“‘Choose Texas’? I’ve never heard of it.”
This sentiment became a common refrain when Ella Langley’s hit country song topped the chart. Billboard Hot 100 all summer and finally passed Mariah Carey to set the record for longest-running number one in the chart’s history. Even Doja Cat pretended to be in the dark. “I don’t know what it is,” she replied when asked about Langley. Despite what seems like ubiquity to some, others continue to insist that they’ve never heard “Choosin’ Texas.” And if they’re on social media, they’ll be sure to let you know.
There are, as always, logical explanations for such a phenomenon. In our algorithm-driven age, it’s entirely possible to design a curated world in which you never encounter “Choosin’ Texas”: you don’t interact with country content, you don’t listen to country playlists, you don’t even take off your headphones when you walk into a coffee shop if the noise comes out of the speakers. The era of radio hits about monoculture is over. Shared experiences are rare.
This lack of monoculture partly explains why some were reluctant to declare “Choosin’ Texas” the song of the summer when it was clear there was no viable competition (at least in terms of the charts). We are all experiencing different summers at parallel times, with social media only telling us what we want to hear and see. If you want to live in a silo, rent is free.
At this point, however, if someone claims to have never heard of “Choosin’ Texas” or Langley, that may say more about the listener than the song. Or, for that matter, what they want to project to the world. With incessant media coverage as well as a presence in charts and playlists, it’s quite difficult to still claim complete ignorance on this subject. Perhaps there’s a deeper reason why people say they haven’t heard the song and feel the need to get it out there: cultural cachet.
Country music fans know this well. We are so used to hearing the qualifier “I listen to anything but country music” to signal class and taste that it has become a touchstone in sociological studies of music. As Nadine Hubbs writes in the book Rednecks, Queers and Country Music“distance from country music can help define a person as middle class individualwhich is precisely a question of distinguishing oneself from the tastes, characteristics and people of the working masses.” It is often shorthand for liberal politics and a way to separate oneself from anything that might be associated with rural or Southern stereotypes. “I’ve Never Heard of ‘Choosin’ Texas’” is the “I Listen to Everything But Country” of 2026.
It may seem harmless. Like what you like, right? But continuing to dismiss a gender only fuels stereotypes that many have worked tirelessly to undo, and reinforces and empowers those that are deserved. Some of that was exposed last week when people started digging up old hunting photos of Langley and using them as proof that she’s MAGA (Langley hasn’t spoken about her personal politics). But being a hunter or outdoorsman does not in itself indicate partisan beliefs—assuming that it does is another way we have come to misunderstand rural traditions and the people who practice them.
So, maybe “I’ve never heard of ‘Choosin Texas'” isn’t quite the flexibility some people think. Instead of pretending to ignore the song on social media, why not try a quick Google search. It might just open up your algorithm – and your mind too.
Gn entert
