Lil Nas X made history this summer with his single ‘Old Town Road‘ which hit number one on the American billboard charts and stayed there for a record nineteen consecutive weeks, from April to August 2019. This impressive feat wasn’t achieved by Lil Nas X alone, as his single received four different ‘remixes’, each helping to elongate the reign at the top of the charts. The idea of remixing a track is hardly a new concept, but from the way 2019 is going, a remix might be becoming essential to top the charts.

So far in 2019, over 39 weeks, there have been only 10 different songs to hit number one in the US. Of these 10 songs, half of them had remixes released with added guest features to help either guarantee a number one for the artist, or to maintain their chart-topping position. Obviously Lil Nas X was by no means the first artist to ever release multiple remixes of a single song, but his reign over the charts this summer will likely create a trend we’ll see for years to come – unless chart companies change their methods.

Currently on the Billboard and UK Charts, any streams, downloads or purchases of a remix only count towards the chart position of the original track, to avoid cluttering the charts with multiple iterations of the same song. For Lil Nas X, he took advantage of this rule and played the system perfectly. A week after his original solo song had topped the charts, a remix featuring Billy Ray Cyrus was released. A few weeks later the DJ Diplo released a more traditional remix, in the sense that no verses were added, instead he just remixed the instrumental, making the track more club-friendly and attracting another market. Just over two months later, the track was still holding onto the top spot of the charts when the third remix was released, this time featuring rapper Young Thug and viral country star Mason Ramsey. Young Thug is a commercially successful rapper, so his feature was no surprise, but whilst Mason Ramsey may not be as famous an artist, him being the viral ‘Walmart Yodelling Kid‘ guaranteed listens for this remix. By this stage, Lil Nas X had been top of the charts for 14 weeks, still shy of the record for longest number one, but he had one more trick up his sleeve: K-Pop.

The final remix, entitled ‘Seoul Town Road‘ featured South Korean rapper RM of crazily popular K-Pop boyband BTS. This remix brought the attention of BTS’ massive fanbase, as well as bringing in listeners who were less aware of the K-Pop group, who wanted to see what all the fuss was about. This final remix is the shortest of all the remixes, and arguably the least impactful, but it was still enough to drag Lil Nas X into the history books, bringing his time at number one to 19 weeks in total.

Ironically, the previous record was held by another remix: Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s 2017 Reggaeton track, ‘Despacito‘. In the United States, the song initially peaked at number 44 in the charts, but it was only once Justin Bieber hopped onto a remix which helped it skyrocket to the top of the charts.

We’re now in a post-Old Town Road world, (until the inevitable Christmas remixes come along), but Lil Nas X has made a dramatic impact in chart history. The current number one record in America, at the time of writing, is ‘Truth Hurts‘, by rapper Lizzo. The track was released over two years ago, back on September 19, 2017, but with the hype around Lizzo’s 2019 recent album ‘Cuz I Love You‘, her old track became a viral hit. So far there have been three remixes of the song, somewhat following the formula set out by Lil Nas X: a remix from a DJ (CID), a remix with a commercially viable rapper (DaBaby) and then a remix with a K-Pop group (AB6IX). The track has currently been number one for the past four weeks, and whilst I doubt she’ll hold on for as long as Lil Nas X, I’m sure the chain of remixes will keep the track around for a while.

But what do all these remixes mean for us, the listeners? Obviously it can be kinda nice for a hit song to have multiple versions featuring famous guests – Billie Eilish‘s single ‘Bad Guy‘ finally ended Lil Nas X’s reign on August 24, in large part thanks to a remix with Justin Bieber. Whilst Justin Bieber offered fairly little to what was already a good song, I’m sure it satisfied many fans to see the two hugely famous pop-stars collaborate. Over in the UK, we saw Ed Sheeran release the Sir Spyro remix of his Stormzy collaboration ‘Take Me Back To London‘ adding new verses from grime artists Aitch and Jaykae. By adding verses from two newer artists who are rising in popularity, it guaranteed Sheeran more streams and ultimately he was able to secure his eighth number one. That said, the situation was obviously symbiotic, as not only did Sheeran get his number one, but he also gave Aitch and Jaykae a cosign and mainstream platform that they likely wouldn’t have got for some time without this remix.

Conversely, for an artist to be putting their efforts into the continued promotion of an already released track just to reach number one or stay atop the charts for longer, could suggest that they’re not investing as much energy in new musical pursuits. Call me old fashioned, but I’d like a track to top the charts through the high quality of the initial song alone – not because the artist has got a EDM DJ to remix the track / added a verse from the next big rapper / collaborated with a K-Pop group. It is hard to feel that the system isn’t being cheated at the moment, which perhaps indicates a long overdue change to the chart tracking systems is necessary.

As we approach the final three months of 2019, I expect we’ll continue to see more high profile remixes from those keen to top the charts and given that Lizzo’s single has reappeared two years after it’s initial release with this new spate of remixes, I wouldn’t be surprised if artists might shift their focus to reinvigorating older material with hit potential that might have been unappreciated in the past.