Dispelling The Myth That Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” is a Country Album


Story Highlights:

  • Beyoncé has never referred to her album Cowboy Carter as country. Conversely, her statement of “This ain’t a country album, it’s a Beyoncé album” continues to be used in the promotion and marketing of the album.
  • Cowboy Carter wasn’t even originally known by that name. The original name of the album was Beyince, and was changed after public pressure ensued to call the album “country.”
  • Calling Cowboy Carter a country album insults Beyoncé’s artistic intent to “bend and blend genres.” The album was meant to be a genre-breaking work, not to be defined by any specific genre, including country.


In the aftermath of Beyoncé winning the Grammy for Best Country Album at the 2025 Grammy Awards, it begs for a deeper look into the album, along with the marketing, conversation, and media coverage surrounding it, and how we ultimately got here. With the amount of complexity and nuance in the subject, it deserves a deep dive that starts at the very beginning when Beyoncé first released the initial songs, all the way to the landmark Grammy win.

Due to the depth and length of the discussion, you can also listen and/or watch via YouTube below.



So once and for all, is Beyoncé’s 2024 album Cowboy Carter actually a country album, or not? This seems to be a question vexing many music fans and journalists alike who are wrestling with where exactly the album should land. Of course, conversations about what is and isn’t country can be super annoying and tedious all on their own, while many wonder if genre even matters anymore. But when it boils down to who should win things like Grammy Awards and in what specific genre categories—and how history should regard certain albums—the question becomes a bit more important.

And when you take a deep dive into the Cowboy Carter question, what you find is that Beyoncé herself doesn’t feel comfortable calling the album country. In fact, demanding that Cowboy Carter be considered country actually insults Beyoncé’s artistic intent, and the purposeful approach she took with the album, which parallels the hypocritical standpoint some musical pundits take when they previously claimed genre didn’t matter, but now demand that Cowboy Carter be called country, or the album is a victim of “gatekeeping” or “racism,” or some other scandalous offense.

So let’s take a deep, objective look, and attempt to answer the question, is Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter truly a country album?

To determinedly answer the Cowboy Carter question, we first have to rewind to back to Beyoncé’s previous album released in 2022 called Renaissance, or in elongated form, Act I: Renaissance. A quick but interesting tidbit to note is that Beyoncé actually recorded the lion’s share of Cowboy Carter before Renaissance, and originally planned to release Cowboy Carter as Act I. Cowboy Carter was recorded in the years before the pandemic, while Renaissance was recorded during the pandemic.

Beyoncé believed the world needed something a bit more upbeat and inspiring after the turmoil of the COVID-19 era, and so instead of releasing Cowboy Carter first, she released Renaissance as a uncharacteristically dance-infused album from a performer known more for pop, hip-hop, and R&B. Specifically, Renaissance is meant to evoke and reclaim Black dance music styles such as late ’70s disco and house-style music.

It was shortly after the release of Renaissance that the theories that the three acts of the album trilogy would act as reclamation projects for Black music emerged, and that Act II might be a country or country-inspired project. After all, Beyoncé is originally from Houston, Texas, and has displayed country influences in the past, namely her song “Daddy Lessons” from her 2016 album Lemonade.

So amid rumors of potential collaborators and the sound of the music Beyoncé had been working on, a theory that Act II would be a country album was already entrenched in the minds of fans and media even before a peep was made publicly about Act II. This is a very important point to highlight, because the preconceived notion about what Act II would ultimately be very likely influenced how Cowboy Carter was ultimately presented to the public. It very well could be that public perception wishcasted Cowboy Carter into a country project, whether it was meant to be one originally, or not.

All this was the setup for Beyoncé’s big reveal during the 2024 Super Bowl on February 11th. A minute-long Verizon commercial featured Beyoncé trying quote/unquote “break the internet” by doing various things, like revealing an AI lookalike robot, and flying in a rocket into space. When none of these things worked to “break the internet,” the commercial ends with Beyoncé saying, “Okay, they ready. Drop the new music.”

