“Many people listening in may not have heard of ‘Choosin’ Texas,’ the Ella Langley song,” Ben Dietz explained, “which just spent its 15th week at number one, tying ‘I Will Always Love You’ for the longest consecutive running number one song by a female artist.”
“Have you heard the song? Had you heard anything but the song for the last six months or so?” he asked.
“I actually searched it up and listened,” international economics major — and Kyle Raymond Fitzpatrick’s former intern — Olivia Choi said. “It definitely sounds familiar. I’ve definitely heard of it like somewhere, but I just couldn’t put a name to the song. I was very surprised to see the records it had set because I’m sure songs that are equally popular I can definitely put the name to the song.”
“That’s a ringing endorsement of Ella Langley and ‘Choosin’ Texas,’” Kyle said.
“I read about Ella Langley in I want to say the New York Times, talking about the idea of Ella fellas, who are straight men who are proudly Ella Langley fans,” Ben said, “and this whole idea around the changing of codes of masculinity for country music fans. That was probably three months ago..Maybe the song hadn’t even gone to number one yet but it was thoroughly in its rise. I looked the song up at that point and listened to it and it’s…fine. I don’t care about it one way or the other, but it was — as a matter of fact, I have a little bit of a hard time understanding how it got to be so big as a pop record because it doesn’t feel like a pop song to me. But irrespective, I looked it up then and it went away and I have not heard it since then, that I can think of. Yet, here it is.”
“It gets to the state of things,” he continued. “Our filter bubbles have become so separated and so deeply held that we live in opposite worlds now. Olivia, I wonder as a young person who is curious and engaged, how much do you feel like you have to get outside your filter bubble? Are you even aware that there is a that you’re in a filter bubble?”
“Do you care?” Kyle asked.
“We’re definitely in filter bubble,” she said. “There’s…something called algorithm. I really like listening to things that are a mix, or if you autoplay any songs. The things that are getting suggested are something based on what I’ve been listening to…Country is definitely not something I usually listen to, which is probably why I’ve never heard of this song before.”
“We all live int he world of algorithms,” she continued. “I know some people who really like everything. For some reason they like everything…But if you’re just living, it’s a little bit hard to escape the filter bubble.”
“You’re right,” Kyle said. “I had heard the name Ella Langley months ago from a friend who is a country fan and I kept hearing about this. I still have not heard it. At this point, I’m going to try to not hear it unless I’m forced or whatever…Let me let me see when it actually gets to me cuz like it hasn’t gotten to me yet — and that I find curious.”
“So you’re a Never Ella"?” Ben asked.
“I’m waiting for the world to reveal it to me because that to me is…I’m not going to participate in the Streisand Effect of it getting bigger because everyone is wondering ‘What the fuck is this?’” Kyle said.
Have you listened to “Choosin’ Texas”? Do you care about any of this? A fascinating subject, which we continue into while exploring young people getting involved in stocks, the kissing lawyers caught on camera, and the confusion of AI creations. Listen above along with on YouTube and or Spotify.
Find more from HIP REPLACEMENT on YouTube, Spotify, and Instagram. Be sure to follow Ben Dietz over on SIC and Kyle Raymond Fitzpatrick over on The Trend Report™ too.
