Country / Pop
Beyoncé:
Act II: Cowboy Carter
These are bold warning shots that Beyoncé fires. While Dolly Parton’s ‘Jolene’ was a sobbing country plea to her rival in 1973, Beyoncé certainly doesn’t mince words in her combative version: fuck off, Jolene. “I’m warning you, don’t come for my man. Don’t take the chance because you think you can.” The message to her competitor – already in ‘Sorry’ (2016) Beyoncé put “Becky with the good hair” on display – is firm: find your own man. Because she may be queen B, but she is still a “creole banjee bitch from Louisianne”. Greetings also from country diva Parton, who introduces the renewed classic with a voice memo: “Hey miss Honey B, it’s Dolly P. You know that hussy with the good hair you sing about? Reminding me of someone I knew back when, except she has flaming locks of auburn hair, bless her heart. Just a hair of a different color but it hurts just the same.”
It was an announcement a week and a half ago with a bitter aftertaste. The arrival of Cowboy Carter, pop star Beyoncé’s eighth album, released on Friday, was activated by an experience “where she did not feel welcome.” This was related to her performance at the American Country Music Awards in 2016. Together with country trio The Chicks (formerly The Dixie Chicks) and many additional musicians, Beyoncé performed the country pop song ‘Daddy Lessons’ from her album Lemonade. It was a glowing performance introduced by New Orleans jazzy horns and a lot of stompin’ & clappin: „Yee-haw, Texas, Texas.”.
Toxic racism
Conservative country fans, however, were having none of it. Beyoncé became the target of toxic racist discontent: as a black superstar, and also a big earner, she had no business in this music genre that originally belonged to the working class. Pure cultural theft by an outsider. Her song was banned by country stations. The Grammys rejected it in the country category, as did Billboard and the Country Music Awards turned a blind eye to its critical audience: it (initially) removed a promo video of the performance.
Instant hits
It is clear that this resistance clearly sparked a fighting spirit in superstar Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter (42) – excellent singer, superb performer with bionic dance qualities, style icon, mother of three. She already showed it in earlier work: Beyoncé deals with those who begrudge her. Why shouldn’t she, born in the country state of Texas, sing country! And more vulnerable: would skin color ever become irrelevant in relation to music?
Immediately after the strategically smart announcement during the much-watched Super Bowl final, she presented two new singles. Yeehawwww, so country. A big step away from the first part of her trilogy, the extravagant disco and dance project Renaissance.
Those singles are instant hits. Country pop single ‘Texas Hold ’em’, in which hoedowns (or line dancing) becoming sexy has been top for weeks Billboard Hot Country Songs-chart list. And also the personal, strong ballad ’16 Carriages’ bad barriers. As a colored and female artist, Beyoncé smashes through the glass country ceiling.
In recent weeks, America has been discussing Beyoncé’s entry into country music again. The ultra-conservative right-wing America continues to persistently dispute that black artists fit into country, a hugely popular music genre in America in which white artists are the mainstay. On the leading country radio station, the stereotype dominates: macho ‘bro-country’ full of six-packs, beer and pick-up trucks, or cloyingly sweet country pop full of broken hearts and infidelity.
Deep connection
In the segregated United States, American pop music has unfairly come to rely on white pioneers. While the roots of country, literally rural music from the southern part of the United States that grew out of American folk music, are also black. There is a deep connection with African-American jazz and blues from the south. See the acoustic instruments. One of the earliest country and bluegrass instruments is the banjo, the West African stringed instrument that came to America through slavery. Or take the narrative form of pure country. There are similarities with how stories were shared in work songs (‘fieldhollers’) and spirituals of the black African-American population during slavery.
Texas cowboy stew
Back to Beyoncé’s album, Cowboy Carter. Because what did she put down? A rich, multicolored ‘Texas cowboy stew’ of no less than 27 songs. Via spoken interludes by celebrated veterans Dolly Parton (“Cowboy Carter, light up this jukejoint!“) and Willie Nelson comes from the country premier league. But don’t expect a magnum opus of country music.
What? An album that draws a bold line under black cowboy culture and creatively blends country with all American music movements. As a fearless rider with overwhelming ambition, Bey has tackled just about anything. There are bluegrass fiddles, banjos and steel guitars. Country pop duets with singer Miley Cyrus and singer Post Malone. She quietly overlays country with southern trap beats (‘Tyrant’), splashes a hint of The Beach Boys’ ‘Good Vibration’ in the steamy soul of ‘YaYa’. The opening ‘American Requiem’ is almost an opera. And then there is a kind of soft country house ‘Riverdance’.
Cowboy Carter let Beyoncé’s voice shine. When the rhythm of the heel of her designer cowboy boot hits the wooden planks, there is a stripped down rustic sound in which she sings beautifully, small with light vibrato with simplicity in her lyrics. But if the bare, elastic electro beat that we know from ‘Formation’, already an ode to her southern roots in 2016, comes back, she will pump things up. Beats, effects, full cream. Beys’ country doesn’t come in pastels, unless they are sweet songs for her children (‘Protector’, ‘Daughter’ including Italian aria)
Black artists in country
She is certainly not the first black pop artist to turn to country. Take Ray Charles. Or Darius Rucker, former frontman of rock band Hootie & the Blowfish. In 2019, Lil Nas
In terms of black women, good old Tina Turner, among others, preceded her in country, which started her solo career (tip: Tina Turns the Country On). The first black woman to perform at the country paradise Grand Ole Opry, Linda Martell, strangely enough, opens hip-hop track ‘Spaghetti’ with the logical observation of how genres are a quite funny concept.
And then Reyna Roberts, a contemporary country singer. She is, together with Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer and Tiera Kennedy, one of the young black country voices with whom Beyoncé sings a harmonically beautiful cover of Beatles favorite ‘Blackbird’. A piece of jewelry. Beyoncé makes her point with this record and at the same time helps the new generation into the saddle.
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2024-03-29 17:41:02
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