Beyoncé’s COWBOY CARTER Is a Masterclass in American Music History

Sun Noor
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The post Beyoncé’s COWBOY CARTER Is a Masterclass in American Music History appeared first on Consequence.

“Genres are a funny little concept, aren’t they?” says Black country star Linda Martell on “SPAGHETTII,” a track from Beyoncé’s audacious new album, COWBOY CARTER. “In theory, they have a simple definition that’s easy to understand. But in practice, well, some may feel confined.”

COWBOY CARTER is, in part, an album-length exploration of that tension. More than that, it sets up the new entry in the Renaissance Trilogy as a testament to both the music that made Beyoncé and the Black pioneers that helped shape American music.

Renaissance celebrated house music, ballroom culture, and its Black and queer origins, as Beyoncé sought out joy and liberation on the dance floor. Here, Beyoncé’s Texas upbringing is one reference point. But her critique of country music — and COWBOY CARTER is part critique — is rooted in the way some country fans responded to the Lemonade country cut, “Daddy’s Lessons.”

The pop star confirmed that Renaissance ACT II was “born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed,” referring to her performance of “Daddy’s Lessons” at the 2016 CMA Awards with fellow Texans The Chicks. According to The Tennessean, the top-voted comment of every CMA Facebook post about the performance expressed disappointment, with one user accusing her of peddling “filth” while “destroying the image of country music.” Coming just one year after the sexist “tomato-gate” controversy, the CMA performance further opened the conversation about who country’s gatekeepers and fans would allow within the genre.

Country has evolved since then — though not as fast as its critics would like — while “Daddy’s Lessons” came to be seen as the first shot fired in the “Black Yeehaw” revolution. One social media trend pushed Black youth to reclaim their identity through a series of photos and videos inspired by Lemonade visuals and Solange’s When I Get Home. Already, COWBOY CARTER feels like the culmination of that journey, and with lead single “Texas Hold Em,” Beyoncé made history as the first Black woman to reach No. 1 on the country charts.

None of this would seem significant if the album flopped, but that’s not the case. COWBOY CARTER emerged out of frustration as a dense, incredibly layered love letter to the South, as well as a picture of a music genre born of clashing cultures. The album’s epic opener, “AMERIICAN REQUIEM,” is a heavenly gospel that explicitly addresses the noise: “Used to say I was ‘too country’/ Then the rejection came, said I wasn’t country enough,” she sings, adding, “If that ain’t country, tell me what it is?”

Resilient as ever, Beyoncé refuses to let those frustrations get the best of her. “They won’t dim my light, all these years I fight,” she chants on “16 CARRIAGES,” reflecting on her arduous journey towards superstardom and the stress of mom-life on the road. “PROTECTOR,” which features a cameo from her daughter Rumi Carter, is another gorgeous ode to parenthood. And she’s lost none of her sass. She spits, “AOTY I ain’t win/ I ain’t stuntin’ ‘bout them/ Take that shit on the chin/ Come back and fuck up the pen,” on “SWEET ★ HONEY ★ BUCKIIN,” firing back at the Recording Academy, who have yet to award her with an Album of the Year Grammy, despite being the most awarded artist in history.

Beyoncé directs the spotlight towards Black artists throughout the album In the sketch “SMOKE HOUR” featuring Willie Nelson, Renaissance’s KNTY Radio becomes KNTRY Radio, flipping through snippets of classic tunes including the spiritual “Down by the Riverside” by Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Chuck Berry’s “Maybellene,” and Delta blues pioneer Son House’s “Grinnin’ in Your Face.” Nearly every track has multiple Black authors, if not singing or rapping, then behind the bords in the form of songwriters and producers Pharrell, No ID, Raphael Saadiq, Stevie Wonder, Jon Batiste, and Gary Clark, Jr.

But prominently, and almost certainly intentionally, the only two covers were written by a couple of white artists, The Beatles and Dolly Parton. “BLACKBIIRD,” a Paul McCartney classic penned in tribute to the Little Rock Nine, is here reclaimed for a new generation of Black women, led by Bey and including Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy, and Reyna Roberts. And “Jolene,” which includes Parton herself cracking about “That hussy with the good hair,” comes with a few new lyrics that tweak the tone from plea to warning. In both cases, she’s doing what so many white superstars have done with Black music over the years: interpreting great music through her own life and experiences.

A similar idea may have inspired her to collaborate with Miley Cyrus, another genre-flexible superstar. Their duet “II MOST WANTED” is a vocal showstopper, with world-class mixing that allows the two very different instruments to each shine at different times. (However, it’s hard to come up for any explanation for the presence of Post Malone, and his contribution to “LEVII’S JEANS” is one of the album’s few missteps.)

Beyoncé’s mission to lift Black artists goes hand-in-hand with the way she celebrates The Beatles and Dolly Parton. “My hope is that years from now, the mention of an artist’s race, as it relates to releasing genres of music, will be irrelevant,” she said in a social media post. Far from “destroying the image of country music,” COWBOY CARTER opens it for everyone.

The record ends with “AMEN,” which answers why COWBOY CARTER feels so much less angry than Lemonade, even though it’s coming from a feeling of rejection and betrayal. “Mercy on me,” she sings, “Mercy, have mercy on me.” Beyoncé isn’t focused on the people who’ve wronged her, but mediating instead on her own attempts to be a better person, her own need for grace.

Renaissance Act II ends with a funeral:

Say a prayer for what has been
We’ll be the ones to purify our Fathers’ sins
American Requiem
Them old ideas are buried here
Amen

COWBOY CARTER is a worthy entry in an ambitious trilogy, but it isn’t a country album. It’s a Beyoncé album, and what that means keeps getting bigger.

Beyoncé’s COWBOY CARTER Is a Masterclass in American Music History
Sun Noor

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