It was at this time that the tracks “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages” were released to streaming services, and the Cowboy Carter era began … well, kind of. We didn’t have a name for the new album yet. We didn’t really even have any explanation from Beyoncé about the new music at all. All we had were two songs. But for those that were expecting Beyoncé’s new album to be country, they had all the info they needed.

Scores of articles and stories in prominent news outlets declared unequivocally that Beyoncé was releasing a country album. One especially viral story published by Time Magazine even declared quote, “The greatest lie country music ever told was convincing the world that it is white … [Beyoncé] did not need white validation to classify her country—she has been country for the entirety of her life. It is her trumpet. A trumpet that must be blown, for the walls of Nashville’s Music Row to fall down, so the rightful heirs of country music may come in.”

Yet while most fans and much of the media took the juicy headline “Beyoncé goes country” and ran with it, there were ample indicators very early on that what was actually happening with the Beyoncé rollout was much more complex and nuanced. First of all, the songs themselves might have sounded country-influenced, but they certainly weren’t slam dunk “country” compared to what most people would consider country.

Most interestingly though is what the metadata for the tracks said, meaning the digital information that gets distributed with the songs that tells streaming services, radio programmers, etc. how long a song is, who the writers and producers are, if there are any explicit lyrics in them, and what genre they belong in. Instead of “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages” being marked “country” as you would expect for country songs, they were marked “pop.”

Now remember, at this time, Beyoncé has made no statements saying her new album is going to be country. There was no such pronouncements in the 60-second Super Bowl commercial, and Beyoncé hadn’t said anything publicly at this point. The only thing claiming the new music was country was Beyoncé’s fans and certain music pundits. Though most streaming services don’t list the genre information for a track, Apple Music does, and both “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages” were clearly listed as “pop” initially.

Also note that “Texas Hold ‘Em” was also marked with an ‘E’ for “explicit.” This would also factor into the situation as things unfolded.



This initial slotting of the Beyoncé songs as pop came with its own backlash, controversy, and claims of racism and gatekeeping against both Apple Music, and ironically, Beyoncé’s own label who had filled out the information. Apple was immediately swarmed by members of Beyoncé’s notorious Stan army, the Beyhive, demanding the songs be labeled as country. But as this was happening, others stepped into clarify that it was Beyoncé’s Parkwood Entertainment label that was responsible. So then the ire turned to the label, which also began to receive pressure to call the songs country.

This would be a minuscule controversy compared to what was about to ensue, but it illustrates the disconnect between what Beyoncé and her label were saying, and what the public was perceiving, and demanding. This became especially exacerbated in the coming hours and days when the the idea that country radio was refusing to play “Texas Hold ‘Em” became a massive media story, making it all the way to the network evening news broadcasts.

Eventually, under pressure, the metadata for the tracks themselves was changed from “pop” to “country.” But even after the initial release of “Texas Hold ‘Em,” the song was not available for radio play to country stations, and for a host of reasons. First, the version of the song released to the public was marked “explicit,” meaning that it would be against the law to play it on public airwaves. Any radio station who played “Texas Hold ‘Em” uncensored could face fines or the loss of their license by the FCC.

For a track to be played on country radio, it has to be serviced to country radio, meaning the track has to be sent to radio stations through a distribution service such as Play MPE. These companies are important because they distribute clean versions of explicit tracks, along with helping both the radio stations and charting organizations such as Billboard to keep track of who is adding and playing songs on their station.

Similarly to how Beyoncé’s own label Parkwood Entertainment were the ones that initially marked “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages” as pop, they also initially serviced the tracks to pop radio, and pop radio only. They did not service them to country radio, as confirmed by Billboard at the time. Not only is this the second major indication that perhaps Beyoncé and her camp did not consider “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages” country songs, it also put country radio a step behind adding the songs compared to pop stations.

As Billboard would go on to report, not until pressure was mounting on country radio stations to play Beyoncé’s songs did Parkwood Entertainment then work to get “Texas Hold ‘Em” to country stations. This happened on the afternoon of February 13th—2 1/2 days after the songs were initially released. Yet by this time, it was already too late. A massive controversy had already ensued that claimed that country radio was refusing to play “Texas Hold ‘Em.”

