Beyonce, Christmas, Jay-Z, Diddy, and the NFL
On Christmas Day 2024, BeyoncĂ© was the halftime entertainment during Netflix’s broadcast of the NFL game pitting the Baltimore Ravens against the Houston Texans. You probably already knew this though. It’s was kind of unavoidable, even if you wanted to avoided it.
They called it the “BeyoncĂ© Bowl,” and it was promoted as BeyoncĂ©’s first live performance of the music from her supposed “country” album, Cowboy Carter. But of course, Cowboy Carter is not a country album, at least, not according to BeyoncĂ© herself. And the performance wasn’t live, aside from the mic cutting on between songs for banter, and the dancing. The entirety of the music and the singing was all pre-recorded and lip synced, and not even in a particularly convincing manner.
The first 3 minutes and 15 seconds of the performance also appeared to have been pre-recorded in its entirety in the bowels of NRG Stadium in BeyoncĂ© hometown of Houston. Post Malone and Shaboozey also appeared in the presentation, as well as Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy, and Reyna Roberts on the song “Blackbiird.”
But anyone expecting a live performance or a country show was fooling themselves to begin with. This is a football halftime performance on Christmas. Of course it’s going to be all about choreographed dance routines full of gesticulations and pageantry. And for this sort of presentation, it probably was a pretty good one, no matter what your racist aunt took to X/Twitter to say.
It better have been good since Netflix reportedly paid Beyoncé $20 million for the 13-minute performance as part of a deal totaling $60 million for three appearances on the format. The first appearance by Beyoncé on Netflix was her concert documentary Homecoming: A Film by Beyonce from 2019 when the deal was first struck.
Aside from opinions on the performance itself, in hindsight, BeyoncĂ©’s appearance and the reported $20 million dollar deal might have much greater implications. Irrespective of what you’ve heard about the commercial performance of the Cowboy Carter album and its cultural impact, the project has been perhaps the biggest flop from a major pop star in modern music history, especially considering Billboard recently named BeyoncĂ© “The Greatest Pop Star of the 21st Century.”
Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter fell to #50 in the albums charts in just 13 weeks, and out of the Billboard 200 completely after 28 weeks. Comparing its performance to other albums in 2024 illustrates the incredible drop off for the album, despite the overwhelming praise for it in the media throughout the year.
Part of the reason for the precipitous fall for Cowboy Carter beyond the lack of resonance for the music itself has been the sheer lack of promotion for the album. As some are hypothesizing now, it could be that BeyoncĂ© is contractually obligated to not participate in any other visual media or publicly broadcast performances while she’s still a party to the Netflix deal.
Ever since Cowboy Carter was released on March 29th, fans have been anticipating the release of videos or other public appearances by Beyoncé that never materialized. There was an entire media cycle of rumors that Beyoncé would perform at the Democratic National Convention in August. She never did. Much was made when Beyoncé finally appeared at a rally for the Presidential campaign for Kamala Harris on October 25th. But strangely, Beyoncé did not sing or perform.
The $60 million Netflix deal very well might be the reason for all of this. Publicly, BeyoncĂ© has simply stated she does not feel the need to promote her music anymore, and that it should stand on its own. But since releasing Cowboy Carter, she has taken time to promote a new whiskey brand, as well as a participating in a Levi’s jeans promotion. So she is willing to promote alcohol and a clothing company, but not her own music? And then of course she did eventually perform on Christmas.
Though generally well-received, the Christmas performance also felt like it was too little, too late for taking Cowboy Carter to the next level. An estimated 27 million people witnessed BeyoncĂ©’s Christmas halftime performance, proving that perhaps Netflix got their money’s worth. But all Cowboy Carter could muster as a bump coming out of the performance was re-emerging at #139 on the Billboard 200, with 5,799 units total in sales and streaming equivalents over the next week.
Meanwhile, all of this is occurring while there’s the specter of the deep investigation into Diddy, and the potential ties to BeyoncĂ© and her husband Jay-Z happening on a split screen. Jay-Z has been accused of participating in the rape of a 13-year-old as part of the broader investigation and flurry of civil lawsuits against Diddy. Jay-Z denies the accusations, but continues to be stymied in his efforts to throw the case out of the courts.
