a gospel song too lol
If the religious symoblism in the MV wasn't obvious, before the chorus, he literally sings
"If Eve ain't in your garden"
Gee, I wonder what that means
"Minor hits like Panini"
That long literally went platinum tho, I don't think thats a "minor hit."
compared to old town road and montero panini is a minor song which I think is what todd meant
@@ForestGreenSharpie
Todd's point is that Lil Nas X was essentially a one hit wonder. But having a second song go platinum disproves that notion.
@@marctm7614 sure technically panini made lil nas x not a one hit wonder before montero ever came out but look at his one hit wonderland series. theres a ton of artists that are technically not one hit wonders (for example I melt with you never hit the top 40) but still are now
going plat isnt really that hard now with streaming
AY PANINI
DON'T YOU BE A MEANIE
As a lesbian, the unapologetic gayness of the song and its message mean so much to me
Hard same!
agreed!
I’m a lesbian, too, but I’ve never been able to relate to gay men. Honestly, gay male representation has just never meant anything to me. And it seems to me a lot of the time like gay men are everywhere and gay women are just nonexistent.
I liked this song because of the Satan stuff, because I’m a Satanist. The gayness of it didn’t do anything for me. I like Lil Nas X for how much he upsets right-wingers and the way he’s gotten everybody talking about Satan again (Lucien Greaves of The Satanic Temple, my favorite Satanic organization, even got to do this interview for a great Refinery29 article called “Satanism Sounds Pretty Great: Lil Nas X, Satan & Tik Tok” aka “Honestly, Satanism Sounds Pretty Great” because of it) and because he seemingly tweeted support for “Those Who Have Chosen Not to be Mothers” on Mother’s Day :)
I’m a rocker, not normally into pop music at all, but I’ve listened to “Montero” quite a few times just because I like Nas as a person.
@@autumnphillips151 I’ve noticed one place it’s the other way around: animated content. There seems to be a lot more wlw rep than mlm rep. (Legend of Korra, She-Ra, Steven Universe, Owl House, vs ....the gay relationship in Kipo comes to mind)
It's rad
And especially the first couple weeks after it came out, i loved seeing people online defending the message and artistic choices even though many of the people aren't gay and don't even necessarily like the song or whatever.
Like a lot of people just got it
I love Todd's complete and utter confusion throughout this episode, like a Facebook Grandmother trying to understand what Crypto-Currency is
Lil Nas X is a legend in my book for ratioing the hell out of Kaitlin “poo pants” Bennett on Twitter.
"Do you even have a father?"
Me: >
He absolutely dumpstered Poo Poo Bennett. Her only responses were racism and homophobia, really bottom of the barrel shit, and when he clapped back she had no response except to feign outrage.
Todd: "I don't get this because I'm old."
My dad, who came out as bi last year and is substantially older than Todd: "This song is the greatest song in the English language."
Also weird because I'm gay, right around Todd's age and I don't care for it either.
@@罪のアリス Apparently how effective the song is might hinge on whether or not you've been in the relationship described in the song. My dad has, so he thinks it slaps.
"Gay death metal band from Norway."
Todd: Shows Ghaal from Gorgoroth.
The man knows good music.
He got the genre wrong:(
@@dshmk-hd1pf It's close enough. Death metal and black metal aren't too different from each other.
Ghaal is gay though. That part’s right.
@Sam Of course there are differences, but I don't think those differences are too big. One is-generally-going to have more complex notation and the other is more bare-bones and less produced. But even between them, there's quite a bit of overlap.
I still have friends who think Tyler the Creator was just memeing about being gay. Once I told them..."no dead ass he's gay", they went blank, but they still like him. I just laugh because they fought me on it for so long.
As someone who was there for the 80’s, I can honestly say that the Satanic Panic was one of the most hilarious parts of that decade. I, for one, am happy to see its return.
It's genuinely amusing this time around. Of all things to be up in arms over - a talented young guy who knows who the hell he is and disrupting the fuck out of their industry isn't one of them. It's goddamn beautiful!
I have definitely underestimated how reactionary people still are in 2021
Not if it affected how your parents raised you. Then you're the third grade freak who's not allowed to read "Goosebumps."
Eh, what about all the people accused of being devil worshipping peadophiles, and the not inconsiderable number of innocent people who went to prison or had their lives ruined because of the satanic panic. It wasn't all just protests over Ozzy Osbourne and Dungeons and Dragons. People's lives were seriously fucked by the witch hunt.
@@erichobbs4042 I'm happy I didn't have to be the one to say it. Children were brainwashed into thinking their parents were satanists and sexually abusive. Some really fucked up stuff happened due to the ridiculous Satanic panic.
