By MARIA SHERMAN (AP Music Writer)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — First, Beyoncé arrived at the 2024 Grammy Awards in full cowboy attire — making a powerful statement without speaking. Then, during the Super Bowl, she released two hybrid country songs: “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages.” All of this marked the arrival of her latest album, “Act ll: Cowboy Carter,” released on Friday.
As a Black woman reclaiming country music, she opposes the stereotypical connection of the genre with whiteness. “Cowboy Carter” took five years to make, directly stemming from what Beyoncé has referred to as “an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed … and it was very clear that I wasn’t,” likely referring to a 2016 CMAs performance that faced racist backlash.
Fast forward eight years, and last month, she became the first Black woman to top Billboard’s country music chart. The “Cowboy Carter” doesn’t shy away from country: the track list has hinted at potential collaborations with Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson and included a reference to the “Chitlin’ Circuit,” a network of Black entertainment venues in the Jim Crow-era. One song is named “The Linda Martell Show,” after the performer who became the first Black woman to play at the Grand Ole Opry.
Yet, she stated on social media, “This ain’t a Country album. This is a ‘Beyoncé’ album” — in 10 words separating herself from the industry while still identifying herself as someone working in and with the genre.
Beyoncé comes from Houston, a city with a rich mix of “blues and country and hip-hop,” according to Francesca T. Royster, a DePaul University professor and author of “Black Country Music: Listening for Revolutions.”
“The iconography of Texas as a place of freedom and boldness has definitely been part of Beyonce’s continued star image,” Royster says.
Houston is also home to the rodeo, the country’s oldest Black trail ride, and Black cowboy culture — in 1800s Texas, one in four cowhands were Black. Royster says Beyoncé has embraced this history by exploring country sounds, as seen on the country-zydeco-R&B combination in “Daddy Lessons” from 2016’s groundbreaking “Lemonade.”
However, at the time, the Recording Academy rejected its placement in the Grammys’ country categories. “Daddy Lessons” was also not played on country radio, says Alice Randall, author of “My Black Country” and the first Black woman to write a country No. 1 hit in Trisha Yearwood’s “XXX’s and OOO’s (An American Girl).”
The blended approach of “Daddy Lessons” came two years before Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” would raise similar questions about which artists are accepted by the country music industry when they experiment with different styles.
If there is a defining country music moment in Beyoncé’s career to date, it is her performance of “Daddy Lessons” at the 2016 Country Music Awards with The Chicks, six days before Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election.
“The CMAs are an important place to stage and test the ways that the genre is willing to collaborate and connect,” says Royster.
The show usually invites pop artists to perform with country singers in order to attract new audiences. For example, the previous year, Justin Timberlake and Chris Stapleton performed together.
Although critics praised the strong performance, Beyoncé faced racist backlash online and some viewers labelled her as “anti-American.”
Royster says that performing across racial lines was particularly challenging at that time due to the heightened tensions surrounding the election and the unresolved issues with The Chicks.
In 2003, just before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, The Chicks’ Natalie Maines expressed shame in being from the same state as then-President George W. Bush. This led to significant backlash that reflected the preferences of country music during the post-9/11 period. Country radio stopped playing The Chicks' music and instead promoted jingoistic anthems. Amanda Martinez, author of “Gone Country: How Nashville Transformed a Music Genre into a Lifestyle Brand,” explained this.
When they performed with Beyoncé, it marked their first time back at the CMAs.
Beyoncé had aligned herself with the Black Lives Matter movement and performed at the 2016 Super Bowl halftime show surrounded by Black dancers in black leather and black berets, reminiscent of the Black Panthers. Some football fans pledged to #BoycottBeyonce.
For Beyoncé and the Chicks — symbols of progressive politics in a traditionally conservative arena — it was overwhelming. Martinez added that the CMAs were initially very excited to have Beyoncé, but then changed course and removed any mention of her appearance from social media.
Martinez believes that Beyoncé established her dedication to Black empowerment with “Lemonade,” and her previous album, “Act l: Renaissance,” is seen as a way to reclaim House music. On this album, she is reclaiming the Black roots of country music, as evidenced by the inclusion of banjoist Rhiannon Giddens, who highlights the contributions of Black Americans in folk and country music through her music and scholarship.
Martinez sees Beyoncé’s direct predecessors in Martell, The Pointer Sisters, and Tina Turner’s 1974 country album. She also sees a present-day counterpart in up-and-comer Tanner Adell, who sings, “looking like Beyoncé with a lasso,” on her 2023 single “Buckle Bunny.”
“16 Carriages,” which draws from gospel country and Beyoncé’s rich ballad repertoire, engages in a dialogue with Johnny Cash’s “16 Tons,” according to Randall.
According to Randall, the elusive origins of country music revolve around three influences: Celtic ballad storytelling, African influences, and evangelical Christianity.
She points out that country music cannot exist without Black influences. For instance, Hank Williams’ mentor was a Black musician named Rufus “Tee Tot” Payne, and The Carter Family, an American folk group, learned from Lesley Riddle, a Black musician.
The lack of visibility of Black musicians in the genre contributes to prevailing stereotypes. For example, Martell’s influential and successful 1970 album “Color Me Country” was overshadowed by her label diverting resources to a white performer instead.
That applies to songwriters too. “I have a word I use: as a songwriter, you can go ‘incog-negro.’ No one knows you're Black when they're listening to a song. I was writing songs about the Black experience, but I was incog-negro,” Randall says, using Charley Pride as an example. “They did not let his audience know he was Black until he was popular.”
When you add gender to the situation, “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 wielded a lot of power over ‘what country music is,’” says Martinez. Beyoncé is not bound by those forces.
“Beyoncé is Black, so she can be seen as an outsider,” she says. “But she says, ‘This ain’t a country album.’ I think that this speaks to the distinction between country music as an art form without boundaries, and the industry of country music.”
Randall agrees: “The songs that have been released preserve the best of country and take country to places it has never been.”
“Evolving and preserving is a facet of the genius of Beyoncé,” she says.