Two days after BeyoncĂ©’s Christmas performance, Billboard published two separate articles almost simultaneously, illustrating the split-screen nature of hip-hop’s power couple.
The NFL plays a pivotal role in all of this. BeyoncĂ© announced the first singles from Cowboy Carter as part of a 60-second Verizon commercial that aired during the 2024 Super Bowl on February 11th, 2024. Instead of releasing a statement himself when the rape accusations emerged against Jay-Z, the rapper did so through his production company Roc Nation. Roc Nation currently is under contract with the NFL to produce the Super Bowl’s halftime performances.
During BeyoncĂ©’s halftime performance on Christmas, some took to social media to criticize her for choosing to make the attire of herself and her backup dancers all white. This called to mind Diddy’s notorious “White Parties” held on Labor Day annually for many years that both BeyoncĂ© and Jay-Z have been confirmed attending. These events ultimately led to the alleged “freak off” sex parties where underage girls and boys were trafficked and sexually abused.
But the idea that BeyoncĂ© chose white costumes to somehow call to mind or even show solidarity with Diddy who right now who is in jail in New York is patently ludicrous. The more obvious reason is that white is associated with Christmas. It’s just as ludicrous as saying Jason Aldean shot the video for his song “Try That In A Small Town” in front of a Tennessee court house where the was once a lynching on purpose. However, the latter accusations made it into dozens of mainstream news stories. The concern for BeyoncĂ©’s white costumes didn’t.
But the viral concern for BeyoncĂ©’s attire does underscore how tenuous everything feels as the public waits for the next shoe to fall in both the Diddy investigation, as well as the Jay-Z rape case. Meanwhile, the NFL is holding pat on keeping Jay-Z as a partner for planning all Super Bowl halftime performances indefinitely.
2025 will mark 31 years since country music was featured prominently in the Super Bowl halftime show, even as country continues to be the most popular genre in music at the moment—so popular you have performers like BeyoncĂ© and Post Malone making “country” albums almost like exploitation films. Over the last few years, at least country performers have been allowed to sing the National Anthem. In 2025, it will be Jon Batiste.
Jay-Z is innocent until proven guilty, and so is Diddy. And so far, BeyoncĂ© hasn’t been accused of any inappropriate behavior. But as many have pointed out, Jay-Z met BeyoncĂ© when she was only 16, and they were close enough to the Diddy circle to at least have known or heard about what was going on. So why didn’t they say anything, and why haven’t they publicly distanced or spoken out about the alleged behavior?
Meanwhile, the story that many in the media are telling at the end of 2025 is how major pop stars like BeyoncĂ© have completely flipped the script in country music. But that’s the truth they want to forward as opposed to what you see in real life. In truth, traditional country and more roosty music continues to surge in popularity, while projects like BeyoncĂ©’s Cowboy Carter continue to struggle according to the consumer data.
Texas Monthly recently remarked, “This year BeyoncĂ©, Post Malone, and other artists blew the gates off a genre Nashville no longer gets to define.” But BeyoncĂ© didn’t really blow the gates off of anything, and Post Malone’s F1-Trillion was very much defined by its decidedly Nashville sound and excessive in-network Nashville collaborations.
And the people that are listening to performers like Shaboozey and Jelly Roll, these are not country fans. They’re pop and hip-hop fans listening to pop and hip-hop performers whose projects are registering on country charts. As one viral post said about BeyoncĂ©’s Christmas performance,
“BeyoncĂ© yesterday reminded everyone that nothing triggers white folks, especially white women, more than a confident black woman. She did that shitty genre a favor & they mad at her for teaching them that country music is ours also.”
So is country a “shitty genre,” or is it one that Black America can and wants to reclaim as their own? This situation doesn’t feel like country music fans converting to BeyoncĂ© fans, and thus incorporating her into the country genre. This feels like BeyoncĂ© Stans attempting to impose their will upon the country genre that they have no respect for, and according to the numbers, failing.