Plot twist: Montero is about Todd and lil Nas's relationship
“You live in the dark” 😳😳😳
Now, THAT is a hottake I can get behind.
@@joshbanner7398 best reply.
That’s so tragic. He’s still not selling anything Todd is buying
Todd: I don't feel it
Me burying myself in the texture of the song: This is the only pop song in recent history I like leave me alone.
I respect the fact that Todd says "I don't feel it, but it's ok because I'm not really supposed to"
"I respect that he sees to know what he's doing even if I don't" is such a powerful line tbh
Todd liking 100 Gecs is one of my favorite things to come out of this video
Based Todd.
Also this is Lil Nas X's best song
For real. They're so fkin good.
Same, he recognizes talent
@@dyldragon1 100%
I'll just say, as a gay person, the song means a lot to me for what it represents. I grew up catholic so I have a very sour relationship with the christian church and it was great to see a gay poc use religious imagery against the people who have weaponized it to make queer kids hate themselves.
I'm sorry that people have attacked you. There are Christians who don't agree with that kind of weaponization
@Brillemeister (This is not an attack so please don’t take it that way) That’s not really the point. LGBTQ+ people are smart enough to realize that the minority is not the group, but that doesn’t magically change our experiences with them. It’s a true statement that the religious factions of this country have for literal decades weaponized their religion against us. Most of us when we were just kids. A “not-all-Christians” statement won’t heal anything or change our perceptions. If you are a Christian and an Ally then that’s great but pointing this out helps no one and only serves to make you feel better. Sorry if that got to intense and I do respect you a ton for being an ally while being religious but please just remember what I said. Thank you.
@@crossedroses4827 To add to this (as a cishet white dude myself), there's a saying I once heard from a random black woman on Twitter and it's stuck with me ever since; "If what's being said doesn't apply to you... we ain't talking about you." I don't have to wade into the discussions with things like "Don't worry, trans people, not all cisgender people are like that" or "Don't worry, black people, not all white people are like this" because I know that I'M not the person being addressed and I can just keep doing my thing and speaking up for them if my voice is absolutely needed in the discourse. At the end of the day; my feelings aren't what matters in this discourse... it's about the people who society has deemed fit to shit all over and trying to do our part to help fix these problems.
Yes, to the whole comment.
@@crossedroses4827 Again, sorry you were hurt. Generalizing helps no one.
I’m glad you’re acknowledging how much this song means to people even if you don’t really get it. Because for the gay community, this has absolutely made waves for us. I’ve never felt so seen by the media i consume until he came out (pun intended) with this, and it feels amazing.
Here's hoping for an equivalent for queer women, for the trans umbrella and the ace/aro spectra real soon.
Yeah, like... I think my first impression of it and the explosion on twitter and how unabashedly gay it was and how it felt like a gay icon was born was sitting there going "this must be how the generation of queer people before me felt when Born This Way came out." Except no, not even, this is way more unabashed and not straight friendly than that. And like, yes, I personally find it super catchy and I really like the lyrics and the craft of it... But it's still clear that it just would not hit the same if I were straight. Like, when I was imagining what this review would be like, I expected exactly this. I expected Todd to basically say "I am straight and way out of my depth." And I'm very glad he is mature enough to see that and say it and admit it; I mean that shouldn't be impressive, but this is TH-cam, so critics saying "I don't get it so it sucks" isn't exactly uncommon. Because yeah, even though the song made me super excited so I really wanted him to talk about it at first, after a while I thought he just wouldn't because he's just not the person who has things to add to this conservation
For me it felt like one of the pieces of queer media that understands queerness in the way that I (a younger lgbt person) feel my own queerness.
same as an nb g3nd3rflu1d bi/pan guy.
I'm not gay but I really do appreciate seeing someone sing a song saying its okay to be gay and they actually are. Its more meaningful then all the straight people singing about how its okay to be yourself though they can't actually understand the struggle. I hope there can be more songs like this. Help push the message that being gay is normal and perfectly okay.
It's one of those songs that you can't see the same way again, after watching its music video
Ur everywhere!
Not really. I was kinda unimpressed.
Don’t hate me but I kind of thought of it as similar to This Is America. You don’t really have a good song without the video.
@@tyefrentzel2602 See, that's where I disagree. But it is a case where the video and the song are very, *very* different. Like, I feel like Take Me to Church is a closer comparison because that's a song where the video is thematically linked but not about the same thing as the song.
But honestly I think I like Montero better without the video.
