April 16, 2025: Kyle Contexts: Musical Crossovers

[Thisweek, my amazing younger son Kyle turns 18! So I wanted to dedicate the week’sblog series to AmericanStudying some Kyle Contexts, leading up to a repeat ofhis excellent Guest Post on the OJ Simpson trial.]

Kyle is abig fan of Kane Brown (whom heand his brother are seeing in concert soon!), and also has a personal playlistthat moves smoothly between hard-core rap, hip hop, and country, so I wanted todedicate this post to highlighting a handful of examples of historic musicalcrossovers:

1)     PoperaPerformances: Perhaps the most striking crossover genre is popera, a formthat combines one of the oldest enduring forms of musical performance with oneof its most overtly contemporary. That hyperlinked last.fm page highlights manyof the individual artists who have embodied this combinatory cultural medium, butI would also note that many popera performances feature duetsbetween artists in each respective genre. Either way, popera representswhat’s possible when genres truly crossover.

2)     Anthrax and Rap: At avery, very different place on the crossover spectrum is Anthrax, a heavy metalband who had been profoundly influenced by rap & hip hop, incorporated thosegenres into their own music, and then produced pioneering collaborations suchas theirsong with rap legends PublicEnemy. Much is (rightly) made of Aerosmithand Run-DMC’s collab, but that a remix of an exiting song, while Anthrax’smultilayered crossovers and collabs were original and to my mind even more groundbreaking.

3)     Jones Jazzes Up Pop: These next two are just individualartists whose music crosses generic boundaries. Jazz and pop have been crossingover since at least LouisArmstrong (and we could say since ScottJoplin himself), but in the 21st century no artist embodies thatcrossover combination better than NorahJones. Through nine studio albums and a great deal more, Jones have broughtthe worlds and audiences of jazz and pop together in groundbreaking ways, creatingprofoundly American music in the process.

4)     LilNas Xplodes: It’s not a hierarchy nor a competition, but I’d say that acrossover between hip hop and country is even more profoundly American (or atleast more rare), though. We’ve seen a variety of such crossover artists aswell as songs in recent years, with Kane Brown himself high on the list. But nohip hop-country crossover artist and song achievedmore success, nor as I wrote in the hyperlinked post at the start of thisentry generated more controversy, than did Lil Nas X and “Old Town Road.” Andhonestly, if he’s making whiteracists mad, he’s doing exactly what crossovers should do.

5)     Parton Rocks Out: This is a simpler one—I justreally love that country (and American, and universal) legendDolly Parton recently releasedan album of rock and roll originals and covers, and by all counts it isphenomenal. Not sure it’ll end up on Kyle’s playlist, but it’s definitely onmine!

Nextcontext tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Lemmeknow any bday wishes I can pass along to my not-so-young man!