BeyoncĂ©’s Cowboy Carter is an epiphenomenal anomaly on the very periphery of country music that beyond media and intellectual circles is barely raising a blip on the radar, even after a performance for 27 million people. Viewers loved the spectacle and pageantry, but they didn’t love the music. Because if they did, they would be listening. And as the data continues to show when it comes to Cowboy Carter, they’re just not.
January 3, 2025 @ 9:48 am
I’ve yet to comment on any Beyoncé article, because the whole thing so far out of my purview. But I watched Beyoncé’s halftime performance and my overriding thought was “how is this any different than the shit the CMA’s shill?” Maybe Beyoncé, Shamboozey, and Post Malone are here to reclaim the music Jason Aldean, Florida Georgia Line, Sam Hunt, and Thomas Rhett stole from Rap/ Hip Hop/ R&B genres and African American culture decades ago. Mainstream country opened this door with the Bro-Country era and if there’s now a thriving secondary market, why wouldn’t non country artists want to tap into it? After all, mainstream country music stole it first.
January 3, 2025 @ 10:14 am
First and foremost, Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” is not a country album. That is not just my opinion. That is the opinion of Beyoncé’s who said point blank, “This ain’t a country album.” This is the opinion of The Washington Post. This is the opinion of NPR. The only people still portraying “Cowboy Carter” as a country album are people who feel like they’re supposed to because that’s how you signal you’re not racist in polite society. In fact, calling “Cowboy Carter” country is insulting to Beyoncé’s stated artistic intent to “blend and bend genres” with the album.
Ever since the very start of this “BeyoncĂ© gone country” canard, people have been citing Florida Georgia Line, Sam Hunt, Thomas Rhett, Jason Aldean, etc. as comparables as to why BeyoncĂ© should be considered country. First (and again), BeyoncĂ© doesn’t consider herself country, so that’s where the argument should cease. But Florida Georgia Line has been defunct for three years now. Sam Hunt hasn’t had a #1 on the Hot Country Songs chart in eight years. It’s not 2015 anymore. It’s 2025. And what’s relevant in country is country, and songwriters like Zach Bryan.
I don’t think anyone is arguing that Post Malone’s album isn’t country. They’re just arguing that it’s not very good. Shaboozey is also a separate case because his album and the “Tipsy” song does have some similarity to “country” singles, unlike much of “Cowboy Carter.”
But someone, ANYONE needs to make the argument for the boys and girls who grew up from a tender age wanting to be country stars, working their asses off to learn to sing and play guitar, worked their way up from the bar circuit, and now are fighting for attention with Beyonce and her net worth of $800 million dollars.
How about we give a little deference to the artists who’ve spent DECADES being country, as opposed to the carpetbaggers trying to siphon off some for themselves because of country’s current popularity, and who will move on as soon as their current album cycle is over, and once they’ve made country “uncool” again with their cosplay?
January 3, 2025 @ 12:30 pm
I feel same away about Beyoncé as I do Red Clay Strays and (now) Zach Bryan … all have declared they aren’t country. Those two acts also are taking away resources, ears, and ink for more deserving artists who want to be country stars.
January 3, 2025 @ 1:27 pm
I’ll separate Beyonce from the Red Clay Strays and Zach Bryan, as Beyonce has a machine behind her in a way even Bryan doesn’t. And that machine no doubt will take all the press they can get.
But I do find it weird your comments imply the Red Clay Strays and Zach Bryan are somehow at fault for the country press paying attention to them instead of other bands/artists you deem worthier.
It isn’t the Red Clay Strays fault that Danno Simpson doesn’t get more attention. It isn’t Zach Bryan’s fault that John R. Miller isn’t getting more attention. And I don’t mean that as slander to either of those artists – wish they DID get more attention – but blaming the artists because the press is more interested in Bryan or the Strays is misplacing the blame IMO.
January 3, 2025 @ 8:34 pm
I don’t blame the artists – Beyonce, Zach Bryan or Red Clay Strays – at all. I blame the consumers.