Even with servicing a song to country radio, this doesn’t mean it will be automatically added by country radio stations, or even considered for play. As Billboard explained at the time, “Country radio has traditionally been reluctant to play songs that aren’t serviced to them or then actively promoted by the label.”

Beyond the date that a song is actually serviced to a radio station, you also have the official “adds” date. The adds date is when the label formally requests for radio stations to add a particular song. In the case of Beyoncé and “Texas Hold ‘Em,” it was announced on February 14th that the official adds date would be February 20th.

Radio stations do not have to wait for the official “adds” date to add a track to their playlist, but there are multiple reasons why the “adds” date is important to a single.

First, the top-added tracks on country radio for a given week get aggregated into their own chart. Going #1 on this chart or getting into the Top 5 is usually considered a good sign for a song. This accolade is then often advertised in radio trade publications such as Country Aircheck and Billboard Country Update to highlight that a song is receiving high consideration and traction on the country radio format, enticing other stations that might be reluctant to play the track to get on board.

Long story short, Beyoncé’s own label was asking country radio stations not to play “Texas Hold ‘Em” until February 20th. But well before that official adds date, country radio was being attacked as racist for not playing the track. Yet ironically, there actually were some radio stations that added “Texas Hold ‘Em” almost immediately, even before the track had been officially serviced to them, let alone before the official adds date.

According to Billboard“In the first 24-plus hours of release … eight reporters to Billboard’s Country Airplay chart played ‘Texas Hold ‘Em,’ … according to Mediabase.”

Nonetheless, there was already a full-throated revolt against country radio for refusing to play the song, including accusations of racism and gatekeeping. On February 14th, Forbes posted an article titled “Beyoncé’s New Songs Aren’t Getting Played On Country Radio — Despite Streaming Success.” The article specifically cites Billboard‘s statistics that only eight of the radio stations that report to Mediabase had added the song, characterizing it as a shocking statistic that spoke to country radio’s refusal to play the song.

But the adds date for “Texas Hold “Em” wasn’t until February 20th—six days after the Forbes article was published. Nonetheless, this “only 8 country radio stations” stat became a constant refrain in criticism of country radio’s supposed refusal of Beyoncé, with scores of other outlets going on to cite this statistic.

Also confusing the issue was the very viral, yet very anecdotal story of a lone country radio station in Oklahoma initially claiming that they wouldn’t play “Texas Hold “Em”—before reversing course almost immediately. A X/Twitter user named Justin reached out to KYKC in Oklahoma on February 13th to request they play “Texas Hold ‘Em.” The user got back the response, “We do not play Beyoncé on KYKC as we are a country music station.”

This response set off a social media firestorm that reached all the way to the national news, with hundreds of articles and news stories published about it. But as we know now, on the morning of February 13th when the email exchange between the X/Twitter user and KYKC happened, “Texas Hold ‘Em” had not been serviced to country radio yet, only pop radio. It was also nearly a week before the official “adds” date.

KYKC General manager Roger Harris said in a statement on February 14th, “We initially refused to play it in the same manner if someone requested us to play the Rolling Stones on our country station. Fact is we play Beyonce’ on TWO of our other stations and love her…she is an icon. We just didn’t know about the song….then when we found out about it, we tried to get the song….which we did and we have already played it 3 times on KYKC, our country station. We also play her on 105.5, KXFC-FM and KADA-FM 99.3.”

In other words, the primary country radio station at the heart of the controversy played “Texas Hold “Em” before the song had even been officially serviced to country radio, facilitated by the fact that the station already had it in their system due to pop sister stations already playing the song. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to play it at all, because it hadn’t been serviced to them yet.

Nonetheless, the media firestorm that ensued characterized the entirety of country music as rejecting Beyoncé. It also created an environment of fear throughout country radio that if the song was not added by a country radio station, they could be the next one on the national news being accused of racism for not playing the track. This made adding Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em” on country radio a compulsory action throughout the format, irrespective if a program director or DJ believed it was country, or if their listeners wanted to hear it.

On February 19th—a day before the official “adds” date for “Texas Hold ‘Em,”—MSNBC once again cited the stat of “only eight country stations” playing Beyoncé from Billboard aggregated seven days previous and said“Let’s be very clear here. This is just the latest flash point of the long and ugly history of racism within the country music establishment.”