I have no idea how common the experience is overall, but I can absolutely relate to dating someone in the closet and that being a really destructive relationship for both of you. Sometimes it works out, but most of the time you end up hurt and they end up even further away from acknowledging their own attractions.
stop describing my life 😭
Yeah, this was my dad's experience dating a guy while closeted back in his 20's. To be fair to him, in his home country it's still illegal to be queer and out to this day, so circumstances kind of forced it, but it was still too much of a stressful, hurtful, emotionally taxing, work-intensive, exhausting relationship that it made him go "I can't deal with this again", hence him not coming out until his 70's.
Which is why my boomer dad blasts this song in the car, despite the weird looks it gets him. It speaks to his bi boomer Central Asian lived experience in a huge way despite being written by a gay young black man. It's not a universal queer experience but it's one a lot of people have had.
Todd mentioning he likes 100 gecs gave me the biggest smile ever
I definitely saw him like it them
I had been wondering how he felt about the whole hyper pop trend, but I fuckin love 100 Gecs, and it's cool that he appreciates them as well.
@@burnheal6063 its fun, loud and genuine. Dylan Brady has been part of the scene for years and finally got his break with 100 gecs. I don't think it's contempt because they've been doing it for so long. They're just making the music they want to make without conforming to what the listener wants to hear.
The thing about Montero that I love is that I've heard it actively and passively about 100 times by now, and I don't really get tired or annoyed at it, it's just there, and it's fine. And sometimes I groove to it, sometimes I don't.
Oddly it grows on you. I think the video just purposefully overpowers the song.
A review that is nuanced, personal, and aware of music history. This is why I watch Todd.
I love the fact that he seems to genuinely understand the impact despite not being able to relate to the themes and seeming concerned about how to address that. One of those times where I really see how cool he is
Dude that moment where he said “maybe, as a zoomer who grew up with steaming/Internet, Lil Nas X just experiences music differently” also reminded me why I watch Todd. Really good thing to point out
Hey Todd, I’m a huge Tyler fan and just one thing! As a gay man myself, Tyler wrote verses that hit very hard in an overtly gay way. Igor as an album is actually a story about being the lover of a man masquerading as straight with his girlfriend. It’s very very overt and in fairness Igor hit No. 1 on Billboard too
Lil Nas is more educated than a lot of people think, the whole reason I finally listened to the song is because the inscription in the tree in the video is a section from Platos symposium in attic Greek. He really kinda plays a part to get the attention and it works. The whole opening scene also felt deeply reminiscent of early 20th century avant garde French ballet
This is the worst comment
You do know that pop artist don't make music videos themselves, right? You likely have Tanu Muino to thank for that. Or the set designer, who ever that was.
"Kids these days are too sensitive!"
*Puts on Montero (Call Me By Your Name)*
"Hide the kids! A black man is rapping about homosexuality!"
That's one thing I've been slowly learning about right-wingers like that; it's ALL projection with them.
"Kids these days are too sensitive" who says that? Aren't all those 25 years old farts on twitter? Im a youngster and I honestly make fun of everything. Stop using the internet dude, is rooting your mind.
Maybe it's because I'm an extremely online, young, bi guy, but this has skyrocketed to maybe one of my favourite songs of all time.
- The lyrics are incredibly clever. Not sure what you meant by him not being technically proficient because the lyrics of this song run circles around anyone else at his level of fame right now. I think if this song was just a poem with no melody or video it would still hit so hard. He manages to get across a compelling story, with heartfelt emotion, on an incredibly undiscussed topic, while simultaneously having really clever, thought-provoking word choices, rhyme schemes, and sentence structures. And it’s also just full to the brim with double-entendres, and not just in the "haha that’s about sex" way, but the "this joke about sex is actually also a layered metaphor for his partners spirally depression".
Its also not just about gay sex. It manages to fit in that, a deep insight into the life of this partner, his own biography as a gay, newly famous artist, and a commentary on the relationship between religion and the lgbt community, all into 2 and half minutes of lyrics.
- Saying that though the melody is also a bop. I'm not a music theorist but the way the rhythm keeps shifting, and the kinda strange inflections feel so unlike anything else in an incredibly satisfying way
- And then obviously the video is incredible. Recounting the story of the song, and its themes, in a biblical but extravagantly colourful setting. He, like in the lyrics, uses himself as an analogy to Eve in the garden; told that he's committed a great sin and has to be persecuted for it, when all he was doing was existing authentically as himself with the freedom and knowledge offered by the snake. When he's then murdered for being gay (yep, no one talks enough about how he's murdered in this video) he then decides that because society has told him he should go to hell just for being who he is, that the logical conclusion of that is that he should in fact actively choose hell, if heaven is a place he isn't wanted anyway. Or indeed if heaven is a place these horrible people will supposedly end up in. Even giving Satan a lap dance is layered in metaphor, and killing Satan and taking his crown can be seen as the ultimate act of taking ownership of the world’s perception of gay people.