I used some outdated Bro Country references in my earlier comment when I should have just said Morgan Wallen, Kane Brown, and HARDY. The people who consume those artists today, paved the road for Beyonce, Post Malone, and Jelly Roll in country music today. We confuse artists, marketing groups, and mainstream media by allowing those artists to use elements of R&B, Hip Hop, and rap in country music.
Same will happen with country music listeners consumption of rock bands like Red Clay Strays and Shane Smith & the Saints will lead to other rock bands rebranding themselves as country down the road.
January 4, 2025 @ 12:08 am
I understand what you’re saying hoptowntiger, and I hope I didn’t come across as dismissive of your perspective. I do think that in some respects, Bro-Country did open the door for these interlopers from other genres to waltz in. But I think we have to appreciate that everyone across the board—including in the mainstream—is assessing that traditional country is the biggest trend in country music at the moment, and where the genre is headed. That’s why I say the whole Beyonce/Shaboozey thing is simply an anomaly, not the trend. Their support is not based off of country fans changing their tastes. It’s based off of pop/hip-hop fans listening to pop/hip-hop projects that are registering on country charts because Billboard has no backbone. And in the case of Beyonce, NOBODY is really listening. It’s just the media incessantly telling us it’s the greatest album ever and everyone’s in love with it.
January 4, 2025 @ 9:02 am
I think there is a pretty big gulf between Shane Smith and the Red Clay Strays and Nickelback.
As for blaming the consumers – I won’t disagree there. But a lot of people are just stupid. The hogs will consume whatever slop is thrown in front of them. See Jelly Roll. See HARDY. See FGL, etc.
You aren’t going to ever fix those people. They are inherently stupid in many facets of their life. Someone mainlining Bravo shows and listening to Jelly Roll and posting on Instagram or X is not gonna wake up tomorrow and listen to your favorite country band, watch PBS, and post on Mastodon.
January 3, 2025 @ 2:02 pm
I agree that we need to make sure we are centering actual country artists (at least on a website called “Saving Country Music”), and made this very point, and in detail when explaining how I came to the conclusion of the winner of the 2024 Album of the Year.
That said, there are many reasons there is a difference between a band like The Red Clay Strays, and an artist like Beyoncé, specifically $800 million of them, which is Beyoncé’s net worth.
One of the reasons I talked about Zach Bryan’s and The Red Clay Stray’s music early on is because they deserve to find a home somewhere, and they are country-adjacent if nothing else. “Cowboy Carter” clearly has some country influences too. But there has been a movement to demand “Cowboy Carter” is feted as country, and foisted ahead of everyone else, in a way that is detached from the reality of things, and harmful to the other performers being shaded out by her presence. I think it’s important we discuss these matters, and in detail.
January 5, 2025 @ 9:16 pm
I’m late to the party here but I did want to ask a clarifying question. Beyoncé said her album “wasn’t a country album, it was a Beyoncé album.” I believe that’s the quote you keep referencing. You’re taking that as the end of the story. But back in the Sam Hunt, Florida Georgia Line, etc. era, we had singers putting out music that clearly had no country elements, but they themselves called the songs country. That didn’t stop many critics from calling these songs “not country.” Who’s to stop other people from defying Beyoncé’s wishes and calling these songs country? It didn’t stop us before for these other artists.
January 5, 2025 @ 11:04 pm
That’s a fair question, though I think it sort of answers itself. In the case of Sam Hunt and Florida Georgia Line, they claimed they were country, but critics of them disagreed. In the case of Beyonce, she’s saying she’s NOT country, and her critics concur. In other words, there is something closer to consensus when it comes to Beyonce. Honestly, I think the people who are calling her country are simply uninformed, never saw her Instagram post, and simply are following the herd that started parroting that she was releasing a country album well before Beyonce said anything about it, or we heard the music itself.
But it’s also important to appreciate that it’s not just the one quote from Beyonce that affirms “Cowboy Carter” is not country. There is a host of evidence, including the first two songs being released as pop in the metadata and sent to pop radio as opposed to country, Beyonce also saying her intent was to “bend and blend genres,” the Linda Martell quotes from the album that also says the intent is to blend genres and NOT be confined in a genre box, and the fact that originally, the album was supposed to be called “Beyince” and not “Cowboy Carter,” with the original vinyl copies confirming this.
