On Gavin Adcock’s Calling Out of Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter”

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Fundamentally, is Gavin Adcock correct when he says Beyoncé’s album Cowboy Carter isn’t country, and that “people that have dedicated their whole lives to this genre and this lifestyle shouldn’t have to compete or watch that album just stay at the top, just because she’s Beyoncé.”? Absolutely he’s correct.

Is Gavin Adcock the guy we want carrying water for country music’s long-time performers, representing the complex, but empirical truth that Cowboy Carter was never meant to be a country album, that Beyoncé herself said, “This ain’t a country album,” and that calling the album country insults Beyoncé’s artistic intent? Absolutely not. In fact, I’m not sure we want Gavin Adcock representing country music at all, in any capacity. He’s a drunken buffoon.

But that doesn’t make him wrong in this instance, however drunken and disorderly he delivers that message. But what he is wrong about is that Cowboy Carter is in any way shading out other major country titles at the top of any chart that actually matters.

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This all stems from a now viral tirade Gavin Adcock went on at Clearwater’s Big Rodeo in Clearwater, Nebraska last weekend.

“There are only three people in front of me on the Apple Music country charts, and one of ’em is Beyoncé,” Adcock said. “You can tell her we’re coming for her fu–ing ass. That s–t ain’t country music and it’s never ever been country music and it will never be country music.”

At the time Adcock’s Own Worst Enemy was sitting at #4 on Apple Music’s Top Country Albums chart behind Morgan Wallen, Parker McCollum, and Beyoncé.

Adcock then took to social media on Monday (6-30) to say,

I’m gonna go ahead and clear this up. When I was little, my mama was blasting a ton of Beyoncé in the car. I heard a ton of Beyoncé songs, and I actually remember her Super Bowl halftime show being pretty kick ass back in the day.

But I really don’t believe her album should be labeled as country music. It doesn’t sound country, it doesn’t feel country, and I just don’t think that people who have dedicated their whole lives to this genre and lifestyle should have to compete or watch that album just stay at the top just because she’s Beyoncé.

Again, Cowboy Carter is not a country album. This has been well-established to the point of being redundant whenever that’s proclaimed, even if there are large swaths of music media and the public who refuse to accept this truth, insulting Beyoncé’s artistic intent to “blend and bend genres” and not be “confined” by any genre with the album. Trust me, there are folks rolling their eyes as we speak that Saving Country Music is broaching this subject yet again.

Nonetheless, Cowboy Carter continues to be falsely included on country charts, while well-intentioned, but misinformed Beyoncé Stans issuing social media bromides about how “The banjo is a Black instrument” (which it is), or that “Country music has Black roots” (which it clearly does, though not to the dominant degree some love to portray). Yet little of this actually has to do with Cowboy Carter, which only features banjo on one of the 27 tracks.

But honestly, the dumbest part of this latest imbroglio is the fact that we’re even mentioning the Apple Music charts as if they’re something that matter. Unfortunately, this foolish notion has been ingrained in certain people’s minds because viral social media accounts like Country Chord incessantly push out memes with Apple Music information because they know they will get traction.

The idea that the Apple Music Charts matters to anything except the Apple Music charts is a misnomer. They are so easily manipulated by the whims of the consumer, download campaigns by fan bases to boost placement, and don’t in any way factor in the holistic consumption of music like Billboard’s industry-leading charts do. The Apple charts are nothing more than a very short-term and cloudy assessment of actual consumer behavior, only useful as a conversation piece.

Where was Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter last week on the Billboard Country Albums chart? It was at #31, just ahead of Brooks & Dunn’s Greatest Hits. Cowboy Carter was also at #167 on the all-genre Billboard 200—so far from dominant in country or music overall. And these numbers are actually dramatically higher than where it was before Beyoncé recently went on her Cowboy Carter tour. Gavin Adcock’s album Actin’ Up Again was way down at #84 on the country charts, so not even in the running for a top spot. So really, this entire conversation is moot.

The simple fact is that except for the few weeks after Cowboy Carter‘s release in the spring of 2024, the album has been virtually absent on the country charts. It’s been a non factor to the point where that’s been one of the biggest untold stories of the album—Cowboy Carter‘s incredible chart cratering, in part because Beyoncé didn’t go on tour in a timely manner after the release, expended very little effort to promote the album, and frankly, it just didn’t resonate with people. Despite Beyoncé’s incredible popularity and the plaudits Cowboy Carter received, people just weren’t listening.

But now that Beyoncé has been on tour, the album has been elevated slightly in the charts that actually matter, proving that touring behind an album still is important since it results in earned media. But Cowboy Carter is still in the “also-ran” category at best when considering who is battling for #1 in country. It’s not really shading out country music’s long-time performers. Post Malone’s F-1 Trillion that currently sits at #5 on Billboard Country Albums chart is doing that way more than Beyoncé.

Is Cowboy Carter country? No. Has calling it country created a conflict and a misnomer in the country space that has probably exacerbated racism in the genre as opposed to battling against it? Probably.

But it feels like it’s time to move on. And yes, that might sound rich coming from Saving Country Music. Beyoncé’s next album will not be considered country by anyone. Cowboy Carter was simply a stop off in her greater career arc. Post Malone’s next album will be marketed as country, as will Jelly Roll’s, Lana Del Rey’s, Ed Sheeran’s, and who knows who else’s. That’s what we need to be focused on.

At some point, Beyoncé will release a memoir or autobiography, or give some big exclusive interview and explain how Cowboy Carter was never meant to be considered a country album. That is why she originally called it Beyince, and labeled the metadata for the music as pop. Will the hundreds, perhaps thousands of articles and think pieces declaring it must be considered country correct the record? Of course not. Like all the great canards of our era, it will persist, with only an informed few actually knowing the truth of the matter.

But time has a way of sifting the truth to the surface. Trust in time and country music to eventually get the Cowboy Carter conundrum right. And hey, the album did stoke a conversation about the Black contributions to country music that was important to have. But ultimately, Beyoncé’s stopover in country music left a marginal impact. The actual country music charts verify this.

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