What happened when “Texas Hold ‘Em” officially went for “adds” on country radio on February 20th? It became the most added track on the format, with 75 of the 157 reporting stations adding the song according to Mediabase. Lo and behold, just like is hoped whenever you set an adds date, “Texas Hold ‘Em” did so well, Beyoncé’s label used the moment to promote the track in country radio’s trade periodicals.


But even with Beyoncé getting the coveted “#1 Most Added” crown, it did not stop the misrepresentation that country music was gatekeeping Beyoncé due to racism, and that she was still not being played on country radio. On February 28th—eight days after “Texas Hold ‘Em” became the “most added” song on country radio—a petition was started on MoveOn.org titled, “Stop the racism and gatekeeping! Play Beyoncé’s new country songs on your radio stations NOW!,” which resulted in a rash of further media reports.

The petition and the reporting surrounding it underscore that even as Beyoncé was being supported at country radio more than many other artists within country music, the falsehood that she wasn’t being supported at country radio at all persisted. Meanwhile, in the midst of claims of racism at country radio, Black country artist Kane Brown also scored his 11th #1 single with the song “I Can Feel It.” Though it’s fair to recognize that Black and Brown artists have historically struggled at country radio, eleven #1 singles by Kane Brown underscores that Black performers are not going entirely unrepresented, and characterizing it as such is an element of Black erasure itself.

But pushing aside the massive controversy with country radio, through this whole period Beyoncé had still not made any public statements about her new music, had not characterized it as country, and hadn’t even really given any hints about what she has in store. There was no confirmation that Beyoncé considered the new music country. If anything, every indication from Beyoncé and her label was that they didn’t consider it country. That is why they labeled the metadata for the tracks as pop, and sent the songs to pop radio, and only sent the songs to country after public pressure ensued.

This all led up to a post on Instagram on March 19th from Beyoncé herself. This was really the first time she ever addressed the new music. In the post, Beyoncé explained the inspiration behind the album, saying in part, “It was born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed…and it was very clear that I wasn’t.”

Most everyone is assuming this has something to do with the 2016 CMA Awards, which also happened to be the 50th Anniversary presentation of the awards. Beyoncé was booked as the centerpiece of the awards, and performed her song “Daddy Lessons,” which some were characterizing as a country song at that time. Along with the [Dixie] Chicks, Beyoncé received the largest performance slot of the entire presentation.

Beyoncé’s appearance at the 2016 CMAs was criticized by some, including Travis Tritt, and Alan Jackson reportedly walked out when Beyoncé was performing. But they were not the only performers who took issue with Beyoncé taking time and attention away from country performers on a country music awards show. Black country and roots artist Rhiannon Giddens did too. She had performed on the CMA presentation with Eric Church via their song “Kill A Word.”

Rhiannon Giddens said in a 2017 interview with the Associated Press, “I’ve studied this music. You know what I mean? I’m not coming from another genre. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Justin Timberlake did it last year, and that was a lovely moment … I just know what angered me about it was that it overshadowed two other performers of color who were kind of naturally there—Charley Pride, who’s a huge figure, and then myself as a guest of Eric Church.”

There was also a controversy that ensued when the CMA deleted video clips of Beyoncé performing that were posted on social media. Some country fans posted critical, and in some cases, outright racist statements under the videos. Initially, the CMAs were attacked for creating a forum for Beyoncé criticism to persist. Then ironically, after the CMAs deleted the posts, they were attacked for trying to erase Beyoncé’s appearance on the CMAs entirely, as if people would forget it happened simply if they deleted the videos.

Later it was revealed that it was actually Beyoncé’s own camp that requested the CMAs delete the videos since the CMA had not obtained proper permission to post them in the first place. But similar to the radio controversy with “Texas Hold ‘Em,” the canard persisted that somehow the CMAs had done something wrong, when they were the ones who invited Beyoncé to perform in the first place.

