Beyoncé, world queen of R’n’B and pop, releases her first album labeled country music, nourished by her native Texas and highlighting the African-American influence in this popular genre with a very conservative image.
From her first female gospel and R’n’B group, Destiny’s Child, to her 2016 hit Daddy LessonsBeyoncé highlighted her native South and the influence of country on her music and style.
The African-American singer, also actress and businesswoman, released Friday at midnight Act II: Cowboy Carter, second part of his trilogy Renaissance.
Born in Houston to a mother from Louisiana and a father from Alabama, Beyoncé, 42, became at the end of February the first black singer to rank a song at the top of the country charts, a very popular musical genre in the USA.
With the success of the simple Texas Hold ‘Empunctuated by the sound of the banjo, and 16 Carriagesunveiled during the Super Bowl on February 11, black country artists hope to benefit from a spotlight.
This musical genre has always permeated the work of Beyoncé, whose global triumph shakes up the traditions of country music rather associated with white and conservative musicians.
Black country, an immemorial genre, but kept aside
According to music historians, the banjo, the original instrument of country, bluegrass or folk music, finds its roots in the Caribbean in the 17th century, played then by slaves, black people deported from Africa to the Americas. Brought to the eastern United States, the banjo was taken up by white populations in Appalachia in the following centuries.
Singer, author, dancer, producer, actress, Beyoncé is today the most successful artist in the history of the Grammy Awards, the awards of the American music industry.
But paradoxically, out of her 32 awards, she has never won best album. A controversy over the lack of diversity that her husband, Jay-Z, refueled by criticizing the music industry during the last Grammy ceremony, on February 5.
Beyoncé was also the victim of racism in 2016 after playing her country song Daddy Lessons at the Country Music Association Awards (CMA Awards).
The criticisms that were aimed at me when I set foot in [le country] forced me to go beyond my own limits, she wrote recently on Instagram. This new album is the result of the challenges I set for myself and the time I took to twist and mix genres.
In 2019, one of the songs of the year, Old Town Road, by rapper Lil Nas Which caused controversy.
Late recognition
As soon as a black musician releases a country song, value judgments, comments and criticisms fly in droves, blasted in the British newspaper The Guardian, folk and blues singer Rhiannon Giddens, featured on the track Texas Hold ‘Em.
She denounced people who try to preserve the nostalgia of a tradition [d’un country] purely white which never existed. In recent years, black musicians have still managed to break into country music, like Mickey Guyton and Brittney Spencer.
A sign of this late recognition, the famous folk and country song by Tracy Chapman, released in 1988, Fast Carwon Best Song 2023 at the CMA Awards, but that was after white singer Luke Combs covered it.
For Charles Hughes, author of the book Country Soul: Making Music and Making Race in the American SouthBeyoncé’s country period is the reclamation of part of her musical identity and her roots in Houston, the cosmopolitan metropolis of Texas.
Over the past 15 years, Beyoncé has really turned to her Texan origins, Mr. Hughes insists, which: “Oh, she can’t do country””,”text”:”has provoked hostility from people saying, “Oh, she can’t do country” provoked hostility from people saying, “Oh, she can’t do country.”
2024-03-28 17:35:14
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