Honestly everything about this song and video is a masterpiece to me, and will probably be remembered for a long time.
Super eloquent comment, I completely agree!
I also love how so easily comes across as two different voices. How he switches from sounding almost lethargic as “Adam” to be more forceful and raunchy as the snake, his very “good” quiet gay self going against his more “risqué” gay self.
2:33 Wow.....either Todd did his homework or he by chance had the luckiest random draw cause that is Gal from Norway, a black metal singer who is in fact gay.
I mean he could of just googled “gay metal band from Norway”
Todd, to your point about why Lil Nas X’s music feels incomplete and why his approach to music doesn’t seem to fit with conventional notions of pop stardom - this is my take:
Lil Nas X seems more like an influencer who happens to perform music rather than a musician who happens to be an influencer. For this reason, there seems to be more substance in his image, message, and discourse around his music than in the music compositions themselves.
Massive respect to Lil Nas X for being an absolute marketing genius for the second time in a row lmao
for me the hook is that "RO-MAN-TIC, talkin'? You don't even have to try
You're cute enough to fuck with me tonight" bit. I like the slow build up with the latin guitars before it all comes crashing down
Saaaaame! The phrasing of that line is just fucking hilarious and perfect.
Honestly aside from just being proud he is so openly gay in the song, the sensitivity is actually so sweet and verbally romantic in so many lines and really resonates even with my experience being ace. He obviously wants the physicality feels really strongly about this guy, but there's also this strong sense of longing for just the acceptance of the partner, giving yourself to feel something, especially in that final post-chorus. It is just generally a brilliant romantic song, and the religious allusions are incorporated well too.
"his DNA is HTML" is a good line
"His parents are animated gifs" was what got me.
nice pfp, where is it from?
never expected to hear todd acknowledge 100 gecs ever lol
I'd been low-key hoping one of their songs got so big he'd be forced to talk about them in as annoyed a tone as possible
@@royalninja2823 honestly same lol
@@royalninja2823
But 100 gecs are really good tho
When he said "This queer anthem by a black man is not meant for you, Todd" I really wanted him to follow it with "your....name is TODD."
I think montero is designed for you to watch it once, go “what?!” and watch it again immediately. That’s why it’s on the short side, you’ve got to sit through it twice.
At least that’s how I experienced it and I love it
"100 gecs? They're great. I have no problem understanding them."
You're more of a zoomer than I am todd.
I have the mentality of a Gen X’er trapped in the body of a zoomer.
I have struggled to get their appeal for as long as I knew of their existence. It literally doesn't sound like music. gecgecgec is the worst song ever made to me.
@@DJsocial7102 I mean gecgecgec is literally a joke, although I will say I think the two Midi-Hell breakdowns on the album are the worst tracks by far.
I don't even know who 100 gecs is and I was born in 1996.
Isn't Gecs a video game?
“One of these characters has to be straight. Maybe.” As an ex Gleek that made me laugh harder than it should’ve.
Also it took me forever to get Old Town Road cuz the lyrics are actually really sharp and fun which is obscured in a casual listen. The more I thought about it the more I found that I liked it tbh
Most of the time, I first hear new pop songs on the radio, so I like stuff from Lizzo or Dua Lipa, who clearly enunciate, much faster than Billie Elish or Lil Nash X, who just sing too quietly half the time for me to understand what they're saying. It's not that the latter two aren't worth the hype, it's just that I'm a little deaf with the road noises and by the time I recognize Montero's getting into the rhythm section it's over and I end up with what has been called "the greatest Country and Western song ever written" stuck in my head instead. (Which, clearly, wasn't the intended message, but the parentheses portion of the title is just so similar...)
Todd saying that he vibes with 100 gecs is surreal lmao
love the MBV pfp
I think it's because 100gecs does have a 2000's aesthetic that is easier for Todd to relate to (even if the aesthetic is taken to its extremes)
They feel like a semi-continuation of Crystal Castles to me. They immediately made sense in my mind lol
I'm 34 and finally have a song I can jam to WHILE identifying with it.
I came out at 13.
It's been a long time coming. Can't imagine the elation in those older than me.
Lil Nas X is a goddamn hero.
Knowing something isn't for you but still being able to honestly respect it is to me the ultimate in cool.
"Old man yells at could for 14 minutes straight"
Just kidding, Todd. As a bi dude who's lived this song, it's definitely a bop for sure. I'm glad you recognize it's not necessarily bad, it's just not for you. And that's okay.
