Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” reaffirms her commitment to Black reclamation and country music

LOS ANGELES — First Beyoncé got here to Grammy Awards 2024 in full cowboy regalia – making a press release without saying a word. Then she fell in the course of the Super Bowl two hybrid country songs: “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Coaches”. All this heralded her latest album, “Act ll: Cowboy Carter,” which will probably be released on Friday.

As a black woman reclaiming country music, she defies stereotypical associations species with white. “Cowboy Carter” took five years to make, a direct results of what Beyoncé called “an experience I had many years ago where I didn’t feel welcome… and it was very clear that I wasn’t,” most probably a post-performance reference CMAs in 2016, which sparked a racist backlash.

Fast forward eight years and last month she became the primary black woman to ever top the Billboard charts country music chart. ‘Cowboy Carter’ doesn’t draw back from country: the tracklist teases potential collaborations with Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson and contained a mention from the “Chitlin’ Circuit”, a sequence of black entertainment venues in the course of the Jim Crow era. One of the songs is titled “The Linda Martell Show” after the performer who was the primary black woman to play on the Grand Ole Opry.

Nevertheless, she stated on social media: “This is not a country album. It’s a ‘Beyoncé’ album” – in 10 words, she separates herself from the industry while also identifying as someone working in and with this genre.

Beyoncé comes from Houston, a city with a wealthy musical interplay of “blues, country and hip-hop,” says Francesca T. Royster, a professor at DePaul University and creator of the book “Black Country Music: Listening for Revolutions.”

“The iconography of Texas as a place of freedom and boldness – these ideas have certainly become part of Beyonce’s lasting image as a star,” Royster says.

Houston can be home on the rodeo, the country’s oldest black trail ride and black cowboy culture – in nineteenth century Texas, one in 4 shepherds they were black. Royster says Beyoncé inherited this history by exploring country sounds, as evidenced by her album “Daddy Lessons” from The breakthrough “Lemonade” from 2016.

However, the Recording Academy rejected its inclusion on the time Grammy national categories. “Daddy Lessons” also didn’t play on country radio, says Alice Randall, creator of “My Black Country” and the primary black woman to write a No. 1 hit in country with Trisha Yearwood’s “XXX’s and OOO’s (An American Girl).”

The hybrid approach of “Daddy’s Lessons” had appeared two years earlier “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X would raise similar questions on what sorts of artists are accepted by the country music industry as they experiment with different styles.

If there’s been a shining moment in Beyoncé’s country music profession up to now, it’s her performance of “Daddy Lessons” on Country Music Awards 2016 with The Chicks, six days before Donald Trump won the US presidential election.

“The CMA is an important place to showcase and test the ways in which members of a species choose to collaborate and connect,” says Royster.

The awards show usually features pop musicians who perform alongside country bands in an attempt to reach latest audiences: Justin Timberlake and Chris Stapleton performed together the yr before.

Critics praised the stunning performance, but Beyoncé faced racist backlash online, with some viewers labeling her “anti-American.”

“It was an especially difficult time for racial transgression due to the heightened tension around the election and the unresolved tension within The Chicks,” Royster says.

In 2003, just before the United States invaded Iraq, Chicks Natalie Maines stated that they were ashamed to be from the identical state as then-President George W. Bush. There was an enormous backlash that “reflected the kind of preference that country music was moving towards in the post-9/11 moment when country radio rejected The Chicks, stopped playing their music and instead played these chauvinistic anthems and helped popularize them,” says Amanda Martinez. creator of the upcoming book “Gone from the Country: How Nashville Transformed a Music Genre into a Lifestyle Brand.”

When they joined Beyoncé, it was their first return to the CMAs.

Beyoncé became involved with the Black Lives Matter movement and performed in the course of the 2016 Super Bowl halftime show surrounded by black dancers in black leather and black berets, paying homage to the Black Panthers. Some soccer fans vowed to #BoycottBeyonce.

For Beyoncé and the Chicks – symbols of progressive politics in a historically conservative scene – “it was just too much,” says Martinez, adding that the CMAs were very excited to get Beyoncé, then quickly reversed course, removing any mention of her appearance in social media.

If “Lemonade” cemented Beyoncé’s commitment to Black empowerment and her latest album, “Act I: Renaissance” is seen as an exercise in house music recovery, on this album, he “reclaims the black roots of country music,” says Martinez. The inclusion of the banjoist is proof of this Rhiannon Giddenswhich music and science emphasize contributions of Black Americans in folk and country.

Martinez sees Beyoncé’s direct predecessors in Martell, The Pointer Sisters and Tina Turner The 1974 country album – and current album by the rising Tanner Adell, who sings “looking like Beyoncé with a lasso” on his 2023 single “Buckle Bunny.”

“16 Carriages,” drawing from gospel country and Beyoncé’s extensive ballad repertoire, functions “in conversation with (Johnny Cash’s) 16 Tons,” says Randall.

According to Randall, the indefinable origins of country music center on three forms: Celtic ballad stories, African influences and evangelical Christianity.

“Country music can’t be country music without Black influence,” he says, noting that Hank Williams was mentored by a Black musician from Alabama named Rufus “Tee Tot” Payne and that American folk group The Carter Family learned from Lesley Riddle.

The lack of visibility of black musicians on this genre also contributes to the prevailing stereotypes: Martell’s breakthrough album from 1970, “Color Me Country” was hugely influential and successful – just for her label to eliminate her and divert resources to a white artist as a substitute.

This also applies to songwriters. “There’s a word I use: as a songwriter, you can say ‘incog-negro.’ No one knows you’re black when they hear the song. I wrote songs about the Black experience, but I was incog-negro,” Randall says Charley’s pride for instance. “They didn’t let their viewers know he was black until he became popular.”

Add gender to the equation and “small towns are smaller for black girls,” she says. “And Music Row is a small town.”

“Country music has a rigid, centralized power structure that has a lot of power over what country music is,” Martinez says. Beyoncé isn’t depending on these forces.

“Beyoncé is black, so she can be seen as an outsider,” he says. “But she says, ‘It’s not a country album.’ “I think it speaks to the distinction between country music as a borderless art form and the country music industry.”

Randall agrees: “The songs that have been released take the best of country and take it to places it’s never been.”

“Evolution and behavior is part of Beyoncé’s genius,” he says.