Li’l Nas X’s Old Town Road holds the record for most weeks on the Billboard chart. Children know the song, can sing it and dance to it. It has morphed into music videos, gathering guest artists along the way.

Why not find a way for the juggernaut to support media literacy, language arts, group, oral and writing skills? Why not allow students developing those skills to have fun? (Media literacy is fun!)

Old Town Road‘s lyrics are simple and accessible to most students from grade 3. The melody and chorus are simple enough that many students could re-write them to suit their own school environment or social situations.

I re-wrote the lyrics as a birthday gift for a toddler.

To facilitate the process, I created a two-column table, then pasted the lyric into the left column. I then used the left column as a place where I could source words and metre as I created new lyrics in the right column.

I changed as few of the original lyrics as possible to minimize the work load. When I had to, I scanned the original lines and tried to find matching words and accented syllables. This could become a good lesson on language, poetry, pronunciations, etc.

Because Old Town Road repeats several stanzas, one re-write was sufficient to get repeated stanzas and make the job easier. I also chose to ignore the Billy-Ray-Cyrus verses to minimize the number of stanzas and therefore work.

I think that this could be a fun and useful group project that integrates language arts, media literacy, group and oral skills, maybe more. For example, students would likely want to sing their re-write, which they can do using a karaoke version.

Here is my re-write:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Big Boy Walks

by Neil Nas X

 

Yeah, I’m gonna take my bod to the ol’ rec room

I’m gonna dance ’til I can’t no more

I’m gonna take my bod to the ol’ rec room

I’m gonna dance ’til I can’t no more (Cheerio, Cheerio)

 

I got the baby gate in sight

Diaper is attached

Feet are firmly planted

Got the hands clappin’ to match

Walkin’ cross the floor, ha

Dad records me go

I been here before

But it always makes him smile, now

 

Daddy gonna get me somethin’

    Sure to get me somethin’

Mommy gonna get me somethin’

    Sure to get me somethin’

 

Ridin’ on a tractor

Milk all in my bladder

They all call me baby

Yeah they call me baby

My life is a movie

Sunshine, air and birdies

Soft blonde hair and smoothies

Huggies on my booty

 

Daddy gonna get me somethin’

    Sure to get me somethin’

Mommy gonna get me somethin’

    Sure to get me somethin’

 

Yeah, I’m gonna take my bod to the ol’ rec room

I’m gonna dance ’til I can’t no more

I’m gonna take my bod to the ol’ rec room

I’m gonna dance ’til I can’t no more

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

If you would like a Google template (shown below) to help students keep track as they build their new lyrics, click on template. Once students have a finished lyric, you can delete the left column, leaving you with a remixed lyric.

This lesson was written by Neil Andersen. It can be adapted to both Elementary and Secondary classrooms.

If you use this idea, please let us know the results.

associationformedialiteracy at gmail.com