4:03 Todd you can't just go springing fast-talking abrasive preachers on me like that, it triggers my fight or flight response
tw: evangelicals
When he said "666", I thought he might follow that up with "SOLD to the highest sinner!" like an auctioneer. Would've fit, too.
Yeah that guy's a special kind of crazy.
Oof don’t play that new Isaac dlc then
@@SaltpeterTaffy OMG I snorted. thank you for this morning's laugh
Thanks for talking about the difference bt being “tolerated” and feeling truly accepted or equal, Todd 👍
Having legal rights and feeling free to be yourself are 2 very different things, and as a formerly closeted gay teenager, songs and imagery this explicItly gay being in the mainstream do make a difference, even though a lot of ppl rn don’t seem to understand why. They’d rather complain about 2 guys they saw brazenly holding hands in the street and then wave away their obvious disgust with lgbtq ppl with phrases like “I believe in equal rights” or “I don’t care what you do in the bedroom, just keep it there.”
'but then i remembered that i wasn't in touch with the kids even when i was a kid' that's really relatable when you're 20 but but you're the last person to learn about some new thing your peers are into
I love the song, luckily I managed to grow up in a very loving and accepting household. My girlfriend, however, did not. Even if this song doesn't hit as hard for me as it does for her, it hits so deep. Growing up with people weaponizing the thing they swear "protects" and "loves" you above all else, is devastating. To see it used in a song about this experience and about being gay is so so so so very important.
Gay can be an umbrella term, but for the sake of accuracy I'm compelled to remind people that Frank Ocean, Tyler the Creator, and Lady Gaga are all bi not gay.
And I respect you for that, not just because accuracy is very important to me but also because bi erasure is a serious problem.
@@autumnphillips151 Amen! I'm bisexual myself and the fact that bisexual erasure is alive and well in the musical industry just disgusts me. It's 2021 for fucks sake!
Thank you for mentioning this :)
Yup. And furthermore, David Bowie doesn't deserve to be on the screen when we're talking "are they, aren't they" LGBTQ rock stars -- he was pretty definite about being bisexual, it was everyone else who constantly questioned and poked at it.
I recall the first two didn’t specify anything?
I get the sense from Lil Nas's social media presence that this dude was always gonna make it big, no matter the medium or vehicle. It doesn't matter if he "doesn't seem to even like music" - the kids a star, and you just can't stop that
Hearing Todd fully embrace that this song is not for him feels so good. With how diverse mainstream music is getting, I've grown to love critics that can have a negative opinion while being self-aware of who likes the song and why it's important. It might not garner as much attention as a more extreme opinion, but I bet it'll age way better.
After listening to "Sun Goes Down", it's clear Nas X has a connection to music.
I'd love a follow-up from Todd, just to acknowledge this development
I'm really interested to see what he thinks of Sun Goes Down. It's my favorite song by him so far. Love those moody, emotional, melodic/harmonizing hooks ala Brockhampton/Frank Ocean, and it scratches that itch. Plus I just love the production on it.
I have to say that Frank Ocean is bisexual, not gay. A lot of people forget that bisexual men do in fact, exist.
As for Tyler, with the way he sings and raps about men as of late on his own music but sings and raps about women on features, I think he could be bisexual with a preference for men, or he could be gay.
To my knowledge Frank Ocean never labeled himself clearly? So I tend to refer to him as not straight, cause putting a specific label onto him isn't fair. If you can share with me where he said he's bi please do cause that would be great!
@@thatsdisco Rmemeber Chanel?
Fiore M. He did rap “I’m high and I’m bi” in Oldie
I agree! Bisexual men are particularly erased, so I think it's important to make the distinction.
Also: Michael Stipe is currently in a relationship with a man, but has also dated women, and doesn't call himself gay.
As an ex fundie who gets off on christians flipping shit this has been the best month in my life
Why does “ex-fundamental” always seem to mean going to the exact opposite extreme?
@@ThePa1riot bc it's fun
same here.
@@ThePa1riot laughing at fundies with pissy pants. Is the opposite extreme of thinking some people shouldn't have rights. Good to know.
Something about that 7 EP really clicked for me. It was the rare mainstream pop album I felt I could just sit down and listen to many times, like a Strokes album or something. I thought Holiday was mediocre, but Montero is a massive course correction and since this begins the album cycle, I think I'm gonna really like his debut record
10:50
It is a common gay experience. When marriage and family life and stable employment and housing and spiritual community (!) are systemically denied to you, sometimes drugs and partying are all that's left, the only thing worth living for.
i love lil nas x’s voice. it’s so deep and calm