It’s also important to underscore that even though most people assume the moment Beyoncé did not feel welcome in country stemmed from her CMA appearance, there has never been any confirmation of this. Around the same period, Beyoncé submitted her song “Daddy Lessons” to the Grammy Awards as a country song, and it was rejected by the Grammy’s country committee. This very well could be the moment Beyoncé felt rejected. After all, the Grammys play a big role in Cowboy Carter, as would be revealed later.

But the more important part of Beyoncé’s March 19th Instagram post when trying to determine if Cowboy Carter is country or not is when she said her intent was to “propel past the limitations that were put on me. act ii is a result of challenging myself, and taking my time to bend and blend genres together to create this body of work.”

In other words, as opposed to claiming Cowboy Carter was a country album, Beyoncé said it was her artistic intent to quote/unquote “bend and blend genres together” and “propel past the limitations” country puts on performers. What are genres? They’re a generally defined set of benchmarks that delineate one type of music from another. As Beyoncé says herself, her intent with Cowboy Carter was to push past those benchmarks delineating the music as country.

Then at the end of the March 19th Instagram post, Beyoncé leaves nothing left for interpretation. She states unequivocally, “This ain’t a Country album. This is a ‘Beyoncé’ album.” More than any pundit’s opinions from any side of the debate, this is the nail in the coffin of the idea that Beyoncé ever intended for Cowboy Carter to be country.

Some still love to refute and debate this point about Beyoncé’s statement as perhaps an opportunistic pull quote, or a twisting of Beyoncé’s words. But to emphatically underscore and emphasize that specific quote once again, just before Cowboy Carter‘s release on March 29th, a company was hired to promote the album in New York City with projections on the side of prominent buildings. Arguably the most prominent was on the side of the famous Guggenheim Museum. The phrase selected to project on the side of the building was “This ain’t a Country album. This is a “Beyoncé” album.”


This quote was also underscored once again on a website Beyoncé launched at beencountry.com. The horizontally scrolling site acts as sort of a scrapbook from Beyoncé’s life, with little moments where she’s either pictured in a cowboy hat or otherwise interacting with the country world, along with artifacts of country music’s Black legacy. When you scroll to the very end of the site, there is the quote again, strategically and intentionally placed saying, “This ain’t a Country album. This is a “Beyoncé” album.”


Unfortunately though, this quote from Beyoncé coming out 10 days before the album itself was too late. Due to the controversies swirling around the initial release of the two debut singles being labeled pop, the controversies surrounding country radio supposedly not playing “Texas Hold ‘Em,” and the pervasive assumptions about the music preceding the music itself, Beyoncé’s own words didn’t even seem to matter. To many fans and journalists, Cowboy Carter was country, full stop.

And beyond all the evidence amid the rollout of Cowboy Carter that it wasn’t country, when the album itself was released on March 29th, there were numerous indicators that calling it country wasn’t just incorrect, it was insulting of Beyoncé’s artistic intent.

For the sake of argument, let’s just say that the first single from the album “Texas Hold ‘Em” is a country song. Traditionalists will balk at this characterization, and perhaps fairly so. But you can find comparable tracks to the song that have played on country radio in the past. Beyoncé’s augmented cover of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” is probably more country than it is anything else. And though Beyoncé’s take on “Blackbiird” by The Beatles is more folk in nature, sure, call it country too.

But the amount of country material on Cowboy Carter doesn’t come anywhere close to being 50% of the total music in a way that would qualify it as more country than pop. Three or four out of the 24 tracks (not counting interludes) does not justify calling an album country.

A lot of people have cited the presence of Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton on the album as a confirmation that Cowboy Carter is country. Willie’s and Dolly’s participation was revealed about a week before the album, and the assumption was that they would appear in collaboration with Beyoncé. But that didn’t occur. Instead, they simply appear in autonomous spoken word interludes.

Another one of the major talking points about Beyoncé and Cowboy Carter was how the banjo is a Black instrument, and Beyoncé’s efforts would work to reclaim this legacy along with the legacy of Black performers in country music. What is true is that country music does have a deeper Black legacy to go along with its primary Scots-Irish roots through early Black minstrel players, blues performers, and the banjo’s origins in Africa. And despite this legacy being chronicled in country history books, the public tends to be surprised to learn this.