I’m currently working on an in-depth article with all the evidence and arguments in one place as to why calling “Cowboy Carter” country is an insult to Beyonce’s artistic intent.
January 10, 2025 @ 4:37 pm
So who placed Cowboy Carter in the best country album category at the Grammys?
January 3, 2025 @ 11:05 am
Trigger thank you again for your very normal articles about Beyoncé. I think we need a few more.
January 3, 2025 @ 11:45 am
I was getting a little upset about how many country articles I have been seeing on this Beyonce website.
January 3, 2025 @ 1:04 pm
Somehow I’ve been able to report on this critically-important story about BeyoncĂ© and country music that has massive cultural implications, have been interviewed by the BBC, Fox News, The Hollywood Reporter, and flown up to New York to participate in CNN’s documentary about it, and still can publish a record number of album reviews for deserving artist in 2024. I can pat my belly, rub my head, and chew bubble gum all at the same time.
For those that don’t like the Beyonce articles, don’t read them. I publish plenty of other articles to consume. But I’m not going to lay down and cede this argument to apparatchiks without offering at least some voice of dissent, nuance, and data-driven context. Whether it’s popular among some readers is irrelevant. It is the most relevant thing to “saving country music,” so I soldier forward.
January 3, 2025 @ 12:12 pm
Once again you are pissed! Beyoncé had 27 million people tune in to see her perform while CMAs could only convince 6 million. I’m not even going to banter with you on whether her performance was live (except for the first 3 and half minutes), what will it ever cost to say she did a good job though? You always find a way to reprimand her for even things she hasn’t done. The album “underperformed” because her typical fan base does not listen to country music and country as a whole has been hostile to blacks so why bother. Her album is among the best selling of last year so remain pressed!
January 3, 2025 @ 1:00 pm
She doesn’t care about you, Gabe.
January 3, 2025 @ 1:47 pm
When searching through opinions about Beyoncé’s Christmas performance, I saw this CMA ratings point being brought up often.
First off, if you came here looking for a debate with a CMA Awards advocate, you came to the wrong place.
Second, make no mistake about it, every country awards show wanted to have BeyoncĂ© on their show in 2024, and specifically due to the kind of audience she could draw. The CMT Awards specifically reached out to her, and offered to make an award for her out of whole cloth to entice her to the presentation. She turned it down. Then the “People’s Choice Country Awards” gave her a ridiculous 17 nominations, expressly hoping she would show up to perform. She didn’t. The CMA Awards had BeyoncĂ© on the presentation in 2016, and would have mortgaged the farm to get her there in 2024.
But the point made in this article that I’m sure many will gloss over is how Beyoncé’s Netflix deal very well could have restricted Beyoncé’s ability to promote “Cowboy Carter,” resulting in the precipitous fall off of sales. If I was a BeyoncĂ© advocate, I would be very concerned about this point, as I have seen from some.
Clearly, BeyoncĂ© is a massive cultural figure. That is how she was able to draw 27 million people. So why is “Cowboy Carter” at #137 on the charts after spending the previous week entirely out of the Top 200? Sure, physical sales could account for some of this, but it’s hasn’t affected Taylor Swift’s album or other comparable titles.
Something is wrong here, and I think Beyoncé fans would be smart to be honest with themselves as opposed to acting like some evil blogger has a beef and trying to quash any negativity.
January 3, 2025 @ 8:25 pm
Country as a whole has been hostile to blacks?
Give us one fucking example other than “just trust me bro.”
January 4, 2025 @ 3:32 am
…distributing charley pride’s first single under the name of “country charley” without a picture of the artist on the cover to country radio, mr. strait.
January 4, 2025 @ 4:24 am
Naw, that wasn’t hostile, just Nashville music industry trickery so the white country fan would buy the single. And it worked!
January 6, 2025 @ 10:16 am
They did a great job of keeping the black man down since Charley Pride went on to sell millions of records with his face on it.
Funny how you had to reach back to the early 60’s to try and find an example.
