Beyonce leaves the Luar fashion show at 154 Scott in Brooklyn during New York Fashion Week on February 13, 2024 in New York City.
James Devaney | GC Images | Getty Images
Country music, meet Cowboy Carter.
Superstar singer-songwriter Beyoncé Knowles is making her foray into country music – taking over a genre that has excluded women of color for a long time, while proving that listeners are showing a robust interest in Black female artists. Her country music era, which kicked off with a Super Bowl business in mid-February and is headlined by her upcoming album, is expanding the industry’s audience and increasing streaming numbers of songs by other Black female country artists.
According to data from American country star Tanner Adell, the variety of plays of her song “Buckle Bunny” within the US increased by 305% in the primary week of March. Spotify. Adell’s next song, “Trailer Park Barbie,” saw a 130% increase in plays, the music streaming company said.
Other Black female country artists equivalent to Mickey Guyton and Reyna Roberts also saw gains, with Knowles’ country song “Daddy Lessons” from her sixth studio pop album “Lemonade” increasing by 540% in streams a day after her two country Spotify reported that the singles were released last month.
According to the famous music magazine, “Texas Hold ‘Em” made her the primary black woman to succeed in primary on Billboard’s Hot Country charts.
This song and her other recent country hit “16 Carriages” might be featured on the show “Act II: Cowboy Carter.” Knowles announced the album’s title on Tuesday post on her website. It follows “Act I: Renaissance” and is the second a part of a three-piece design.
According to New York Times bestselling country songwriter and lecturer Alice Randall, who became the primary black woman to write down a No. 1 song for an artist to chart at No. 1 on the Hot Country charts, the announcement of Knowles’ album was a “watershed moment in history “. , already in 1994.
“Beyoncé is signaling that Black women have been in country music almost since the beginning,” Randall said. “We finally broke through the red line that was keeping us off the charts.”
Breaking into the country
The acceptance of artists of color in country music, nevertheless, stays a challenge – even for Knowles, whose recorded works are mostly classified as pop and R&B.
At least some music critics praised Knowles’ country songs, others fans of the genre he avoided giving a warm welcome.
Two days after the discharge of “Texas Hold ‘Em” – coined as “pop country“a song with elements of folks music by Rhiannon Giddens playing the banjo – in response to the study, pop radio stations played this song 49 times Post X by radio industry tracker US Radio Updater. However, in response to the post, national stations only aired the song twice.
Beyoncé fans – known collectively because the “BeyHive” – called out to a rural Oklahoma station to protest the broadcaster’s initials refusal requests to play “Texas Hold ‘Em.” On one other occasion, a fan reported hearing a radio host comment that although the song is country and the instrumentals are country, “something about it makes me think it’s not country.”
According to the study, of greater than 2,100 artists who played on national radio stations between 2002 and 2020, only about 1.5% were Black in comparison with about 98% of white artists. report from SongData on representation in country music. Other artists of color, including those that identified as Latino, Native American, biracial or Filipino, made up roughly 1% of the artists played.
Not just on radio, Black artists and artists of color represented lower than 4% of country songs played on the radio, on airplay, on the charts, artists signed to major labels and nominated for awards, in response to SongData.
According to SongData, within the areas where artists of color have actually made progress over the twenty years – gaining 3.2 percentage points of song play share – the progress has overwhelmingly benefited artists of color. The report found that of artists of color whose songs received airplay, lower than 3% were by women.
Some observers have argued that resistance to Knowles’ recent music relies on racism and political prejudice.
“Artists of color are releasing great music that sparks great conversations, but it doesn’t change the fundamental limitations and racist format of mainstream country radio,” said Jocelyn Neal, professor and chair of the music department on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Country artists equivalent to Maren Morris, Luke Combs and Kacey Musgraves took a more progressive approach than the standard themes of beer, pickup trucks and country life. Black LGBTQ hip-hop artist Lil Nas X tackled the genre with the country-influenced song “Old Town Road.” The the song became embroiled within the racial debate after being faraway from the Billboard Hot Country chart in 2019 after it was claimed that the song lacked country elements in comparison with other songs on the chart.
Lil Nas X performs on stage during Jingle Ball 2019 on WiLD 94.9 FM at The Masonic Auditorium on December 8, 2019 in San Francisco, California.
Tim Mosenfelder
Neal said political tensions have been rising within the country music industry for a long time as recent and more liberal artists try to maneuver away from the genre’s “conservative” roots. She said the genre’s fan base has long been conservative.
According to NBC News, Knowles – together with superstar Taylor Swift, who’ve mega years in 2023 – received the next percentage of unfavorable rankings from registered Republicans than some other voting demographic, no matter political affiliation, race and age. vote. Of voters surveyed, 34% had an unfavorable opinion of Knowles and 16% had a positive opinion. More than 40% of Republicans were neutral. Among registered Democrats surveyed, just 5% had an unfavorable opinion of Knowles, and greater than half had a positive opinion.
Beyoncé previously had country fans excited after the Houston native’s live performance of “Daddy Lessons” on the 2016 CMA Awards. She was joined by women’s power group The Chicks, which made headlines within the early 2000s for speaking out against then-Republican President George Bush and the US invasion of Iraq.
Younger listeners feeling the Western atmosphere
Beyoncé helps break the country stereotype and invites younger audiences to experience the western genre.
One such fan, 26-year-old Tenley Patterson, stated that she didn’t trouble listening to country music before Beyoncé’s releases, but was impressed by country songs.
“It’s not country music I’ve heard before; it has an edge to it,” Patterson said. “My interest in this species is slowly growing.”
According to music data firm Luminate, the typical country music listener is a baby boomer, or those born between 1946 and 1964, but there is a recent interest among Gen Z listeners – born between 1997 and 2012 – and millennials, in response to According to reports, these are two generations more diverse than older age groups.
According to Luminate, country music overall grew by 20 billion streams, representing a 24% year-over-year increase in 2022-2023.
Spotify’s Nashville team, which tracks the music streaming giant’s country genres, said it has seen an increase in Gen Z and Millennial listeners in response to Knowles’ appearance. Rachel Whitney, the Nashville-based band’s editorial director, said its non-country playlists include Knowles’ country songs, which broadens her reach.
Beyoncé’s draw also increases the visibility of other artists on some lists, equivalent to Lainey Wilson and Cody Johnson, who’ve more “traditional” country songs, Whitney said.
“It’s amazing to see country connecting with younger listeners,” Whitney said. “We can support that with our playlists and make sure we don’t create one specific sound with country.”
(L-R) Beyoncé and Jay-Z attend the 66th GRAMMY Awards on the Crypto.com Arena on February 4, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
Kevin Mazur | Getty Images
Except Knowles pop stars According to Billboard, Lana Del Rey and Post Malone are reportedly preparing to release country albums. News source claims Ed Sheeran may additionally release a domestic project within the near future.
UNC’s Neal, herself a Beyoncé fan, called the star’s profession path pioneering, but said the push for diversity in country music requires multiple superstar.
“Historical evidence suggests that it would take more than one successful artist to move the needle in the 100 years of creating a genre,” Neal said.