But out of the 27 tracks on Cowboy Carter, only one actually features a banjo: “Texas Hold ‘Em.” Incidentally, only one song features steel guitar, and that’s “16 Carriages.” Since these were the first two songs released from the album, it once again gave the false impression the entire album would include country instrumentation as opposed to just these two songs. For the record, it’s Rhiannon Giddens who plays the banjo on “Texas Hold ‘Em”—the same performer who said that Beyoncé’s appearance at the 2016 CMA Awards overshadowed her own.

Not only does the overall lack of country instrumentation on the album create another mark against calling it country, it also feels like a massive missed opportunity to stimulate the Black reclamation of country’s roots many give the album credit for. In mainstream country music, one of the common criticisms is about pop songs that try to pass themselves off as country by employing what’s often referred to as the “token banjo”—meaning using a banjo to try and make a pop song country.

But Cowboy Carter doesn’t even do the token banjo thing. Most of the songs are pop, and stay pop, and if anything, gravitate more towards hip-hop, and a curious amount of opera and classic rock sounds. Meanwhile, songs like “Riverdance” and “Sweet * Honey * Buckin’” seem to scream for banjo, and instead feature acoustic guitar playing what traditionally would be a banjo part.

And along with multiple covers songs constituting the more country-sounding songs of the album, there are samples galore from across genres. “I Fall To Pieces” by Patsy Cline is interpolated into one of the final songs, but you also have parts of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide,” Chuck Berry’s “Maybellene,” “Down by the Riverside” by Rosetta Tharpe,” among many others. This prevalent use of sampling and borrowing of songs, beats, and riffs is very emblematic of hip-hop, and very rare in the country genre.

Beyoncé also received high praise for including pioneering Black artist Linda Martell on the album. Unquestionably, Martell’s name recognition skyrocketed through the release of this album, of which Beyoncé deserves credit for. Martell was the first Black woman to play the Grand Ole Opry in 1969. But again, Martell’s participation on the album is not as much in a collaborative role, but simply as a narrator in interludes.

Martell says at the start of the decidedly non-country song called “Spaghetti,” “Genres are a funny little concept, aren’t they? Yes they are. In theory, they have a simple definition that’s easy to understand. But in practice, well, some may feel confined.”

This is a critically important moment on the Cowboy Carter album. Though the first 1/3rd of Cowboy Carter does include some country-ish songs and sounds, after the song “Spaghetti,” the album takes a decidedly pop and hip-hop turn.

But more importantly, Linda Martell saying “some may feel confined” by genres is yet again a signal from Beyoncé that she didn’t want this album to be confined by country. Then later in the album during the track, “The Linda Martell Show,” Martell says, “Ladies and gentlemen, this particular tune stretches across a range of genres, and that’s what makes it a unique listening experience.”

Both of Linda Martell’s appearances on the album speak to the dismissing of genres as opposed to the adherence to them. But Martell’s presence on the album also gives another huge tell that Cowboy Carter was never intended to be a country album. Instead, it was meant to be a pop album with perhaps a few country inflections. In fact, originally, the name of the album wasn’t even Cowboy Carter.

After the announcement of the album, a set of pre-order links were presented to the public. This is when it became clear that vinyl copies of the complete album would not be made available until 3 1/2 months after the release—a strange development for such a landmark release. You mean they weren’t already manufacturing vinyl before the Cowboy Carter announcement to be ready for the March 29th street date?

Instead, fans were told if they wanted a vinyl copy on the release date, they could purchase what was described as Cowboy Carter limited edition copies, available in black vinyl and various colors. But in lieu of including the full compliment of 27 songs, the complete liner notes, and the Cowboy Carter cover that people have become accustomed to, these limited-edition copies had five less tracks, no interior paperwork at all—just a QR code—and an entirely different cover with Beyoncé wearing a sash that said “act ii – Beyincé.”


In truth, these vinyl edition copies aren’t special editions. They’re actually the original version of the album. The original album was not called Cowboy Carter, it was called Beyincé. It also didn’t include the three tracks that involve Linda Martell, namely “Spaghetti,” “The Linda Martell Show,” and “Ya Ya,” and also did not include the song “Oh Louisiana.”