January 4, 2025 @ 8:40 pm
How many tuned in just to watch the game? What’s the average viewership? I highly doubt all 27 million tuned in just to see Beyoncé . I for one have never cared about the half time performances. I always tune in if it’s a game I care about or I have nothing better going on.
January 3, 2025 @ 12:59 pm
Hahahaha, I never knew that Trig was short for Triggered! This is becoming the saddest thing I have ever witnessed on the internet.
January 3, 2025 @ 1:27 pm
Yes, a factual, reasoned and nuanced article is sad. Good grief.
January 3, 2025 @ 2:06 pm
Sure!!! How many more of these factual, reasoned and nuanced (lol) articles about Beyonce do you think we will be getting?
January 3, 2025 @ 5:41 pm
Ahhh Dannyboy…i fear your browser misdirected you here. Totally honest mistake.
Next time try Rollingstone.com
I think that’s where you meant to go.
Happy to help a friend anytime. 🤔
January 4, 2025 @ 4:34 am
Yeah, I am the one that’s looking on the wrong page. Sure!
As Trig can attest to I have been a regular here for a long time. I come here to read about country music but somehow the most interaction is on hateful topics about Isbell, Lil Nas Z or veiled racism about a black lady being named country by other media.
Which is, of course, the only reason why it gets as much play here as it does, no matter the protestations of the writer himself.
So if me laughing at another post where Trig is melting down and reaching (“nOT eVen LiVE…”) has you thinking that I should direct me to Rolling Stone then I think you are here for this shit instead of actually caring about country music.
January 4, 2025 @ 8:43 am
Hey Danny,
What I would love to see is spirited debate on this important topic, including, if not especially, dissenting viewpoints. One of the issues here is that many of the other people reporting on this in the media are just uninformed, and anyone on the other side of this topic simply boils down their rhetoric to, “You’re a racist!” Like you said, you’ve been a reader here for a while. You’ve seen all of my coverage for Black and Brown artists, and my advocacy for equality in country music. I do think country music has much to do to reconcile with racism. I don’t think Beyonce’s Stans coming in and imposing their will upon country music is the way to do it. It’s a way to stir and exacerbate the racism in country. Instead, we need to support the homegrown Black and Brown artists who actually play country music as opposed to superstars trying to exploit the popularity of country.
January 3, 2025 @ 2:12 pm
Epiphenomenal anomaly or not, this is a very good piece.
January 3, 2025 @ 2:17 pm
I keep seeing it said that 27 million people tuned in for her as if this was not in the middle of a football game that millions of people turned in to see. Sure, certainly some people tuned in just to see her. She’s a big draw. But acting like all 27 million people tuned in just to see her is ludicrous
The 27 million number comes from Neilsen which states that the earlier game (which didn’t have a halftime show) had 24.1 million. So it’s not like all 27 million tuned in just for Beyonce. She may have had less people turn in solely to see her than watched the CMAs.
January 3, 2025 @ 8:23 pm
Hmmmm…..LOVED the Beyonce halftime show,and I’m not even a Bey boy.Anyway,Country may be the most popular genre of the moment,but the gatekeepers (who have a VERY narrow idea of the “Country” sound” ) may end up shutting the door on too many worthy new additions,thus again driving it to music’s flanks.
January 3, 2025 @ 8:39 pm
The Beyonce performance – Diddy ‘White Party’ correlation here that some are trying to paint is a helluva stretch. If there is a correlation it’s being used as a distration to have people asking the wrong questions so that pressure is off people in power (like that Luigi shooter appearing under arrest with police wearing the the same red sweater over a button up that Lee Harvey Oswald also wore)
Trillions are at stake if the full Epstein and Diddy list and tapes were released. It would cause a severe shakeup in every industry and it simply won’t happen. Distractions will be used until the story eventually drops from the majority of peoples’ consciousness.
I don’t give a rat’s ass about proffesional sports and it’s amusing to me that people invest so much of themselves into games where it’s more than obvious that there are thumbs on the scale depending on how close Taylor Swift is to it.
