A change of musical direction has the potential to either make or break an artist.
Ahead of the release of Beyoncé’s eighth studio album Cowboy Carter, there has been mixed feedback about her new sonic pivot. Is Queen Bey risking her entire music career to go country? The two singles released so far Texas Hold ‘Em and 16 Carriages have not only been a commercial success, but her foray into this new genre has ignited excitement surrounding country music and the culture associated with it.
Case in point, Google searches performed globally have enjoyed the Cowboy Carter effect with searches for cowboy boots increasing by 163% and searches for cowboy hats receiving a yee-ha-worthy increase of 215.5% after Beyoncé’s Super Bowl commercial was aired. What a rootin’ tootin’ revelation!
Of course, this is not Beyoncé’s first rodeo when it comes to the country music scene. The former Destiny’s Child singer’s song Daddy Lessons from her 2016 album Lemonade was rejected by the Grammys Academy when the track was put forward for the country category.
With Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé has been met with some resistance from the country music scene as well as receiving criticism from controversial singer Azealia Banks, calling Beyoncé’s venture into the country music scene ‘narcissistic.’
Singer-songwriter Erykah Badu has also alluded to her displeasure, posting a message to Bey’s husband Jay Z on Instagram saying: ‘To Jay Z . Say somethin Jay. You gone let this woman and these bees do this to me ?? 😆.’
A tad harsh, but is it right to question the motives of artists like Beyoncé and alt-pop artist Lana Del Rey who has also announced her plans to release a country music album later this year?
As an international R&B icon, Beyoncé pivoted into the dance music genre with her album Renaissance which paid homage to the Black and Black queer pioneers of the aforementioned genres, and that sparked yet another debate about which music category this album belonged to.
While R&B is a musical genre that was developed by Black Americans in the 1940s, over the last five decades it has seen white artists flourish within its arena. It certainly feels like race and skin colour are less of a talking point and that it’s a more welcoming world than country.
With Renaissance, Beyoncé was largely celebrated and commended for her bold move into a new genre and generally the album was very well received based on its music.
The singer herself has revealed that Cowboy Carter was inspired by backlash to her entering country genre. This project was ‘born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed,’ she explained.
Cowboy Carter is the second instalment of a three-part musical project that started with the release of her 2022 dance music album, Renaissance, and many believe it is her powerful attempt to reclaim genres of music that were originally pioneered by Black artists.
Another artist leading the country-inspired charge is Lil Nas X who fused country and rap with his debut single Old Town Road in 2019, catapulting country rap into the mainstream with glitter and Stetsons. However, it sparked a debate over whether Old Town Road should be classified as country music with the US Billboard charts removing the song from its country chart, citing that it did not ‘embrace enough elements of today’s country music to chart in its current version’ but that ‘Lil Nas X’s race played no part in their decision’.
For the Billboard chart and many of the artist’s haters, Lil Nas X doesn’t belong in the country charts. But why is there such staunch gatekeeping to ‘protecting’ what they deem to be country music? Had Lil Nas X not been a person of colour, would this have had the same outcome? Colour and race shouldn’t be a discussion point in 2024, but it certainly feels like country music is primarily associated with white artists despite its origins having always drawn heavily on African American musical influences, particularly blues and bluegrass.
Lil Nas X had the last laugh, as Old Town Road eventually attained a position of No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and achieved stratospheric levels of virality, but the debate represents a gulf within country music.
When Beyoncé released her two lead singles Texas Hold ‘Em and 16 Carriages, Black country artists said they hoped her coming album would bring more exposure to Black country music.
This seems to have had the desired effect with X user Indie Christina musing: ‘This is a bop. The Cowboy Carter effect led me to seek other young Black country artists. Let’s go!’
Instagrammer Lauren Jade is also excited for the album saying that she thinks it’s ‘brilliant that she’s leaning into the discomfort of oppression and racism (based on her experiences) and she’s going to absolutely smash it’.
However, Reddit user Kdb224 is less of a fan stating that ‘it just sounds corny and coming from a country fan I’d never even consider it country.’
Despite the commercial success, not all of the critics have been impressed. The Washington Post called Bey’s two flagship singles a ‘wrong turn’ and ‘dull, dry, unimaginative, unnecessary, unconfident and uncool’. Ouch. An Oklahoma radio station refused to play Texas Hold ‘Em, although this decision was eventually overturned.
Robin Murray, Editor of music magazine Clash and author of the music book Listen to This If You Love Great Music: A critical curation of 100 essential albums thinks that Cowboy Carter is a ‘risky move’.
He says: ‘Beyonce hails from Texas, and her decision to honour Black southern traditions comes from a place of purity – with the album, we see a rise in conversations around Black musicians within country music, and the Black rodeo circuit.
‘That said, it feels much riskier than her first Renaissance album, which focused on house music. There are ingrained attitudes within society about what country should and should not be, while the sound itself feels much further from her core fan base than, say, house music.
‘Blending this into her own potent sound is complex – as she says, it’s not a country album, it’s a Beyonce album. It’ll be interesting to see how her work is accepted and interpreted by different audiences.’
Arguably this music contribution by Beyoncé will only elevate awareness of country music as she is one of the biggest names in the music industry, right? The undisputable Queen of Country Dolly Parton has Beyoncé’s back, making it well and truly known that she would like her to cover her seminal track Jolene, and it appears she does – Jolene appears on the newly-released tracklisting and features the buxom blonde country legend, too. Willie Nelson also makes an appearance, so she’s got the backing of the genre’s most elite, even if the wider fanbase has issues with her stepping over the threshold.
However, despite being the first woman of colour to dominate and subsequently hold the number one single on the Hot Country Songs chart in the USA, Beyoncé is not willing to define her latest album as simply just a country album, perhaps to avoid being held to arbitrary genre expectations, instead insisting that: ‘This ain’t a Country album. This is a “Beyoncé” album.’
She went on to say: ‘This album has been over five years in the making… It feels good to see how music can unite so many people around the world, while also amplifying the voices of some of the people who have dedicated so much of their lives educating on our musical history. The criticisms I faced when I first entered this genre forced me to propel past the limitations that were put on me. Act II is a result of challenging myself, and taking my time to bend and blend genres together to create this body of work. I hope that you can hear my heart and soul, and all the love and passion that I poured into every detail and every sound. I focused on this album as a continuation of RENAISSANCE…I hope this music is an experience, creating another journey where you can close your eyes, start from the beginning and never stop.’
Beyoncé should be free to create whatever art she wants, but will her new album be a hell-yeah from her fans or will it be a risk that doesn’t pay off?
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