In other words, Cowboy Carter wasn’t originally Cowboy Carter. It was an album that was supposed to include a few country-inspired tracks, but overall be the pop and hip-hop album most people hear when they listen to it. It was only after the overwhelming perception by the media and the public that the album would be country, and the controversies that swelled surrounding marking the first two songs as pop, and country radio supposedly not playing the songs that an audible was called, the title and cover art were redone and switched, and Beyoncé’s Act II – Renaissance started to be marketed as “country.”

The evidence is empirical, unequivocal, and overwhelming that Cowboy Carter was never intended to be a country album until the press and the public demanded it. Beyoncé and her label Parkwood Entertainment were forced to capitulate just as much as anyone, though Beyoncé still stayed true to her original vision by saying in her Instagram post, “This ain’t a country album.”

Though you might be reluctant to trust a country music outlet making these claims, there were others pointing out these discrepancies, and asserting that Cowboy Carter was not country.

As NPR journalist Santi Elijah Holley said in an April 3rd feature,

“We wanted a country album from her. Badly. Black and Brown country music fans (myself included) have been shouting ourselves hoarse, trying to enlighten people about the history, influence and ongoing presence of Black folks in country music, but our words had largely fallen on deaf ears. Just by putting on a Stetson and mentioning the word ‘country,’ Beyoncé accomplished what we lowly music writers had been trying to do for years. We wanted a Beyoncé country album, so we invented it.

Pop writer Chris Richards writing for The Washington Post also concluded the album was not country, stating, “Rumored to be her big pivot into country music, Beyoncé has headfaked us all, opting instead for an omni-genre grandeur that still only manages to feel cosmetic at best.”

Writing for The Ringer in an article titled “‘Cowboy Carter’ Isn’t a Country Album. It’s a Beyoncé Album,” Meecham Whitson Meriweather states, “Bey has adamantly stated that the newly released Cowboy Carter is not a country album, despite its imagery, Western aesthetic, and country music homages. It is, instead, a ‘Beyoncé album,’ a declaration that she exists outside the box society has tried to place her in. In fact, she is the box, unpacking and creating something new each time.”

This quote from The Ringer underscores and emphasizes that it’s not just “gatekeeping” and “racism” that might bring one to the conclusion that Cowboy Carter is not country. It’s a respect for Beyoncé’s artistic intent, and not wanting to limit the bounds of her music by putting it in a genre box.

One important element to the discussion of genre and Cowboy Carter is timing. As Beyoncé has explained, she’d been working on the album for five years and actually intended for Cowboy Carter to be the first act to her 3-act Renaissance project, not the second. 

If released a few years ago, Cowboy Carter would have coincided with what was called the “Yeehaw Agenda” that took place around 2018-2019 where pop and hip-hop performers wore cowboy hats and adopted other country imagery as a style trend. This was also around the time of Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” moment.

If Cowboy Carter had come out during that time, perhaps it would have made more sense, and may have made a greater impact on the direction of the country genre. Instead, it feels dated to certain listeners. As country is actively moving in a more country direction, Cowboy Carter cuts against that grain. This might be one of the reason’s Cowboy Carter was also very poorly received commercially.

Though the album sold great in its first two weeks and was at #1 on Billboard’s Top 200 albums chart, Cowboy Carter enacted a precipitous fall off afterwards, especially for an album from one of the most popular music performers in the world. It feel to #50 in just 13 weeks, and fell completely out of the Billboard 200 after 28 weeks.


Part of Cowboy Carter‘s poor performance was probably due to a mild reception from the public. But part of it was also due to a massive lack of promotion behind the album. There was no tour, no public appearances, and despite all the controversy about country radio not playing Beyoncé’s tracks, her label Parkwood Entertainment pulled all radio promotion behind the album from country and all other formats in mid April, less than a month after the release.

Ultimately, the impact of Cowboy Carter on country music, and on culture in general has been pretty mild. It definitely did not cause “the walls of Nashville’s Music Row to fall down, so the rightful heirs of country music may come in,” as Time Magazine claimed right after the release of “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages.”