January 3, 2025 @ 10:49 pm
Ok, haven’t commented yet, because I waited to see how my opinion would hold.
That whole “not a country album” schtick is just a gimmick that is getting a bit tired.
Everyone knows its meant to be a country album, or country-ish. So to say it isn’t, is just a power move by marketing.
If you think it sucks as a country album, then you can’t say anything because she says she isn’t comparing.
If you think its a good country album then she comes across as humble and respectful.
Win-win situation. Big billboard announcement that looks like a clarification and not an ad. Made people write think pieces that gave her more exposure than an ad.
Too bad they were too busy thinking of sly marketing to actually make a good album.
The above applies to most other singers, bands and Bryans who are too busy being humble to actually have anything to be humble about.
January 4, 2025 @ 7:50 am
The NFL finds itself stuck in a contract with an accused and arraigned child rapist because it feared the woke mob. Jay Z continues to rape the NFL for millions of dollars to only allow performances by his wife, friends, and artists signed by him. Instead of breaking ties, the NFL turns a blind eye and hopes this all goes away. Yay for diversity. The Billion dollar organization and multi million dollar artist have saved the day. For themselves.
January 4, 2025 @ 5:40 pm
Uh yeah, twenty-seven million people didn’t tune in specifically to watch Beyonce mime her way through her third-rate material. A solid 95% of that audience was tuned in to watch the football game, and that’s it. Anyone could plainly see it was a thinly-veiled, last-ditch promo for her dud of a record, and nothing more. Country music fans don’t give a rip about her take on the genre, and Beyonce fans weren’t interested either. And her team likely had high expectations for that album, and now they’re scrambling for a Plan B.
What would have been interesting is if she really made a real country album, containing the kind of music where you’d say “holy shit, that there’s a fine country tune”. But she didn’t, and the resulting product left consumers cold. The entire country music “community”, as it is, would be well-advised to just ignore inauthentic attempts to crash the country market, and only take note when someone actually tries to create country music.
January 4, 2025 @ 7:22 pm
I don’t believe in conspiracy theories, but I do think some forces in the radio and record industry want to grab the distribution network Nashville has built up. And the tool for doing so is this pop artist move into “country” music. If they can effectively take over country radio, they get another X million listeners, and within a decade they can shut down music row and invest in even fewer artists.
January 4, 2025 @ 8:41 pm
Uh, you do believe in conspiracy theories.
January 5, 2025 @ 6:30 pm
Nah, just the idea that dollar signs are the main driver of shittiness.
January 4, 2025 @ 11:34 pm
I was aware years ago that Beyonce could get millions for one performance, which seemed hard-to-believe at the time. But 20 million?!!!!?
January 5, 2025 @ 3:46 pm
As far as I can tell after decades of observation, Joe Sixpack is totally unaware that his culture, neighborhood safety, economic security, and indeed the western civilization that his ancestors struggled and died to advance has been stolen from him. No problem, Joe! Have another beer and here’s your remote. Sit back and enjoy the game!
January 8, 2025 @ 9:46 am
There could be several conclusions to draw from these trends and statistics
One possible explanation: the record labels realized that telling people the record is a hit is cheaper than advertising for it and people will believe it. See: Disney telling us Mufasa was a box office smash when in reality Sonic the Hedgehog 3 went circles around Mufasa
Another is that a new Beyonce album simply isn’t going to make big waves no matter what it is because as far as celebrities go Beyonce has already graduated to ‘legendary established celebrity’ status and very rarely do established veteran celebrities actually have smashing releases anymore because they’re just… there and famous. See: Axl Rose, Steven Tyler, Slash, Michael Bolton.
Probably everyone knows who each of those four AND Beyonce are, and what they’re famous for recording.
Very few people will ever buy anything from Axl Rose or Steven Tyler because… no one cares? No matter how good a new Steven Tyler album is, getting people to care is an uphill battle and I expect the same is true for Beyonce.
The third hypothetical is that beyonce fans don’t buy music at all and many of them just use free youtube and radio for listening to music and simply aren’t driving sales because… they don’t buy things. They pay for streaming services and don’t own movies, etc