So what was the ultimate aim of Cowboy Carter?

In an article titled “Beyoncé’s ‘Cowboy Carter’ isn’t a country album. It’s worse” by Chris Richards of The Washington Post, he declares, “It’s an album about awards shows. That’s the only way I’ve been able to process the intrinsic corniness of this new Beyoncé album, ‘Cowboy Carter,’ which, very much like the most punishing of Grammy nights, runs way too long, yet still finds time to involve Post Malone.

In the next to the last track on Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé grouses, “AOTY, I ain’t win,” about never winning the all-genre Grammy Album of the Year. Beyoncé is the most-awarded artist in Grammy history with 32 Grammy wins, but apparently, that’s not good enough because she’s never won Album of the Year. Potentially, that is what Cowboy Carter was custom made for, to win the Album of the Year Grammy. It also might be why Beyoncé’s motivation for the album was not her 2016 CMA Awards experience, but her Grammys experience with “Daddy Lessons” being rejected as a country song by the Grammy committee.

Beyoncé’s husband Jay-Z called out the Grammys directly while receiving the Dre. Dre Global Impact Award at the 2024 Grammys in February for never giving his wife Album of the Year. Jay-Z said, “I don’t want to embarrass this young lady but she has more Grammys than everyone and never won album of the year. So even by your own metrics, that doesn’t work.”

This set the table for Cowboy Carter that was announced just a few weeks later, and set the table for the 2025 Grammys where Beyoncé was nominated for Best Country Album, Best Country Song, Best Country Solo Performance, and Best Country Duo/Group Performance. Beyoncé was nominated in every single country category for an albums she said herself wasn’t country. She was also nominated for Best Americana Performance for her song “Ya Ya,” along with her all-genre nominations, including Album of the Year.

Lo and behold, compelled by Beyoncé Stans, media pundits, and Jay-Z’s speech, at the 2025 Grammy Awards on February 2nd, Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter won Best Country Album, despite Beyoncé herself saying it wasn’t country. She also finally won the all genre Album of the Year. As Beyoncé she said in her Best Country Album speech, echoing numerous inferences on her Cowboy Carter album, “I think sometimes genre is a code word to keep us in our place as artists.”

But that is the reason for genre-specific Grammy categories. There are Grammy awards for albums, artists, and songs that defy genre. It’s called pop. The point of genre specific categories is to highlight works that adhere to the respective genres.

Many will ask why genre even matters anymore. It’s because it’s the Dewey Decimal system for music. It makes it easier for listeners to discover music that might most appeal to them. Sure, artists should be allowed to explore influences outside of their native genre, or “bend and blend” genres if they wish, just like Beyoncé has done with Cowboy Carter. But there’s no reason to place a nonfiction history book in the fiction mystery section.

The other reason genre matters is because it’s also a fundamental element to the fabric of American culture, and its erosion could have critical downstream effects. Country should be respected no different than hip-hop, blues, and R&B from manipulation or exploitation.

On Friday and Saturday nights, fans of country music gather in dancehalls all across Texas to two-step, just like their parents and grandparents did, and just like their children will do in the future. When people are married, or when loved ones are laid in the ground, country songs are played to mark these occasions.

Far away from the eyes and ears of the masses, folks will always gather on porches and around campfires with acoustic instruments, impressing fingers on wood and wire to re-awaken the ancient melodies that went to make up what we refer to as “country music” today. From the tip of Florida, to the redwood forests of California, to the outback of Australia, to even Scandinavia in Europe, actual country music made by people from the country will continue to thrive while popular radio continues to churn out product under the “country” banner.

Country music is for the people and by the people, Black and White, young and old. It exists in the hearts of country fans. It’s in their hearts where it’s most ultimately defined. It tells the stories of their lives. It’s a long-standing continuum that despite the best efforts of the intellectual/elite class, interlopers from other genres, the media, corporate overlords controlling its commercial aspects, or awards shows, will always survive in it’s most important and elemental form of a given era.

Because that what country music has always done, and that’s why country music always will be.

Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter might be country-inspired, and that’s cool. But like Beyoncé says herself, “This ain’t a country album.”

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